The Best Gluten-free, Dairy-free Chocolate Chip Cookies
There is probably nothing quite as satisfying as a crispy-on-the-outside, chewy-in-the-middle, homemade chocolate chip cookie. I remember baking them with my mom when I was a kid, and my husband and I used to make regular stops at numerous bakeries and cookie shops before we became a gluten-free family.
But since we’ve gone gluten free, it’s been a challenge to find a good recipe (that we could also make dairy-free, if needed) that would produce the crispy/chewy cookies I remembered. But there was a twist.
When we first moved to Colorado, I remember the Nestles Toll House recipe I had always used didn’t work quite as well here as at lower altitudes. The cookies would spread too much and turn out more crispy than I wanted. Recently, a neighbor who moved here a couple of years ago, complained of the same results. But she was having the same troubles that I had: the “standard” butter and wheat flour recipe just wasn’t turning out the same up here at a higher altitude.
As I searched the internet for ideas, I came across a concept that gave me hope: using melted butter (or in my case, margarine) instead of room-temperature butter. “Spread” in cookies is caused in part by creaming the butter with sugar, causing aeration. If you start with a melted product, you don’t get that aeration. A nice side benefit is that the sugar dissolves a bit in the liquid, which gives it a more chewy texture and better flavor. Christopher Kimball, from America’s Test Kitchen, and Alton Brown, both favor this method.
Gluten-free Chocolate Chip Cookies Ingredients
- 2 1/3 cups gluten-free flour blend (cookie blend)
- 1 tsp xanthan gum
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 12 tbsp dairy-free margarine (such as Earth Balance), melted
- 1 cup dark brown sugar
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 large egg yolk
- 2 tsp gluten-free vanilla extract
- 12 oz dairy-free chocolate chips (usually semi-sweet)
Directions
- Mix gluten-free flour blend, xanthan gum and baking soda together in a medium bowl with a whisk.
- In a large mixing bowl, mix melted margarine and sugars together for about 1 minute. Mix in egg, yolk, and vanilla. Wait 2-3 minutes, and then mix again for a minute. Repeat one more time.
- Gradually add dry ingredients until well combined. Stir in chocolate chips. The dough will be quite soft.
- Refrigerate dough for at least 2 hours, and preferably 24 hours or longer.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Scoop dough into 1-2 inch balls and place on cookie sheet about 2-3 inches apart. Bake smaller size cookies for 10-13 minutes, larger cookies for 15-18 minutes. The cookies should be golden brown with the edges hard and the centers still soft and puffy.
- Cool cookies on baking sheets. Serve them warm for best results. Store cookies in an airtight container. You can freeze the baked cookies and warm them in the microwave for 30-40 seconds.
Delicious, gluten-free, chewy-on-the-inside, crunchy-on-the-outside chocolate chip cookies are easy to make with my recipe.
This dough keeps well in the refrigerator for a few days and freezes well. As explained in this New York Times article, refrigerating them for a day or more actually improves the consistency of the final product because the flour absorbs more moisture. I sometimes shape some cookie dough balls and freeze them on a sheet. Once frozen, I can grab a few and bake them any time I want.
I hope you enjoy the recipe and let me know what you think!
