Tag Archives: Healthier Cookies

Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Shortbread Cookies

Shortbread cookies that melt in your mouth are one of my favorites! My other favorite is, like many people, chocolate chip! This cookie recipe combines the best of both to bring you a Chocolate Chip Shortbread Cookie!

This cookie uses just superfine rice flour for the delicate texture and flavor that you want in a shortbread cookie without using the traditional wheat flour. AND it is more heart healthy but with all the flavor because I used half ghee and half olive oil for the fat. It works beautifully in this cookie! This recipe also uses pure organic cane sugar, and there is only a half a teaspoon in each cookie. This batch makes two dozen delicious shortbread cookies that are perfectly sweetened with sugar and the sweetness of the rice flour.

Let’s bake these beauties!

Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Shortbread Cookies

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Lay out two parchment lined cookie sheets.

Ingredients:

1/4 Cup of Ghee

1/4 Cup of Olive Oil

2 Eggs

1 Teaspoon of Vanilla

1/4 Cup of Cane Sugar

1 1/4 Cups of Superfine Rice Flour (I use Authentic Foods brand, regular rice flour is coarser and will give a different result)

1 1/2 Teaspoons of Baking Soda

1/4 Teaspoon of Salt

1 Teaspoon of Apple Cider Vinegar

1/2 Cup of Chocolate Chips (I used Enjoy Life)

Directions:

In a stand mixer, or you can use a bowl with electric beaters, mix your ghee, olive oil and sugar until creamy and light in color like an egg yolk. This will take one to three minutes, longer if you are using a hand mixer. Add the eggs one at a time beating until incorporated. Add the vanilla extract and blend. In a small bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients, the rice flour, baking soda and salt. Add the dry ingredients to your wet and mix until incorporated completely. Add the teaspoon of apple cider vinegar and mix. Finally, stir in the chocolate chips.

Scoop the cookie dough by the tablespoon onto two cookie sheets evenly spaced. I like to use a cookie scoop for this. Flatten by half with your fingertips. Bake in your preheated oven for 10 to 12 minutes. The cookies will be set, but they will not brown. They will be the pale color of shortbread.

Remove from the oven and cool for 5 minutes on the cookie sheet.

Enjoy! These also freeze beautifully!

Mint Chocolate Chunk Cookies – Gluten Free and Dairy Free

Mint Chocolate Chunk Cookies – Gluten and Dairy Free

Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies are so good! In this recipe I used brown rice flour and maple sugar, and the flavor is so delicious with a lovely crumbly cookie texture.

Spring is here, although in Northern Michigan it is a bit sketchy at times, we have had some beautiful warm days, and I do find that the spring flowers blooms like daffodils and hyacinths last a very long time in the cooler climate. This is my first spring in many years up north, and having moved from Maryland last May, in my adult experience the spring flowers faded fast in the heat. That’s a big plus here, but my favorite time in spring is when the lilacs start blooming the end of May! Can’t wait for that!

This month is the anniversary of my 7th year writing this blog, and I hope the recipes and healthy living tips have been an inspiration to you! Leave me comments. I love to hear from you!

If you are with me on your digestive healing journey, you will see that my recipes have evolved from being completely grain free to including some gluten free grains and flours in my baking and recipes. I have healed so much and am enjoying a much larger variety of healthy food, including some aged cheese and healthy grains. Don’t worry if you aren’t eating them, I still have plenty of recipes that don’t include them and will continue to blog those as well and more healthy living tips. Inspiring you with veggies is a passion of mine, and baking is my guilty pleasure, so I try to make versions of cookies and treats that are healthier and also delicious!

Here’s my newest cookie recipe that I think you will love! If you have never baked Mint Chocolate Chip Chunk Cookies, you are in for a lovely surprise!

Mint Chocolate Chunk Cookies – Gluten and Dairy Free

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.

Ingredients:

1 Cup of Brown Rice Flour

1/4 Cup of Organic Shortening

1/4 Cup of Olive Oil

1/4 Cup of Maple Sugar

1 Egg

1/2 Teaspoon of Vanilla Extract

1/4 Teaspoon of Baking Soda

1/4 Teaspoon of Salt

1/3 Cup of Chopped Mint Dark Chocolate Bar (I used Endangered Species Forest Mint & Dark)

Directions:

In a medium mixing bowl, beat together the shortening, olive oil and maple sugar until creamy, about 1 minute. Add the egg and vanilla and beat. In a separate small bowl, mix together the brown rice flour, baking soda and salt. Add it to your egg mixture and beat it in with an electric hand held mixer. Fold in the chopped mint chocolate bar until evenly distributed reserving a bit to press into the tops.

On two parchment lined cookie sheets, drop the cookies two inches apart with a tablespoon cookie scoop or equivalent. With damp fingertips, flatten each cookie.

