Quinoa Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Granola Cookies - Gluten Free

Forgive me while I try to figure out how on earth to take pictures of food...

Since being diagnosed with celiac disease I have not dared try to make plain old chocolate chip cookies.  I've had the "real thing" for so many years I just know any alternative wouldn't taste good yet!  So, when I had a hankering for some cookies (um, I get that hankering every day) I jumped on Mel's site - as usual - and started looking through options.

I found these cookies that she posted a couple years ago: I remember seeing them then and thinking, "Huh.  Those sound odd.  I wonder if we'd like those."  I filed the recipe in my recipe binder for a couple years but never pulled them out.  Until last month!

My giant bowl of cookie dough.  You can't tell the dried cranberries apart from the chocolate chips, but they're in there.  And those toasted almonds were so good: much better than the untoasted sliced almonds I used last time.

I've tweaked this to be gluten free and give you all the details below.  To be fair, the first one I tried I couldn't decide what to think.  Then I ate five more and decided I really like them.  :)  TJ also loves them and because they're quinoa they're healthy enough to eat several at a time.  Ha!

Oh, and a funny story: I knew I wanted to restock these in the freezer, but I had no clue how much raw quinoa would equate to 1 1/2 cups cooked quinoa.  So I made 1 1/2 cups raw, and found out that quinoa quadruples.  Yes, quadruples.  Thankfully, I only doubled the batch at first and, after pulling out about 117 cookies after six hours, I was so glad I didn't quadruple the cookie recipe too!

One of two cooling racks filled with cookies.

Quinoa Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies - Gluten Free

Yield: makes a good amount of cookies, especially when doubled (depending on the size of your cookies, maybe 3-4 dozen per batch)

Adapted from Mel’s Kitchen Café

INGREDIENTS

• 3/4 cup solid coconut oil, melted
• 3/4 cup (9.5 ounces) honey
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup gluten free flour blend
• 1/2 cup coconut flour
• 1/2 cup almond flour
• 1/2 teaspoon xantham gum
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 cup old fashioned rolled oats
• 1 1/2 cups quick oats
• 1 1/2 cups cooked and cooled quinoa (cooked only in water, not broth)*
• 1/2 cup toasted slivered almonds**
• 1/2 cup dried cranberries
• 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Quick tip: I feel like these cookies have more ingredients than a "typical" recipe.  I've found they're easiest to make when I pull out all my ingredients and have them ready to throw in.  For example, get the almonds toasted before you start making the dough.  

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and either line cookie sheets with parchment paper or silpat liners or lightly grease with cooking spray.
2. In a small bowl, mix together the oats.  Spoon half of the mix into a blender and blend until it's a flour, then put it back into the bowl with the oats.
3. In a large bowl, beat together the oil and honey with an electric mixer.  Quick note: I have to put the honey in the bowl first and then start beating almost as soon as I pour the coconut oil in otherwise it solidifies.  I also add the following ingredients quickly to keep it from getting hard.
4. Add the eggs and vanilla and mix until combined.
5. Stir in the gluten free flour blend, almond flour, coconut flour, salt, and baking soda until just combined and there are some streaks of dry flour remaining.
6. Add the oats, oat flour, quinoa, almonds, cranberries, and chocolate chips and mix by hand gently (so the dough stays as light as possible) until everything seems spread throughout the dough.
7. Place the dough (balls approximately 2-3 tablespoons large) onto the cookie sheet.  Bake for 8-10 minutes until you are seeing edges that are just browned but the middle is still soft.

NOTE: these freeze beautifully.  Just let them cool before bagging.  We love grabbing one (or six) out of the freezer during the day.

*Be gentle when you're measuring and mixing the quinoa: don't smash it.

**I've found that the Diamond brand of nuts (available on Amazon) does not process their products on the same equipment as wheat, so that's what I get.


Recipe adapted from Mel at Mel's Kitchen Cafe: I changed the flours to gluten free, decreased the amount of coconut oil, removed the flaxseed and chia seeds, increased the chocolate chips, and switched the oats to be half blended.