Chapter One: The Journey Begins

Chocolate chip cookies, a classic comfort food that makes you think of your early day in the kitchen with your grandma.This was a perfect choice for my first experiment and it came with some surprising results. As a baker, I will admit I was going into this with a biased opinion. Gluten is the king of the kitchen, and without it I was worried the recipe would fall apart, or have an off taste because I was turning my back on wheat. I was weary on this endeavor because every gluten free thing I have had before this was, in nice words, awful! So, I was nervous to say the least, but pushed forward anyways. With the sound of the mixer running and the crack of the first egg, we were off. Once all was mixed, I noticed that the gluten free dough (top) was lighter in color and had a bit gritty feel to it unlike the regular dough (bottom).

Other than those two noticeable characteristics, everything else about it was just as normal. It mixed smoothly, and the nice things about it was once you added the flour there was no fear of over developing the gluten and getting cake like cookies.

All divided up, the dough ready to go into the oven and I was ready to play the waiting game. We got about 60 regular chocolate chips and 72 gluten free ones. Now regular chocolate chips bake for about 10 minutes, the gluten free ones baked for about 8 minutes, but both came out with even color and soft. When looking inside the cookie, the gluten free one (top) is fluffier and has a much more open structure. With a regular chocolate chip (bottom) it is a flatter, closer knit cookie because you didn’t want to develop the gluten structure too much. Also while baking, the gluten free cookies tended to spread more evenly. In general though both cookies spread to about the same size.

Now that all was baked and cooled, it was time for the blind taste test. Thankfully I have wonderful friends that were willing to be subjected to my questioning. Cookie A was administered first, many said it tasted like a regular chocolate chip. General consensus was that the cookie was soft but crumbly, had an airy feel. Cookie B was next and met with that same approval but it was more dense. All but one of my friends guessed right with Cookie A being the gluten free one, but only because of texture not taste difference. A comment that stuck out was that the chocolate flavor is enhanced in the gluten free one. Now that could be purely on personal taste buds, but still something to consider. All in all, it was a good first experiment with the conclusion that with the gluten free cookies, taste is not affected, texture is crumbly, and they tend to look lighter.

Author’s Note: I want to thank everyone who helped me with feedback. Also a big thank you to my friend Josh for hosting my first experiment and taking these wonderful pictures.