Gluten Free Almond Flour Oat Chocolate Chip Cookies

The next cookie that I made, related to last week’s cashew toffee cookies, was a gluten free cookie. It isn’t quite the same, but I wanted to have something similar to the chocolate chips of the other cookie. When I am making gluten free cookies, I look for recipes that inherently have no flour, something that uses almond paste, almond flour, cocoa powder or similar. The measure-for-measure gluten free flour mixes are fine, but can add an extra flavor that I don’t always want. These use almond flour; perfect.

I do have special measuring cups that I use for gluten free baking, and I use disposable parchment instead of a silicone baking mat, to help lessen the likelihood of cross contamination. It’s not perfect but I try to be careful. At the store these days it isn’t too difficult to find “free from” chocolate chips that have no dairy, gluten, soy, etc. I always try to keep those on hand. I did make these dairy free as well, using vegan butter.

Gluten free baking is different, and you are never going to get dough that is super cohesive. Shaping these you must be careful, as they don’t form into a perfect ball but you can get pretty close. They do spread some, very common with gluten free cookie. I have a spatula ready when they come out of the oven to coax them back into shape if needed. These cookies are a bit fragile, but the chewiness and mix of flavors overcomes that! These are very tasty and perfect for those with particular food avoidance.

Gluten Free Almond Flour Oat Chocolate Chip Cookies
½ cup butter (or vegan butter), room temperature
½ cup sugar
½ cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 ¾ cups almond flour
½ teaspoon salt
¾ teaspoon baking soda
1½ cups gluten free rolled oats
1 cup (or more) “free from” dark chocolate chips or chunks

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

In a large mixer bowl, combine the butter/vegan butter, sugar, and brown sugar. Mix on medium until light. Add the egg and vanilla and stir too combine. With the mixer running on low, gradually add the almond flour, salt, and baking soda. Mix just until a dough starts to form. With a spatula, fold in the oats and chocolate chips.

Shape the dough into 1-1/2” balls and place on the parchment-lined baking sheets. The cookies may spread so only put 8 cookies per baking sheet.

Bake for 10-12 minutes, until golden. The cookies will be soft but will set somewhat while cooling. Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet before removing to cool completely.

Recipe from Lemons and Zest

Reese’s Pieces Oat Cookies

Way back in the fall, my husband purchased a large box of Reese’s Pieces candy bars. I like Reese’s Pieces, but there are only so many that I can eat! I contributed a couple of bags to the food we offer students during finals, and that was well received. There were still quite a few left but I knew that I could use them in a recipe.

There are many recipes out there, but I chose this version with oats. I decided that I wanted to make this recipe gluten free, so that required a couple of changes. I omitted the chocolate chips, just for the sake of an easier recipe. The oats I have are gluten free, which only left 1 cup of flour. I used almond flour in its place. I did a fair amount of research, and different sites recommend using partial almond flour to sub for regular flour, perhaps add more leavening, or use less butter.

Since this recipe was fairly similar to another gluten free recipe, I decided I would do a one-to-one swap. It didn’t have that much butter, and the dough also contained peanut butter which has its own stickiness. I thought the dough was perfect; it wasn’t crumbly or too oily. They cookies baked up beautifully and were absolutely fine without additional leavening. These cookies are fantastic with a peanut butter flavor, and if you didn’t know they were gluten free, you’d likely never know!

Reese’s Pieces Oat Cookies
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1-1/4 cups old-fashioned oats
1 cup flour or almond flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup Reese’s Pieces

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line two cookie sheets with silicone baking mats.

In a large mixer bowl, beat the butter, sugar, and brown sugar on medium until light. Add the peanut butter, egg, and vanilla and mix on medium to incorporate. Add the oats, flour, baking soda, and salt to the bowl. Turn the mixer on to low, mixing just until the dough is almost cohesive. Add the Reese’s Pieces and mix on low until the dough comes together.

Scoop the dough into 1-1/4” balls onto the prepared baking sheets and roll into a ball. Flatten the dough balls slightly with the palm of your hand.

Bake for 10-12 minutes, until the cookies are set. Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheets for 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Recipe from Nourish and Fete

Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies

I have to admit that I made cookies this week a lot later than planned. I had a couple of different recipes in mind, but I couldn’t seem to decide which recipe to choose. All of a sudden, it was the last minute and I needed to get in gear. I again couldn’t decide, but I knew that I needed to make something that I had all of the ingredients on hand. I had my husband look at the recipes I had pinned, and he chose these cookies.

I had planned to make these cookies for a different occasion, as they don’t contain flour and I make gluten free cookies from time to time. I had recently brought home some salted peanuts from an abundance at work. I didn’t feel too bad as I figured they would likely return to work in a cookie form. In the end that didn’t happen, as I made these so late in the week, but more gluten free cookies are to come.

