Thursday, March 1, 2007

Preparing ahead for Glutenfree cookies

One of the reasons I like the chocolate chip recipe I posted last week is not only the ease of preparing it but also the many ways to prepare ahead. I first made a mix of all the dry ingredients packaged as a cookie mix like you buy in stores. All I had to do was add the wet ingredients and the cookie mix was ready.

Then I discovered it was possible to make up the whole mixture to freeze without altering the texture of the cookies. But once they were baked and frozen the cookies were like fresh when thawed and served.

It is very easy to substitute ingredients in order to accommodate different food allergies. For instance many people have a problem with eggs. The powdered potato product, Egg Replacer, can be used successfully for most baked products. The directions on the package recommend 11/2 tsp for each egg. I found I get a much better result with 1full tablespoon per egg and I/4 cup of water for each egg. A normal egg will usually give ¼ cup liquid per egg. However don’t try to substitute for more than 3 eggs in one recipe because it usually does not yield a good result.

It is also possible to decrease the sugar intake by using brown Splenda or other sugar sources; that is sugar derived from concentrated fruits like, dates, mucadines, or molasses. These are still sugars but since they are so concentrated the amount can be reduced by half and still work well. Many children or adults on the
gfcf diet do have issues with too much sugar.

1 comment:

HJS said...

I made these cookies last night. I was dubious that they would turn out based on the consistency of the batter... but they were delicious once baked and actually had the texture of regular cookies. I used soya flour instead of arrowroot (it was what I had) and decreased the sugar slightly. The only thing I would warn people of is that these cookies spread like crazy! Leave a lot of room between them and only use a small spoonful for each cookie (my first batch became essentially a cookie 'bar').