Valentine’s Day

There are two holidays I never go out for dinner: New Year’s Eve and Valentine’s Day. New Year’s Eve is just too crazy and Valentine’s Day is always a disappointment. I’d much rather stay home and cook than try to force a romantic meal at a restaurant that’s overwhelmed by people with unrealistic expectations. Besides, this way I can wear a T-shirt and yoga pants and don’t have to worry about mascara or getting my hair close to my head.

On Valentine’s Day 1989, before I became jaded, Dan and I set out for a romantic dinner. Of course, we didn’t have reservations anywhere, but Dan was keen on the adventure of finding a restaurant that would seat us before midnight. We were living downtown, a block east of the World Trade Center, and since the only place close by was a deli that closed at 6 p.m., we walked up to Little Italy. Like most New York girls, I love to walk. Walking in heels and short skirt in freezing temperatures didn’t faze me―until we had made it down the entire east side of Mulberry Street hearing the same refrain: “Sorry. No reservations, no food.”

I had lost feeling in my thighs, and I had begun to hallucinate. I became Bitchenstein, neck bolts and all.

Dan finally got the ear of a sympathetic maître d’, and we were admitted into his establishment. It was the only time in my life I’ve ever begun a meal with a cup of coffee. We had a rushed dinner of lobster bisque, fettuccine with something and flourless chocolate cake (those who had the foresight to make reservations would need our table shortly), and by the time Dan paid the bill, the feeling in my thighs had returned. As soon as we hit Canal Street, without a word Dan stepped from the curb and hailed a cab. This is why we are still married 21 years later.

I am not averse to reminding Dan of this adventure when I am hungry and Dan wants to wander in search of a meal. The words Little Italy Valentine’s Day reel him in from his peripatetic culinary inclinations and a restaurant is quickly decided upon. Dan is a lot of things, but stupid isn’t one of them.

Chocolate Cupcakes with Chocolate-Mascarpone Frosting
Gluten-free
Makes 12 cupcakes

Mascarpone is creamy rather than tangy, like cream cheese, and I much prefer it to the latter. If you think these cupcakes need a bit more Valentine’s Day excitement, you can top them with chopped roasted hazelnuts, chocolate chips or toasted coconut. If you live on the East Coast, you can walk around outside for a few hours before you eat these. I think you’ll appreciate them even more once you start to thaw out.

Cupcakes
Canola oil spray (if you’re not using baking cups)
1 cup blanched almond flour
⅔ cup GF Classical Blend flour, or your favorite gluten-free flour, sifted
⅓ cup coconut flour
1 scant cup sugar
½ cup good unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted
1 tablespoon instant espresso powder
1½ teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon xanthan gum
½ teaspoon sea salt
2 eggs, room temperature
½ cup unsweetened almond milk
½ cup light coconut milk
⅓ cup canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ teaspoon almond extract

Frosting
1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, softened
½ cup mascarpone, softened
Pinch salt
1 cup confectioners’ sugar, sifted
2 ounces dark chocolate, melted and cooled
2 tablespoons light coconut milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Line baking pan with muffin cups or spray with canola oil.

2. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together flours, sugar, cocoa powder, espresso powder, baking powder, xanthan gum and sea salt. In another large mixing bowl, whisk together eggs, almond and coconut milks, canola oil and vanilla and almond extracts. Stir dry ingredients into wet until well combined.

3. Spoon batter into muffin cups to ¾ full and bake 20-22 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Transfer cupcakes to rack to cool completely, about an hour.

4. For the frosting: Using an electric mixer, beat together butter and mascarpone. Add salt and ½ cup confectioners’ sugar, and then add a tablespoon of light coconut milk. Add the chocolate and beat until combined. Add remaining ½ cup confectioners’ sugar, followed by second tablespoon of coconut milk, beating well to incorporate. Taste and make sure frosting is sweet enough. If you need more confectioners’ sugar, feel free to add it. You’ll also need to add a bit more coconut milk. Add vanilla and beat until fluffy, about 2 minutes.

5. Frost the cupcakes only after they have cooled completely. If you want to add toppings, now’s the time. Serve and refrigerate the leftovers for up to 3 days. And, don’t forget to tell your significant other how much you love him/her.

