Wholegrain gluten-free chocolate chip cookies!
1:21 PM
Being vegan is hard and I respect vegans a great deal. I tried to be strictly vegan most of this year (my exception was for raw honey because of its health benefits) and I stuck it out for a very long stretch uninterrupted. I eventually hit a wall -- it can be really challenging because of my allergies to maintain a balanced vegan diet. I am allergic to nuts, soy, and am quite sensitive to avocado, dairy, beans, pulses and gluten. That means no guacamole, no tofu or tempeh, few to no bean or lentil dishes, no nut based meals, no gluten based meals or seitan-- basically I get my protein from a few seeds like hemp and chia and sesame. It can be really limiting and frustrating and can make dining out a total nightmare. I also seem to have IBS so sometimes I find all the seeds really hard to digest and find myself in a lot of pain. So, lately when I feel like I've hit a food rut or that I'm lacking nutrients or need a diet change, I occasionally bend my rules a bit, incorporating things like a couple organic eggs into my diet every once in a while.
Last week was a painful one. My stomach was really bothering me and I found very few things easy to digest -- especially seeds. I stuck to simple whole grains and vegetables for a few days and once I was feeling better I did a little baking. I wanted to try out my new gluten-free flour blend (I created it myself and I have been using it for the past few weeks and testing it successfully on a few things) in a batch of cookies. I tried my hand at gluten-free chocolate chip cookies and the results were great!
I normally bake cookies with chia or flax egg replacers but this time I used one real organic egg instead like a traditional chocolate chip cookie recipe. I just couldn't stomach seeds last week. If you want to use your own vegan egg replacer, please do! I'm sure your cookies will turn out fine.
The thing I enjoyed most about these cookies is that they conjured up some fun childhood memories. The taste and texture of these cookies reminds me a lot of President's Choice "The Decadent" Chocolate Chip Cookies. I grew up eating those cookies at my friends' houses. The PC Decadent cookies were not my favourite cookies ever, but they were definitely good! The difference between today's cookies and the PC cookies is that mine stay slightly softer in the middle -- I always found the PC cookies way too dry. The other differences are that my cookies are gluten-free, wholegrain, sweetened with low-glycemic coconut sugar instead of white table sugar, made rich with a little coconut oil and evoo instead of a ton of butter, free of dairy and well, awesome. Oh, and they can easily be made vegan by swapping the egg for a flax egg or store bought egg replacer. I hope you enjoy them!
Wholegrain Gluten-Free Chocolate Chip Cookies
(gluten-free, vegan optional, naturally sweetened, reduced fat)  |
Makes 16 standard sized cookies
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Dry Ingredients:
Wet Ingredients:
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Preheat oven to 375F.
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Sift dry ingredients together into a mixing bowl. Stir together and set aside.
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Place egg or replacer in a mixing bowl. Add all remaining ingredients (EXCEPT CHOCOLATE CHIPS) and beat together with an electric mixer on high until there are no lumps.
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Add Wet mix to dry and stir together thoroughly until it looks like caramel toned cookie dough
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Add the chocolate chips and mix in well by hand. Once well mixed,scoop with teaspoon or tbsp and form into balls and flatten on parchment lined baking sheet. bake in oven preheated to 375F for 10-12 minutes.
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