sweetgreenkitchen

Another snow day and one sick kid, what else can I do, but make cookies!  Ask me any day of the week and I’ll tell you my favorite type of cookie is a soft and chewy oatmeal cookie.  When I haven’t had one in a while, I dream about eating them.  When I was pregnant with Evan and eating no treats whatsoever due to gestational diabetes, oatmeal cookies was the thing that I craved the most and wanted to bake the moment we left the hospital (although, let’s be realistic, I did not bake anything for weeks!).  For me, it has to be a soft and chewy oatmeal cookie, keep your crunchy cookies (sorry mom), I don’t want them.  I’m happy to eat them plain Jane, with chunks of chocolate (of course), even dried cranberries or apricots, walnuts, pecans, pistachios, all yum, but never ever never try to slip me an oatmeal cookie with raisins! I am sorry if you are a raisin fan, but raisins have no place in any oatmeal cookie I’m going to eat!   

Plain Jane Soft and Chewy Gluten Free Oatmeal Cookies with Walnuts

I have made A Lot of oatmeal cookies over the years and really just try to throw oatmeal in most any cookie I make, so I guess pretty much every cookie I make is in some form an oatmeal cookie (except these perfect peanut butter cookies, no oatmeal here and just perfect without it). But, hands down, these right here, these soft and chewy and might I add gluten free oatmeal cookies, are my absolute best most favorite cookie ever! I make these gluten free, but I do give instructions below for adding the gluten back in if that’s your preference. 

Gluten Free Soft and Chewy Oatmeal Cookie Batter with Chocolate, Walnuts & Cranberries, oh my!

I don’t use a pre-mix gluten free flour blend as I find all of them have some ingredients I just don’t want to eat (namely, Xanthan Gum, which does not agree with my tummy), so I made up my own mix with not too many ingredients and nothing weird.  Just a simple mix of brown rice flour, oat flour (make it yourself!), almond flour (you can make this too!) and a little cornstarch, easy peasy. But again, if you want the gluten, see instructions below…

I use coconut oil in place of butter (but butter would work too) and my secret to making cookies extra soft and yummy, wait for it…Neufchatel (that’s just naturally low fat cream cheese). A big spoonful of vanilla, pumps up the flavor and if you’re feeling fancy you can toss in some chopped chocolate, nuts and cranberries or really anything you like (just don’t tell me if what YOU like is raisins!). Now go bake some cookies!   

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