Today I am sharing a gluten-free oatmeal chocolate chip cookie recipe that is for everyone, not just gluten-free people. No, seriously, these cookies simply taste like awesome chocolate chip oatmeal cookies and no one would know they are gluten free just from eating them. They are also dairy free. And you also use a bit of black magic to make them so perfect sans flour and butter. But I swear this recipe is worth selling your soul to the devil for. 

Over a year ago I chose to stop eating wheat products and felt better so I stuck with it, for the most part, indulging now and again when it made sense (trip to Sweden, birthday cake, etc). Then in September I did a whole bunch of allergy testing and learned that I am actually allergic to wheat. So my optional break from wheat became a permanent one. Which, in all honesty, was a major bummer. Although, six months in and I can honestly say it’s been easier than I thought it would be. Except for a few items, I mostly don’t miss wheat products. But there are a couple foods that I really am sad I’ll never eat again, one of them being my homemade chocolate chip cookies. I spent about a decade tracking down recipes for and perfecting chocolate chip cookies. (Click here for the ultimate winning recipe in that decade-long quest.) I tried subbing in gluten-free flour in my favorite recipe, but the cookies were nowhere near as good. Not even close. I had pretty much given up hope on ever enjoying a homemade chocolate chip cookie 10-minutes-out-of-the-oven ever again. 

Then Nate’s cousin Amanda told me about a gluten-free oatmeal chocolate chip cookie recipe she loves in The Low FODMAP-Diet for Beginners cookbook by Mollie Tunitsky. Amanda told me this recipe would make it so I didn’t miss chocolate chip cookies anymore. I didn’t believe her. Then I tried the recipe and everyone was blown away at how good these cookies are. They just taste like awesome oatmeal cookies. IT IS THE BEST.

I have made these cookies many times since that first try. The cookies came out differently between takes, so I really worked on the recipe to make sure it would be consistent as well as have perfect texture. I credit The Low FODMAP-Diet for Beginners with introducing me to this recipe, but I have made some ingredient adjustments and modifications to the technique, which I will share in the recipe card below.

If you are dairy free, gluten free or just want to eat a really good oatmeal chocolate chip cookie, this recipe is for you. Enjoy!

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies (Gluten Free, Dairy Free)

 

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Prep time

10 mins

Cook time

10 mins

Total time

20 mins

 

These gluten-free and dairy-free oatmeal cookies are amazing and taste like the real deal. Adapted from "The Low FODMAP-Diet for Beginners" by Mollie Tutnitsky

Author: Jane Maynard

Serves: 20-24 cookies

Ingredients

• ½ cup coconut oil
• ⅔ cup lightly-packed brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ¾ teaspoon coarse sea salt, plus more for sprinkling (or ½ teaspoon kosher salt)
• 2¼ cup oat flour
• ½ cup rolled oats
• 1¼ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350º F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.
2. Put coconut oil in a large, microwave-safe mixing bowl. If the oil is already a liquid, you're all set. If it's in a solid state, microwave for appx. 20 seconds to melt it. Add the brown sugar, egg and vanilla extract to the oil and mix very well.
3. Stir in the baking soda and salt.
4. Stir in the oat flour, rolled oats, and chocolate chips.
5. Place cookie dough balls on cookie sheet, leaving space between them for spreading. The dough balls should be about 2 tablespoons (medium cookie scoop size). Once you place the dough on the cookie sheet, using wet fingers gently smooth out the cookie dough balls and light press down on them, to make them all the same shape and size. They don't need to be flattened, just lightly squished a bit.
6. Bake for 9-11 minutes, until the cookies are lightly browned and look done in the centers. Sprinkle with coarse sea salt immediately after taking out of the oven, then gently drop the pan flat onto the stovetop or counter to force the cookies to settle. Let cool then enjoy!

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Today is This Week for Dinner‘s 11th birthday! How is that even possible? ELEVEN YEARS. Pretty soon my blog will be a teenager, which means I need to enjoy these last moments before it starts talking back and asking for a phone and stuff.

I pretty much celebrate every blog birthday with chocolate. Last night I remembered a cookie recipe from my pre-blog days that my mother-in-law Pat gave to me. I decided to pull out my old recipe box, dig through the cards and find it. I made the cookies and everyone in the family loved them. The main difference with this recipe is that you blend the oatmeal before adding it to the dough, giving the cookies the flavor of oatmeal with a different texture than what you’re used to with oatmeal cookies, a texture that we all love.

And, yes, I am sharing yet another chocolate chip cookie recipe. I know, I know, how many versions can one blog hold? Apparently a lot.

