I remember the last time we had peanut butter in our house growing up. Sitting on the tiled floor of our kitchen, I held the jar in my hands and I knew that this was something we had to do. Never again could we have any nuts (especially peanut butter) in our home. It was too dangerous, too much of a risk.
This came after a few incidents where my older sister had, by accident, consumed peanuts and had ended up with a severe allergic reaction. Her throat started to close, her breathing would become strained. The few (thankfully, very few) times that I’ve witnessed this, it’s been terrifying.
Unlike my sister, I have no allergies to food (nor to animals). But knowing someone who is deathly allergic to such foods, I am typically more sensitive about this issue.
And there’s a reason why I say typically. Just a few weeks ago, I attended my first gluten-free event. When I first heard that the Big Summer Potluck was going to be a gluten-free weekend, I had a moment of hesitation. Really, how could a weekend without bread or cake or cookies be fun? What the heck were we going to eat?
But as I met people over the course of the weekend, including the talented (and incredibly sweet) blogger, Shauna, of Gluten-Free Girl fame, who have Celiac disease, I thought more about why I was so anti-gf (that’s gluten-free, by the way… not girlfriend). What it comes down to, I realized, is this: there are no other allergies out there, that I’m aware of, at least, that have also become a health craze. And this, I believe, is why it has taken me so long to understand the severity of Celiac disease. Naively, I’ve always looked at eating gluten-free foods as a fad… a form of the Atkins Diet. But it’s funny how your views can change so quickly when you sit down and analyze the thought process behind them. And mine, after the Big Summer Potluck, certainly changed for the better.
I learned a lot over the course of that weekend. About myself, about other people, about the role that food plays in my life and, despite a lot of similarities, how very different that connection is for every one of us.
So, if you’re like me and you’ve always been a bit skeptical of gluten-free cooking, I suggest you try these chocolate chip cookies made with chickpea flour. I can’t begin to tell you how good these are. Trust me, they’ll stump even the most die-hard cookie fan.
Gluten-Free Chocolate Chip Cookies
(adapted from Food.com)
Note: I let the dough chill in the freezer for about 10 minutes before scooping it onto the baking sheet. If you do this, you can wait to preheat your oven until after you’re done mixing the ingredients together.
Ingredients
1/2 cup butter, slightly softened
2 cups brown sugar
2 eggs
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups chickpea flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. Mix butter, sugar, eggs, and vanilla.
3. Mix chickpea flour, salt, soda, and baking powder in a separate bowl.
4. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and mix thoroughly.
5. Stir in chips and nuts.
6. Drop by the tablespoon onto the baking sheet.
7. Bake at 350F for 10-15 minutes. These cookies will have to be a little darker than golden brown so that they will set and hold together. Let cool on the baking sheet for a few minutes before removing. Cool completely on a wire rack.
Your cookies look so nice and chewy. Hard to believe they are gluten free. Will surely give this a try the next time i’m baking cookies.
The cookies look nice, but i am facing a problemwith glutin free stuff that they get very hard quickly.could you plz post other recipes made of corn and rice flour.
Hi! People with gluten intolerance, as well as those with lactose intolerance, should really be glad!(?) Man developed during, say, 6 000 000 years. Our genes developed, as we ate the foods of those days, until food and gene fitted one another perfectly, like two stones grinding on each other. And this process going on for millions of years, until we started to grow grains and milk cows. We had no genes suited for the intake of meals based on grains and milk. New diseases developed. Today we have a spectrum of auto immune diseases, very probably caused by the “normal” and “healthy” food, that we eat daily. If we /try to/ eat like our very early ancestors, we’ll all be healthier and more fit and with fewer allergies. Early mankind never had a reason to handle gluten or lactose! So, you with gluten intolerance, be happy, because in the long run you’ll be healthier without gluten, without flour in your cooking or baking. /LB (surgeon).
WOW! Those look so good! Never thought there can be chickpea flour cookies!
Yes, please! These look fantastic! I have some chickpea flour that I’ve been dying to break out…this is the recipe. Love it!
These look so perfect! Perfect texture and lots If chocolate! Couldn’t imagine anything better!
