Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies- GF Or Not!

 

 

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These Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies just might become your new favorite!

I converted this recipe to gluten free, but it can be made with “regular” flour if you don’t have an issue with gluten.

The original recipe for these cookies came from a fun recipe blog called Sweet As Sugar Cookies.

 

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I substituted coconut palm sugar for the brown sugar and I reduced the white sugar to only 2 tablespoons.  There is also 15 drops of liquid stevia sweetener (just use alcohol free please, so it’s not bitter).

 

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When you convert a recipe to gluten free flour, many times you will need to make the flavors stronger and to add more moisture.  I added another 1/4 cup of peanut butter and also added peanut butter chips to my final recipe.

 

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I have noticed a lot of peanut butter cookie recipes (not this one), specify to not use a natural style peanut butter because it doesn’t work as well.  I just looked it up on the internet and found this conversation thread on Chow which was unanimous in favor of natural peanut butter vs processed types like Skippy, etc.  Many of the commercial peanut butter products contain added sugar, which makes no sense to me.  I used Wild Harvest Organic Peanut Butter that I bought at Albertsons.  It has no sugar, salt, or added ingredients.

 

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My previously posted Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies are naturally gluten free.  I need to make them again with some or all coconut palm sugar so they would be a little healthier!

I shared this recipe with Gluten Free Wednesdays at The Gluten Free Homemaker, Real Food Wednesday at Kelly The Kitchen Kop, Allergy Free Wednesdays at The Tasty Alternative, Full Plate Thursday at Miz Helen’s Country Cottage, Pennywise Platter Thursday at The Nourishing Gourmet, Foodie Friday at Rattlebridge Farm

 

 

 

 

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Chocolate Espresso Snowballs- GF Or Not!

 

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This Chocolate Espresso Snowball cookie recipe has more pecans in it than it does flour- so they are healthy, right?

 

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Hmm. . .  maybe not so much!  It does only have 1/2 cup of sugar for 3 dozen cookies, but then they get rolled in powdered sugar after they are baked.  I think they have the perfect amount of sweetness in them because you can clearly taste the chocolate and the pecans.  Sometimes when cookies are too sweet it masks the flavors.

 

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This recipe originally came from Food and Wine Magazine’s  December 2011 issue.  I traded the all purpose flour for gluten free flour mix and also added 3/4 of a teaspoon of xanthan gum.  When I convert a cookie recipe to gluten free, I try to only add xanthan gum if I think the dough will need help in staying together when it is baked.

 

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The only other changes to the original recipe were that I added 1/4 of a teaspoon more salt (I hardly ever add more salt to a recipe!) and I added more instant espresso powder.  The espresso flavor is still not dominant at all, it is just in the background.

 

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I do really like these cookies and I am happy to add them to my chocolate cookie collection for the holidays, or anytime.

I shared this recipe with Slightly Indulgent Tuesday at Simply Sugar and Gluten Free, Fat Tuesday at Real Food Forager, The Hearth and Soul Hop at 21st Century Housewife, Gluten Free Wednesdays at The Gluten Free Homemaker, Allergy Free Wednesdays at The Tasty Alternative, Real Food Wednesday at Kelly The Kitchen Kop, Full Plate Thursday at Miz Helens Country Cottage, Pennywise Platter Thursday at The Nourishing Gourmet, Foodie Friday at Rattlebridge Farm

Here are some other chocolate cookie recipes that I have posted previously:

 

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Chocolate Chiffon Cookies

 

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Chocolate Mint Cookies

 

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Chocolate Sambuca Cookies

 

 

 

 

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Macadamia and Dried Cherry Cookies- Gluten Free Or Not!

 

 

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This Macadamia and Dried Cherry Cookie recipe tastes great and isn’t too sweet.  The original recipe was from Cooking Light Magazine back in December of 2009.  I converted their recipe to gluten free, reduced the amount of sugar, used coconut sugar in place of the light brown sugar and used dried tart cherries in place of dried cranberries.

 

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I liked Cooking Light’s concept of grinding the macadamia nuts up in your food processor to make a nut butter to use in these cookies.  The cookies are incredible if you eat one (or two!) while they are still warm from the oven- the cookie itself is soft and so are the dried cherry pieces.  I thought that these cookies would turn out a little bit heavy because of the macadamia butter, but they seem very light.

I substituted coconut sugar for the brown sugar because it has a much lower glycemic index rating and will not affect your body as much as regular sugar.Coconut palm sugar is 35 on the glycemic scale and white sugar is 80!

I bought Coconut Secret brand coconut palm sugar at my local health food store and thought it had a slight burnt taste.  I ordered Madhava brand from Amazon and found it to have a better flavor.  The price was great too (this is packaged as a 6 pack)

The dough turned out pretty sticky because I added a couple of teaspoons of water.  Sometimes gluten free cookie dough gets extra dry because of the rice flour, so I add just a little bit of water.  Cooking Light advised refrigerating the dough for 10 minutes but I found that you can refrigerate it for several hours and it is even easier to handle.

 

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I baked these cookies in my Cuisinart “toaster oven” in the garage because the house is already heating up as we head into summer this year.  There are positives and negatives about my baking in the little oven in the garage.  The positives are- the house doesn’t get hot, so I can bake all year long; it uses a lot less electricity and it also is much more efficient at achieving and holding the desired temperature.  The negatives are- you are running back and forth a lot because the oven is in the garage and also because it only holds the one pan which is 12″ x 12″.  I baked 16 of these cookies at a time on my pan, but if it was a cookie that spread out, you could only bake 9 at a time.  You also have to make sure that you set a timer inside the house for whatever you are doing in the garage because it’s easy to get busy doing something else and forget about it.  “Out of sight, out of mind”  It’s very true in this case!

I shared this recipe with Slightly Indulgent Tuesday at Simply Sugar and Gluten Free, The Hearth and Soul Hop at 21st Century Housewife, Fat Tuesday at Real Food Forager, Gluten Free Wednesdays at The Gluten Free Homemaker, Allergy Free Wednesdays at The Tasty Alternative, Real Food Wednesday at Kelly The Kitchen Kop, Full Plate Thursday at Miz Helens Country Cottage, Pennywise Platter Thursday at The Nourishing Gourmet, Foodie Friday at Rattlebridge Farm

 

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If you love macadamia nuts, here is another cookie recipe that I posted previously:

 

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Butterscotch Macadamia Nut Cookies

 

 

 

 

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Green Bean Salad with Bacon and Pineapple

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  Green Bean Salad with Bacon and Pineapple is a fun salad for lunch or dinner.  It would be great to take to a picnic or potluck.     I made this salad with fresh pineapple, but you could use canned if you didn’t have any fresh.  Other fun additions could be red bell pepper…

Amaretto Apple Pancakes- Gluten Free Or Not!

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  These Amaretto Apple Pancakes taste amazing!  I gave them just enough Amaretto for flavor, but they are not too sweet.  There are two kinds of apple in this recipe- applesauce for moisture and little pieces of dried apple for texture and flavor. My mind just started wandering as I was writing this- to an Amaretto…

20% OFF SALE in my Etsy shop to Celebrate the Completion of my Radiation Treatments!

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  I just had my final radiation treatment for breast cancer on Thursday and I decided to have a celebration sale in my Etsy shop!     All of the jewelry in my shop is 20% off, even my new Breast Cancer Awareness Collection. I will be donating $5.00 for each piece of jewelry that sells…