You may notice from the photos that I used Guittard’s chocolate wafers as opposed to chips. Wafers or chips both work fabulously in this recipe, but I do love the layered effect that the wafers give to the final cookie. However, if you don’t have chocolate wafers on hand, good ol’ fashioned chocolate chips are just as delicious!

Happy birthday, Blog! And happy baking, everyone!

Blended Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

 

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Prep time

10 mins

Cook time

10 mins

Total time

20 mins

 

Modified from a very old Mrs. Fields' recipe that my mother-in-law shared with me many moons ago. I have altered the recipe in several ways, but the oatmeal trick definitely came from Mrs. Fields!

Author: Jane Maynard

Serves: 4 dozen

Ingredients

• 1 cup salted butter, softened to room temperature
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup light brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste
• 2½ cups rolled oats
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 12-18 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips or wafers (12 ounces is a normal amount; 18 ounces is if you really like chocolate!)

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 375º F.
2. In a stand mixer or large bowl using a hand blender, beat butter, sugar and brown sugar on medium-high speed for 4-5 minutes.
3. Add eggs and vanilla. Beat another 1-2 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary.
4. In a blender, blend the oats until it resembles a very coarse flour.
5. Add oats to cookie dough and blend on low until just combined.
6. Add flour and blend on low until just combined.
7. Stir in chocolate.
8. Form dough into balls (approximately 2 tablespoons per ball). Place on ungreased cookie sheet or cookie sheet lined with a silicone baking mat or parchment paper (I use a Silpat). Press down gently on the dough balls to flatten them a bit. Bake for 8-10 minutes, until bottom edges are a golden brown.
9. Dough balls may be frozen. Add a few minutes to cooking time if baking from frozen.

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Guess what? I have another fun Mother’s Day post for you, complete with an easy, delicious recipe and an equally delicious giveaway!

Each year I create a post in conjunction with Fair Trade USA to celebrate Mother’s Day and this year is no exception! As usual they sent me a box of goodies (which we will be giving away to one of you lucky people in just a moment) to inspire a Mother’s Day baking project.

This month has been super busy and as Mother’s Day has approached I haven’t had a lot of time to bake. Normally when Fair Trade sends me a box of goodies they include a baking mix from Immaculate Baking Company. I haven’t ever used the mixes in my posts because I normally create my Fair Trade recipes from scratch. This time, however, I decided to embrace the ease of the cookie mix, adding a fun twist to make it special.

First off, the Immaculate Organic Chocolate Chip Cookie Mix is so, so, so good. Whether or not you add my fudgy thumbprint you’ll be happy with this mix. But the fudgy addition really takes these cookies over the top. Today’s recipe kind of had a longer journey than most of my recipes. First I tried to make cookie cups with a fudgy center but it just didn’t work practically or visually, but they tasted amazing. So then I tried stuffing the cookies, which worked pretty well but not exactly what I envisioned. So then I tried a thumbprint and it worked! The fudgy “button” goes so beautifully with these cookies and you will love them, especially since it’s so easy to throw this dessert together! 

The most wonderful part of this recipe is that using Fair Trade ingredients means you can celebrate strong women and mothers throughout the world by supporting their livelihood. I’ve read so many stories about how Fair Trade helps women in so many countries and I love it when I can incorporate as many fair trade ingredients as possible into my recipes. The infographic above is a great summary of why Fair Trade is so cool! For today’s recipe I used the Immaculate Organic Chocolate Chip Cookie Mix as well as Guittard’s Extra Dark Chocolate Chips, so it’s a Fair Trade double whammy! The recipe is below…but first…

The giveaway! Fair Trade will send one of you lucky people the same gift box I received, which includes product from the following companies:

• Wholesome Sweet
• Kashi
• Chuao Chocolatier
• Guittard
• Sheila G’s Brownie Brittle
• Frontier Co-Op
• Numi Tea
• Immaculate Baking Company
• Spectrum
• SunRidge Farms

To enter the giveaway, all you need to do is a leave a comment on this post before Midnight PT on 3/25/17! That’s it! Easy peasy…as easy as today’s recipe, which I will give to you now! The randomly-selected winner of this giveaway was Comment #24 Michele. Congratulations, Michele!

Fudgy Thumbprint Chocolate Chip Cookies

 

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Prep time

10 mins

Cook time

10 mins

Total time

20 mins

 

A fair trade-friendly recipe that is easy and delicious!