That’s awesome that these only use chickpea flour. Both my sister and one of my closest friends don’t eaten gluten for sensitivity and celiac respectively, so I’ve done my fair share of gf baking. Some of the best baked goods I’ve had have a blend of flours but those get so expensive. Almond flour too is wonderful. I’m going to send this recipe to both of them
I can’t wait to give these a try. My mom has a gluten intolerance so I’m always on the lookout for good treats to feed her sweet tooth.
I think that I had the same feeling about gluten-free foods until a friend of mine had severe allergies. Kudos to an honest post…and those cookies look fantastic!
Nice. I’ll have to try these. I am celiac and do heaps of baking. I usually just adapt any recipe with all purpose goofy (gluten free) flour. Most of the time it works perfectly well. I haven’t tried chickpea flour, I’ll have to see if I can get it.
Glad I at least get to eat one of them, these were fantastic. Too bad we didn’t have milk at the moment.
We have a friend who must be exceedingly careful with what he eats because of celiac and other issues. However, I, too, have very mixed feelings about everyone else jumping on board. As with most “health” crazes this may be an excuse for companies to make more money and not a real concern with some people’s health. Even if I made things gluten-free, my friend feels safest making and bringing his own food, his wife makes hers, he makes his. He would never ask anyone to make his food for him now because the risks to his life are too great. As individuals we need to investigate matters and really weigh what works best for us and never just jump on board the newest food trend regardless of what it is.
I cannot wait to try this recipe, something I have been craving is great tasting gluten free cookies!
I am assuming that you used Gluten Free chocolate chips too? I have never tried using chick pea flour but I have used the gluten free chips (and honestly prefer them to the regular variety these days). The photographs are beautiful and the cookies really look legit.
Although I’m not sure why, I too have been skeptical of gluten-free cooking. Thanks for shedding light on this important issue though. I will certainly start my GF baking adventures with these cookies. They look amazing!
As someone who got to taste these cookies at Big Summer Potluck, I can vouch for them too!
Glad you clarified your “anti” gluten-free and girl-friend statement
These look stunning, Brian. My neighbor is gluten free – I should totally make these for her.
My eyeballs are so happy looking at all those cookies. MAMA.
Wow, those do look amazing. Even though I have no reason to make anything GF, I have made some items before and I find them to be just as or even more delicious then their gluten-y counterparts.
Thanks for the beautiful photos and recipe!
We just found out that my little cousin has a gluten allergy… I’ll be home this weekend and promised here that we would bake some gluten free sweets… the first on the list? These cookies! Thanks for sharing!
Remember if you are making these for someone else with a sensitivity to gluten that you have to consider what materials you are using. For example, if instead of using parchment paper you decide to spray the pan with Pam, some of those have wheat flour in it and your friend might get sick. Some celiacs are “silent celiacs” and don’t get sick but get gut damage anyway.
Wooden spoons might retain gluten on them from prior use, too. I’m not sure about plastic/silicone. Metal that’s been well-cleaned is probably safest.
Anyone with celiac/gluten sensitivity/etc. is usually thrilled when someone has gone to the trouble to make them a GF treat, as long as it’s truly GF! I cried when I went to my sister’s house and my niece had made me (naturally) GF macaroons!
Yay for gluten free cookies that look so sinful! I try to be mostly gluten free to help with tummy issues. So to see some GF cookies really got me excited!
i nearly fell off my chair laughing at the ‘gluten-free, not girl-friend’ line!!! back to the cookies – my baby sister was diagnosed about 3yrs ago with Celiac and really woke me up to how many people cannot eat gluten. hats off the Big Summer Potluck for making the entire event gluten-free!!
omg! these look so good:) cant wait to try this out.
These look chewy and incredible. I’m not against trying anything once, or twice. And if it’s good, gluten-free or not, I’m hooked for life. These looks like those kind of cookies!
Looks chewy and nice! Most of the South Indian dishes which are rice based are gluten free. When my GF friends came over for dinner, I made dosa and idly for them.
Chickpea flour (besan) and rice flour is used in almost every dish that comes from a Indian household.
As always I love love your clicks.
