Cookie Review: Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free Choc Chip Cookie Mix

Do you cook everything from scratch? Everything? I actually consider myself to be somewhat of a “cooking from scratch” type of cook. There are times when I will, of course, take full advantage of short cuts, namely using canned goods like chicken stock and dried pasta, but for the most part -- say 93.86% -- I will cook from scratch.

Baking, however, is a different story. While I know how to whip up a cake from scratch, I happen to be quite satisfied with Ms. Betty Crocker or Mr. Duncan Hines. Cookies, though, have ALWAYS been made from scratch. Always. Always. Always.

Always, that is until the past year. As you are all aware by now, the littlest member of the gouda family follows a, say it with me, gluten free diet. Whipping up a scratch batch of chocolate chip cookies is a thing of the past for us. For those not familiar with non-wheat flours, you can’t substitute just any old gluten free flour for wheat flour. Even the gluten free all-purpose flour doesn’t perform the same as regular old flour.

This presents challenges, then, when making chocolate chip cookies. I like to send a homemade treat in with my girls’ lunches, and so we’ve been experimenting with different cookie mixes. Our favorite so far is Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free Choc Chip Cookie Mix.This cookie mix runs around $5-6/bag and can be found at most grocery stores around here. It’s a complete mix needing only ½ cup of room temp butter, 1 egg, and 2 T of water. One bag makes 24 cookies, which works out great for a week’s worth of lunch treats.Look at the ingredients. While there is nothing overprocessed here, you will see something surprising. Do you see it? The main “flour” is garbanzo bean flour! Indeedlydo, this raw dough definitely has a “beany” and vanilla-y odor. Not bad, mind you, just not, shall we say, traditional. Thankfully, the baked product does NOT taste beany at all.

Cooking with “alternative” flours is very different from traditional wheat flour. Even after combining with the butter, egg, and water, the cookie mix remains very crumbly.See what I mean? To form the cookies, all you have to do is squeeze the dough together into a ball.Despite starting off crumbly, once in a ball shape, it holds together perfectly. It does spread out while baking, and doesn’t fall apart afterward.

In fact, the texture is quite good. Don’t they kind of look like oatmeal cookies? No oatmeal here, though.They spread and bake to a wonderful thickness. Not too thick, not too thin. Crispy on the outside, and chewy on the inside, these baked goodies have a nice balance of vanilla and butter flavor.The bottoms turn a lovely golden brown, too. While I could definitely taste chocolate, it would benefit from a few more chips in the mix.

The best thing – my daughter likes them. In fact the entire family likes them. I have to label these “FOR SCHOOL LUNCHES ONLY” because they disappear so quickly.

So, for those of you following a gluten free diet, or for those of you wanting to move away from processed wheat flour, I’d rank these cookies a 4 out of 5.

Our next g/f cookie mix to try is called Pamela’s. I’ve heard good things about her cake mix, so we’ll see how the cookie mix is. I'd love, truly and sincerely, to hear about any cookies that you make that do not contain traditional flour. Send them my way!What do you think? Would you eat this cookie? Come on over, I’ll pour the milk.

Lip Smackin' Good Cookies

Most of you know that my littlest cookie cannot eat wheat products. This is a relatively new development in our household, and all in all, saying ciao to wheat products has not been a huge problem. Sure, we've had to get creative when it comes to meal planning, and yeah, our forks won't be twirling any whole wheat pasta, and our knives aren't carving up thick slices of multi grain sandwich bread. Adjustments? Yes, definitely. But if you could see the difference in her, how good she feels sans tummy aches, you'd totally get why I'll do whatever it takes for that little sass, I mean lass. It's fair to say, though, that I've got a huge learning curve going on.

One thing that I'd like to do with these little eaters of mine is bake some cookies. But what cookies are there that don't have wheat in them? Plus, I'm not a big baker at all. Cooker: Yes, Baker: Nope. Oh, I did have this husband pleasin', come hither chocolate cake that I crank out every once in a while, and I've got the Tollhouse thing down pat, but neither of those will work for my youngest gluten-free-er. And while we aren't huge sweet eaters, every kid should enjoy a homemade cookie once in a while.

Marjie from Modern Day Ozzie and Harriet came up with a solution for me. Thanks, Marjie! Marjie knows baking. Well, she's actually knows a great many things, one of which is a baking. She can whip up a batch of this and that, and then, you know, sew up a few outfits, and then prepare dinner. Anyway, Marjie suggested I try this amazing Greek almond cookie recipe that is flourless that she tried from Peter's blog, Kalofagas. Oh lordy, that was great advice, and lordy, lordy these were lip smackin' good. And Gluten Free. The recipe sounded familiar to me in that I've had something similar that had powdered sugar on it. I just can't remember where I've had them. Hmm ... It will come to me eventually. Anyway ... the unaltered form of these Greek beauties is called Amygdalota. The cultural diffusion alteration that I added was dusting them with powdered sugar, and it was a HUGE hit with my little g/f cookie. And husband. And those other children I gave life to. And me. The kids love them as a snack; I think these could pass for an adult breakfast pastry to pair up with a coffee.

2 cups of blanched almonds (I used the slivers)
3/4 cup of white sugar
2 tsp. of almond extract
2 egg whites, at room temp.
Powdered sugar
Reserved almond slivers

Preheat oven to 350. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper, and have a cooling rack set out.

1. In a food processor, pulse the almonds into a fine grind.
2. Add the 3/4 cup of white sugar, the almond extract, and the egg whites into the almond mixture. Pulse until the mixture is combined and starts pulling away from the sides of the food processor bowl.
3. Drop 1 inch mounds (1 inch apart) onto the sheet. I used a 1" scoop. The mixture is very sticky, but holds together very firmly.
   
4. Gently sprinkle powdered sugar over the cookie mounds. (I divided my batch in half. One batch I sprinkled with sugar, and the other I placed an almond sliver or two on top.)
   
5. Bake for 20 minutes or until firm at the edges but still soft in the center and golden.
6. Remove from the oven and parchment to a wire rack to cool.
   
7. When cool, peel off and store in a tightly covered container.

Note: I wasn't sure if the cookie would spread out when baked, especially because of the sugar content. LOTS of sugar in here, folks. I was surprised that the cookie didn't spread out at all; rather, it stayed in a nice little ball form. I will definitely make these again ... next time I might try adjusting the shape. You definitely want to keep them thick, though, because the insides are very moist and yummy.

See how the dough sets up in nice little balls? Sticky little things ... remember to either sprinkle with sugar or set in some almonds before baking. Hmm ... I wonder if chopped almonds on top would be good? Not traditional, certainly, but gooooood!

See how pretty they cook up? They are a two bite cookie, or one bite if you are my husband. I think the sugared ones are my favorite. Which would be your favorite?

Hey, back off cookie thief!!! Stop stealing the cookies! And get some sun, for goodness sake, those fingers are looking pretty pale.

Yuuuummm, look at how good that cookie looks on the inside! Isn't it cute? Just a tiny, perfect two bite, lip smackin' good cookie. Ignore the thumb nail in desperate need of a manicure. Just look at that yummy, chewy, cookie instead. Want one?