Author: Jane Maynard

Serves: 22 cookies

Ingredients

• 1 Immaculate Baking Company Organic Chocolate Chip Cookie Mix
• ½ cup dark chocolate chips (Guittard is my favorite and they are Fair Trade!)
• ¼ cup sweetened condensed milk
• Pinch salt

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 375ºF (or 350º for a dark non-stick pan).
2. Follow directions to mix the dough for the cookie mix.
3. Once dough is mixed, put chocolate chips, sweetened condensed milk and salt in a small microwave-safe bowl. Cook on high in the microwave for 45 seconds, then stir until all chocolate has melted.
4. Let chocolate mix cool for a few minutes. While the chocolate is cooling, create 1-tablespoon rounded cookie dough balls. With your thumb press a well in the center of each cookie dough ball, then place ½ teaspoon blobs of the chocolate fudgy filling in the center. If the chocolate is sticking to your fingers a lot, just get your fingers a little bit wet with water. Keep in mind, the shape of the chocolate will look how it looks after baking as it did before, so if you want the chocolate nice and smooth, smooth it out before baking!
5. Bake for 9-11 minutes. Let cool before eating.

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Hey everybody. I’ve been a little MIA this week. Cate has Spring Break so we’ve been partying! The state of my house can attest to this. Anyway, life took priority over cooking and blogging, which is the way it’s supposed to be, right?

In my never-ending quest to find perfect chocolate chip cookie recipes, I discovered a serious gem of a recipe this week. My blogging friend Alice was claiming to have the best chocolate chip cookie recipe EVER. Of course I had to test out the claim. She might be right. For reals. These cookies are unbelievably good and are the exact texture I love in a cookie. You can find Alice’s original recipe here. When I make the recipe I do make a few tweaks, which I included below. Make these cookies this weekend. (Yes, I’m getting bossy again. Sometime I have to.)

Alice's Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies

 

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This is the only chocolate chip cookie recipe you need.

Author: Alice Currah with a few notes and tweaks from me

Ingredients

• 1 cup salted butter, softened to room temperature
• ½ cup sugar
• 1½ cups packed brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• ½ teaspoon smallish-mediumish coarse sea salt (Jane notes: I reduced the salt amount a bit, Alice’s amount was really tasty, but I think a little less offers a bit more subtlety, but you still get the salty punch from the larger crystals; Also, when I am out of sea salt I use kosher salt with good results, but the sea salt texture does make them more special)
• - 1 teaspoon baking soda
• - 1½ teaspoons baking powder
• - 2¾ cup all-purpose flour
• - 2¾ cups semi-sweet chocolate chips (Jane note: I increased the amount of chocolate chips)

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. (Jane note: I decreased the temperature a bit from Alice’s suggestion based on my oven and how the cookies were cooking.)
2. Cream butter and both sugars for 3-5 minutes at medium to medium-high speed, until very light in color. Scrape down the bowl and add eggs and vanilla. Beat for 2-3 more minutes. Add all dry ingredients (except chocolate) and mix until just mixed. Pour in chocolate chips and mix until evenly distributed.
3. Form cookie balls about 2 tablespoons in size (I used my medium scoop) and place on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper or a Silpat. Bake for about 15 minutes, until the edges are golden brown and tops are starting to brown a bit.
4. Remove from oven. Jane note: when you take the pan out of the oven, drop it straight down, flat onto the counter to force the cookies to suddenly settle. This makes for good texture and a handsome-looking cookie. Let cool on the cookie sheet for a few minutes, then slide the parchment paper/Silpat to a non-pourous surface to complete cooling.
5. Recipe makes about 3 dozen cookies.

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I’m a little obsessed with chocolate chip cookies. Okay, maybe a lot obsessed. Nate can attest to this fact. Which is why I LOVED this article in the New York Times. If you care at all about chocolate chip cookies, read it.

In connection with the article, the New York Times provided a recipe (adapted from Jacques Torres) that is outstanding. These cookies have it all – the crispy outside, the chewy inside, lots of chocolate. Oh la la.

I was really excited when I first read the NYT article because the recipe that I had most recently fallen in love with was a similar recipe by none other than Jacques Torres. Jacques knows what he’s doing, let me tell ya.

Without further ado, the recipe! I thought I would post it here on the site so I can add all my various notes on the recipe. And tomorrow I just might share with you the PERFECT chocolate chips for this recipe. But only if you’re good.