I didn’t know about gluten-free until very recently! These cookies gf or not gf
looks amazingly good. Chickpea flour is something I use only in savory, mainly to make fritters or soup, this would be something I would love to try.
I think there is an element of ‘fad’ surrounding Gluten Free; some people have found it is the only safe way for them to eat because of a metabolic imbalance and others have taken it on as a way to lose weight…which is pretty crazy actually. In any event, it has started to feel like it’s being force fed to the public at large. I’ll be honest…I would have been irritated to have been required to only prepare gluten free food for an event. I don’t think that is any better choice than refusing to have it.
My friends who must deal with gluten intolerance or celiac disease prefer that they prepare their own foods to insure that all necessary precautions are taken which can be a difficult task in a kitchen that normally is used for baking or cooking without those precautions. They were a bit surprised when I shared the idea of a GF potluck from the whole realm of cooks present and said they would not have eaten any of the foods they did not prepare because of the seriousness of a reaction that could have occurred. I’m wondering about this event…do you think precautions taken were significant enough to not warrant any concern on the part of those actually requiring that their foods be gluten free?
ah, these are the cookies you were telling me about, they look delicious!! Beautiful post [& photos], as always. xo
These cookies look amazing! I’ve never baked with chickpea flour but need to asap and bake these! Torture indeed but no pain, no gain right?
Thanks for sharing my dear…
These look absolutely gorgeous and sinfully delicious. Beautiful post, Brian!
I have no problem with GF anything when it looks as delicious as those chocolate chip cookies you are eating. Chickpea flour! Every day I keep hearing about new substitutes for wheat flour.
Those look fab! I’m actually not a fan of using chickpea flour in my sweet baked goods, preferring to keep the chickpea flour for savory baked goods, but your cookies might change my mind. As someone who bakes gluten free but is NOT gluten free, I’ll tell you that baking gluten free has shifted the way I bake – all for the better. Using alternative flours opens a whole new world of ingredients and soon you’ll find yourself reaching for different flours instinctively.
Wish I could have been there at the BSP2! It sounded wonderful.
I was so sad that I didn’t get a chance to try these at BSP… They were so good that they were gobbled up before I had one! So glad you posted the recipe… I will definitely give them a try!
From what I’ve heard from my GF friends, chickpea flour is THE way to go when it comes to gluten-free baking! You done good, my friend.
I really hate the negative connotation that this health craze has given to gluten-free eating, as if it were something that crazy health freaks do and not something that is required for some so they can be healthy!
Some gluten-free recipes could be really great too. Those cookies look divine.
I definitely know that I’m quite undereducated about the whole gluten-free thing, I was definitely naive to as well. And then a close friend of mine and also my neighbor were diagnosed with Celiac’s Disease. It really makes you put things into perspective – and now I have a tasty treat to offer them the next time I see them =)
Very thoughful and insightful post and oh yes these look terrific!
I haven’t seek chickpea or other bean flours at the store where we buy gluten free flours so I will have to check online. We are always on the look out for good gf recipes, especially for sweets! Looking into cultural cooking opens a whole new world to celiacs cooking. In other countries some of these flours are used for everyday cooking the way we used to use wheat flours. The first time I took a gf/nut free dessert to a potluck at church we had missionaries from South America, iirc, and they were pleased to have a dish that reminded them of home. I learned alot talking to the wife about cooking with these alternate flours!
We too are to the point where we have began taking our own foods for my cleiac daughter when we go places where food is involved. We learned the hard way with my son who has nut allergies that even though people mean well, they don’t often think about the cross contamination from their cooking utensils. Their heart is in the right place but the knowledge is just not there unless you live with an allergy or with someone who has an allergy. And then there are people who havebthat “fad” mentality and don’t take you seriously when you say that you eat gluten free. Veru very frustrating!
My sister has to eat gluten free but I definitely have not tried as much gluten free baking as I’d like. These look wonderful and I think I’ll pick up some chickpea flour so I can try them!
What, WHAT? Gluten-free? But they look so… REAL. Chickpea flour is magic stuff!
These look great! My childminder and a number of her kids and grandkids have coeliac disease; they love when I make baked goods for them. Having googled ‘chickpea flour’ and discovered it is ‘gram flour’ in the UK, which I have bags of for naan bread and other Indian cooking, these are what I’m going to bring her next. Thank you.
