Question
Alison Flatley
For Gluten Free chocolate chip cookies, what tips do you have to help them mimic the chew and structure of a gluten cookie? I've added milk powder to my GF flour which helps, but isn't quite there yet.
Answer
So yeah, there's a lot of science that happens in gluten-free cookies. There are a couple ingredients that I always try to say, and it also depends if you're plant-based or vegan, too, if these will work. But key ingredients for chewiness, specifically in gluten-free cookies, brown sugar, using that instead of a granulated sugar, especially if it calls for both, use a higher ratio of brown sugar just because it contains molasses and has a higher moisture point on it, too, so it creates a softer, chewier texture. If you do eat eggs, eggs actually provides a fat, which is building the gluten-free starches, which is really nice. It helps to get kind of a fudgy center. You could use a plant-based butter or something like that if you don't do eggs, or just regular butter if you do butter. Do a melted version, though, instead of the softened, just because the melted will actually lead to that denser, chewier cookie compared to a cakey kind of fluffy version. And then xanthan gum, especially in gluten-free baking, really helps a lot. It acts as that kind of glue substitute, basically. And if you're doing a one-to-one for gluten-free flour and a xanthan gum really helps. Or you could add just half a teaspoon manually to the cookie itself to see how that works as well, if you don't want to do a whole batch that way. But probably one of the big things is just hydrating the dough. It needs time to absorb moisture. Gluten-free flours typically need a little bit more time. So, when you're making your cookies, definitely chill the dough at least probably 30 minutes in the refrigerator. Overnight would work as well, too, before scooping out your cookie, because it basically is helping to hydrate that flour a lot more. So that's probably just kind of low-hanging fruit, if you will, would probably be my starting points to be able to go to.