This is a very simple recipe, with just a handful of ingredients. I chose to use a combination of sugar and brown sugar, but you can use any blend that you’d like to make 1 cup. The dough is very soft and I refrigerated mine for a while, but it didn’t change the texture at all. Rolling the cookies in peanuts gives the cookies a nice crunch, and the peanut butter flavor is very pronounced.

Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies
1 cup peanut butter
½ cup sugar
½ cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup chopped salted peanuts
Additional chopped salted peanuts

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats.

In a large mixer bowl, combine the peanut butter, sugar, brown sugar, and egg. Mix on medium until combined. Add the ½ cup chopped peanuts and stir to incorporate into the dough.
Shape the dough into 1-1/2” balls. Roll the balls in additional chopped peanuts and place on the prepared baking sheets. The cookies may spread; leave plenty of space between the cookies.

Bake for 12-14 minutes, until the cookies are set and the edges begin to brown. Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Recipe from The Big Man’s World

Chewy Hazelnut Cookies

It has been ages since I have done a traditional week where I bake on Thursday evening and then take cookies to work on Friday. This is the week! We were having visitors at the library, and I wanted to make something great. I also wanted to take into consideration dietary restrictions. While I didn’t know anything about the dietary needs of our visitors, I knew that I wanted to make cookies that are both gluten and dairy free.

I have talked about this a little, but some items are easy to replace. Vegan butter works well in most recipes. Milk is usually used in very small quantities, and there are multiple soy/almond/oat milk options out there. Gluten free flour works well, but you need to be thoughtful, as a cookie that is expected to rise significantly isn’t the right choice. The hardest for this recipe was that the recipe called for Nutella, which contains dairy. I could make my own or buy one of the dairy free versions out on the market. I ended up using Justin’s Chocolate Hazelnut and Almond Butter, which is dairy free.

I try to be as careful as possible when doing dairy or gluten free baking. I have specific measuring cups I use for gluten free flour, and I wear gloves to help with any allergens. As careful as I am, I do bake with gluten and dairy, so it helps to be careful. Cookies with dairy and gluten free ingredients tend to be softer and act a little differently, so it’s ok to adapt. I ended up flattening the cookies as they didn’t change while they baked, but that was fine. They are soft but have a good chocolate/hazelnut flavor without being too sweet.

Chewy Hazelnut Cookies
1 ½ cups flour (or gluten free flour)
1/4 cup cocoa powder
¼ teaspoon salt
½ cup vegan butter, room temperature
⅔ cup sugar
1 egg
2 tablespoons non-dairy milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
½ cup dairy free chocolate hazelnut spread
Chopped Hazelnuts

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, and salt; set aside. In a large mixer bowl, combine the vegan butter and sugar and beat on medium until light. Add the egg, non-dairy milk, and vanilla and stir on medium to combine. Add the chocolate hazelnut spread and mix on low to combine. With the mixer running on low, gradually add the flour mixture and stir until incorporated.

Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for about two hours.

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats.

Shape the dough into 1-1/4” balls and roll in the chopped hazelnuts. Flatten the cookies slightly with the palm of your hand.

Bake for 12-14 minutes, until the cookies are set. Allow to cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Recipe from Country Cleaver

Gluten-Free Cowboy Cookies

I feel like I have gotten quite used to baking dairy-free cookies. There are a couple of recipes that I can’t adapt to dairy free, items with toffee or cream cheese, but even those items are easier and easier to find using dairy alternatives. I need more practice with gluten-free recipes, although I feel like I am learning. So far, I have been focusing on the gluten-free recipes that I find, rather than converting recipes. I feel like that is a good start, and the gluten-free flour blend that is available at the store works well.

Cowboy Cookies are one of my favorites, sort of like a chocolate chip cookie but with extra bits added. These have oats, nuts, coconut, and chocolate chips, but you could certainly add crispy rice cereal, other types of chips, dried fruits, etc. Make sure that you don’t add too many mix-ins for the amount of dough you have! The ingredients listed here reflect slightly more add-ins than the original recipe, but not too many. I think the dough would fare even better if it were chilled, so I suggest chilling the dough if you have time.

Although it may seem like this recipe calls for many specialty items, it isn’t too bad. Oats are naturally gluten-free but may be processed in a plant that handles gluten. I have unsweetened coconut, but if you don’t have that you can use regular sweetened coconut. I try to keep dairy-free chocolate chips on hand but if you only need gluten-free, then any type of chip will work. I find that gluten-free cookies tend to be quite thin, and I do wonder if chilling the dough would help. The recipe specified that this would make 24 cookies, but I made about 40. Perhaps larger cookies would spread less? While they are thin, the cookies have great flavor, and it would be interesting to try these with a different combination of mix-ins.

