There is something to be said for the magic of a gluten-free chocolate chip cookie. They have strange and wonderful powers.
I’m serious. It doesn’t matter if you are a crunchy cookie lover, or a ooey-gooey center devotee. The magic is there in all kinds.
When you take them out of the oven, and they are still so hot they might just burn your mouth, they draw you in. The caramelized sugars and melty chocolate tug at your senses until you cave and take a bite.
A good gluten-free chocolate chip cookie can turn a bad day around.
These particular cookies are crunchy and chewy (which in my mind makes them perfect), but that isn’t what makes them special. First, we use browned butter to add a layer of complexity to the flavor of the cookies. Then, we chop up a chocolate bar rather than using chips. When you chop the chocolate yourself, you get little shards of chocolate. When you add those to the cookie batter, you get a bit of chocolate in every bite.
I call for chilling the dough, or scooping the cookies onto baking sheets and popping those in the freezer before baking. This controls the spread of the cookie, and gives the sugar and flour some time to absorb the liquids and fats. It also slows the baking a bit, creating the crunchy outside and maintaining a chewy interior.
If you want to save them for later, or if you are a single lady and just want one or two cookies at a time, scoop the batter onto a cookie sheet, fitting as many on to the sheet without them touching and freeze for several hours. Once frozen, put them in a ziplock bag, label them with the baking temp & time and put the bag back in the freezer. You can take out a couple at a time and bake them as you want them, so you can always have a fresh cookie.
- 2 sticks (225g /8 ounces) unsalted butter
- 360 (a scant 2 1/2 cups) grams gluten-free all-purpose flour blend*
- 1 teaspoon xantham gum**
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 55 grams (approximately 1/4 cup) sugar
- 285 grams (approximately 1 1/4 cups) light brown sugar
- 1 whole egg
- 1 egg yolk
- 2 tablespoons whole milk
- 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 12 ounces high-quality semisweet chocolate baking bars, roughly chopped
- Line 3 baking sheets with parchment paper.
- To brown the butter, place it into a saucepan over medium heat. It will melt, then begin to foam and slowly the color will change from golden to light brown. As soon as the scent starts to turn nutty, remove it from the heat and pour it into the bowl of your stand mixer.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the gluten-free flour, xantham gum (if it is not in your flour blend), salt and baking soda.
- In the bowl of your stand mixer, add the sugar and brown sugar to the browned butter and cream them together for 1 minute using the paddle attachment. Add the egg, egg yolk, milk and vanilla extract and mix until well combined.
- Slowly add the flour mixture, scraping down the sides of the bowl to make sure you have a well-mixed batter.
- Stir in the chocolate chunks and any shards of chocolate you created while chopping.
- Scoop 2-ounce balls of dough 3″ apart on a cookie sheet (you can fit about 8 balls of dough per sheet). Place the dough in the freezer for 20-30 minutes. When there is about 10 minutes of freezer time left, preheat your oven to 375 degrees.
- Bake the cookies for 13-15 minutes. If you bake 2 sheets at once, rotate them halfway through baking.