2014 Local, affordable GF flour: now with toasted brown rice and no gums! Olive Oil, GF Chocolate Chip Cookies with sweet rice flour!

I'm all about using affordable, local ingredients. In the case of GF baking, I'll settle for flour common to my area of the US, because I have three teens and they eat a LOT. Also, my local bulk store, Cash n' Carry, carries 25 lb bags of Pacific rice flour. I'd love to use the Bob's Red Mill flours they carry, but they are contaminated with my nemesis, soy.

I will not pretend I took that well. There may have been lots of childish sulking involved. I'm not proud of it.

I'm stubborn, however, and I persevered. I bought a grain mill like this one:

I bought and roasted beans in bulk (to removed the raw bean flavor), added rice, starch and GF potato flakes and pectin as a binders. I was happy with my mix, and it had a complete protein thanks to the legumes (beans), I felt healthy and energetic with it, and I didn't have to track down anything exotic. It was great...except for the cookies. The texture was all wrong for cookies.

I've quested for delicious chocolate chip cookies for months. I could make it with the exotic (expensive) flour blend, with things I had to order, and they were great. I thought I could do better, and last night I did.

First I made cookies with sweet rice (sticky rice) flour, which is NOT the same as rice flour. For one thing, it's a great binder. I used Mochiko brand, because that's what my store carries in the Asian section. It makes pastry fluffier, and you can find it in Asian stores. You can also buy sticky rice and grind it yourself. Anyway, the cookies were great! I was very happy with them.

 

Olive Oil, GF Chocolate Chip Cookies

Now with sweet rice flour!

3/4 c GF flour mix

3/4 c sweet rice flour

1 c sugar

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

2/3 c Enjoy Life chocolate chips (milk, soy and gluten free)

1/4 c olive oil

2 eggs

1/2 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp chocolate extract (essential to replicate buttery goodness)

1 tbsp nut milk

1 tsp molasses

1. Mix dry stuff. Add wet stuff and stir. Let rest in the fridge at least 90 min to hydrate so the cookies won't be gritty.

2. Scoop into mounds on a greased cookie sheet and bake at 350 F for 10 to 14 minutes, or until golden brown, rotating cookie sheets from top to bottom about half way through.

* * *

Okay, so that was tasty and I was happy, but I thought it would be nice if I could get a bit more nutrition in there, and I wanted to test the brown rice flour and see how it behaved. A cookie shows all of a flaws in a flour, so that was what I made.

I bought minute brown rice (the precooked, dried stuff) and ground it in the grain mill. I then ground raw brown rice and brown rice I toasted in a skillet, and made cookies.

I figured the minute brown rice would be less gritty than the raw rice, and I was concerned the toasted rice would be too strong.

Turns out, both the precooked rice and toasted rice made a less gritty flour. The minute rice tasted okay, but the toasted flour made a super awesome, tasty cookie. So good, I've no desire to test the raw flour, because it can't possibly be as good. I probably will some time, though, since John points out it's not a fair test without.

Also, we were almost out of chocolate, so I threw in some salted peanuts, and we loved it.

 * * *

Olive Oil, GF Chocolate Chip Cookies

Now with toasted brown rice flour!

3/4 c GF flour mix
1/2 c sweet rice flour
1/4 c toasted brown rice flour
1 c sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 c Enjoy Life chocolate chips (milk, soy and gluten free)
1/3 c peanuts
1/4 c olive oil
2 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp chocolate extract (essential to replicate buttery goodness)
1 tbsp nut milk
1 tsp molasses

1. Mix dry stuff. Add wet stuff and stir. Let rest in the fridge at least 90 min to hydrate so the cookies won't be gritty.

2. Scoop into mounds on a greased cookie sheet and bake at 350 F for 10 to 14 minutes, or until golden brown, rotating cookie sheets from top to bottom about half way through.

Flour blend, 2014:

1 c rice flour

1/2 c toasted bean flour

1/2 c cornstarch

1/4 c GF potato flakes

1 tsp pectin

The blend is mild and the toasted bean flour provides protein that helps structure without raw bean flavor. Can't be tasted in the finished product.

The potato flakes make the bread bend, add moisture and make the bread stick together. Unlike the tapioca flour in so many recipes, it's a nice local ingredient, easy to find and inexpensive. I suspect it could be replaced with tapioca flour, butternut squash or sweet potato, but I haven't tested those. The last time I peeled and cubed a butternut, my hands were coated with a very sticky, hard to remove film that probably could be an excellent binder.

Pectin is a binder. You can find it with canning supplies in your local store. It's also good for you, but you can do without it in this recipe.