Chapter 4: That's the Way the Cookie Crumbles

Yet again, I have produced cookies with pretty lackluster results. I’ve come to the overall result that with cookies, taste is not affected and structure is barely altered by substituting with gluten free flour. A little bit of a gritty feel, sometimes slightly dryer than normal but otherwise you can barely tell the difference. I’ve tried to cover all types of cookies (which isn’t many), starting with drop, doing a rolled cookie and now a bar cookie that uses streusel. I’m thinking this will be my last cookie for awhile, with pretty much the same result for each one, it’s time to move on to something more complex. If I stumble upon a cookie that is different than anything else, of course I’m going to put it to the test!

(Gluten Free)

This time step one was trying to find a recipe. I knew I wanted to do a bar cookie that didn’t involve a rolled cookie base. That’s when I turned to my favorite site, PInterest! I finally landed on Oatmeal Lemon Cream bars which was a streusel cookie,, recipe provided by Ashleyn who runs Belle of the Kitchen blog (http://belleofthekitchen.com/2015/06/12/oatmeal-lemon-creme-bars/). First in the recipe, you mix the butter and sugar until crumbling (it says soft butter but make sure it’s not super squishy soft), then you add in your dry ingredients. In this step be sure not to over mix, you want it all together but still in a crumbly state. For the regular one it is super important because you also don’t want to develop too much gluten. With the gluten free obviously you don't have to worry about developing gluten, but you don’t want a solid piece in your mixing bowl. I didn’t notice much of a difference in the two except the gluten free was the slightest bit more broken up than the regular one.

(Regular)

By this point, the filling was made and spread, then you top with the remaining streusel over top and really make sure you have some big clumps because that makes it look like classic streusel. Then you pop it in the oven until it is golden brown on top and as usual the gluten free cookies darken much slower (if at all for some). When taking a look at the inside, the bottom crust baked a bit better on the gluten free one than the regular, but the regular one was easier to get bigger clumps to sprinkle on top. Overall though you couldn’t tell the difference unless told. When tasting you can kind of feel a grittiness to them but the oatmeal sorta mask that texture.

(Regular on the left, gluten free on the right)

So overall, gluten free cookies, great on taste, doesn’t drastically change the structure, and just a little bit of grittiness in the texture but palatable.If all I have to deal with when making gluten free cookies is dryness and grit, I would say gluten free flour has come a long way. It was a fun, scientific crusade with cookies. Now I’m looking forward to tackling cakes. There I will have more of a challenge when it comes to structure.

Author’s Note: Thank you everyone for reading, we made it through my first section. If you feel I missed an area when it comes to cookies, please email me with your suggestions.