chocolate chips

GF Chocolate Chip Cookies To Love!

Years ago I searched for the holy grail of GF baking: home made chocolate chip cookies.  Bet you thought I was going to say some sort of bread!  That’s another post entirely.  Anyway, when I went GF almost 9 years ago I made a batch of chocolate chippers that were gf. They were rather sweet and didn’t taste all that great.  I keep looking for something that would approximate the real deal cookies I loved all my life.  Recipes I came across seemed to require that I buy weird vegetable shortenings or use Crisco. I draw the line at Crisco. Or they used odd flour blends and I feel it’s just not worth it to me to add another flour mixture just for one cookie recipe.  So I had not made chippers in years.  Missed them….desperately.  Store ones I tried were small, hard, drab in flavor and incredibly pricey. Until I went to King Arthur’s website and looked in their cookie recipes.  There it was: cookies made with the same flour blend I use and made with butter, one of my few chosen shortenings.  Glowing reviews and advice; said to make them and refrigerate a day or better yet, freeze them formed and ready to bake in a few minutes.  Comments about how much they are like Tollhouse cookies, great texture and flavor.  Bingo, this seemed so hopeful. So…Less than a week later I made up a batch; Goal scored; perfect brown sugar nutty flavor and texture; not too hard or too soft. I am a happy chocolate chip cookie lover at last! Lots of you probably bake chocolate chip cookies for Christmas so I decided to reblog this cookie so you could easily make a batch.

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When I first made them I put some in my cookie jar, closed it tightly and 4 days later those cookies (what remains) were still delicious. That is pretty long for a gluten free baked good. By the fifth afternoon my last cookie in there was getting soft so suggest not holding them for more than 4 days in a jar. A big bonus I love is that they can be frozen ready to bake in like 12 minutes. Super fast warm fresh gooey chocolate chippers!

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This is my go to basic chocolate chip cookie recipe; none other will do. I love that I can freeze them ready to bake and in 12 minutes I have warm fresh gooey cookies!

So, if you are still looking for a great gf chocolate chip cookie look no further.

http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/gluten-free-chocolate-chip-cookies-recipe.  Enjoy!

Originally published in 2016. Minor text changes.

Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Muffins

Fall is all about those pumpkin flavored things like pumpkin spice lattes etc. I agree that pumpkin makes homemade baked goods even better tasting. A few years ago I made a batch of pumpkin muffins; they turned out nice.  Next, I did the upgrade version: mini chocolate chips and chopped walnuts.  Really amazing flavors and great texture in the resulting muffins! Today I am baking them with the addition of a heaping 1/3 cup raisins; I tried a few in the batter last time and loved the sweet flavor of the raisins sprinkled throughout the muffins. Doing that but even more raisins!

This recipe is my version using the banana muffin recipe from Annalise Roberts’s wonderful cookbook: Gluten Free Baking Classics as my jump off place.  They are easy to make, perfect in texture and totally yummy. I used coconut palm sugar; low on the hypoglycemic scale which is great for me.  I do love to sprinkle the raw muffins with chunky sugar before baking.  I sprinkled them last time with oatmeal, but I do love to use coarse sugar too. Today they are naked; in a rush so no time for sprinkle efforts.

I freeze any I won’t eat in 2 days; in a Ziplock freezer bag.  They make perfect snacks. My guy loves them about as much as I do. Enjoy!

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Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins (14 muffins)

2 cups brown rice flour mix (see below)

2/3 c granulated sugar or coconut palm sugar

1 tbsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

¾ tsp xanthan gum

¼ tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

½ tsp. ginger

¼ tsp nutmeg

1 c packed canned pumpkin

½ cup mini chocolate chips

½ cup chopped walnuts

1/3 cup heaping of raisins (optional)

2 lg eggs beaten

½ c milk, 1 or 2 percent plus 1 extra tbsp. if you use the palm sugar

½ c canola oil

Heat oven to 350 degrees, placing the rack in middle of oven.  Spray muffin pans with cooking spray.  One batch makes 12-14 muffins depending on how large you want them.

Mix all dry ingredients in bowl of stand mixer or big bowl. Add nuts and then pumpkin puree, stirring into the dry ingredients. Combine milk and oil, beat in eggs.  Add liquids to big bowl; stir until fully blended.

Fill muffin pans 2/3 full.  Bake 22-23 min until golden brown. Do not over bake or they get dry.  I baked these on the convection setting of my range; done in 17 minutes. Rest for five minutes and then remove from the pans using a fork, cool on a rack. Freezes well for up to 4 weeks.

Brown Rice Flour Mix
2 c brown rice flour

2/3 c potato starch

1/3 c tapioca flour

Originally published in 2016; minor updates to recipe as to adding raisins and using a convection oven.

