A Couple Cookie Recipes

[tarnalberry]

I've been on a cookie making binge, and came across a couple of interesting recipes to make, one I converted to gluten free and the other already gluten-free (and vegan).

From Open Original Shared Link, Double Dark Chocolate Pomegranate Cookies

Double Dark Chocolate Pomegranate Cookies

Makes 2-3 dozen

bake at 350 for 9-10 minutes

1/2 Cup (1 stick) Butter--don't use margarine

1/2 Cup Vegetable Shortening--you can substitute more butter or Coconut Shortening here but shortening gives cookies a flaky crisp

3/4 cups White Sugar

3/4 cups Brown Sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp Vanilla

2 cups Flour

3/4 cup Cocoa Powder

1 tsp Baking Soda

3/4 tsp Salt

2 to 2 1/2 cups choc chips--appx 1 bag of chips. (I prefer mixing 1/2 bag of semi-sweet and 1/2 bag of milk chips)

1 cup pomegranate arils (those red seeds. 1 Pomegranate is more than enough)

In a Kitchenaid mixer (or in a bowl with a handmixer) cream together the butter, shortening, 2 sugars, vanilla, and eggs. Beat the mixture on medium-high for a full 3 minutes--this is important. During that time you'll watch the chemistry of the ingredients change into a very creamy mixture.

In a separate bowl mix together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. Combine it with the butter mixture and mix till everything is incorporated.

Then comes my favorite part...

Add the pomegranate arils and chocolate chips. In my opinion, more chips is better than less. So I add about 2 1/2 cups of chips (or 1 bag of chips). And I prefer using a mixture of semi-sweet and milk chips. Dump in the chips and arils and mix briefly to incorporate everything. A few seeds may burst while mixing but that's fine.

Scoop the dough into 15 small balls on an ungreased cookie sheet and bake at 350 for 9-10 minutes (10 mins was perfect in my oven). And you have tasty rich cookies!

Notes: I used coconut oil instead of vegetable shortening, and cooked them a little lower and longer (my oven had been burning cookies) and they turned out half cookie, half brownie consistency, but I think that is ALL GOOD! I also used a 2T measure and ended up with about 4 dozen cookies from this recipe. If I try it again, I'll skip the added chocolate and add more pomegranate seeds. For the flour sub, I used, iirc, 1 cup sweet white sorghum, 1/2 cup millet, and 1/2 cup tapioca.

And, you may have already seen this one, from Open Original Shared Link, Egg Nog Cookies

'Egg' Nog Christmas Cookie Recipe (gluten-free, vegan)

1 1/2 cups of sweet sorghum flour

1/2 cup of organic millet flour

1/2 cup of tapioca flour

1/2 ts. of baking powder

1/2 ts. of baking soda

1/2 ts. of sea salt

2 TB of chia seed meal

1/2 cup of coconut palm sugar (or sucanat)

1/2 ts. of ground cinnamon

1/2 ts. of ground nutmeg

dash of ground cardemon

1/4 cup of unsweetened applesauce (I use homemade)

1/3 cup of room temperature organic coconut oil (or vegan butter)

3/4 cup of So Delicious Coconut Nog (or other vegan nog of choice)

15-20 drops of NuNaturals liquid pure vanilla stevia

Mix all of the dry ingredients together first in a large mixing bowl. Then add the coconut oil, applesauce stevia and nog. Mix well with a spoon and then use your hands to mix really well. The batter will be wet, but let it sit just a minute and it will be more pliable. Then roll out small TB-sized balls and press them down on a cookie sheet. I always use parchment paper to avoid sticking. Then press down the cookies just a touch and sprinkle with some ground nutmeg over each cookie. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 10-12 minutes. Do not over bake, because they will be dry, so stay around 10-12 minutes and they will be perfect. This recipe makes 2-3 dozen cookies depending on how large you make them.

Notes: I pretty much stuck to this recipe, and I've made it twice now. The only sub I made was 1/2 cup unpacked brown sugar instead of the stevia, because I didn't want to use stevia and I really like the taste of brown sugar in my cookies. The first time I made them smaller, but I think I like the 2T measure for scooping, which gave me 30 cookies. I also used Silk's Soy Nog, because that's what I could get at my local Safeway. These are definitely crumbly cookies, but they are still quite moist.

I also made peppermint meringues tonight - still waiting on them, but so fun to make!!