Gluten free Chocolate Chip Cookies

Fortunately, Gluten free doesn’t have to mean cookie free, but gluten free cookies can be crumblier than traditional wheat flour cookies. The coconut flour and extra egg in the second recipe help to retain moisture and reduce the crumbliness somewhat. 

— and as my autoimmune health issues keep getting worse my baking skills keep stepping up to the cookie plate – see the third recipe for an egg free, butter free version that is still gluten free.

Glutamine is an amino acid that may be part of the sensitivity problem for people sensitive to wheat products but who don’t have the autoimmune condition Celiac disease/Celiac sprue. Glutamine is an amino acid that can cause actions to occur in the body, acting as a messenger chemical. Combined with excess glucose – sugar, glutamine and glucose in excess may be part of the underlying condition that promotes cancer cell growth. (Want cancer? Eat plenty of refined sugar say researchers [and glutamine too]) Eggs and egg white and wheat are considered good sources of the amino acid glutamine. (L-glutamine food sources) Egg: 0.559 grams glutamine and 1.014 grams glutamate. (glutamine content of foods derived by gene sequencing) But so is flaxmeal: 0.52 grams glutamic acid in 2 Tablespoons: (flaxmeal) The forms of amino acids are interchangeable but also may have different activities – it is complex and moderation is a good idea on National Cookie Day and any other day.

Plan ahead for National Cookie Day on December 4th and bake enough to have now and later. Cookies can be made ahead for the holidays and stored in the freezer after they are baked or as ready-to-bake cookie dough. Gluten free recipes can usually be adapted by substituting an equivalent amount of regular flour. Substituting white or whole wheat flour will work in either of the following recipes, 2 1/2 cups total flour for the first recipe and 3 to 3/14 cups for the second recipe – the corn flour is finely ground and dense compared to regular wheat flour.

The nutrient content of gluten free recipes can vary depending on the amount of flour or starch that is used. Gluten free cooking is important for people with some types of health conditions but it is not necessarily more nutritious for people of normal health and some of the products made with more starches may be less nutritious than wheat flour products. For the people with autoimmune sensitivities however it can be very important to avoid even trace amounts of gluten. the body makes autoimmune antibodies against gluten in response to encountering gluten.

It can take six months carefully following a gluten free diet before the autoimmune antibody levels decrease to normal but levels can normalize within a month on a gluten free diet for some. The person’s negative symptoms may not start feeling better immediately after they start a gluten free diet because of the circulating levels of autoimmune antibodies. The symptoms get better as the antibody levels decrease. Eating small portions or even trace amounts may cause an increase in the antibody levels again and a flair up in symptoms again. The autoimmune reaction by the body over time can cause chronic degenerative damage to the body so avoiding gluten may be helping a person have fewer symptoms on a daily basis and avoid long term damage to their body.

/Disclosure: This information is provided for educational purposes within the guidelines of fair use. While I am a Registered Dietitian this information is not intended to provide individual health guidance. Please see a health professional for individual health care purposes./

Spicy Chocolate Chip Cookies – version without corn flour, 11/3/2015

Makes 48-60 cookies, bake at 350’F for approximately 20 minutes.

  • 2 sticks Butter, room temperature
  • 2 cups Brown Sugar
  • — mix the softened butter and sugar together and then mix in the eggs and vanilla
  • 2 Eggs
  • 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
  • — add the dry ingredients to the bowl and mix thoroughly
  • 1 1/2 cup Buckwheat Flour
  • 1/2 cup Brown Rice Flour
  • 1/2 cup Coconut Flour
  • 2 1/2 teaspoons Baking Powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon Salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon Cardamom Powder – this spice works well with the flavor of buckwheat flour
  • —- add the chocolate chips after the batter is mixed well
  • 1 ten or twelve ounce package of Dark Chocolate or Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips -the cookies also can be made without the chocolate chips

Form one inch balls of dough and roll them in white sugar if desired. Place about 24 per cookie sheet. Bake in the center of the oven and/or rotate the top and bottom pans after 15 minutes of baking. Bake for 20-25 minutes unitl slightly golden brown. These are not low calorie cookies but they do contain more fiber than regular white flour cookies.

Spicy Chocolate Chip Cookies – with corn flour

Makes 48-60 cookies, bake at 350’F for approximately 20 minutes.

