Allergen Free Chocolate Chip Cookies

This recipe is from Learning to Bake Allergen Free by Collette Martin - if you have or have a child with food allergies, I highly recommend buying this book.

It can be used to make sugar cookies too (omit chocolate chips and top with raw sugar).

She designed the recipe with buckwheat flour instead of oat flour, but Henry did not like them and wouldn't eat them (I also did not think they tasted very good, but Grandpa took them home, they reminded him of some that his mother used to make).  I remade them with oat flour - I made the oat flour myself!  I didn't know that you could do that, but I just took some oats and ground them in a food processor, voila, oat flour.  And now they taste like actual cookies!!!  I can't tell you how excited I am about this.

Allergen Free Chocolate Chip Cookies

1/2 cup oat flour
3/4 cup gluten free all purpose blend (bob's red mill - garbanzo bean flour main ingredient)
1/4 tsp xanthan gum
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup sugar

1 stick earth balance natural shortening - cold

2 T unsweetened applesauce - cold

2 tsp water (as needed)

1/2 cup mini chocolate chips (enjoy life - milk free)

Whisk together flours, xanthan gum, baking powder, salt, and sugar.  Cut shortening into tablespoon-sized pieces and cut in with a pastry cutter.  Keep cutting until the shortening is about pea-sized.  Stir in applesauce.  Add enough water until the dough comes together, about 2 tsp.  Stir in chocolate chips.  Refrigerate for 1 hour.  Use a small cookie scoop and place on cookie sheets - do not flatten, bake at 350° for 10-12 minutes.  Makes 2 dozen cookies.

Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies

The other day Jer was eating a bunch of Henry's allergy free chocolate chip cookies and I wanted to know why, and he said that they are his favorite thing and I haven't made just chocolate chip cookies in a long time.  So I decided to make some, since regular ones taste better and are less expensive than Henry's. 

Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 sticks butter
1/4 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 egg yolk
2 T whole milk
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
2 1/2 cups bread flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 bag chocolate chips

Melt the butter, set aside to cool slightly.  Mix butter and sugars, add egg and yolk and mix well.  Mix in vanilla and milk.  Mix in bread flour, salt, and baking soda.  Stir in chocolate chips.  Refrigerate for 1 hour.  Use a large cookie scoop (about 2 T) and place 6 per pan.  Bake at 350° for 14 minutes.  Rotate pans half way through.  Set on racks to cool.  Makes 2.5 dozen large cookies or 5 dozen small (bake 11 minutes).

Bombshell Brownies

Wow are these delicious.  I have made two pans of these in the last week and this is all that is left to take a picture of.  Sorry.  Go make your own. :)  I made these again with m&m's instead of chocolate chips.  YUM.  If you are going gluten/wheat free - just make your own oat flour and replace the wheat flour - you can hardly tell the difference!

Bombshell Brownies

2 stick butter
3 cup sugar
4 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cup flour (oat flour (recipe below) - wheat free)
1 tsp salt
1 cup cocoa
1/2 bag chocolate chips or m&m's

Melt butter, stir in sugar.  Add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition.  Stir in vanilla.  Add flour, salt, and cocoa.  Mix well.  Stir in chocolate chips.  Spoon into greased 9x13" baking dish.  Bake at 350° for 40 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.

Oat Flour

Place oatmeal in a food processor and process until it is the consistency of flour.  Measure equivalent cup for cup with regular flour.

Lofthouse Cookies

Oh yeah, these taste as good as they look.  Happy birthday to me.  I am not a super big cake fan, so for my birthday I made myself some lofthouse style cookies, good decision.  They were SO GOOD!  Before you make them make sure you have a ton of powdered sugar in the house, and be generous with the frosting, you will not regret it.

Lofthouse Cookies

4 1/2 cups flour
4 1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
3 sticks butter - softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 eggs
5 tsp vanilla extract

powdered sugar (up to 2 lbs)
1/3 cup butter - melted
1 T vanilla extract
1/2 cup milk
food coloring

Mix butter and sugar and beat on medium-high speed until soft and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes.  Beat in the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition.  Blend in the vanilla.  Add flour, baking powder and salt and mix just until incorporated.  Cover and chill the dough for 1 hour.  Use a large cookie scoop (about 2 T) and place 8 flattened balls per baking sheet.  Bake at 350° for 10-12 minutes.  Let cool on racks.  For the frosting, melt butter and stir in milk and vanilla and food coloring.  Add powdered sugar and stir until you reach the desired consistency - it should be stiff and just spreadable, more of a frosting consistency than icing.  Frost cookies and enjoy!  Makes 32 cookies.

Surprise Brownies

These are a variation of the Cheesecake Brownies I made a while back, I just added some chocolate chips, yum.  I based it off from my mother in law's surprise cupcakes, which are quite similar.

Surprise Brownies

1 box brownie mix
2/3 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup water
3 eggs
1/2 cup sugar
8 oz cream cheese
1/2 bag chocolate chips

Mix together brownie mix, oil, water, and 2 eggs.  Pour into greased 9x13" baking dish.  Mix together cream cheese, 1 egg, and sugar.  Stir in chocolate chips.  Spoon globs on top of the brownie batter and then marble through.  Bake at 350° for 30 minutes.

French Toast

Hard to say where I found this recipe, I changed it enough that I no longer attribute it to anyone but myself.

French Toast

2 cup milk
4 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
dash cinnamon
bread

Whisk together eggs, milk, vanilla, and cinnamon. Dip bread slices in the mixture until well coated and then place in a pan or on a griddle on medium heat. Cook until that side is done and then flip and cook until the other side is done.

Blueberry Cornbread

We made blueberry pancakes the other night but did not use up all of the berries in the bag from the freezer.  I wanted to make muffins or something with it, and corn muffins sounded good, so I searched online for a recipe, but all of them were with cornmeal, and I only had a corn muffin mix.  So I decided to make one up.  I made the batter according to the box, but added sugar and blueberries.  And some raw sugar on top, yum.  Also I was too lazy to make them as muffins, so I just put it all in a small pan.  It ended up tasting like a coffee cake.

Blueberry Cornbread

1 box corn muffin mix
1 egg
1/3 cup milk
1/4 cup sugar
1 cup blueberries.
raw sugar

Mix together corn muffin mix, egg, milk, and sugar.  Fold in blueberries.  Spoon into a greased pan and sprinkle with raw sugar.  Bake at 450° for 22 minutes.