Tales from the Stove

Chocolate chip cookies.....

is there a better cookie known to human kind?  If there is I sure don't know it.  Warm from the oven, melty chips, soft yet slightly chewy cookie, maybe with a scattering of nuts....ahhhhhhh.

After reading a zillion links looking for the perfect gluten free, egg free chocolate chip cookie recipe, that didnt have oatmeal or buckwheat both of which my body has declared as enemy soldiers, or coconut or almond flour.  I already have an entire shelf of stuff needed for gluten free cooking, at this point I'm refusing to buy yet another flour.  Last year anything coconut was the superstar, this year it seems to be almond, whatevers.

So, I settled on a recipe, TH sat at the table and read the recipe off to me as I measured and stirred and blended.  Like a silly trusting heart, I loaded my cookie sheet up with a batch of the cookie dough and set the timer and wandered away.  About 2/3 of the time until done, I went into the oven to get a glass of water, and heard an odd "frying" sound coming from the oven.....  Greatly worried, I ripped the oven open to be greeted with this sight.

They had spread and had turned to brown sugar lace around the chewy centers.  Not a bad cookie, just not a chocolate chip cookie of dreams.  Not knowing what else to do, I added more "flour" to the mixture in the bowl.  These did indeed look like a more traditional cookie, but were TERRIBLE!  I refused to eat any of those.

A week went by and I decided to give cookie making a second chance and tried peanut butter cookies.  Holy Cow!  These were terrific!  Peanut buttery, chewy, perfect cookies!

Strange fact about these cookies, is the egg was replaced with unsweetened applesauce.  Yeah, who knew applesauce could make such fabulous cookies!  I'm going to try the applesauce trick with my next batch of chocolate chip cookies. 


I've had the same crashes and burns with gluten free bread.  It all seems to be so hit and miss.  After several major failures, Ive given up trying to modify gluten free breads that are written with verboten ingredients, particularly the incredible edible egg.

This bread looked perfect and smelled heavenly.  The moment the pan was removed from the oven it sank and when I ripped it apart to see what the malfunction was it was gooey and weird inside.  I ripped off a tiny piece of the crust and it tasted great, sigh.

I finally found a few great recipes for vegan gluten free types and made some burger buns.  Holy Edible Bread Batman!

See how puffy and light these are!

Sliced open they are soft and yummy!  These make great sandwiches but even better is that they make perfect.......

                                Toast! 

 Yeah, these sliced into thirds and toasted turn out perfectly crunchy warm and tender insides toast.  Something I haven't enjoyed since last January.  An entire year without perfect toast.  And as someone who ranks toast in their top 5 favorite foods, that has been tough indeed.

Next up is yet another run at trying a loaf of bread.  I've got a few recipes, with my adjustment replacing the xantham gum which my tummy complains mightily about, with psyllium husk.  Yeah, the stuff of many laxative brands.  To understand the why, heres the best video I've found explaining its cooking magic.