The cookies look great, Brian! Inspiring piece to try new flour combinations!
I will also ditto everyone’s comments about being careful about cross contamination, especially if working in a kitchen where glutenicious goods are baked. There are many many things I had to learn about handling food preparation in my kitchen when my husband and I first started cooking together that I would never have thought about otherwise…
This recipe is interesting, I’m really curious why you chose chickpea flour – I generally avoid using any bean flour at a 100% ratio in any GF baking because the flavor is so strong, and try to keep bean flours to no more than 1/3 or 1/2 (if a savory recipe). Did the chickpea taste come through much in the final product? I miss chocolate chip cookies, chocolate chips are a very very precious rare ingredient in my kitchen living in Europe…
Brian, these cookies look crazy good. I have to say I’ve never even had GF cookie, but I did have GF pizza crust and it was GOOOD!!!
I can’t wait to try this recipe. I’m going to be making this for a GF co-worker!
Lovely pictures and the cookies look stunning. I have a friend who is severely anaphylactic. Eggs & Peanuts are her bane. I always make a simple apple crumble whenever she visits
She loves it!
[...] miss these Gluten-Free Chocolate Chip Cookies from A Thought For Food. Brian brought them to the Big Summer Potluck, but they were so amazing that everyone snatched them [...]
These look fabulous!
After a week w/my vegan BFF (still giggling at your GF line;) and her vegan daughter, and a month w/my vegetarian cousin from Italy visiting us…I feel that I will next be exposed to the GF lifestyle and will have to learn to bake something. It’s interesting reading the comments about how dangerous cross-contamination is and reading Jenn’s comment about the ratio you used of chick pea flour. That is mostly what makes me hesitant to try a GF recipe. I think your GF cookies look fabulous and sounds like they were delicious:) (love that photo you posted earlier w/ur mom in Twitter:)
Wow such a straight forward gluten free recipe. I’ve been wanting to try and play with a gluten free cookie recipes for some of my gf friends but I am usually turned off/scared by all the different flours and random products I know little of. This is not a scary recipe; thanks for sharing! I love your shots too, as always. They look so intimate with a hint of bliss and nostalgia.
These look like the perfect little nibblers. And your photos capture me every time!
I’m sad I didn’t go to the big summer potluck. I would of brought my famous gluten-free celery filled with cheese whiz dish. It’s a real winner.
I loved the image of you savoring your last jar of peanut butter…and I loved even more hearing about how you discovered these gluten free goods. I have been meaning to incorporate more gluten free recipes in my blog, and now I have a great recipe to start with. The images look lovely, sweet friend, and your words even sweeter.
Mmmmmmnnn! I loves me some chocolate chip cookies – especially when they are gluten free!
Un otro modo de comer chocolate sin “gluten” es que solamente comer chocolate.
[...] Crudites & hummus Watermelon Chocolate Cake with Strawberry Buttercream (inspired by this) Gluten-free Chocolate Chip Cookies Assorted beers, sparkling water, [...]
Hey! Did you use any xathan gum or did the flour you use already have it?
[...] didn’t want that to stop me from eating cookies! How sad would that be? I came across this recipe, and thought it looked really simple, compared to other gluten-free recipes. I was worried about [...]
I was wondering if I could use a different flour other than chickpea and will they turn out the same? Thanks for the great recipe! (;
i just have to thank you for this recipe! i just tried making these, my cookies are still warm, and they are sooooo good. we will be making some more.
i reduced the sugar by half cup, and i still found them sweet.
I made these cookies with my 12 year old daughter yesterday.(we did use a flax seed egg substitute) I must say that while preparing the batter we had serious doubts because the batter was so thick and so sticky. It was easier to work with once it was chilled however. We were pleasantly surprised with the final product and this recipe has made made daughters final selection list. When we make them again we will reduce the sugar, these are very sweet cookies, we will also reduce the chocolate chips by half a cup as the batter was completely saturated with chips and we still were left with 1/4 cup of chips at the bottom of the bowl after forming the cookies.
Thank you for sharing this recipe.