Gluten-Free Wheat-Free Triple Chipper Cookies

Disclaimer: Just because I have substituted some ingredients here doesn't necessarily mean this recipe is proven to be absolutely GF. My dietary need is just to get rid of grain-based carbs. I do not suffer from Celiac Disease or have any medical reason to be eating GF. So, take these modifications with a grain of salt and do your research. Otherwise, enjoy!

As many of you know, I have started doing CrossFit over the last several weeks in a feeble bold attempt to get into shape. BTW, I have a separate blog just for my daily reflections on my workouts -- head over to Make It Burn to read about my daily sojourn towards "forging elite fitness".

Sorry for that shameless plug there. Where was I... oh yes... Part of being a CrossFitter is thinking about how we fuel our bodies. The program wants the students eating lots of lean meats, carbs in the form of fresh fruits and veggies, and laying off on whole grains, refined sugars, flours, and starches. So when I heard this, I thought to myself, Good-bye pizza, homemade bread, rolls, muffins, cookies, and so on. However! I did find a loophole!

Gluten-free was my get-out-food-jail-free card. The problem with that list of no-no foods is that they all contain grains. High levels of sugar in our blood cause our bodies to secrete large amounts of insulin to break it down. I don't remember the rest of the biochemistry that goes behind elevated levels of insulin in our blood, but I do know that it causes us to put on weight and carry around unnecessary fat. Mine likes to hang around my joke of a belly button and flop over the top of my jeans, even on a skinny day, and make me feel like I've been driving trucks cross-country. At any rate, things that are gluten-free lack that carb component that puts your body into insulin overload I guess. Obviously I'm not terribly up-to-date on all the scientifics here, and there is a plethora (yes, I said plethora) of information online and elsewhere if you really want to research it.

Let me interject something at this point. I have always been the kind of person that believes in cooking healthy meals or goodies for my family, but if I'm going to sacrifice texture or flavor in the name of being low-fat or healthy or whatever, then you can just forget it. There are some sacrifices I don't make when it comes to my food. I consider food and culinary delights to be one of the most satisfying carnal pleasures this side of heaven, and I'm sure not gonna waste my time down here eating stuff that tastes like cardboard just so that I have one less dimple in my backside. I may look like my rear end has been pummelled with a bag full of nickels, but dangit, I'm going to be eating well and savoring every morsel.

All that being said, I vowed to do some solid kitchen testing on gluten-free stuff so that I could still cook "normal food" for my family and be able to eat it guilt-free with them. Part of being successful at CrossFit is using the proper fuel to help your body restore the energy it's using (and trust me -- you're using a LOT of energy), and if I'm going to invest the time and money to do this, I want to do it as best I can while not turning into one of those people who become annoying to be around because they only eat organic vegetables grown on mountainsides in the Andes or drink water that has run off the leaves of a rainforest fern or some kooky crap like that.

Now to my first experiment: cookies.


Every time I go through the checkout at the local grocery store, I see some charming little periodical that has yummy treats in it for fall. I am such a sucker for fall baking! After perusing its contents, I've marked off at least 15 recipes I want to try. I made the Nectarine-Plum Crostada last week, which tasted a lot like a peach cobbler -- I highly recommend it. However, I was wanting to make the Triple Chippers on p. 6 and wondered if I could do it in a guilt-free, gluten-free way. As I sit here typing this to you, I am eating one of these suckers, and boooyyy is it good! So, in short, the answer is "yes", and I'll tell you how I did it.


Here is the recipe:

1.5 c packed brown sugar
1 c granulated sugar
1 c butter or margarine, softened
1 c shortening
2 t vanilla
2 eggs
3.75 c all-purpose flour*
2 t baking soda
1 t salt
1.5 c white vanilla baking chips
0.5 c butterscotch chips
1 c semi-sweet chocolate chips

*I substituted 3.75 c Pamela's Baking & Pancake Mix for the all-purpose flour. You do not need to add xanthum gum or anything like that to it -- it's already in the mix! Woo hoo!!

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In large bowl, mix sugars, butter, shortening, vanilla, and eggs with electric mixer on medium speed until creamy, or mix with spoon. Stir in flour, baking soda, and salt. Stir in white, butterscotch, and chocolate chips. Onto grease cookie sheet, drop by 0.25 cupsful about 3" apart. Bake 12-15 minutes or until light golden brown. Cool 4 minutes; remove from cookie sheet to cooling rack. Yield: 26 cookies.

I thought that making cookies that big sounded crazy, so I used a Tbsp to scoop out dough. I have made 24 cookies that way, and they spread out pretty big. I still have enough dough left to make at least 30 more cookies or so using a Tbsp. This would be a great recipe to make big cookies with, spread out into a large cookie to decorate, or make a kajillion of them for some kind of school function where you'll be feeding a lot of people. I plan on putting the rest of my dough in the freezer for safe keeping until holiday baking is in full swing.

The gluten-free flour turned out to be a winner. In fact, the raw dough tasted so good that I ate a LOT of it before the cookies were made, and now I'm starting to feel a little bloated. Ick... This flour has natural almond meal in it, so it has a faintly nutty taste to it that is awesome in cookies. This flour also comes with recipes on it for making pancakes, muffins, crepes, waffles, breading for fried chicken (!!), and regular chocolate chip cookies.

I will most definitely start using this in lieu of regular flour. This is a subsitution that you can make in your baking and non-dieting types of people will probably never know you switched something on them, and if anything, ask what you added to the food to make it taste better. My next experiment will be for dinner tomorrow night when I use gluten-free pasta for spaghetti night. I think I've filled up on cookies and milk (and dough) for dinner tonight!