Scones

The early 90s are a bit of a blur for me. I was working full-time, Max was a baby prone to frequent ear infections alternating with the croup and Dan was working extremely long hours and was home basically to sleep. There was one thing I looked forward to each day: my afternoon scone. My afternoon scone was made by the Grand Marnier Café on Broadway between 55th and 56th streets. It was the size of a softball, and it’s soft, eggy center was filled with sweet, juicy blueberries. The top had a delightful sugar crunch, the shards of which would either fall into my lap or onto whatever manuscript I was working on.

The afternoon scone and the accompanying café au lait would sometimes have to tide me over until lunch the next day. The working-mom thing had me so busy there were many nights when I would get Max to sleep then choose sleep over food. I was kinda goofy during that time, but I was thin. Sigh.

The Grand Marnier Café closed sometime after I moved to Los Angeles. Every time I go back home I pass by that block, hoping maybe it’s been revived. Since I’ve yet to find a decent gluten-free scone, I’ve taken it upon myself to re-create those amazing treats. Since blueberries aren’t in season now and I don’t like raisins, I went with apples. California-grown Fujis are in season now, and they are mouth-watering. They also don’t stain clothing or papers when they manage to elude your mouth. Biting into a sweet, juicy apple-y bit is almost as thrilling as biting into a sweet, juicy blueberry-y bit. Rest assured, when blueberries are in season, blueberry scones will be on the menu.

Apple Scones
Gluten-free
Makes about 12 scones
Adapted from How to Cook Everything Vegetarian by Mark Bittman

I tried to duplicate these as best as I could. They don’t taste exactly like the works of art from the Grand Marnier Café, probably because these are gluten-free. I used a sweet Fuji apple here, but feel free to use whichever kind of apple you like best. With regard to the shapes, I’m a complete spaz and cannot be counted on to cut triangles deftly. So I used a biscuit cutter. If you have a natural talent for triangle cutting, chuck the biscuit cutter and do your worst.

1½ cup GF Classical Blend flour, or your favorite gf flour
1 cup blanched almond flour
2 tablespoons sugar, divided
1 tablespoon baking powder
½ teaspoon xanthan gum
½ teaspoon salt
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
½ cup half-and-half
4 large eggs
1 medium apple, peeled, cored and chopped (about ¾ cup)

1. Preheat oven to 400°F. Line baking sheet with parchment.

2. In a food processor, add flours, 1 tablespoon sugar, baking powder, xantham gum and salt. Add the butter and pulse until the butter resembles small peas and the ingredients are well combined. If you don’t own a food processor (or you just don’t feel like washing the blade and bowl), pour everything into a mixing bowl and work the butter into the dry ingredients using your hands.

3. In a large mixing bowl, vigorously whisk together 3 eggs and the half-and-half. Stir in the dry ingredients. Stir in the chopped apple. Turn the dough out onto a clean, well-floured surface and knead it 10 times, no more. If it’s sticky, add a bit more flour, but not too much. It should be a bit sticky.

4. Shape the dough into a ¾-inch-thick rectangle and either cut shapes with a biscuit cutter or cut triangles with a knife. If you’re using a biscuit cutter, you can shape the dough into a circle, which is what I did. Reshape leftover dough and cut more scones. Repeat until you are out of dough.

5. Beat the remaining egg with 1 tablespoon water and brush the top of each scone with a pastry brush. Sprinkle each scone with the remaining 1 tablespoon of sugar.

6. Bake until the scones are golden brown, about 14 minutes. They will last about 2 days, so get eating!

Liberté, Égalité and Eating Whatever the Heck You Want

For the past 20 or so years, my mother has made a jiggly quiche Lorraine at Christmas—quiche with Swiss cheese and bacon. And, oy, onions. So many onions, in fact, Dan and I took to calling it Christmas onion quiche. I don’t like onions or bacon. Just like when I was a kid, my food dislikes aren’t a factor in my mother’s food preparation. Now that I’m an adult, though, I can refuse to eat stuff I don’t like and not be punished. This is very liberating.

Forcing a child to eat something she doesn’t like is one of my definitions of insanity. Yeah, some people who do this “grew up during the Depression,” and, okay, they teeter on the verge of a cerebral hemorrhage at the thought of wasted food. I think forcing a kid to eat something he doesn’t like is a sick control mechanism, something I recognized at a very early age and swore to myself I’d never engage in.

I always consult Max on menu items. He is a food equal. That said, it’s usually a democratic decision: If the majority of our small family wants something, it finds its way to the dinner table. Dan will eat anything so it’s usually Max and I negotiating on what to eat. If I am preparing something I know he doesn’t like, I warn him in advance, and I certainly don’t expect him (or force him) to eat it. These meals, though, are few and far between. I really try to make mealtimes a calm, joyful experience. Tears and threats have no place at my dinner table.