Bake in your preheated oven for 12 minutes until lightly browned. Cool.

Happy healthy baking!

Makes approximately 15 cookies.

Matcha Green Tea Cookies

These gently sweetened matcha green tea cookies are a biscuit cookie delight!

They are melt in your mouth goodness with the delightful taste of matcha green tea and maple sugar and the chewy caramel flavor of chopped turkish apricots. A tiny bit of cardamom gives them an exotic twist that you will love. If you have never had cardamom in a cookie, you are in for a wonderful surprise. It’s so good in cookies! You will love these healthier cookies made with a gluten free flour blend that are not overly sweet and are dairy free! I used olive oil, the newest healthier baking trend that I have been making recipes with for a while.

My daughter tasted her first one of these cookies and said they were so buttery. They taste buttery, but in fact it is a generous amount of healthy olive oil that is the secret!

These cookies are easy to shape to into fun little rectangles by patting them out into a slab and cutting and separating them.

Let’s bake cookies!

Matcha Green Tea Cookies

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 Cup of Gluten Free Flour Blend. I used King Arthur Measure for Measure in this recipe. A different blend has not been tested and may give slightly different results.

1/2 Cup of Olive Oil

2 Large Eggs

1/4 Cup of Maple Sugar (I use this brand)

1/3 Cup of Dried Turkish Apricots (finely diced) I get a lot of my dried fruit and nuts from nuts.com. I used organic and they are certified gluten free)

1 Teaspoon of Matcha Green Tea (I drink matcha every morning for energy, clarity and a metabolism boost!)

1 Teaspoon of Baking Soda

1/4 Teaspoon of Salt

1/4 Teaspoon of Ground Cardamom

Directions:

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, matcha and cardamom.

It another medium bowl beat your eggs, maple sugar, and olive oil with an electric mixer until it’s a creamy yellow – for about one minute.

Make a well in your flour mixture, and pour the beaten egg mixture into the flour bowl. Beat with your electric mixer until well incorporated. Fold in your chopped apricots. They dough will be stiff.

On a parchment lined baking sheet, dump out your cookie dough. Place another piece of parchment on top and pat and roll the dough out into a rectangle that is approximately 10 by 8 inches. You want the dough to be on the thick side so you get a nice puffy cookie, so make sure it’s about 1 inch thick. Remove the parchment and straighten the edges into a uniform shape with your hands.

With a large, sharp knife, cut the cookies into three rows long ways, six even cuts on the short side for 18 cookies total. You may need to add a little extra gluten free flour to the edge of your knife as you cut to prevent sticking.

With an offset spatula, separate the cookies about 2 inches apart onto the baking sheet.

Bake in your preheated oven for 15 minutes. The cookies will be slightly brown but still nice and green. Cool completely on the baking sheet.

These are a fun healthy cookie for St. Patrick’s Day!

Gluten Free Cinnamon Honey Cookies

These cakey cookies have warming cinnamon and honey in them with a drizzle of dark chocolate on top! The cookies are just sweet enough and made healthier with less sugar in the form of honey. Half the fat used is olive oil.

These are made with gluten free brown rice flour only which gives the cookie a cakey texture.

This recipe will make a batch of 14 cookies. Let’s bake healthier cookies!

Gluten Free Cinnamon Honey Cookies

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Ingredients:

1/3 Cup of Honey

2 Tablespoons of Ghee

2 Tablespoons of Good Olive Oil

1 Egg

1 Cup of Brown Rice Flour

1 Teaspoon of Ground Cinnamon

1/2 Teaspoon of Vanilla Extract

1/4 Teaspoon of Salt

1/4 Teaspoon of Baking Soda

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1/4 Cup of Dark Chocolate Chips for drizzling on top

Directions:

In a medium bowl with an electric hand mixer, mix together the honey, ghee and olive oil until creamy. Add the egg and vanilla extract. Mix again until incorporated.

Sift together the brown rice flour, cinnamon, salt and baking soda, then add it to the honey mixture. Blend with the mixer on medium speed until thoroughly blended, about one minute.

With a tablespoon cookie scoop, scoop the cookies onto two parchment lined cookie sheets spaced two inches apart. Flatten the cookies slightly with the tips of your fingers.

Bake for ten minutes in your preheated oven. Remove the cookies from the oven and cool on the cookie sheet for a half an hour. In a double boiler, melt 1/4 cup of dark chocolate. Alternately, you can use a microwave by microwaving on high, stirring every ten seconds until just melted. If you take it too far, the chocolate will seize and not drizzle.

When the chocolate is melted, using a fork, scoop up some of the chocolate and drizzle it evenly over all the cookies. Let set until the chocolate dries. Store the cookies covered up to 3 days at room temperature. They also freeze very well.