Ombre Sugar Cookies

Ombre Sugar Cookies
My regular camera wouldn't capture the color well.
My iPhone did.

I guess I'm on a sugar cookie roll here. First of all, I really, really like the taste of these cookies. They're one of my current favorites. Secondly, I love using color in my baking when I can. I was going to try making another version of my Colorful Sugar Cookies, and then I thought "ombre." I remember seeing some awesome rainbow cookies on Pinterest a while ago, and decided to use a similar layering method, and make them rectangular. Well, as you can see, my cookies aren't quite rectangular, but they are ombre, and they are delicious. I might try making a lemon flavored one next and use yellow gel food color. Now I just need to figure out who to give these to so that I don't eat them all. Story of my life.

Ombre Sugar Cookies

Ingredients:

• 1 cup butter, softened, but cool
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 egg
• 2 1/2 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• gel food color

Instructions:

· Prepare a square baking pan by lightly greasing the bottom and sides of the pan (helps the   paper stick) and then placing a piece of wax or parchment paper in the interior. Crease the corners to make it conform to the iside of the pan.

· Cream butter and sugar.

· Add vanilla and egg. 

· Sift dry ingredients together and add to mixture.  Mix completely, but take care not to over mix.
· Put in one drop of gel food color and mix completely. Remove 1/3 of the dough to the prepared pan and press with fingers/spread with offset spatula unti you have a flat layer.
· Add two more drops of the same gel food color to the remaining dough and mix completely. Remove half of the remaining dough and spread it over the first layer in the pan.
· Add two more drops of the same gel food color to the last third of the dough and mix completely. Spread the last of the dough over the other layers. Place a layer of plastic wrap on the top of the dough so that it touches the dough.
· Refrigerate pan of dough for at least one hour.
· Preheat oven to 325°F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
· Remove pan from the refrigerator, pull dough out using the edges of the paper, and cut dough into four equal strips. Wrap three strips of dough in plastic wrap. You can either refrigerate them if you plan to bake them along with the rest, or you can freeze the strips for baking later.
· Cut the strip of dough into 1/4 inch slices. Place slices about 2 inches apart on prepared baking sheet. Be sure to place them so the pattern shows.
· Bake at 325°F for 12-13 minutes, or until cookies are puffed and set.
· Remove from oven and allow to cool on cookie sheet for 5 minutes before moving to a cooling rack to finish cooling completely.
· Store uneaten cookies in an airtight container or baggie.

Makes about 80 cookies

Crisp Sugar Cookies

Crisp Sugar Cookies with Sprinkles

Crisp Sugar Cookies with Frosting (recipe at the bottom)

Today I was previewing some vocabulary with my kindergarten students. One of the picture cards had these frosted star shaped sugar cookies. They reminded me of these cookies a fellow English teacher made me when I worked at Milwaukie High School in Milwaukie, Oregon. (Yeah, I've been around the teaching block.) On Valentine's Day, I went to my teacher's mailbox and found a heart shaped frosted sugar cookie, wrapped carefully in red cellophane. It made my day. It might have been the best sugar cookie I've ever eaten. I think it was just made from Pillsbury refrigerated sugar cookie dough and frosted with canned frosting, but that simple cookie fed not only my tummy that day, it fed my soul. I can't explain it, but it was significant. Maybe it's just the foodie in me. Maybe it was just what I needed at that moment in my life.
At any rate, I decided this morning, as I sat with my sweet kindergarteners, that I would make some frosted sugar cookies. I've used this cookie recipe before to make Colorful Sugar Cookies, but I didn't want to go to all that trouble if I was only going to frost them. Then I thought I might as well make some with sprinkles because, as I've mentioned recently, I have a huge jar of them burning a hole in my cupboard. 
These cookies don't have to be crisp, but today that's how I baked them. If you want them softer, I'd recommend checking on them at 13 minutes. Once they're puffed and starting to brown on the edges, they're probably going to cool down nice and soft. I really do think this recipe turns out cookies that taste like the Pillsbury refrigerated sugar cookies, which I really like. Like I said, that heart shaped cookie fed my soul. These still do.

Crisp Sugar Cookies with Sprinkles

Ingredients:

• 1 cup butter, softened, but cool
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 egg
• 2 1/2 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/3 cup (or so) rainbow nonpareils 

Instructions:

· Preheat oven to 325°F.

· Cream butter and sugar.

