Craving Cookies

I have been craving a filling bakery style cookie! I can find packaged gluten free cookies at the grocery store and they are good. However, they often lack that fresh home baked flavor that I really needed today. It is time to bake Gluten Free Cowboy Cookies!

I am creating a new garden and recently started receiving regular emails from the Old Farmer’s Almanac and a spectacular cookie caught my eye. Here enters the Old Farmer’s Almanac Cowboy Cookie. But how can the recipe be changed to gluten free? Keep reading to learn how to bake Gluten Free Cowboy Cookies. 

Changing the Cookie to Gluten Free

It turns out only a couple of ingredients need to be changed to bake Gluten Free Cowboy Cookies. If you are celiac, please double check the ingredients that I used. My gluten free diet is to help calm inflammation and arthritis.

Friends, if someone is celiac, cross contamination or the wrong ingredient can make that person sick for longer than my inflammation. Take extra care on any advice on ingredients from your friend and any changes that they would want to make in this recipe. 

Rolled Oats

First, I changed the Old-Fashioned Rolled Oats to Nature’s Path Organic Gluten Free Old-Fashioned Rolled Oats. My local HyVee does have it in their gluten free aisle.

These oats can be found on Amazon – Nature’s Path Oatmeal and the Nature’s Path site as well. 

Flour

The other ingredient that needs to change is the flour. Gluten free flours are more accessible than they used to be. I am experimenting with mixing up my own and also the All In One flours. Recipes that use a home mixed flour or individual flour measurements also need xanthan gum added when baking. All In One flours have already added xanthan gum.

The flour I had on hand was Krusteaz Gluten Free All-Purpose Flour. This flour is one of the mixes that you can change recipes 1-for-1 with wheat flour. That means that you can measure this flour with the same measurement of wheat flour. This is a great starting point if you are just starting to bake gluten free. As you get more experience, you can play more with flours and save some money in the longer term.

This flour can be found on Amazon and on the Krusteaz site. The Krusteaz site will link you to their online retailers. 

Chocolate or White Chocolate Chips

This recipe also calls for variations. You will want to make sure that any chocolate or white chips that you add in the recipe are gluten free. Nestle chips are gluten free except for butterscotch. This information can be found on The GFB and other sites. 

Recipe – Gluten Free Cowboy Cookies

Adapted from the Old Farmer’s Almanac Cowboy Cookies recipe.

Ingredients

2 cups of gluten free old-fashioned rolled oats

2 cups of gluten free 1-for-1 all purpose flour (Note: or your own mix with added xanthan gum)

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

3/4 cup (1-1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

1/4 cup vegetable shortening

1 cup packed light-brown sugar

2/3 cup sugar

2 large eggs, at room temperature

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

1 cup chopped walnuts

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Combine the oats, flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon in a large bowl. Mix well. In a separate bowl, beat the butter, shortening, and sugars with an electric mixer or stand mixer for 2 minutes.

Beat in the eggs, one at a time. Blend in the vanilla.

If you only have a hand mixer: Using a wooden spoon, stir in the dry mixture, about half at a time.

If you have stand mixer: Stir in the dry mixture a spoonful at a time.

At this point, you will need to hand mix in the chocolate ships and walnuts. This is a good time to call in any strong arms that you have in the house or see if you need to give some cookies to a neighbor that helps stir.  Add the chocolate chips and walnuts. Stir until evenly mixed. Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour (or longer; if longer, let sit at room temperature for 10 to 15 minutes before shaping).

After Refrigeration

Lightly butter two large, shiny baking sheets or line them with parchment paper.

Using 1⁄4 cup of dough per cookie, shape the dough into balls and place them on the baking sheet, leaving 2-½ inches in between.

Flatten the balls into 1⁄ 3-inch-thick disks with your fingers.

Baking

Bake one sheet at a time on the center oven rack for 13 to 14 minutes at 350°F., turning the baking sheet 180 degrees midway through the baking time.

When done, the cookies will have browned very lightly and will still look moist beneath the surface. Do not overbake. Cool for 2 to 3 minutes on the baking sheet. Do not worry, they will setup. Transfer to a rack to cool completely. If you are using only one baking sheet, let it cool between batches.

Variations

Cowboy Cookies with Coconut
Add 1 cup of flaked sweetened coconut to the dough along with the chocolate chips.

Bandana Cowboy Cookies
Omit the chocolate chips and substitute 1 cup of white chocolate chips and 1 cup of Craisins. (The white and red suggest a cowboy’s bandana.)

Peanut Butter Cowboy Cookies
Omit the chocolate chips and substitute 2 cups of peanut butter chips. Or, use 1 cup each of peanut butter chips and chocolate chips.

Yield:

Approximately 24 cookies, I had 21.

Time to Eat

Baking cookies made the house smell so good and I got that homemade filling baked cookie that I was looking for. Cookies are a great way to start baking gluten free as they just are not as picky as bread or cakes. Do you want to try to bake up Gluten Free Cowboy Cookies cookies?

Whatever you do, do you!

Not Crazy Nana