Gluten-Free Cowboy Cookies
½ cup vegan butter, melted
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1-1/4 cup gluten-free oats
1-1/4 cups gluten-free flour blend
½ cup unsweetened shredded coconut
½ cup chopped pecans
½ cup dairy-free chocolate chips

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats.

In a large mixer bowl, beat the melted butter and brown sugar on medium until combined. Add the eggs, one at a time, and the vanilla, mixing until smooth. Stop the mixer and add the oats, gluten-free flour blend, and coconut. Stir on low for about 30 seconds. Add the pecans and chocolate chips and stir on low until the mixture forms a soft dough.

Scoop the dough onto the prepared baking sheets, using a 1-1/4” scoop.

Bake for 8-10 minutes. The cookies may seem slightly under baked when removed from the oven but will set as they cool.

Recipe from Fearless Dining

Cherry and Coconut Flapjacks

I’ve made a couple of different flapjack recipes, but they are not at all common in the states. They are simply an oat-based bar, typically made on the stove and then cooked in the oven. Occasionally you find ones that aren’t baked, but I don’t like those as much. There are some differences between the British ingredients that the recipe specifies and what you can get in American shops, but you can substitute as needed. I keep a decent supply of British baking items on hand, which helps tremendously.

Flapjacks are quick and easy. They are naturally gluten free and by using vegan butter they are also dairy free. Thankfully I had just received a shipment of glacé cherries from the UK, but you can find candied cherries in the states. If you don’t have desiccated coconut, which is more finely ground, you can always use the shredded coconut you can find at the store. I suspect their oats, which are “porridge oats” are different than what I used, but they worked!

The biggest challenge for these flapjacks was this statement from the original recipe, “grease a suitable baking tin.” I had no idea what size of pan that means, but looking at the photo I guessed a 7” x 11” pan. Your flapjacks could be made in any pan, I suppose, but the thickness would vary as would the baking time. Mine were nice and golden after 25 minutes, and I scored/partially cut the bars while still warm. I will say that these bars are incredibly sticky, and I had problems getting them out of the pan. Still, if you don’t mind a little stickiness, these are quite tasty!

Cherry and Coconut Flapjacks
150 grams butter or vegan butter
150 grams brown sugar
90 ml golden syrup
300 grams oats
200 grams glace/candied cherries
40 grams desiccated coconut

Heat the oven to 320 degrees. Spray a 7” x 11” baking pan with nonstick cooking spray.

In a large saucepan, over low heat, melt the butter. Add the brown sugar and golden syrup and stir, until the mixture comes together. Add the oats, cherries, and coconut and stir with a wooden spoon to combine. Remove from the heat and spread evenly in the prepared pan.

Bake for about 25 minutes, until the bars are golden. Allow the bars to cool for 10 minutes before scoring into bars. Cool completely and then remove the bars from the pan.

Recipe from What the Redhead Said

Flourless Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies

For the first time in about a year and a half, I have an in-person meeting at work. We are about to open, although with limited hours, and I am sure that there will be a lot of adjustments that need to be made. We always meet before we open, as things change from year to year. In order to bake for all my work friends, I went looking for dairy and gluten free recipes. While I was assured that I didn’t need to bother, I love trying to find just the right recipe.

I have vegan butter, so that makes it easy to substitute for dairy in recipes, and I have dairy free chocolate chips, but I do have to avoid recipes with condensed milk, cream cheese, and those sorts of ingredients. Avoiding gluten takes more thought, but I do have gluten free flour mixture. There are also cookies that simply don’t contain flour, like these cookies. These use oats, which I learned can be processed in plants that process gluten, so you should be careful.

With all of the right ingredients on hand, these were quick to put together. The dough is quite sticky, but that’s to be expected with no added flour. These cookies are on the oily side, but it’s just good to know that. Since I baked one batch at a time, I refrigerated one batch while the other was baking. I think that the refrigerated cookies turned out a little better, even though they were only in the refrigerator for 15 minutes. These cookies are soft, but that is expected in a flourless cookie. The flavor of peanut butter and chocolate is amazing, and the oats add a little bit of needed structure.

Flourless Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies
1 cup peanut butter
2/3 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs
3/4 cup rolled oats
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2/3 cup chocolate chips, dairy free
Salt, for finishing

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats.

In a large mixer bowl, beat the peanut butter, brown sugar, eggs, and vanilla on medium until smooth. With the mixer running on low, gradually add the oats and baking soda. Stir in the chocolate chips.    

Scoop onto the prepared baking sheet and slightly flatten the cookies with the palm of your hand.

Bake for 9-12 minutes, until the edges of the cookies begin to brown. Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet before removing to a wire rack to cool completely. Sprinkle the cooling cookies with additional salt.