· Add vanilla and egg. 

· Sift dry ingredients together and add to mixture.  Mix completely, but take care not to over mix.
· Divide dough in half and form each half into a log and wrap in parchment or wax paper. Refrigerate dough for at least 1 hour.
· Carefully pour enough nonpareils onto a plate to make a single layer. Cut dough into 1/4 inch slices. Press one side of each circle of dough into the sprinkles and place on a parchment lined cookie sheet, sprinkle side up.
· Fill the pan up, leaving about 1 1/2 inches between cookies. Bake at 325°F for 16-18 minutes, or until cookies are a light golden brown almost all over.
· Remove from oven and allow to cool on cookie sheet for 5 minutes before moving to a cooling rack to finish cooling completely.

Makes about 4-5 dozen cookies

Frosting
Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1 1/4 cups powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 to 2 tablespoons heavy cream
• food coloring

Instructions:
In a mixing bowl, cream the butter. Add powdered sugar and stir to incorporate sugar with the butter. Once incorporated, you can beat until creamy. Add vanilla and 1 1/2 tablespoons of cream. Beat until smooth and spreadable. Add more cream if you want it looser. Add food coloring, mix, and then spread as much as you like onto the cookies. If you like a lot of frosting, you may need to make more than this. Sprinkle with nonpareils, if desired.

Use the edge of a sheet pan to smoosh the dough
in the paper so it's an evenly shaped log.

Gluten Free Waffles with Berries and Whipped Cream

Gluten Free Waffles with Berries and Whipped Cream

After deciding to make some gluten free waffles for breakfast this morning, I had the brainstorm to turn them into something like the Shortcake Biscuits with Warm Berries and Whipped Cream that I love so much. I'd made that a week or so ago and I just cleaned the fridge and washed out the container holding the berries. They still smelled so nice and fruity and wonderful, that I wanted to have them again. WAFFLES would be the perfect vehicle to enjoy the berries and cream again, and these waffles are a little bit healthier than the shortcake biscuits. Well, probably a lot healthier. 
Since discovering Better Batter Gluten Free All Purpose Flour, that's been my go-to gf flour, but for these waffles, Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free All Purpose Flour is better. Bob's GF AP flour has more fiber and protein and it just makes awesome waffles. So that's what I did, and oh, my. I think I've found a new Sunday breakfast favorite. Mmmmm...the warm berries soak into the waffle a little, and the cream adds its sweet creamy dimension to the mix. Very nice. Yes, very nice indeed. I'm also going to consider it a healthy way to enjoy my favorite dessert of Shortcake Biscuits with Berries. Please don't tell me it's not healthy. Let me keep my fantasy. Thanks.

Gluten Free Waffles with Berries and Whipped Cream
  --adapted from Allrecipes.com

Ingredients:

     Waffles:

• 2 cups Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free All Purpose Flour
• 1 tablespoon white sugar
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon xanthan gum powder*
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup low-fat buttermilk
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1/4 cup butter, melted
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

     Topping:

• 4 cups frozen mixed berries (I used a blueberry, blackberry, raspberry mix)
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon cornstarch
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• 2 cups whipped cream
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar (less, if desired)
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Instructions:
Prepare the berries first. 
Place frozen berries in a heavy medium saucepan over medium-high heat. 
Add sugar, cornstarch, and lemon juice; stir.
Cook berries until they start to boil. 
Reduce heat to low and simmer for about 5-6 minutes. Blackberries and raspberries will have fallen apart, but most blueberries will remain whole.
Remove from heat and set aside.
Whip cream, sugar and vanilla until stiff peaks form (I put in a lot of sugar for my whipped cream because the waffles and the berries don't have much sugar. If you don't like your food super sweet, you might want to cut the powdered sugar in half). Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Preheat waffle iron.  
In a medium bowl, whisk together the gf flour, xanthan gum, tablespoon of sugar, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
In a large bowl, beat eggs in large bowl with hand beater until fluffy.  
Beat in buttermilk, milk, butter, oil, and vanilla.  
Beat in dry ingredients just until smooth.
Spray preheated waffle iron with non-stick cooking spray.
Pour mix onto hot waffle iron.  
Cook until golden brown.
Place cooked waffle on a plate, scoop on about 1/2 cup of the berries and about 1/2 cup whipped cream.
Eat and enjoy.