Being a newly gluten-free gal, I’ve discovered the wondrous world of crustless pies. I figured, if a pie can be delicious without the crust, so can a quiche. Since it’s my recipe, I’ve left out onions and bacon and used spinach and mushrooms instead. Spinach and mushrooms are on Max’s Will Not Eat list, so when Dan and I have this for dinner, Max is forewarned and eats something else. No tears flow, no one is sent to his room as punishment. Sanity rules.


Crustless Spinach-Mushroom Quiche
Gluten-free
Serves 6

This is an easy dinner or brunch dish that will be on your table ready to eat within an hour. I usually make this with a green salad and some oven fries.

I refused to eat Parmesan cheese until about 2001. I was traumatized by the stuff in the green cardboard container that used to sully our dinner table when I was a kid. Please use freshly grated Parmesan when you make this. Also, be aware that this is not a jiggly, custardy quiche. If you want a jiggly quiche (suppressing gag reflex) bake it for less time. And please don’t invite me over when you’re making it this way. Or, if you do, be a pal and forewarn me.

8 ounces baby portobello mushrooms, sliced
1 tablespoon butter
Canola oil spray
1 (15-ounce) container good ricotta cheese
1 (10-ounce) package frozen spinach, thawed and all the water squeezed out
4 large eggs
4 ounces fontina cheese, grated
½ teaspoon sea salt
¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
A pinch ground white pepper
Freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano for topping

1. Sauté mushrooms in 1 tablespoon butter until brown, about 6-7 minutes.

2. Preheat oven to 425°F. Spray a 9-inch glass pie plate with canola oil.

3. In a large mixing bowl, stir together vigorously ricotta, spinach, eggs, fontina, sea salt, nutmeg and white pepper until well combined. I use a fork for this.

4. Pour into prepared pie plate and grate Parmigiano-Reggiano on top. Bake until cooked through, about 20-25 minutes. The quiche will rise in the oven and deflate a bit as it cools. Let rest 5 minutes and serve hot. Leftovers heat up really well—you can even ’wave them with no ill result.

Fruit

In June 2006, two weeks before I was scheduled to have my third pelvic surgery in nine months, I planted a Meyer lemon tree in my backyard. I had been struggling with endometriosis since 2005, and no matter how many times my doctor went in to remove the large, painful growths it produced, they grew back with an even larger, more painful vengeance. I won’t gross you out with the particulars. My female organs were, to quote my doctor, a complete mess. I was sick of getting cut open every three months, and I was sick of being in constant pain. I reluctantly agreed to have the offending organs removed.

I had already made my peace with infertility. After the relative ease of Max’s conception, I was pretty surprised when I couldn’t get pregnant again. I wasn’t interested in any “help” getting pregnant, though. If I couldn’t conceive another child the old-fashioned way, Max would be an only child.

Reluctance to have the surgery had more to do with the uncertainty of a successful outcome than confronting the reality that this body would bear no more children. Would I still be doubled over with pelvic pain? (For a while, yes.) Would I be able to convince the doctor who did the procedure that I’d be just fine without hormone-replacement therapy? (Yes. It turns out I’m quite persuasive even in the wake of general anesthesia.) Would I then have hot flashes that would turn my face and neck red and cause me to sweat rivers? (Thankfully, no.)

I suppose it’s metaphoric that I planted a Meyer lemon sapling with two beautiful lemons waiting to be picked two weeks before I would be rendered unable to bear fruit myself. But, really, I just love to cook with Meyer lemons and couldn’t continue sponging off my friend Kathy, who has a massive Meyer lemon tree in her Pasadena backyard.

After those first two lemons, my tree didn’t produce any fruit until this year. I coaxed her along and told her I wanted a dozen lemons. Every day I’d tell her how beautiful she was what a great job she was doing. Right after Thanksgiving, I harvested 13 gorgeous, juicy lemons from that little tree, and I used each one. My girl is dormant now, resting up for the big job ahead of her: She’s agreed to 14 lemons this year―all to be produced the old-fashioned way.



Meyer Lemon-Ginger Cupcakes with Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting
Gluten-free
Makes a dozen cupcakes

Meyer lemons are a lemon-orange hybrid. That makes them a bit sweeter than a regular lemon, but nowhere near as sweet as an orange. They’re in season from November to May, but if you can’t find them, feel free to use regular lemons.

