Gluten Free Baking Part 2: Brownie Bites and Chocolate Chip Cookies

After my gluten-free baking doughnut fail, I figured I'd try to redeem myself before moving on. I ended up making some really delicious chocolate chip cookies and some pretty decent brownie bites.

The consistency of the chocolate chip cookie was similar to the gluten-free double chocolate chip cookies I had already attempted...thick, but kind of oily. I resisted the urge to add extra flour though, until the first batch came out of the oven and I could see what they turned out like. After the first batch came out, I decided to leave the recipe alone, since the cookies looked delicious!

Yum! Gluten-free chocolate chip cookies!

I don't have a good stand-by chocolate chip cookie recipe yet, but these might fit the bill. They were crunchy on the outside, and still chewy on the inside, and were delicious both right out of the oven and a little later once they had cooled. Scott gave them two thumbs up, and he is definitely the cookie connoisseur in our house (I'm more of a cake fan).

In Part 1 of my gluten-free baking blog posts, I mentioned my failed attempt at making vegan vanilla icing. It never quite set up to the thickness of regular icing, despite multiple days in the fridge. I'm not one to waste anything that can be used up (even if it's a slightly unconventional way of using whatever the item is), so I decided to make ice cream cookie sandwiches using the icing as a sub for ice cream. Because the chocolate chip cookies hardened into perfect little discs, they worked great! It took a few rounds of icing then freezing, but overall they turned out delicious.

I do think though that the lucky taste-testers of the cookie sandwiches and just the cookies preferred the cookies on their own. The icing had a pretty strong coconut flavor that distracted from the deliciousness of the cookies.

The second gluten-free dessert that became a vessel for the vanilla icing were agave-sweetened brownie bites. These were a breeze to mix up, and the recipe made enough for exactly 24 mini brownies (baked in a mini-muffin tin). The batter was a very similar consistency to other brownies that I've made, and they baked quickly with no mess (or overflow!). Once they cooled, and before removing them from the pan, I made a little thumbprint in the middle of each brownie and poured in some vanilla icing. I figured the coconut flavor of the icing would go nicely with the chocolate in the brownies (which it did!).

Gluten-free brownie bites with vanilla icing

I think they turned out a bit dry, but that is probably due mostly to a little bit of overcooking. When I tested the brownies for doneness after the specified cooking time, the knife still came very gooey, so I let them cook a little longer. I should have taken them out once the cooking time was up, because I'm sure they continued to cook in their little tins and probably would have been the perfect doneness. My sister has since tried making these, and I recommended that she take the brownies out after the elapsed cooking time, whether they looked one or not, and she said they turned out perfect! So I'm sure it was just my mistake. Now I know for next time, as I will definitely be making these little things again!

Gluten-Free Baking, Part 1: Carrot Cupcakes, Vanilla Icing, and Double Chocolate Chip Cookies

An old co-worker and her husband opened up their home to use during our week-long fake vacation, i.e. the week that Los Alamos was evacuated due to the Los Conchas fire. Thankfully we had a safe place to go with our cats, and everyone survived the ordeal and came out healthy and happy (which for the cats means back to their crazy selves). 

The woman we were staying with had just received a new cookbook as a gift and all the items in the cookbook were gluten-free. I admittedly have absolutely no experience with gluten-free baking, but in anticipation of future bakery customers that need to eat gluten-free, I figured it was about time I learned a thing or two. A trip to Border's and I was in possession of the two cookbooks that have been produced by the owner of Babycakes Bakery in NYC, a gluten-free, vegan, kosher bakery that has received rave reviews. I also made a few trips to the Santa Fe co-op to pick up some ingredients, and I was ready to start baking! 

**If you'd like recipes for any of the items you read about here, please email me or post a comment and I'll reply! Most of the recipes in this post and the next, more recent post, are pretty rigid followings of the Babycakes cookbook recipes. 

My first two attempts were carrot cupcakes and vanilla icing. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of either (I forgot my fancy new iPhone could take pictures!), but that's okay...I wouldn't call either of the products pretty! The carrot cupcakes turned out okay, but Scott and I both agreed that there was a bit too much baking soda...there was an odd aftertaste, most likely due to the baking soda. When cooking at high altitude, I usually decrease the amount of baking soda, but I was hesitant to mess with proportions too much during my first gluten-free baking attempt. I would definitely decrease the amount of baking soda next time though. Overall, the cupcakes were still very moist and flavorful, and I would definitely make them again. 

The vanilla icing, on the other hand, needs some more work! The use of coconut oil is very common in these cookbooks, and I had mistakenly bought unrefined coconut oil, which meant that the coconut flavor was still pretty strong. Tasty, but maybe a little overpowering for vanilla icing. Also, I had skipped over the part of the instructions where it says that the icing is best if made the night before. Whoops! I was making it about an hour before I was hoping to use it. Regardless, for some reason it never thickened...perhaps I added too much rice milk? It shouldn't really have mattered though; coconut oil is a solid below about 70 degrees, so it should have hardened back up once I put it in the fridge. Hopefully it'll turn out better on my second attempt! The flavor was still very good though (if a bit coconut-y), and I did end up using it to make Frozen Icing Chocolate Chip cookie sandwiches, which worked just fine! 

The third thing I made during "Part 1" of Gluten-Free Baking Adventures was double chocolate chip cookies. Again, I mistakenly used unrefined coconut oil, so the cookies were a bit more coconut-y than normal double chocolate chip cookies, but overall the flavor as really good. Texture seemed a little off though. The first batch of cookies seemed extremely oily, so I added some more flour (almost unheard of when baking at altitude! Usually it's more liquid), which helped some. They still seemed a bit crumbly and weren't quite what I like in a cookie. Scott pointed out that they would make excellent ice cream cookie sandwiches though, which of course led to the 'Icing Cookie Sandwiches'!

Sorry, no pictures...they'll all be in the next post!