Makes about 8 waffles

*Xanthan gum powder gives gluten-free baked products a more "bready" texture.  I accidentally left out the xanthan gum one time, and the batter was markedly more drippy, and the waffles much crisper.  So, if you want light, crisp waffles, leave out the xanthan gum, which is pretty pricey if you're only an occasional gluten-free baker (e.g. $11.99/8 oz. package).

Cookie Baking Tips

Cream Cheese Chocolate Chunk Cookies w/ Pecans (scroll down for recipe)

Today I'm baking up some Really Chewy Chocolate Chunk Cookies with Pecans. The cream cheese kind. Mmmm....
I've already posted the recipe for these cookies sans pecans, so I'll post it again below with the pecans. I thought, though, that today was also a good day to type out some of the truths about cookie making that I've discovered through the years--some through trial and error, some through my avid Food Network viewing, and some through other sources I can't recall. I'll break it down into "Basics" and "My Preferences," just so the difference is clear.

Basics (not exhaustive and in no particular order):

• Follow the recipe--winging it in baking is never a good idea.
• Use all purpose flour, unless otherwise specified.
• Use a whisk to mix the dry ingredients together when you have to mix them.
• The higher the quality the ingredients, the better the product.
• When the recipe calls for butter to be soft, make sure it's soft--an hour on the counter is best; next best is microwaving a stick of butter at 50% power for about 20 seconds.
• Using all butter creates a flatter, crisper cookie.
• Using all vegetable shortening creates a taller, more tender cookie.
• Using a mix of butter and shortening produces crisp, medium-height, crisp-edged, sort of chewy cookies.
• Using about half cream cheese and half butter creates slightly dense, chewy, stay-fresh-longer cookies.
• After the flour is added, only mix until combined--over mixing can mess up your cookies.
• Refrigerating the dough usually helps make cookies chewier and less flat.
• For fresh baked cookies any time, freeze cookie dough in balls--dough for chocolate chip cookies, dark chocolate cookies, and snickerdoodles freeze well, but peanut butter cookies and oatmeal cookies don't do as well after freezing. Those cookies never quite flatten out enough after freezing.
• You can also keep dough refrigerated in an airtight container for about a week and bake a few at a time. Again, if you won't be baking it all within the week, think about freezing it in balls.
• To freeze dough, after making dough, scoop onto wax paper lined baking sheets, freeze, and the place balls in zip top baggies and store in the freezer.
• If you use a cookie scoop with a spring action, avoid scooping super hard dough--I've messed up too many spring actions trying to unmold hard cookie dough.

Preferences:

• King Arthur Unbleached All Purpose Flour is my flour of choice.
• I like C & H Sugars (white and brown), and Dove Dark Chocolate, even though I have to unwrap them every time I use them.
• A standing mixer makes life so much easier.
• Use parchment paper for easy cleanup and better browning on the bottoms of cookies.
• If you're going to use nuts, toast them in the oven on a baking sheet at 300 degrees Fahrenheit for about 10-15 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes and making sure to keep an eye on them so they don't scorch--this adds another dimension to the flavor.
• I use Airbake pans--my cookie bottoms never burn and when you use this pan that only has a rim on one of the four sides, you can easily slide the cookies on the parchment paper onto the cooling rack to immediately stop the cooking. When you leave the cookies on the hot pan, they continue to bake a little after they're out of the oven. 
• As mentioned above, I usually freeze my chocolate chunk/chip cookie dough in balls. I'm a cookie snob and a freshness snob. Freezing the dough ensures that the cookies I serve and eat are super fresh. I generally only bake what can/will be eaten within 24 hours. Cookies made with cream cheese stay fresh longer for some reason, and cookies that don't have any egg (like shortbread and Swedish Cream Cookies) last a while longer as well. And when I say "a while" I mean I'll keep them around three days before tossing the leftovers. I know, I know--a lot of you out there will think I'm a freak. I'm fine with that. I don't want to waste calories on stale cookies. Ever.

I know there are probably more tips in my head, and I'm certain there are more out there in the world. Please leave a comment if you have some tips of your own so that the rest of us can benefit from your knowledge and experience. Thanks for reading!

