Gluten free chocolate chip cookies have been my absolute baking nemesis for the last 17 years. I know, it’s a long time to be at-odds with quite possibly the most famous baked good on the face of the planet, but there’s really no where to hide in these miraculously-buttery, chewy, golden, chocolate-studded disks of glorious sugar-highs. And when there’s no where to hide, all of the gluten free troubles (crumbly, dry, that “gluten free flour taste” that just persists) are laid bare in a very un-appetizing way. You can’t just toss together flour, butter, sugar, eggs, and call it a day, you have to pull out all of the stops, leverage all of those chefy tips and tricks to really craft a gosh-darn-good chocolate chip cookie. Which is why, for YEARS, I just avoided the whole deal and bought bags of Tate’s gluten free CCCs and ate my feelings until I forgot how utterly sad it was that I couldn’t seem to make the simplest, most perfect treat gluten free. Ah well, thank goodness for cakes, cupcakes, brownies, and so many other creations that are consistently good gluten free.
Which brings us to these: gluten free chocolate chip cookies that are MIND BLOWINGLY good. Like, so good you’d better sit down before you take a bite and make sure there are pillows behind you to fall into as you melt into a pool of perfectly-satisfied bliss. These are THAT good. Now, as you can guess from the first paragraph, I’ve made an abominable number of truly horrendous CCCs. Like, toss in the trash, don’t even bother taste testing them because damn those are ugly, bad CCCs. This may make you wonder if my bar for a decent CCC is now so low that these are merely passable. This is not the case. I just about screamed when these came out of the oven and looked like Pierre Hermé himself might have made them (okay, that’s a stretch, but I think there’s a slight chance that he might actually be proud, especially if he knew these were gluten free). They’re thick, but not cakey, they’re perfectly buttery, crispy, and caramelized around the edges, with dense, chewy centers that just delight with every bite. They have the addition of both toasted whole milk powder (supposedly used by chefy chefs all over to enhance both flavor and chewiness), and browned butter (just more caramelly buttery WOW), and they have fudgy pools of both milk and dark chocolate. OH and flaky sea salt because these are the Met Gala of CCCs and there are no holds barred. Plus, they still have amazing texture and taste days later. ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED.
The only real downside to these stunners is that they’re high maintenance: you MUST let them get their beauty sleep for at least 10 hours before popping them in oven. And then they need some time to collect themselves and cool down after 12 minutes in that sauna. And then, and only then, they will be honored to let you take a bite, or 50. So here’s to it: after 17 years of grumbling that gluten free chocolate chip cookies were an impossibility best left to national cookie brands and celebrity chefs, I now present to you my crowning accomplishment of the first quarter of 2021. You may need to make a second batch.
If you’re on a cookie binge, might we suggest trying these chocolate peanut butter mud cookies, or these tahini chocolate chunk cookies, or these pistachio chocolate chunk cookies, or these peanut butter monster cookies, or these chewy glazed molasses cookies, our classic chocolate hazelnut cookies!
The Best Chewy Gluten Free Brown Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies
Equipment
- Two cookie sheets
- Parchment paper
- Electric mixer
- Small saucepan
- Non-stick frying pan
Ingredients
- 1 Cup browned salted butter instructions below to brown butter
- 3 Tbsp toasted whole milk powder (must be whole milk powder) instructions below to toast
- 1/2 Cup white sugar
- 1 1/4 Cup packed brown sugar
- 1 Tbsp vanilla extract
- 1 large egg
- 2 large egg yolks
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 Cup gluten free 1-1 flour mix with xanthan gum added (if it doesn't have xanthan gum, add 1 teaspoon xanthan gum)
- 1 1/2 Cups arrowroot starch
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 5 oz chopped good quality milk chocolate
- 5 oz chopped good quality dark chocolate
- Flaky sea salt for decoration if you don't have this, add 1/4 tsp of regular salt to the dough
Instructions
- First, toast your whole milk powder! Spread milk powder in a non-stick frying pan and heat over medium low, stirring nearly-constantly with a rubber spatula, until the milk powder turns a light caramel color and starts to smell like caramel, then remove from heat and set aside.
- Then brown your butter. In a small saucepan over medium-low heat, melt 1 cup plus 2 Tbsp (sometimes the butter comes out less than you started with when browning, you want 1 cup of browned butter) of salted butter and stir constantly until melted and simmering. Continue to simmer, on medium heat, for at least a few minutes, until the popping and hissing sounds have completely subsided (this is the water in the butter burning off – you’ll know once it’s silent). Continue to cook, stirring constantly, until the butter reaches a deep amber color and smells nutty or caramelly. It will start to foam over and the foam will rise to the top of the pan, so keep stirring/lifting up spoonfuls of the butter to see the color. Once it reaches that color, immediately take off the burner and pour into a small heat-proof bowl to cool. Once it's cooled for a few minutes, stir in your toasted whole milk powder and then refrigerate (or freeze) until solid but not totally hard – like the consistency of room temp butter.
- Then, make your cookie dough! In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat the now solid browned butter + milk powder until smooth, then add in both the brown and white sugars and continue to cream/beat for 4-5 minutes until lighter, creamier, and fluffier. Then add in the vanilla and egg + egg yolks and beat until smooth and combined. Then, using a rubber spatula, stir in the flour, starch, salt, and baking powder until thick and stiffer like a dough. Finally, fold in your chopped milk and dark chocolate until distributed throughout the dough.
- Now, the hard part: refrigerate the dough overnight or for at least 10 hours. Then remove from fridge and let thaw for 2-3 hours (it will be rock hard at first) until a bit softer and workable (it won't be totally soft). Preheat the oven to 350° Fahrenheit and line two cookie trays with parchment paper and then grease the parchment with cooking spray. Finally, scoop out scant 1/3 Cup of cookie dough – I recommend using a cookie scoop so you get uniform half-spheres of dough. I even roll the edges of the scoops so that your cookie edges will be smooth. Place six dough hunks on each cookie sheet (do NOT flatten them) and bake for 12-14 minutes (I recommend 12 – if you overbake your cookies they will not be chewy). Remove from oven and immediately sprinkle with flaky sea salt. Let cool COMPLETELY before removing from cookie sheets and eating – this will allow the cookies to settle, firm up, and be the perfectly chewy, buttery, delicious cookie that you want!
Tag @sisterssansgluten on Instagram if you snap a photo of your cookies!
Food photography and styling by Amelia Farber
One Comment
Tristan
I’ve been skeptical of gluten free chocolate chip cookies in the past because sometimes they have that funny taste but these were finally amazing. Some of the best chocolate chip cookies I’ve had ever