The Chocolate Chip Challenge

Making a tasty gluten-free chocolate chip was one of my first goals when I found the time to bake for myself after the Christmas Holidays this past year. When I googled recipes, the first recipe that came up was the one from Land O'Lakes. Back in January, I made that recipe, and I posted the results on my quilting blog since I hadn't started this blog. Those cookies were yummy and had the texture that I liked in a chocolate chip cookie. Here is a photo of that first batch.

A month later, I was craving chocolate chip cookies again. So, I made another batch using the same recipe which baked into a flat mess with chips as the peaks. I was so disappointed since they were not the same consistency. Plus, they had turned into a crumbly mess the next day.

A month later, I decided to borrow numerous gluten-free cookbooks from the library. While reading, I bookmarked the chocolate chip cookie recipes that I would try. Well, I made a batch of Hasselbeck's recipe (left cookie), and I made Karen Morgan's recipe (right cookie).

Both of the cookies tasted good, but the texture and consistency that I liked was Karen Morgan's recipe from her Blackbird Bakery Gluten-Free cookbook, a soft cakey cookie loaded with chocolate chips.

Two nights ago while skimming through Shauna James Ahern & Daniel Ahern's cookbook Gluten-Free Girl and the Chef, I came across baking tips on page 201. The one tip that interested me the most was the information about not to over cream the butter and sugars for gluten-free cookies . I read that paragraph again to reflect on what they were informing the reader. Ahern states to just mix until combined to prevent spreading. Wow, that was the cause of my flat cookies! Now I knew what I had done wrong. That was what I had done with the Land O'Lakes recipe on the second baking and same with the Hasselbeck's recipe, I had over creamed the butter and sugars.