I love fresh ground grains and have been rather sad that my old grain mill stopped working. Recently I received a Wonder Mill grain grinder and I am in love with it! It is SO much quieter than my old one and grinds grains like a dream. Our family is trying out the wheat free lifestyle and so I had a hard time figuring out what to grind first. I decided on grinding brown rice to make cookies. I’ve never cooked with alternative grains before, so this was a new adventure for us!
Several members of Marty’s family are trying out the “Wheat Belly” diet and have been telling him about it. So he’s been trying to eliminate wheat from his diet and since I do the majority of the cooking, I felt that I should do some experimenting with alternative to help him out. We’ve decided, as a family, that we would try being wheat free for the next few months.
I was so please to see how well the brown rice was ground in the Wonder Mill. The flour was beautiful and so fine. I couldn’t wait to get busy and create something with it.
So I did a little experimenting and searched my cabinets. I decided to try making cookies first of all. We dubbed them Spicy Chocolate Chip Cookies, and I’ll share the recipe at the end.
I learned a few things about cooking with rice flour in the process that I want to share with you. First of all, rice flour creates a very dry and crumbly cookie. Not anything like the ooey-gooey cookies my family enjoys. The second issue was that the cookies came out a bit gritty. The rice flour cooks up that way, not a big deal unless you have a kid who has problems with food textures (like I do). So, I played around with the recipe and discovered a couple of work arounds for both of the issues.
For the dry and crumbly texture, I found that if you add the cornstarch and some plain gelatin, that the cookies come out soft and cake-like. The perfect ooey-gooey goodness my family likes.
So, I managed to get the cookies softer and less crumbly, now I needed to get rid of the grittiness. I pondered the situation a bit and thought that maybe if you let the dough soak for a while that the liquid in the recipe would soften up the rice flour. I put the dough in the refrigerator for an hour and was thrilled to find that got rid of most of the gritty texture. I would imagine that the longer you let it “soak” in the refrigerator the less gritty the texture.
No that I got those kinks worked out, I grabbed my little baking partner and started whipping up these really yummy cookies!
I started off by using my favorite cookie recipe and made the adjustments needed for the brown rice flour.
Aren’t they pretty! The rice flour cooked up wonderfully and the cookies turned out fantastic.
My little baking helper got his first bite and declared them….
…Delicious! They were such a hit that they were gone in less than 2 days.
Gluten Free Spicy Chocolate Chip Cookies
4 tbsp. boiling water
1 envelope plain gelatin
2 ½ cups brown rice flour (fresh ground or purchased)
1 tsp. corn starch
1 tsp. sea salt
1 tsp. baking powder
½ tbsp. cinnamon
½ cup melted butter
1 ½ cup dark brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
2 cups chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a small bowl, combine the 4 tbsp. boiling water and the envelope of plain gelatin. Let sit until the gelatin is dissolved; about 5 minutes. In a large bowl, combine the brown rice flour, corn starch, sea salt, cinnamon, and baking powder. In a separate bowl, mix together the butter, dark brown sugar, eggs, and vanilla, until mixed through. Pour in the dissolved gelatin and mix well. Pour the sugar/egg mixture into the bowl with the flour and mix well. Place in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour.
Spray the cookie sheet with cooking oil spray. Roll 1-1/2 tbsp. of the mixture into balls and place on the cookie sheet leaving 1 inch around the cookies. Bake for 9 minutes. Remove and allow to cool for about 5 minutes on the cookie sheet then transfer to a rack to cool completely. Store in an airtight container. Makes about 3 dozen cookies.