Chocolate Chip Walnut Sourdough Scones

Scones, tender, flakey, full of yumminess… something I used to make years ago. Kinda gave up on them until I attempted blueberry scones last weekend and made with excess sourdough starter, generally called discard. I had created the starter a few weeks ago using brown rice flour and had made a tasty loaf of seeded white sourdough bread in my 8.5 x 4.5 tall, sided loaf pan. So, I was looking for a way to use up the excess sourdough starter. Last week I couldn’t find a recipe for blueberry sourdough gf scones, so I took a gluten-based recipe and reconfigured it to make with a one for one blend: they were so good I made more; today I used a different 1-1 blend; used King Arthur’s Gluten Free Measure for Measure Flour Blend. I used a half cup of thick starter like last week. I added a touch of cinnamon to complement the nuts and chocolate. They baked a bit faster than the ones last week; maybe because no frozen fruit in it. The chocolate and walnuts were at room temp. I ate the first one when it was slightly warm. It was indeed heaven in a scone shape. Crisp outside, tender inside. Bursts of dark chocolate chip. It was another religious experience for me. The crumb was moist and as perfect as I could ask for. If you like scones you have to try this version too! I don’t know what you can sub for the sourdough starter. Possibly slightly thinned Greek yogurt? Or you should just make starter so you can bake these scones. There are lots of starter recipes out there. Mine is brown rice flour based but you can use sorghum or teff or almost any flour around

I mixed it with a spoon and then dumped it out; seemed dryish but as I gently kneaded it the dough became more fully blended and the dry flour mix disappeared.  Trust me, it is easy to make and utterly decadent despite no fancy sweet icing. I think I will make raspberry ones next as I have frozen berries in the freezer.

The dry mix with wet ingredients just added on top.
The wheel of 8 slices of dough ready to be placed on the baking sheet.
Ready for the oven!
Cooling on the rack; they sure got nice and plump!

Angie’s Chocolate Chip and Walnut Sourdough Scones (makes 8)

Ingredients:

200 grams 1-1 Gluten free flour blend; I used King Aurthur Measure for Measure

50 grams almond flour

100 grams granulated sugar

2 ½ tsp. baking powder

¼ tsp. salt

1/2 tsp cinnamon

7.5 Tbsp of cold butter

3/4 cup coarsely chopped walnuts

heaping 1/2 cup of dark chocolate chips or semi-sweet if you like them better.

½ cup sourdough starter (Use the discard if you are creating discard)

1 large egg

1/3 c cold whole milk

Directions:

Mix all dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Cut in cold butter with a pastry cutter or 2 knives. Until it is tiny pebbles of dough and butter.

Add the egg, starter and ¼ c of the milk. Mix to break up egg and start the blending process. Add in the chocolate and nuts and continue stirring. As it gets to be a thick dough dump it out on your breadboard with all the dry bits and hand knead it to coalesce it into a thick dough. Form it into a large disc; about 8-9 inches across. Cut into 8 wedges; cut in half, then quarters then again into eighths. Spread them out on a cookie sheet that you have sprayed with cooking spray. Put the sheet in a cold place to chill while you heat the oven. Heat to 355 degrees.

Put the sheet in to bake. If you have a convection cycle they will be done in about 22 minutes; the outside needs to be light brown, bottom browned and they look done. If you don’t have convection they will likely take a few more minutes.  Let cool on pan for 5 minutes and move to a rack. They cooled rapidly and I couldn’t resist eating one. Plain. Now I am not hungry for supper. I just want more scones.

Enjoy! I think they will freeze nicely; vacuum sealing would be a good way to go about it.

Chocolate Chip Streusel Muffins

My love for snacking muffins unfolds further…what new flavor shall I make?  Turning to my trusty basic muffin recipe I went for a sweet treat; chocolate chip muffins. They are a riff on my blueberry muffin recipe. If you are wondering why I am posting yet another muffin recipe: homemade muffins are lots cheaper than commercially made GF muffins plus they taste so fresh and oh so tasty. I walk right by all those pricey gf snack bars and cookies; knowing that in my freezer is a zip-lock bag full of luscious muffins that defrost to taste as though I made them that morning.

This batch of muffins was delightful: delicate texture yet with a great crunch and the lightly chocolate flavor from the mini chips.  I cut back on the chips a bit so they are not too heavy or too chocolaty. The walnuts also contribute to the crunch and add a subtle nutty taste.  I added a bit of cinnamon which pulls it all together.

The streusel topping gives a great look and adds texture and flavor.  I messed up my topping this batch; had to sprinkle melted butter over them after topping. Still yummy but they are slightly bald on top as a lot of the oats didn’t stick properly due to my error.  Next time they will be perfect. And there Must be a next time as these sweet treats are awesome!