Recipe from Ambitious Kitchen

Chocolate Pistachio Cookies

This week, several of my coworkers and I got together and met in person! We are vaccinated, and it was fantastic to see everyone. Two folks started working with us during the pandemic and it was the first chance I had to meet them. I’m so glad that they are part of our team! It was also a wonderful opportunity to bake for them. I now have different coworkers who are gluten and dairy free, so I wanted to make something that everyone could eat.

I had come across this gluten free cookie, and it looked fabulous. It’s hard to go wrong with chocolate and pistachios. I used a standard gluten free flour mix that is available at grocery stores, and it is good to check your other ingredients, just in case. I have different measuring cups that I use for gluten free flour, to do the best I can. I used vegan butter, as my house is so warm that coconut oil would have been problematic. I melted down dark chocolate chips, and in this case, I checked to make sure they were gluten and dairy free. Chocolate often contains dairy. I checked with folks to see if eggs were ok, and they were, so that was good. I find that trying to replace eggs in recipes is difficult.

These cookies are a simple, soft chocolate cookie, topped with melted chocolate and pistachios. The dough is quite soft and remain soft after baking. The original recipe had you dip the cookies halfway in the melted chocolate, but that usually ends up in a big mess for me. These are delicate cookies, so the drizzle worked better. This recipe made just over two dozen, which is a good amount to share. I think my cookies are smaller than the original, but I prefer that. These cookies are intensely chocolate, and the crunch of the pistachios is lovely.
 
Chocolate Pistachio Cookies
1½ cups gluten free flour
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
½ cup coconut oil or vegan butter, room temperature
¾ cup sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla

4 ounces dark chocolate
1 tablespoon vegetable shortening
¼ cup pistachios, finely chopped

In a medium bowl, whisk together the gluten free flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; set aside. In a large mixer bowl, beat the vegan butter and sugar on medium until well combined. Add the egg and vanilla and stir on low to incorporate. With the mixer running on low, gradually add the gluten free flour mixture, mixing just until a soft dough forms.

Refrigerate the dough for 20 minutes.

Heat the oven to 356 degrees. Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats or parchment.

Scoop the dough onto the prepared baking sheets, using about 1 tablespoon of dough for each cookie.

Bake for 7-9 minutes, until the cookies are set. Allow the cookies to cool before proceeding. The cookies will likely flatten while they cool.

Once the cookies have cooled, make the topping. In a microwave-safe bowl, melt the chocolate and vegetable shortening, stirring frequently. Once the chocolate is smooth, drizzle the chocolate over half of each cookie and then top the chocolate with chopped pistachios. Allow the cookies to set before serving.

Recipe from Wholesome Pattisserie

Unicorn Sprinkle Cookies

I keep planning to make a certain bar cookie, but each week when it is time to bake, they just don’t seem right. I’ll make them eventually. Since I was bringing cookies to work on Thursday and I had a little less time, I wanted to make a drop cookie. The other day at the grocery store I picked up unicorn baking chips, which are basically pink and purple swirled chocolate chips. For something special like that, I will often look to the package for guidance. Instead, I looked online and this was the recipe that looked the best.

One of the things that intrigued me about this recipe is that they are gluten free. A friend at work can’t eat gluten, and she works Thursday, so I decided to try these. The only gluten free baking that I have done are with cookies that naturally do not contain flour. These do, and thankfully I had purchased some gluten free flour mixture recently, as I knew that I wanted to do some gluten free baking. I wasn’t sure how the cookies would do, as this was my first experience with gluten free baking.

These cookies call for sprinkles, and I looked through my large supply of sprinkles. Most were Christmasy, so I ended up using a rainbow sugar. I also accidentally added too much sugar, so these cookies are sweet. They also taste very buttery, even though they don’t contain all that much butter. These cookies did spread and refrigerating the dough after shaping the dough helped a little. They do taste good, so I am very pleased with my first venture into baking with gluten free flour.

Unicorn Sprinkle Cookies

1 ½ cups gluten-free flour mixture

1 teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

1 ½ teaspoons cornstarch

½ cup butter, room temperature

¼ cup sugar

¾ cup packed brown sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 cups unicorn chocolate chips

1/4 cup colorful sprinkles

Heat the oven to 325 degrees. Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour mixture, baking soda, salt, and cornstarch; set aside. In a large mixer bowl, beat the butter, sugar, and brown sugar on medium until combined. Add the egg and vanilla and stir until incorporated. With the mixer running on low, gradually add the flour mixture and when almost combined, add the chocolate chips and sprinkles. (You many want to save some chips to top the cookies.)

Shape the dough into 1-inch balls and place on the prepared baking sheets. If you reserved extra chips for the topping, press the chips into the top of the unbaked cookies. Refrigerate the cookie sheets for 15 minutes before baking. 

Bake for 12-13 minutes, until lightly browned along the edges. The cookies will look soft but will set as they cool. Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 15 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely. 

Recipe from Wheat by the Wayside