Tuesday, December 13, 2011

I'm Such a Scientist

I don't know what I did wrong to get the chocolate chunks to look like they were unearthed from an 1883 time capsule. Such a disgrace. Fortunately, it didn't affect the taste and that cookie is sitting in my intestines as I type this.

I figured Isa has had plenty of love and attention for the past several days, so I'd talk up Ms. Kelly Peloza's Vegan Cookie Connoisseur. Believe it or not, these are the Mocha Cappuccino Cookies. Why don't they look like the picture in the book? Why aren't they all spread out and packed with little speckles of coffee? Well, I'm ever the scientist and decided to try to make them gluten free. I'm having an in-home bake sale this Saturday and have some GF peeps to satisfy.

I used 1/2 c. teff flour, 1/2 c. soy flour, and 1 1/2 t of xanthan gum. The dough didn't spread at all, it was very thick and I had to add some extra liquids to keep the dough from being sandy. I rolled each cookie into a little golf ball and smashed it with the back of a spoon. Then I plugged the chocolate chunks into the dough. 350 for about 8-9 minutes should do it. Don't bake any longer than that or you will have a rock.

The taste? Well, it was a little gritty because of the flours, but good--notably good for dunking in milk, if that happens to be your thang. Guess what? NO CRUMBLES. Yep, that's right, the cookie didn't crumble like my past GF experiments. This tells me for now, that the teff/soy combo works. Most people think to make a cookie GF all they have to do is add whatever non gluten flour and ((((blamo!)))) you have a GF cookie. Sorry, it doesn't work that way. You have to play around and see what happens. Other blogs will tell you the xanthan or guar isn't needed, but if you don't your going to have a cookie that turns to a fistful of crumbs.

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