I use what I call vegan half-and-half in these cupcakes: half light coconut milk, half unsweetened almond milk. If you want to use dairy half-and-half, go ahead. If the spice is too tame for you, add more ginger.

If you want to forgo the frosting and make a vegan muffin, reduce the sugar to ¾ cup and substitute ⅓ cup unsweetened applesauce for the eggs. I’m all about options, yo.

Cupcakes
Canola oil spray (if not using baking cups)
1 cup blanched almond flour
⅔ cup GF Classical Blend flour
⅓ cup coconut flour
1 scant cup sugar
1 heaping teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon xantham gum
½ teaspoon sea salt
2 eggs, room temperature
⅓ cup canola oil
½ cup light coconut milk
½ cup unsweetened almond milk
Juice and grated peel of 1 medium Meyer lemon
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Frosting
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, softened
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed Meyer lemon juice
Pinch sea salt
1½ cups confectioners’ sugar
2 teaspoons light coconut milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 350°. Prepare muffin pan by lining with baking cups or spraying with canola oil.

2. In a medium bowl, whisk together flours, sugar, ginger, baking powder, xantham gum and salt.

3. In a large bowl, whisk together eggs, canola oil, coconut milk, almond milk, lemon juice, grated lemon peel, and vanilla. Stir dry ingredients into wet. Spoon batter into muffin cups to ¾ full and bake 18-20 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Transfer cupcakes to rack to cool completely, about an hour.

4. For the frosting: In a medium mixing bowl, using a hand mixer, beat together cream cheese, butter, lemon juice and salt. Beat in ½ cup confectioners’ sugar and 1 teaspoon coconut milk until combined. Beat in second ½ cup of confectioners’ sugar and the second teaspoon of coconut milk until combined, followed by the last ½ cup of confectioners’ sugar. Taste it. Do you think it’s sweet enough? If you want to add more sugar, go ahead. You’ll probably need to add a bit more coconut milk as well. When all ingredients have been combined, add vanilla and beat until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.

5. Make sure cupcakes have cooled completely before attempting to frost. Trust me on this. When cupcakes have cooled completely, frost and serve. The butter in the frosting will melt, so refrigerate if you’re not serving these right away; same with the leftovers. They’ll keep in the fridge for about 3 days and are quite delicious cold. And for breakfast.

Savory and Sweet

One of my babysitters used to eat potato chips and ice cream. This thoroughly grossed out my nine-year-old self. When I got to be a teenager, I figured she was either PMSing or had perhaps communed with some cannabis before coming over. If I had to take care of my brother, sister and me for any length of time, cannabis might have been my teenage coping mechanism of choice, too.

At a holiday party several years ago, I wandered by a basket of chocolate-covered things that I couldn’t quite make out. Upon closer inspection, I could identify pretzels, but there were other things in the basket that looked kind of weird. I asked Alicia, the hostess, what the basket contained and she told me that accompanying the pretzels were potato chips. I immediately thought of my babysitter. Alicia saw the horrified look on my face and told me a friend of hers made them, and she gently urged me to try one. I did. The potato chips were okay, but those chocolate-covered pretzels won my heart. Chocolate-covered pretzels promptly became my No. 1 favorite snack. Before that I never thought to put savory and sweet together in the same mouthful. Oy, what I was missing!

Dan brought me home some brown sugar and sea salt cookies a while back, and he’s lucky he even got to try one. After he ate it, he said, “These are good, but I bet you could make even better ones.” The cookies he brought home were good, but I thought they needed more salt, so I set out to make saltier, gluten-free ones.

I’ve said before that I’m a late bloomer. This is backed up by my late-life discovery of the greatness of the salty-and-sweet combo. Since my favorite friends are also a fine combination of salty and sweet, it makes sense that my palate would eventually follow. Here’s hoping that some of those people don’t wind up the unwitting recipients of insect DNA. Who knows? When I’m 60, bugs might be what’s for dinner.



Brown Sugar and Sea Salt Cookies
Gluten-free
Makes about 3 dozen cookies

There are two types of almond flour. One is blanched (has the skins removed) and the other, almond meal, is not blanched. Each has its place in baking. For a finer crumb, blanched is better. For more texture, almond meal is good. I read about almond flour on Elana’s Pantry, a great gluten-free blog. I ordered my blanched flour from Benefit Your Life, one of the places she recommends, and so far I’m really digging it.