New York Times Chocolate Chip Cookies

 

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From the New York Times, adapted from Jacques Torres

Author: Jane Maynard

Recipe type: Dessert

Serves: 1½ dozen 5-inch cookies

Ingredients

• 2 cups minus 2 tablespoons (8½ ounces) cake flour (Jane note: I use pastry flour here”¦that’s what my OTHER Jacques Torres cookie recipe calls for)
• 1⅔ cups (8½ ounces) bread flour
• 1¼ teaspoons baking soda
• 1½ teaspoons baking powder
• 1½ teaspoons coarse salt
• 2½ sticks (1¼ cups) unsalted butter
• 1¼ cups (10 ounces) light brown sugar
• 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (8 ounces) granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 2 teaspoons natural vanilla extract
• 1¼ pounds bittersweet chocolate disks or fèves, at least 60 percent cacao content (see note)
• Sea salt (Jane note: I used salted butter and added about 1 tsp of regular salt to the recipe”¦didn’t have sea salt on hand to sprinkle on top)

Instructions

1. Sift flours, baking soda, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Set aside.
2. Using a mixer fitted with paddle attachment, cream butter and sugars together until very light, about 5 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Stir in the vanilla. Reduce speed to low, add dry ingredients and mix until just combined, 5 to 10 seconds. Drop chocolate pieces in and incorporate them without breaking them. Press plastic wrap against dough and refrigerate for 24 to 36 hours. Dough may be used in batches, and can be refrigerated for up to 72 hours. (Jane note: I do think there is something to the dough sitting over night”¦HOWEVER”¦I can’t resist and always cook cookies the night I make the dough and they still come out GRRRREAT! Promise. Feel free to bake right away! That said, don’t bake all the dough at once! You know better than that. Oh, and I’ve definitely frozen balls of dough from this recipe to great success as well.)
3. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a nonstick baking mat. Set aside. (Jane note: I bake my cookies on my handy dandy Silpat.)
4. Scoop 6 3½-ounce mounds of dough (the size of generous golf balls) onto baking sheet, making sure to turn horizontally any chocolate pieces that are poking up; it will make for a more attractive cookie. Sprinkle lightly with sea salt and bake until golden brown but still soft, 18 to 20 minutes. Transfer sheet to a wire rack for 10 minutes, then slip cookies onto another rack to cool a bit more. (Jane note: I never did the ”˜transfer sheet to a wire rack then slip to another’ rack step.) (Another Jane note: one thing I DO do when they come out of the oven is sort of slam the tray straight down to force the cookies to settle”¦makes for a nice even cookie with a great texture.)

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The recipe I’m sharing with you today is amazing, if I do say so myself. In fact, it’s one of those recipes that I’m hesitant to even share with others…you know, kind of like that crazy new psycho character on Desperate who won’t share the lemon meringue pie recipe? That’s a little how I feel…these cookies make me look GOOD, and if others can make them, I lose my magic. At the same time, I think people who don’t share recipes are, well, a little shallow and mean. So, the real question is do I want friends or do I want to have that secret cookie recipe that people are willing to break into my house for? Believe it or not, this was a tough decision, but I’ve decided I like being popular more, so you get the recipe.

Seriously, these cookies are perfect. I guess the official name is “Chocolate Oatmeal Coconut Cookies” but that is so boring and doesn’t really fall off the tongue so easily, so let’s just call it The Perfect Cookie. Where did I get the recipe from? The name on my original recipe card says Barbara Boczany. I have no idea who Barbara Boczany is. But she makes a damn good cookie. I have adjusted the recipe, so let’s just say it’s mine. Yeah, that sounds good. Keep reading for the secret (and no, not THAT secret, but the yummy cookie secret, which is WAY better).

Chocolate Chunk Oatmeal Coconut Cookies (aka The Perfect Cookie)

 

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When I originally received this recipe from a friend, the name on it was "Barbara Boczany." We have no idea who Barbara is but we are eternally grateful to her for this wonderful recipe!

Author: Jane Maynard

Ingredients

• 2 sticks unsalted butter (I always use salted and they taste fine)
• 1 C brown sugar, packed
• 6 Tbsp sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1½ tsp vanilla
• ½ tsp salt
• ½ tsp baking soda
• 1 C flour
• 2¼ C oats
• 1½ C coconut
• 12 oz (2 cups) semi-sweet chocolate chunks – I prefer using semi-sweet mini chocolate chips because they distribute through the cookie very nicely with the other ingredients
• ¾ C chopped almonds (I actually never add the almonds)

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 375 F. Beat butter and sugars at high speed until fluffy (about 5-7 minutes). Add eggs and beat till well blended. Beat in vanilla, baking soda, and salt. Add flour and mix at low speed until just blended. Stir in oats, coconut, chocolate and almonds.
2. Arrange ¼ cup mounds about 3 inches apart on large buttered baking sheets. Pat down to ½ inch. Bake in upper oven, rotating occasionally, 15-18 mins. Cool one minute. Transfer to cooling rack.
3. If you bake smaller cookies (which I often do), adjust the baking time accordingly.
4. The cookies usually get pretty crispy and brown around the edge and you will see that the center of the cookie is set.

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