Gluten free chocolate chip cookies - a crispy-edged, chewy-in-the-middle version of that classic cookie. A bit of banana adds a subtle complex flavour and sweetness, and the protein and fiber content get a boost from healthy flours. You'll love having this recipe in your cookie collection. (Skip to recipe.)
Cookies and milk. Milk and cookies. They go together like hugs and kisses . . . sweet and comforting (and sometimes exciting).
When the cookies are these chewy, crispy, chocolatey little morsels, the milk can be any kind, as long as it's frosty cold and in a big glass. And if the cookies are still slightly warm with gooey pockets of melted, oozing chocolate, even better.
These gluten free chocolate chip cookies get devoured by invisible snitching hands in our house. It's hard to keep them in the cookie jar. The centers really do stay nice and chewy and the outsides are crispy and crunchy. If that's how you like your chocolate chip cookies too, you've come to the right place. The banana stands in exceptionally well as an egg replacement, and even though you can't really taste it (my daughter's banana-hating boyfriend couldn't tell there was any banana in there and polished off half a batch of these cookies), it adds a complex, slight caramel flavour to the cookies, the perfect counterpart to the richness of the chocolate and nuts.
We generally tend to like our cookies less sweet, and I did use less sugar than in most typical recipes for chocolate chip cookies. However, when I tried to reduce the amount of sugar any further, they didn't turn out as chewy, so I recommend using the full cup of sugar listed below if you'd like to get that wonderful chewy texture in the centers of the cookies. (After all, cookies are a little indulgence, so they might as well be sweet - just don't overdo it - in other words hide them deep in the freezer amongst the frozen fishing bait, or stash the cookie container at the bottom of the dirty laundry pile, so you won't be as tempted!)
Kitchen Frau Notes: You can't taste the chickpea flour in these cookies, but it does help to increase their protein and fiber content - a little invisible boost of nutrition. You can buy chickpea flour in health food stores, and also in the international section of large supermarkets (like Superstore). It's often used in Indian cooking and can also go by the name of garbanzo bean/chana/besan/gram flour.
Gluten Free Banana Chocolate Chip Cookies
gluten-free, egg-free, dairy-free option, nut-free option
- 1 cup (225gms) butter or non-dairy margarine
- 1 cup sugar (I use natural evaporated cane sugar)
- ½ cup (120ml) mashed overripe banana
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1¼ cups (170gms) brown rice flour
- 1 cup (130gms) chickpea/garbanzo bean flour
- ½ cup (60gms) tapioca starch
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup (175gms) chocolate chips (dairy-free if necessary)
- 1 cup chopped walnuts (for nut-free, substitute with an additional ½ cup chocolate chips)
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease several cookie sheets or line them with parchment paper.
Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Mix in mashed banana and vanilla.
Add brown rice flour, chickpea flour, tapioca starch, and salt. Mix until smooth.
Stir in chocolate chips and walnuts.
Chill the dough for 30 minutes. At this point, the dough can also be put into a smaller bowl, covered tightly with plastic wrap, kept in the refrigerator for up to 5 days, and be baked up as needed.
Roll the dough into 1½-inch (4cm) balls and place, at least 2 inches apart, on prepared cookie sheets. Do not flatten. Bake for 10 to 11 minutes, until brown around the edges, but still soft in the middle.
Allow the cookies to cool in the pan for 5 minutes (this is important, as they are very fragile when hot), then with a spatula, carefully remove them to a cooling rack. They will still be very soft, but the edges will crisp up as they cool. Leave the cookies to firm up at room temperature for 3 to 4 hours before storing them.
*You can also freeze the cookies by placing the rolled balls of cookie dough close together on a lined baking sheet and putting the baking sheet in the freezer. When the cookies are frozen solid, put the frozen cookie dough balls into a heavy duty zip-top freezer bag, remove the air, and seal the bag. Store in the freezer for up to 3 months. Bake from frozen for 1 minute longer than the normal baking time.
Makes 3 dozen cookies.
Guten Appetit!
If you like my recipes, follow me on Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, and Facebook. You’d make my day!
You might also like:
Oma's Ginger Molasses Cookie Knobs
Healthy One Cup Cookies (the cookies that just could give you super powers)
Leave a Reply