The first item I baked once I introduced desserts back into my diet were cookies. Oh how I missed chewy, yummy chocolate chip cookies. There are plenty of gluten free cookies in the market but most of them are quite unmemorable. I have always made these chocolate chip cookies for the kids and they are popular with everyone - so much so that my son wanted to learn to make his own batch. These are seriously good cookies - chewy in the middle, slightly crisp edges and loaded with chocolate chips. I wanted to recreate this cookie but gluten-free.

There are a lot of gluten free flours out there and folks based in the US/Europe have access to some fantastic baking flours. In Singapore the flour with the most reliable baking results is Bob’s Red Mill 1 to 1 Baking Flour. This has become my go-to flour for all gluten free baking and I have been able to make cakes, brownies, cookies, scones, pizza very successfully. It already contains Xanthan gum and can easily replace regular flour in your recipes. Based on my experience so far, I still like to add some Xanthan gum to my recipes. It improves the texture of my baked goods in line with what I prefer. For example, adding additional Xanthan gum to these cookies gives them this extra chewiness which makes every bite heavenly.

I used to make my cookie recipes with a mixture of white and dark chocolate chips. A few months back I tried Sea salt caramel chips from Hershey’s and the whole family fell in love with them. There is such a nice balance of sweet and salted in these. I have tried these in cookies, brownies, pancakes and they are always a hit! My recipe has been inspired by this recipe from the King Arthur Flour website. I have made some minor changes to the recipe based on what I like. I always like more chocolate chips than is called for in the original recipe. I love for my cookies to have extra chocolate in every bite!

For the first time, I have also made a video of the recipe. With this I will skip the step by step pictures I’ve posted on the blog entries but hopefully this will be a better visual guide to the process. My kids have helped a lot with the creation of these videos - so its also been something fun that I have done with them and hopefully we’ll continue to make more of these! This recipe and video have been made during the COVID-19 lockdown period. Baking, creating videos and blogging has been a great way to distract us from the situation all around us. Wishing everyone good health!

Ingredients

1 cup (227 gms) unsalted butter

1 cup brown sugar, tightly packed (I prefer dark brown)

1/2 cup granulated sugar

2 tsp vanilla extract

2 tsp vanilla extract

2 large eggs

2 1/3 gluten free baking flour (I prefer Bob’s Red Mill)

1 tsp Xanthan gum (2 tsp if your flour blend does not contain it)

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 cups semi sweet chocolate chips

1 1/2 cups sea salt caramel chocolate chips

Method

1. Combine flour, xanthan gum, baking powder, baking soda, set aside.

2. Beat the butter, sugar, vanilla and salt till fluffy.

3. Beat in eggs, one at a time, being sure to scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl midway through to make sure everything is well combined.

4. Whisk together the flour or flour blend, xanthan gum, baking powder, baking soda.

5. Beat the dry ingredients into the wet mixture. Ensure everything is well blended. Add chocolate chips and combine well.

6. Cover and refrigerate the bowl for at least 1 hour and 2 days.

7. Preheat oven to 350F/180C. Lightly grease a couple of baking sheets or line them with parchment.

8. Scoop tablespoon sized balls of dough onto the baking sheet. Tablespoon sized ice cream scoop works well also. Leave enough space between the cookies so they have room to spread while baking.

9. Bake in the oven for 9-11 minutes till cookies are a golden brown color. Once done, leave on the baking sheet for about 5 minutes and then move to wire rack to cool.