I’m at that age where eating a cookie (or three) over the course of a day is really not working for me. But, I still want a cookie every so often, so I dipped a toe into the dark side by picking up a bag of gluten-free flour.

I know, I know!

I also bought a small bag of gluten-free cookies at work the other day, and son-of-a… Yeah, I felt fine, and I didn’t look stuffed like a pig the next morning. So I guess we all know where this is heading. Ugh.

Ok, fine! I will start to shift over. I’m starting with this recipe I found on the back some other g/f cookie mix bag that was far too expensive for me to buy. I just couldn’t. I hope just buying the flour will get me where I need to go.

(fingers crossed) Here is my first kick at that can.

Auntie Stacey’s Gluten-Free Chocolate Chip Cookies:
Dry:
Flour = 75g
Baking Soda = 1/4 tea
Salt = 1/4 tea
White Sugar = 150g
Brown Sugar = 156g
Chocolate Chips = 30-40g
Chopped Nuts = 30-40g  (opt)

Wet:
Vanilla = 1/4 tea
Butter, soft = 40g
1 med Egg

Yield: 12 mini cookies
Bake at 375*F, 11 mins, on parchment

Update: The butter spread out too much, so I dropped the butter and upped the flour increments so I can refer to this online recipe when I make them again next week. But, as for the rest of the cookies, I can tell you they are soft in the middle while retaining a crunch due to the brown sugar. It’s a lovely chewy experience. And the sugar blend is dead on. The cookies aren’t not too sugary, and nor are they underwhelmingly sweet.

I made these large muffins these other day on a whim. I ended up with four, but if I had split the batter up more, I would have yielded anywhere from 6-10 depending on the muffin tin size I had on-hand to use.

These muffins have an oatmeal mix base, but I assure you, you can’t taste the oats or even detect their texture. What you will think you’re eating instead is a brownie. And you might (should) want to eat it with a fork. The chocolate tends to colour your fingers. In the best possible way, of course. 😀

Tuxedo Muffins:
1/4 C (225g) Muffin Mix (of choice)
1/8 C (110g) Coco Powder
3 Tbsp Instant Espresso Powder *
1 Egg
3 Tbsp Veg Oil
1/2 tea Vanilla Extract
1/4 C White Chocolate Chips (reserve some to top muffins before baking)
1/2 C Chocolate Chips (milk or dark)
Enough Water to moisten the batter enough to scoop into the liners

Whisk all of the dry goods together before dropping in all of the wet ingredients. Fold the wet ingredients in to combine in one go, and then stop. Don’t overmix. Scoop it all into your liners and bake the muffins at 425* for 10-15 mins before dropping the heat down to 350*F for 20 mins. (This timing is for the large muffins)

The muffins are done when the top don’t feel soft and moist anymore. If you want to temp the middle with a probe, they will be fully cooked at around 190-200*F.

I hope you love there coffee cafe muffins as much as I do. I’m in love with them. *swoon*

* If you don’t have instant espresso powder, you can use a mix of 3 tbsp hot water + 2 tbsp Nescafe instant coffee grinds mixed together like a slurry, which is what I did when I made these muffins the other night.

I really need to make these strawberry cream cheese muffins again very soon. So good. *drooling*

How I did it: I made a basic oatmeal muffin using a bag mix, mixed up a cream cheese filling, and sliced up some strawberries.

I added 75% of the sliced strawberries to the batter and used the other 25% to the tops after dropping a big dollop of the cream cheese filling into the top middle spot of each muffin.

I used a skewer to swirl the cream cheese down into the filling a big before covering it up with one or two slices.

Bake as normal according to the muffin mix instructions.