Cream Cheese Chocolate Chunk Cookies w/ Pecans
(pictured above)

       --adapted from For Me-For You who in a roundabout way got it from Jacques Torres

Ingredients:

• 2 cups minus 2 Tbsp. cake flour 
• 1 2/3 cups bread flour (I used King Arthur Unbleached All Purpose Flour)
• 1 ¼ tsp. baking soda

• 1 ½ tsp. baking powder

• 1 ½ tsp. coarse salt, such as kosher

• 1 ½ sticks unsalted butter, softened

• 4 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
• 1 ¼ cups packed light brown sugar

• 1 cup plus 2 Tbsp.  granulated sugar

• 2 large eggs
 (room temperature)
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract

• 20 oz. good quality semi sweet chocolate chips/chunks/discs (I used two 9.5 oz bags of Dove Dark Chocolate Promises, unwrapped an chopped into large chunks.)
• 2 cups toasted pecans, chopped

Directions:

Combine flours, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a bowl. Put dry ingredients through a sieve to sift them together. Set aside.

Using a mixer fitted with paddle attachment, cream butter, cream cheese, and sugars until very light and fluffy, about 3 to 5 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Mix in the vanilla. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula as needed. Reduce the mixer speed to low/stir; then add dry ingredients, and mix until just combined. Add the chocolate chips and pecans, and mix briefly to incorporate. Place in an airtight plastic container, and refrigerate for 24 to 36 hours. Once chilled, you can bake or scoop dough balls to freeze for later baking.

When you’re ready to bake, preheat oven to 350°F. Remove the bowl of dough from the refrigerator, and allow it to soften slightly. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a nonstick baking mat.

Now here is where you have to decide what size to make the cookies (unless you made the balls earlier for freezing). I used a medium sized Pampered Chef cookie scoop, which is probably about 3 tablespoons. Bigger is probably better with these cookies. (For Me-For You used a 1/3 measuring cup for hers.) Place scoops onto parchment lined cookie sheets and leave about 2 inches between cookies. Bake cookies for 12-14 minutes or until puffed and browned at the edges. Transfer the baking sheet to a wire rack for 10 minutes, then transfer the cookies onto the rack to cool a bit more. 

Enjoy with a tall glass of cold milk. Mmmm...

Makes about 5 dozen cookies

"Animal" Cookies

Home made frosted "Animal" Cookies

I think these Animal Cookies taste better plain.

I've got this fairly large container of nonpareils burning a hole in my cupboard. I love those things, but it's hard to really work them into many recipes. I tried making some cream wafers with nonpareils, and they were okay. Too flaky, I think. Since I was sort of going for those yummy Mother's Animal cookies, I thought I'd try an animal cookie recipe next. I went to my trusty KingArthurFlour.com and of course they had a recipe because they sell some cute animal cookie cutters. Well, I don't have those, so I used whatever small cutters I have, which ended up being stars, flowers, circles, pigs, and a man and woman. They work, but they're the reason I had to put the quotation marks around the word "Animal" in the title of this recipe.
I don't even know if the vanilla chips and nonpareils on top really work. I prefer these plain, I think. At first I didn't think I really liked them because I'm not a big fan of honey, and you can definitely taste the honey in these. I liked the texture so much, though, that I've kept on eating the plain cookies and they're growing on me. They really do sort of taste like animal crackers to me. They're crisp, well-browned, and buttery. Only just sweet enough, which I like.
I think I might try these again, in a more graham cracker version using some whole wheat Graham flour and with some molasses replacing some of the honey. At least that's my plan. I don't even have time to be making and blogging about these. Seriously. My part-time teaching job is really cutting to my blogging time.

"Animal" Cookies

     --adapted from KingArthurFlour.com

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup butter, softened
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 3 tablespoons honey
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups King Arthur Unbleached All Purpose Flour
• 1 cup finely ground rolled oats*
• 1/2 cup vanilla baking chips (optional)
• 1/4 teaspoon canola oil
• nonpareils (optional)

Instructions:

In a large mixing bowl, beat butter, sugar, honey, salt, baking soda, and vanilla until completely combined.

Add the flour and oats, and mix just until combined. Do not over mix.

Divide the dough into two equal pieces, flatten into disks, and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least one hour.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. 

Turn one piece of the refrigerated dough onto a lightly floured surface. The dough will be very hard, so beat it a little to loosen it up before rolling to to 3/8-inch thickness.

Cut with small cookie cutters and transfer cut dough to parchment lined baking sheet. The cookies don't really spread, so you can fit a lot on one pan; but be sure to leave space for the cookies to bake and brown well, about 1/2 in between cookies, I'd say. Pile scraps of dough up an smoosh into a disk; wrap and refrigerate to make more cookies later.

