. . . and tastes so good and are so chewy that people who don’t keep gluten-free won’t notice the difference and people who do maintain a gluten-free lifestyle will be skeptical but don’t worry, we will give you tips on how to keep them safe.
Don’t worry. This isn’t a whole blog post full of sponsored ads about how I happened upon a bespoke chocolatier in the south of France and why they lead me down a path into the world’s best chocolate chip cookies. There is a wall of text here because this ain’t your generic Tollhouse cookie recipe, and some folks like to know why. There’s also a second chunk on how to really make sure these cookies stay gluten-free, if your intended audience needs them to be, like I do!
Some Science:
As someone with a dietary restriction (Celiac’s disease), I can tell you that sometimes, it’s just no fun. There’s so much testing out what works and tastes best for you! Also, you can end up with a catch-all product, something free of everything that anyone might not be able to eat… which can end up tasting like a cardboard box, with a worse texture. That said, these cookies are gluten-free yet dairy-full, relying on egg yolks for texture. If you’ve got to avoid dairy and gluten, I’m sure the internet has a recipe that agrees with all of your preferences/restrictions. The magic of this recipe is that the cream cheese covers the gritty texture of rice flour in GF blends, and using egg yolks keeps the cookie chewy: a rare treat in the GF world. If you didn’t know, the wonderful chewiness of baked goods comes from the gluten proteins and is something I sorely miss. On the flip side, you can’t really overmix gluten-free baked goods, because in traditional baking, overmixing results in overproduction of gluten. No such risk here!
Accidental Breadcrumb:
If you’re planning to use this recipe as a special treat for a pal who happens to not be able to eat gluten, keep cross-contamination in mind. Keep them extra safe from rogue breadcrumbs by splurging on a new package of cream cheese and butter. If you’re the sort of person who keeps their brown sugar from clumping with a slice of bread in the container, you need to buy new sugar for them too. For someone with celiac’s, a literal single tiny breadcrumb is enough gluten to cause a reaction. I can’t even be in the same room as someone baking with regular flour, because the flour in the air will be breathed in by me, and then head down my nose/throat right into my stomach, and even that can cause a reaction. Even with your best efforts, someone may not feel comfortable taking the risk on a cookie they didn’t watch get baked. Remember that single breadcrumb example! Don’t take it personally! Just eat all the cookies yourself and enjoy how incredible they are.
Finally, is the cooling step necessary? Short answer: Yes. You might notice the recipe doesn’t start with preheating the oven, because these cookies have to cool in the fridge for at least 4 hours before baking. This lets the fats solidify, making sure your cookies don’t spread out super thin and crunchy, but rather retain some shape and chew! If you can’t dunk your warm cookies in the farm fresh milk from the cows at Tamarack Farm, store-bought milk is fine.
Ingredients:
Directions!