I started sifting the Classical Blend flour, and I like the results much better than when I don’t sift. I saw Ina Garten sift flour in a really cool way on her show, the Barefoot Contessa, and this is the way I roll now: I pour however much flour I need into a small sieve and shake it back and forth until all the flour is gone. Genius!

1 cup blanched almond flour
⅔ cup GF Classical Blend flour, sifted
⅓ cup coconut flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon xanthan gum
½ teaspoon fine sea salt
2 sticks (½ cup) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1¼ cup brown sugar
¼ cup sugar
2 tablespoons pure maple syrup
2 large eggs, room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 teaspoon coarse sea salt for sprinkling

1. Line baking sheet with parchment (or not). Preheat oven to 375°F.

2. In large bowl, whisk together flours, baking soda, xanthan gum and fine sea salt. In another large bowl, whisk together butter, sugars, maple syrup, eggs and vanilla. Stir dry ingredients into wet until combined. Dough will be loose. You can let it rest for 15 or so minutes if you want.

3. Drop teaspoonfuls of dough onto baking sheet. These are going to spread, so leave enough room between them. Sprinkle each ball of dough with a pinch of coarse sea salt. Bake until golden brown, about 8 minutes. Let rest on baking sheet for 5 minutes then transfer to cooling rack. When completely cooled, store in airtight container for a couple of days.

Not a Foodie

When the year ends, you can always rely on the media for a bevy of top 10 lists. Top 10 movies, books, TV shows, celebrity infidelities, wool hats, you name it. I always read Stephen King’s top 10 books, which appears in Entertainment Weekly, and the New York Times restaurant critic’s top 10 meals. This year it was 11 meals, and the piece was accompanied by photos so I got the full gross-out effect. There was not a single thing on that list I’d eat, not even the one dessert included. Conversely, I can always rely on Uncle Stevie for excellent reading recommendations.

I don’t mean to diss Sam Sifton, the New York Times critic and author of the top 11 meals, or any of the talented chefs whose work he admires. I am clearly in the minority in my aversion to octopus, bone marrow, duck meatloaf, sausages (blood and regular) and mashed potatoes that have been whipped so intensely that they look like a small vat of paint. The New York Times carries a lot of weight. If something is endorsed in its pages, it’s most probably good. That still won’t get me to eat any of the dishes mentioned. I’m just not a foodie.

Webster’s Eleventh defines foodie as: a person having an avid interest in the latest food fads.

When anyone calls me a foodie, I smile and accept what that person intends as a compliment. I don’t refer the person to the dictionary or launch into a diatribe of how wrong he or she is. I don’t tell the usually well-intended person that foodies eat all kinds of stuff I would never even consider, and that there is a whole world of cuisine that I probably will not ever attempt to cook (sweetbreads, haggis, tripe, insert your favorite cooked animal organ here). Many foodies wear as a badge of honor the wait times they’ve withstood to get into the newest restaurants. If someone tells me I have to wait longer than 15 minutes to eat, I will bail.

I like to cook because I like to feed people, sure, but I also like to experiment and find new ways of doing things. The scientific approach of developing a recipe is just as exciting to me as nourishing someone I love. In school science was my favorite subject, and that love has stayed with me into adulthood. Since baking is both an art and a science, it’s the perfect endeavor for me. I can feed people while feeding my brain.

When I started this blog almost a year ago, I really wanted to concentrate on baking. I chickened out and mixed baked goods in with real food. This year I intend to go primarily in the baking direction with real (vegetarian and seasonal) food peppered in here and there.

Thanks for joining me on this adventure. Here’s to another year of fun in the kitchen, happy accidents and not being a foodie.




Coconut-Dark Chocolate Breakfast Cake
Gluten-Free
Makes 9 servings

My justification for a chocolate in a breakfast cake: Dark chocolate is less sweet so you can get away with it. I like to chop chocolate for this rather than use chocolate chips because the shavings from the chocolate add a lot of flavor that you just don’t get with chocolate chips. If you don’t want to make a gluten-free cake, sub 2 cups all-purpose flour or whole wheat pastry flour and nix the xanthan gum. I won’t think any less of you.

Canola oil spray
1 cup almond meal
⅔ cup Authentic Foods’ Gluten-Free Classical Blend flour
⅓ cup coconut flour
¾ cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon xanthan gum
½ teaspoon salt
2 eggs
¾ cup light coconut milk
⅓ cup canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
⅓ cup shredded unsweetened coconut plus 1½ tablespoons
2 ounces dark chocolate, chopped, or ½ cup dark chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350° F. Spray 8x8 baking pan with canola oil.