Bake cookies at 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes, or until light brown on the edges.

remove from oven, and then transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.

If you want them "frosted," place the white baking chips and canola oil in a microwave proof bowl and microwave on high, 30 seconds at a time, stirring in between, until they are almost melted. Then stir until completely melted. Drizzle, spread, or pipe melted chips onto cookies and sprinkle immediately with nonpareils, if desired. Allow melted chips to firm up before eating or serving.

Makes about 150 little cookies

*You can also use oat flour. I took some quick cooking oats and ground them up in my food processor until it was flour-like.

Six Minute Egg on Jimmy John's Bread

Six Minute Egg on Jimmy John's Bread--DElish.

My son Ezra wanted sausage for breakfast. I don't have any. So he asked about bacon. Nope. I really need to go to the store. Then he said he wanted eggs, the kind I chop up onto toast. The six minute egg. I do have lots of eggs, but no wheat bread like I normally use. Ah, but I have Jimmy John's bread in the freezer to use for Ezra's lunches. For those who don't live near a Jimmy John's, it's an amazing sandwich place that's ruined Subway for me. I'll never eat at Subway willingly again. Jimmy John's is waaaaay better AND They sell their day old bread for $0.50 a loaf. I can pick up a delicious freaky fast #6 vegetarian and a loaf of bread for just over $5.00.  Yes, I am a fan of Jimmy John's.
Back to breakfast, though. I decided to just toast the bread in the oven, butter it, and put the six minute egg on. It was perfect, and when I posted this pic on Instagram and Facebook, others said they wanted to "steal" my idea. So now I'm blogging about it because I have a blog and I like to push food and food ideas onto people. So here's the super simple recipe for what I did. Oh, and in the original six minute egg recipe, vinegar is called for. I've forgotten about that, and I didn't use it this morning. I'm not exactly sure of the purpose of the vinegar, but my eggs turned out fine, so I'm leaving it out of this recipe. If you want to see the original recipe, you can go to The Village Cook  or my six minute egg recipe.
Enjoy.


Six Minute Egg on Jimmy John's Bread
     --adapted from The Village Cook 


Ingredients:

• 6-inch section of Jimmy John's bread (or other french roll)
• 1-2 teaspoons butter
• water
• 1-2 eggs 
• more water
• ice
• Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:
Heat oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit. Cut bread lengthwise and place cut side up onto a baking sheet. Place in oven until nice and toasted to your liking (5-8 minutes). When it's browned enough, take it out and butter it. Set aside. (You can also try to toast it up while the egg cooks, but I did it beforehand.)
Bring water to a boil in a heavy saucepan. Carefully place egg/s into boiling water and set timer for 6 minutes. Place cold water and ice in a bowl that will hold the egg/s you're cooking. When timer goes off, remove egg/s with a slotted spoon and place in ice water until they're cool enough to handle. Gently tap the eggs all the way around on a hard surface and then carefully peel the shell from the egg. Rinse off any stray bits of shell, pat dry with a paper towel, and place on the toasted bread. Cut into it and enjoy.

Gluten Free French Rolls

Gluten Free French Rolls

My gluten-limited son told me this week that he's a little tired of the gluten free asiago cheese bagels that I've been feeding him every morning. I just purchased a new 25 pound bag of Better Batter Gluten Free Flour, so it was time to try some new bread recipes. French bread seemed like a pretty good start, so I went to BetterBatter.org and found a French Bread recipe and adapted it to make rolls.
The results are awesome. Every time I make a new bread with this Better Batter flour, I'm amazed at how normal the bread looks. And it tastes good too. I mean, it doesn't taste exactly like wheat flour, but the texture is so close, and the flavor is so mild, that if you're a person who's gone without wheat bread (or suffered through some less-than-ideal substitutes), I'm almost certain that you will be pleased with this bread. My other son who is not gluten-limited even told me these were great.
Another thing I love about the recipes with this flour is that they only call for a single rise, so you're finished with your bread baking in half the time it would take using wheat flour. So there.

DISCLAIMER/WARNING: The "dough" for these rolls is more like a thick batter, but the rolls bake up nicely. They are better if you let them cool all the way before eating them. You can re-heat them, but some of the water evaporates as they cool. They dry out even more and do even better after freezing, believe it or not--but even then, be prepared for a moister texture than wheat bread. Sorry. I think it's just the nature of gluten-free grains. At least that's what I've seen so far.

