Recipe: Nutella Cookies (Perfect blend of Crunchy Edges and Chewy Centers!)

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And you thought people who switched to gluten-free diets lost weight.

Not if these cookies have anything to say about it!

Say goodbye to crunchy, crumbly gluten-free cookies! These turned out perfectly! With a just-crispy perimeter and a soft center, I’d say these cookies managed to reach the pinnacle of cookie texture. Taste-wise, they were a little too sweet for my taste (although still delicious). I think I’ll experiment with a salt complement the next time around (perhaps pieces of salted caramel?). Regardless, these were excellent and restored my waning faith in the potential of gluten-free cookies. Enjoy!

To make the flour:

Karina’s Basic Flour Mix (http://glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.com/2007/01/cooking-baking-gluten-free-tips-for.html)

1 cup Potato Starch

1 cup Sorghum Flour

1/2 cup Almond Flour

Nutella Cookie Recipe (Gluten-Free on a Shoestring: http://glutenfreeonashoestring.com/nutella-cookies/)

**A note about Gluten Free on a Shoestring: The recipes on this site always call for “High Quality All Purpose Gluten-Free Flour.” Well, the secret to wonderful gluten-free baked goods is choosing the right mix of flours, so calling for a generic flour mix can be problematic. Check out my guide to picking the right gluten-free flour mix under the Gluten Free 101: Baking Basics page when you get a chance (Unfinished at the time of posting). It will (eventually) give you the basic information you need to choose the perfect flour mix for cookie recipes, bread recipes, you name it!
By: Nicole @ Gluten-Free on a Shoestring.com
Recipe type: Cookies
Prep time:  5 mins
Cook time:  9 mins
Total time:  14 mins
Thin and chewy gluten-free cookies made with nutella and chocolate
Ingredients
  • 1 cup (140g) high-quality all-purpose gluten-free flour (Karina’s Flour Mix)
  • ½ teaspoon xanthan gum (omit if your blend already contains it)
  • ¼ teaspoon baking soda
  • ⅛ teaspoon kosher salt
  • ¼ cup (50g) granulated sugar
  • ½ cup (109g) packed light brown sugar
  • 2 tablespoons (28g) unsalted butter
  • 4 tablespoons (74g) Nutella hazelnut spread
  • 1 ounce semi-sweet chocolate, roughly chopped
  • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  • 1 extra-large egg at room temperature, lightly beaten
Instructions
  1. Preheat your oven to 325 degrees F. Line rimmed baking sheets with unbleached parchment paper and set them aside.
  2. In a large bowl, place the flour, xanthan gum, baking soda, salt, granulated sugar and brown sugar, and whisk to combine (working out any lumps in the brown sugar). Set the bowl aside.
  3. In a small saucepan over medium-low heat, heat the butter and Nutella until melted and smooth. Remove from the heat and add the chopped chocolate. Mix until the chocolate is melted and the mixture is smooth. Add the vanilla and stir to combine. Pour the Nutella-chocolate mixture into the bowl of dry ingredients, and mix to combine. Add the egg and mix until the cookie dough begins to come together. It will be wet but almost crumbly at first. Knead the dough until it is smooth.
  4. Pull off a piece of cookie dough that is about 1 inch in diameter (about 30g). Roll it tightly into a ball and then flatten it into a disk. Place the dough on the prepared baking sheets. Repeat with the remaining cookie dough, spacing the pieces of dough about 2 inches apart.
  5. Place the baking sheet in the center of the preheated oven and bake, rotating once during baking for 9 minutes or until the cookies have spread and have a cracked appearance on top.
  6. Remove the baking sheet from the oven and allow the cookies to cool until set before removing them from the baking sheet. When they first come out of the oven, the cookies are very fragile, but will firm up quickly.
  7. Freeze any leftover cookies.

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Product Review: Trader Joe’s Gluten-Free Snicker Doodles

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OVERALL SCORE: 5/5

Texture: 5/5

Taste: 5/5

Price: 3.5/5, $3.99

Review:

Behold! Soft and chewy gluten-free cookies! These snicker doodles by Trader Joe’s are a refreshing alternative to ubiquitous “cruchy and crispy” gluten-free cookie varieties. While these crispy alternatives can taste delicious, their texture is perhaps better described as a ‘biscuit’. In fact, gluten-free cookies often reinforce the trauma of becoming an unwilling gluten-free eater by reminding us just how powerful gluten can be when creating soft and chewy textures. These Trader Joe’s Snickerdoodles buck that notion! These chewy drops of gluten-free goodness do a wonderful job of mimicing soft, chewy wheat based cookies while avoiding the common pitfall of tasting “doughy” or undercooked. While they are thicker than a standard flour snickerdoodle, the pleasant surprise of gluten-free softness combined with a spiciness that broaches the limit of snickerdoodle intensity without straying beyond make this product a must have for those with gluten-free sweet teeth. I docked some points on the Price factor for a few reasons: You only receive 12 small cookies for the $4 price tag. Perhaps this would be less of an issue if they weren’t so delicious, but as is you’ll quickly need to run back to Trader Joes for refills after your gluten-free and gluten-eating friends alike devour them in one sitting.