2. In a large bowl, whisk together almond meal, flours, sugar, baking powder, xanthan gum and salt. In a separate large bowl, whisk together eggs, coconut milk, canola oil and vanilla extract. Stir the dry ingredients into the wet until combined. Stir in ⅓ cup coconut and chocolate.

3. Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Sprinkle remaining 1½ tablespoons coconut over the batter and bake until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean, about 25-30 minutes.

4. Cool in pan and serve warm or at room temperature.

Sensitive

I am a sensitive person. This is something I accept, but I am not so sensitive that I cannot stand up in the face of mockery of my sensitivity. Lately, my stomach has also been playing the sensitivity card. It is very hard for me to stand up to my stomach.

For the past four years I’ve been dealing with some health issues. I always look for alternative or natural solutions. Some work, some don’t. In my latest round of nutritional research, one phrase kept coming up over and over: gluten-free. That I was gluten-sensitive or intolerant wasn’t real to me. When I ate bread or pasta I didn’t always feel craptastic afterwards.

My stomach wasn’t even the worst part of it―it was the body pain that I was contending with on a daily basis. In July was diagnosed with fibromyalgia, after two years of feeling like absolute shite. I’ve tried a boatload of things to remedy this, natural and not, none of which was successful.

I decided to go gluten-free and see what happened. I fully expected it to fail; by that I mean I fully expected to experience no change in how I felt. By the end of the first day, I felt better. I actually had a few days of zero body pain. I couldn’t believe it.

Though I am not gluten-intolerant (no celiac disease, which I’m happy about), I know that gluten is not my friend. This realization threw a wrench into my life in a big way, since, you may have noticed, I kinda like to bake. So I began my gluten-free adventure with something easy, and something I knew Dan and Max would be willing to eat: chocolate chip cookies.

Dan and Max were real troopers during the testing, and their input was invaluable. After countless batches, when I couldn’t even bring myself to say “chocolate chip cookie,” they encouraged me to carry on―and happily ate every crumb of every cookie I made.

Whether you’re gluten-sensitive, gluten-intolerant or gluten-happy, I hope you try these. I’m off until after the New Year. I hope you have a wonderful holiday season filled with love, good cheer and tasty things to eat. As we used to say in third grade on the last day of school before Christmas vacation: See you next year!

Chocolate Chip Cookies
Gluten-Free + Vegan
Makes 2-3 dozen cookies, depending on size

Since many people who have issues with gluten also have issues with dairy, these suckahs are vegan. If dairy is your friend, you can sub the same amount of butter. With butter, the baking time is less, about 8-10 minutes.

I tried a bunch of different flour combinations, and the one I think yields the tastiest result is below. Authentic Foods makes GF Classical Blend flour. It consists of extra-finely ground brown rice flour, potato starch and tapioca flour. If you want to mix this up on your own, Annalise Roberts breaks it down in her great book Gluten-Free Baking Classics. She says to use 2 parts brown rice flour, ⅔ part potato starch and ⅓ part tapioca flour. Whenever you use rice flour (white or brown), make sure it’s extra-finely ground or you will get a gritty cookie, muffin, cake. This will not make you any friends. You can also add some nuts (½ cup or so), if you roll that way.

¾ cup almond meal (I like Trader Joe’s)
⅔ cup GF Classical Blend flour
⅓ cup coconut flour (I like Bob’s Red Mill)
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1½ sticks (¾ cup) Earth Balance or other dairy-free margarine, melted and cooled
½ cup sugar
½ cup brown sugar, packed
⅓ cup unsweetened applesauce
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup vegan semisweet chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 375° F. Line baking sheet with parchment. If you don’t want to use parchment, that’s fine. Just don’t grease the baking sheet.

2. In medium bowl, whisk together flours, baking soda and salt. In large bowl, whisk together Earth Balance, sugars, applesauce and vanilla. Stir flour mixture into Earth Balance-sugar mixture until combined. Stir in chocolate chips.

3. Drop teaspoonfuls of dough onto baking sheet. Bake until golden brown, about 12 minutes, depending on size. If cookies are a little puffy, hit the baking sheet against your counter to deflate. Let cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes then transfer to rack. When completely cooled, store in airtight container for up to 3 days, though I doubt they’ll last that long.