Gluten Free French Rolls
     --adapted from BetterBatter.org

Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 cups warm water
• 1 package (2 1/4 teaspoons) active dry yeast
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 3 1/2 cups Better Batter Gluten Free Flour
• 2 tablespoons cornmeal (optional)
• Ice cubes

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit.
Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper (or grease it) and sprinkle with the cornmeal. Set aside.
In the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix the water and the yeast. Allow to sit for five minutes to soften the yeast. 
Add the flour and the salt. Beat on low until flour is all wet, and then beat on high for 5 minutes.
Using a 1/3 cup measuring cup, scoop batter and then scrape out with a silicone/rubber spatula, making the dough blobs as round as possible. Space blobs about 1 1/2 inches apart. (I fit only 9 on my pan, but I could have made all 12 on one pan.)
With wet fingers, gently smooth out the rough spots on the dough blobs. They don't have to be perfect, just not jagged. 
Allow to rise for about 35-45 minutes. 
Place in the preheated oven and throw four ice cubes into the bottom of the oven to produce some steam. After 6-7 minutes, put in four more ice cubes and bake for another 11-13 minutes, or until rolls are nicely browned.
Remove from oven and cool rolls on a wire rack.
Makes 12 rolls

Unbaked dough blob sitting there to rise.

Gluten Free Cream Cheese Chocolate Chip Cookies

Gluten Free Cream Cheese Chocolate Chip Cookies

Around Christmas time, I made some gluten free chocolate chip cookies using my new-found Better Batter All Purpose Gluten Free Flour. They tasted okay, but they turned out really flat. I'm not a fan of flat chocolate chip cookies, and neither is my gluten-limited son. A couple of months later, I discovered how cream cheese wonderfully transforms regular chocolate chip cookies into something even more spectacular than they already are by replacing some of the butter in the Jaques Torres chocolate chip cookie recipe with some cream cheese. Yes. It was good. (Click here for that awesome cream cheese version.)
Anyway...I thought I'd see what would happen if I added cream cheese to a regular chocolate chip cookie recipe and then used Better Batter All Purpose Gluten Free Flour to make them gluten free. It worked. My husband's gluten free colleague loved them, but I still had most of the dough balls still in my freezer until this afternoon. Now, in the spirit of full disclosure, I have to tell you, that I'm not sure which chocolate chip cookie recipe I used for this. I think I used a basic Tollhouse Cookie Recipe, but I'm just not sure. If I follow my typical logic and what I remember about making these, then it's the recipe below. I'll have to make these one more time to make sure, but I do believe that if you use the Better Batter and replace half the shortening in your recipe with cream cheese, you'll end up with something delicious.
These cookies, as you can see, are puffy and crackly on top. They are soft and moist, and aside from a slight sandy texture, they don't taste very different from wheat flour cookies. I mean, with all the butter, cream cheese, and sugar, they're bound to taste good, right? Be sure to use the  Better Batter All Purpose Gluten Free Flour, though. It's really the best all-purpose gluten free flour I've found so far.

Gluten Free Cream Cheese Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 4 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 3/4 cup light brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs
• 2 1/2 cups Better Batter All Purpose Gluten Free Flour
• 1 1/2 cups mini chocolate chips

Instructions:
Mix together the butter, cream cheese, and the sugars until combined. 
Mix in baking soda and salt.
Add vanilla and eggs and mix thoroughly.  
Stir in flour just until completely combined.
Stir in chocolate chips.
Refrigerate dough at least 2 hours.  You can also leave the dough in the fridge and bake a few cookies at a time over the course of a week.  OR you can make your cookie dough balls and freeze them.  Just line a cookie sheet with wax paper, place the dough balls on the sheet so they don't touch.  Freeze thoroughly, and then transfer to a zip-top freezer bag.
Preheat oven to 350°F.
With a cookie scoop or spoon, spoon about a rounded tablespoon of dough onto a parchment-lined cookie sheet, leaving about 1 inch between cookies.
Bake at 350°F for 9-11 minutes, or until edges are browned and cookies are puffy.
Let cool on cookie sheet for 3-5 minutes before moving to a cooling rack to cool completely.
Store in an airtight container.

Makes about 5 dozen cookies