I love how healthy these muffins are compared to commercial gf muffins, no preservatives, chemicals or weird ingredients I would never bake with.  Try them and see how eating gluten free can be so easy when you bake your own snacks. As always I freeze those I won’t eat in two days time; a zip lock freezer bag works great.

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Chocolate Chip Muffins

2 cups brown rice flour mix (see below) or King Arthur Basic GF Flour blend

2/3 cup granulated sugar  or granulated coconut palm sugar

1 tbsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

¾ tsp. xanthan gum

¼ tsp. salt

1/2 tsp cinnamon

3/4 cup mini chocolate chips

1/3 cup chopped walnuts

2 large eggs

½ cup milk, 1 or 2 percent plus 2 tbsp more if you use the palm sugar

½ cup canola oil

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Topping: Mix the following in a bowl, add the butter last after you stir it up a bit: use a spoon to blend. Set aside while you make the muffin batter.

1/2 cup rolled oats

1/3  cup brown sugar

2 tbsp. almond meal

¼ tsp. cinnamon

3 tbsp. butter, melted

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Muffin directions: Heat your oven to 350 degrees, placing the rack in middle of oven.  Spray muffin pans with cooking spray.  One batch makes 14-16 muffins.  I got 16 when I made them.

Mix all dry ingredients in bowl of stand mixer or big bowl Add chips and walnuts; stir to coat them with dry mix.  Combine milk and oil.  Beat in eggs, add vanilla.  Add liquids to big bowl; stir just until blended.  It is a very thick batter.

Fill muffin pans 2/3 full.  I use a big serving spoon and fill it about half way to dump in each muffin space. Sprinkle the top with the topping. Press it in a bit so it won’t all flake off after baking. Bake 21-23 min until golden brown. Do not over bake or they will taste dry.  Remove within 2 minutes from the pans and cool on a rack.  They freeze well for a few weeks: if they last that long.  Keeps in an airtight cookie jar for 2-3 days.  

Originally published in March 2019, no recipe changes made.

Real Chocolate Mousse — The Easy Way!

This is Valentine’s Day weekend. At my house we had a cozy dinner tonight for two. For dessert I made my chocolate mousse recipe; been making it since college days. I haven’t served it in a while and when we enjoyed our cups of light chocolately deliciousness I wondered why on earth I hadn’t made in the last year or two.  Joe happily took home two of the cups. I used to have a married couple who loved it so much that if either came by without the other and I served mousse and sent one home for their spouse; it never made it there; eaten on the way or shortly after arrival. Sneaky business!

I love that I can whip it up in a few minutes – just a few easy steps; no double boiler necessary or stirring for endless minutes. All you need is a bit of strong hot coffee, some eggs and some chocolate chips. I add a bit of brandy and that makes it special! Be sure to chill it at least 2 hours but preferably 4 before  you enjoy it. I love it with a bit of whipped cream but my favorite is some plain heavy cream, light cream or even half and half poured on top. Delish!

You can sub in some dark chocolate chips for part of the cup of semi-sweet chips. Works perfectly, even mini chocolate chips will do fine.  You could leave out the alcohol but it really deepens the flavor; could use a teaspoon of real vanilla extract for it.

I made this super fast and didn’t stop for any picture taking; the cute blue flowered cup just got washed up after we enjoyed dessert!

Chocolate Mousse

Ingredients

3 large eggs, separated

3 Tbsp. sugar

1/3 cup strong hot coffee (I use enough instant coffee for one cup and add it to the 1/3 cup hot water)

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1-2 Tbsp. cognac or French brandy

Directions: Heat a kettle of water to boiling. While it does that separate the eggs and put the whites in your mixer bowl. Beat until still; as it gets closer gradually add in the tablespoons of sugar. Set aside. Pour the really hot water into your blender and let stand 1-3 minutes, it warms up your blender container to help melt those chips! Dump out the water and immediately pour in the chocolate chips and the hot coffee. Cover. Turn on blender; run on medium for 30 seconds, leave running and add the egg yolks (through top feed hole) and then the brandy or cognac (best quality you can afford). Blend up to 30 more seconds and then spoon over the merengue and gently fold in until no white streaks remain. My new Blendtec blender made it super thick and creamy in that minute of blending. All depends on your blender’s strength. Scoop into 6 4–6 ounce size dessert dishes. Chill 2-6 hours; preferably 4-6. Serve with whipped cream or just plain cream or half and half. Store any leftovers in the fridge; cover with plastic wrap; keeps 3-4 days tops but never lasts that long in my house. Enjoy!