Chocolate Chip Cookies
This chocolate chip cookie recipe is a family favorite! These cookies are easy to make, gluten free and best of all—soft, chewy, and loaded with chocolate chips! A must-bake favorite for all cookie lovers.
Chocolate chip cookies are a classic and Nestle Tollhouse commercials have one thing, absolutely correct. There is a sense of home that comes from freshly baked cookies and this recipe truly evokes nostalgia for me. The smell as you enter the kitchen, the fight with your brothers to lick the spoon that was used to mix the dough, and most importantly when you take a hot cookie from the oven and do the break test.
Yes, please.
My Nana has perfected this recipe over her 20+ year career as both a hobbyist baker, a mother, a grandmother and now a semi-professional who even charges for her creations, and I am so excited to share her recipe with you!
Typically with gluten free recipes I have to do a few weeks of recipe testing to get the same results I remember from the glutinous versions of whatever baked goods I am attempting to recreate. I tend to feel a little bit like Frankenstein with a whisk instead of a scalpel. In this instance, I was truly fortunate in that translating the cookies I remembered from my childhood into a gluten free form I could safely enjoy was actually pretty easy. Interested in learning how to make these simple and absolutely delicious cookies? Read on!
Ingredients Are Key
Ingredients can truly make a difference in the outcome of your food. Strawberries from your garden often taste better than store bought–not just because they are fresh and in season, but because you control the quality of the product. You decide on every contributing factor, from the soil it’s grown into to the use of pesticides. It all makes a difference in the taste. Baking is no different. Quality ingredients, the timing of when they are added, and even something as simple as choosing butter versus shortening can all impact the end result. Below are some notes on ingredients you will need for this recipe as well as some of the reasoning behind those choices.
- Flour: I typically use one of two pre-mixed flour blends that can be bought at your local grocery store. For specialty items I will often mix my own flour blend based on the needs of that particular item– but in the case of cookies? A store bought flour will do just fine. I recommend either King Arthur’s or Namaste, each is a 1:1 substitute for wheat flour.
- Eggs: For best results, use room temperature eggs—they mix more smoothly and help create better structure and texture. I highly recommend taking your eggs out of the fridge for at least an hour before baking to allow them to come to room temperature. (Curious why? Check out our full breakdown on the science behind eggs in baking!) If you forget to do this–as I often do– a simple trick is to run the eggs under warm water (not hot) for a minute or so and they should quickly warm up.
- Chocolate Chips: These are chocolate chip cookies. I know you are thinking, “Of course you will need chocolate chips! Duh,” and yes, dear reader, you are correct. But here is my pitch to you on exactly what type of chocolate chips you should buy. Go dark. This cookie is brimming with sugar and will already be incredibly sweet. I love to balance that sweetness with a bit of the astringency (not bitterness) of a good dark chocolate. It creates a give and take that doesn’t take away from the sweetness of the cookie but gives it depth instead.
- Crisco: You heard it here folks! The baking gods (as well as my Great Grandma Della and my Nana) have spoken and they have deemed crisco the superior fat for baking both pie crust and this particular cookie. The reasoning is this: butter will spread, while crisco will not. Why, you ask? It’s simple really, butter is about 80% fat, 18% water and 1-2% milk solids. Crisco is 100% fat and thus will hold its shape better for the purpose of a picture worthy cookie.
- Vanilla Pudding Mix: This is the secret–turned not so secret thanks to my big mouth– ingredient. Adding the vanilla pudding mix makes the cookies incredibly soft and chewy. This is key for the gluten free version of this cookie because gluten free doughs don’t behave the same as their wheat based counterparts (Want to know why? Check out this article). The texture is typically denser than a wheat based baked good–and devoid of moisture. There are a few tricks to combatting that tendency (here’s looking at you psyllium husk), and one of those is to add pudding mix. This improves the texture by helping to create a more gel -like structure which translates to softer, moister cookies.
Some Tips on Execution
- Pre-measure your ingredients – it makes the whole process smoother and helps avoid overmixing later. It’s also helpful if you are easily distracted. Laying out my ingredients prevents me from making simple mistakes because I got asked a question or my dog decided that was the perfect time to ask for attention and throws her whole body weight on the backs of my knees.
- Slowly spoon in the flour – trust me on this one. It helps prevent a dense dough and gives you better control over the texture. Plus, unless you really like the look of flour on your ensemble, spooning in the flour slowly prevents accidents. Don’t spoon flour and drive folks.
- Let the dough sit for at least 30 minutes – this gives the flour time to fully hydrate, which improves texture and helps everything come together more evenly. This isn’t necessary for all gluten free recipes but there are some specific instances where letting the batter rest will allow it to absorb moisture and prevent gritty or crumbly textures from developing. For cookies you can let them rest for anywhere from 30-60 minutes. I am impatient so I usually shoot for 30 minutes. Be sure to let the batter rest at room temperature, do not refrigerate this will make it harder to scoop them, and if left refrigerated for too long can result in a much crumblier dough.
Chocolate Chip Cookies
Course: Dessert Difficulty: Easy4
servings20
minutes30
12
The ultimate soft and chewy chocolate chip cookie recipe—easy to make, rich in flavor, and perfect every time. So good you won't even know they are gluten free!
Ingredients
10 oz butter flavored crisco
1 cup of brown sugar (packed)
1/2 cup of granulated sugar
5.1 oz of vanilla instant pudding mix (large box)
3 1/3 cups of gluten free flour (I used King Arthur's 1:1)
1/2 tbs of baking soda
1/2 tbs of vanilla
3 room temperature eggs
3 cups of Ghirardelli's 60% cacao dark chocolate chips (20 oz package)
Directions
In a stand mixer, combine the Crisco, brown sugar, granulated sugar, and vanilla pudding mix. Mix on low until combined.
In a separate bowl, whisk together the gluten-free flour and baking soda.
With the mixer on low, slowly spoon in the flour mixture until the dough is just combined. Trust the process here—don’t rush it.
Add the eggs one at a time, mixing on low. For ease, you can crack your eggs into a separate bowl and add the vanilla to that bowl before incorporating. Do not whisk the eggs ahead of time—add them in whole to maintain the proper texture and structure of the dough.
Pause the mixer and take a moment to scrape down the sides of the bowl to make sure you have incorporated all the ingredients, scoop up from the bottom once you have.
Add the chocolate chips and mix until evenly distributed.
Let the dough sit for at least 30 minutes to hydrate. While the dough rests, preheat your oven to 350°F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Note: Do NOT make the mistake I did the first time and refrigerate this dough. Let it rest at room temperature and then bake immediately following the prescribed rest time or you will get some crumbly cookies!
Using a cookie scoop, portion the dough into small balls and place them in even rows on the baking sheet. Lightly spray the bottom of a glass or burger press and gently flatten each cookie. This step is important—gluten-free cookies won’t spread much on their own.
Bake for 13 minutes and enjoy!
One Final Note
- Gluten free baked goods do not have the same shelf like that their gluten containing counterparts do. In order to keep the best possible texture for your cookies I highly recommend that you freeze the baked cookies that don't get eaten immediately. They are easy to reheat and won't go stale as quickly.