Chocolate Cookies

A couple weeks ago I suddenly remembered my first days in my new apartment. The fridge was completely empty except for an oreo cream pie that my room mate's mother had made for us. We feasted on it whenever we were hungry until we managed to go grocery shopping. The memory inspired me to work towards a gluten free oreo cream pie. Unfortunately, my first experiment with oreos did not give me the hard crispy cookie I was hoping for, but it still turned out quite yummy, chewy, very chocolatey, and absolutely delicious when topped with whipped cream.

The following recipe is only slightly adjusted from the original. My thought was to increase the cocoa powder to make them a bit more chocolaty, and cut out a lot of the baking soda and baking powder, so they would rise and bubble less. However, it seems that even a little leavening agent in what I wanted to be a flat cookie was too much. I will try again! But for the mean time, here's a very yummy chocolate cookie recipe:

What you will need:

• 1/4 lb butter
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 2 tablespoons plain yogurt
• 2/3 cup rice flour
• 2/3 cup cocoa powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 1/4 tsp xanthan gum

-Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Grease a cookie sheet.

-Cream the butter and sugar in a medium-size bowl. Add the egg. Mix until light and thick. Add the other ingredients. Beat until thick and creamy. Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto the prepared pan. Press to a 1/4 inch thickness with moistened finger tips (or thinner if you want a thinner cookie as pictured). Bake for approximately 8 minutes, until lightly browned. Transfer the cookie sheet to a rack and let cool completely.

They are just like normal cookies!

Note: When it comes close to taking these out of the oven, watch them closely. It is more difficult to tell when a chocolate cookie is done because they are supposed to be really brown, but it means that if they burn, it's harder to tell. Take them out erring on the early side. Straight out of the oven, they may seem a little moist, but they settle to a normal cookie texture after cooling.

Also, the recipe says that it makes 36 cookies, but this is only if you follow the directions of 1 teaspoon of dough per cookie. That may seem really small, but the cookies do expand a little upon baking, and I have grown fond of eating multiple small cookies at a time, rather than one large one. You can make them a little bigger, but your cookie count will go down, so be prepared.

As far as my oreo development plotting, here are some of my plans: 1. I may remove the baking soda and powder entirely so that the cookies don't poof up. 2. I have heard that adding eggs makes dough stiffer and better for hard cookies. 3. Adding extra flour is also a method for stiffening the dough.

(This recipe was of my own invention, adjusted from the rice-based Chocolate Cookie recipe from Roben Ryberg's "You Won't Believe It's Gluten Free." Corn starch, oat flour, and potato starch based versions of this recipe also exist.)