  • 2 sticks Butter, room temperature
  • 2 cups Brown Sugar
  • — mix the softened butter and sugar together and then mix in the eggs and vanilla
  • 3 Eggs
  • 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
  • — add the dry ingredients to the bowl and mix thoroughly
  • 1 cup Buckwheat Flour
  • 1 1/2 cups Corn Flour, (such as the Maseca brand)
  • 1/2 cup Coconut Flour
  • 2 1/2 teaspoons Baking Powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon Salt
  • 1 teaspoon Cardamom Powder – this spice works well with the flavor of buckwheat flour
  • —- add the chocolate chips after the batter is mixed well
  • 1 ten or twelve ounce package of Dark Chocolate or Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips -the cookies also can be made without the chocolate chips

Form one inch balls of dough and roll them in white sugar if desired. Place about 24 per cookie sheet. Bake in the center of the oven and/or rotate the top and bottom pans after 15 minutes of baking. Bake for 20-25 minutes until slightly golden brown. These are not low calorie cookies but they do contain more fiber than regular white flour cookies.

The Egg free, Butter free – don’t need a refrigerator for the ingredients Version:

Spicy Chocolate Chip Cookies – without egg, butter, corn or wheat flour, or other gluten containing flours (which may include oatmeal).

Makes 48 cookies, bake at 350’F for approximately 20-25 minutes.

  • 3 Tablespoons Golden Flaxmeal, ground
  • 10 Tablespoons of Boiling Hot Water, – Step 1. Combine the flaxmeal and boiling water and stir together for a few minutes until the mixture is thickened and looks a little like a watery porridge. Then add the melted coconut oil, brown sugar, vanilla and apple cider vinegar, stir and set aside until later.
  • 1 cup Coconut Oil, melted
  • 2 cups Brown Sugar
  • 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons Apple Cider Vinegar (This is needed in the corn free version of the recipe in order to make the Baking Soda work properly as a leavening agent. Baking Powder has corn starch and it also has an acidic ingredient that Baking Soda doesn’t have.)
  • Step 2 (actually step 1 combined several actions): — add the dry ingredients to a different larger bowl and mix it together thoroughly:
  • 3/4 cup Buckwheat Flour
  • 1 cup Brown Rice Flour
  • 3/4 cup Coconut Flour
  • 1/2 and 1/8 teaspoon Baking Soda (*Baking Powder has corn starch)
  • 1/2 teaspoon Salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon Cardamom Powder – this spice works well with the flavor of buckwheat flour. It tastes a little like cinnamon but is not quite the same.
  • Step 3: — mix the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir thoroughly.
  • Step 4: — add the chocolate chips after the batter is mixed well.
  • 1/2 to 3/4 of a ten or twelve ounce package of Dark Chocolate or Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips. This batter is greasy seeming and the chips constantly pop out of the dough so I don’t even try to add a full package. It is easiest to work with the dough when the mix is more wet than dry, more like muffin batter than a typical “cookie dough“.
  • Step 5: — Preheat oven to 350’F., and form cookies with a scoop or with a pair of metal spoons as the batter is sticky and might even work in a cookie press if there weren’t chocolate chips. Form approximately one inch size balls of dough. Place about 24 on a pre-oiled or nonstick cookie sheet.
  • Step 6: — Bake in the center of the oven and/or rotate the top and bottom pans after 15 minutes of baking. Bake for 20-25 minutes until slightly golden brown.
  • Step 7: — Allow to cool slightly before eating and store in an airtight container once they are cool enough to no longer be emitting steam. The cookies keep for about a week or until they are all eaten, whichever happens first. They can also stored in the freezer once they are baked or as a cookie dough to be formed into cookies and baked at a later time for a treat fresh out of the oven with less work.
  • For freezer preparation — To form cookie dough into ready to cut and bake tubes of dough for the freezer, roll out a sheet of waxed paper on a clean countertop. Spritz it with a cooking spray oil and sprinkle the waxed paper with some ground flaxmeal. With oily hands put the dough on the waxed paper and form it into a long tube like log of dough about two inches thick, and then roll it up into the waxpaper. Store the paper wrapped tube in a larger plastic freezer bag or container.  A batch of cookie dough would make about two and half “tubes” of dough – the length of a square of waxpaper.  Each would make approximately one cookie sheet of cookies.

-The cookies also can be made without the chocolate chips or with other additions such as chopped nuts or dried currents or raisins.

These are not low calorie cookies but they do contain more fiber and antioxidant rich ingredients than regular white flour cookies, or gluten free cookies that are based on fiber free refined starches instead of whole grain flours.

  • Disclaimer: Opinions are my own and the information is provided for educational purposes within the guidelines of fair use. While I am a Registered Dietitian this information is not intended to provide individual health guidance. Please see a health professional for individual health care purposes.
  • The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics has a service for locating a nutrition counselor near you at the website eatright.org: (eatright.org/find-an-expert)