I am so excited! Let me start by saying, no one would know this recipe was gluten free.  I have started my GF baking journey for Jeff, and have been surprised at some of my concoctions, they haven’t tasted icky at all. {That is, after my first attempt at making GF peanut butter cookies. Let’s just say that didn’t go over very well. Oh, all right, I’ll tell you about it down below.}My goal has been to make baked goods that didn’t taste yucky or have a textural consistency of grit. Recipes that no one would know or be the wiser that they were GF. In the beginning, I tasted some pretty nasty GF baked goods, so bad, that my nose is crinkled and my taste buds are cringing while I am typing! {Yes, one recipe was mine, and a few not so tasty bought food items.} After my first attempt at my so called peanut butter cookie recipe, I called my sister since she is completely GF. I asked if the nasty after taste I was tasting in my cookie recipe was normal?! She laughed so hard, she fell off the chair while I was talking to her on the phone.{I wish I had Skype then.} Once she got up off the floor, she answered while laughing, “Yes! I know exactly what you are talking about, it’s the nastiest taste you have ever tasted. “Tiffy, did you eat the dough raw, like. you. would. when. we. were. kids?!  What  flours did you use?” I replied, ”Um, well, maybe I did, okay I did! I used bean flours, why?!” She started laughing again! “Tiffy, you are NOT to eat it raw, especially if you are using bean flours. No wonder you are getting that nasty after taste. Don’t use the bean flours!” Even after the cookies were baked they tasted nasty! Hey, I can be honest, I. stunk. it. up! That was my first attempt at baking GF. After that first attempt, I was nervous taking on the whole GF baking concept, but after learning my flours, I am starting to feel adventurous on stepping out and starting to experiment.

 Give me a good challenge and I’m all over it. This has been exciting for me, a new adventure, but means I have to step out of my “Comfort Box” and learn a new way of concocting recipes for Jeff.  I like a good change, I embrace it. I enjoy jumping right in, learning everything there is to know about what ever it is I’m about to do. I have some what of an adventurous side, can you tell?! Now, I’m not the type that goes jumping out of an airplane without a parachute, but I would jump out of an airplane with one! Jeff and I, have had a very blessed life, a life with a few health adventures, but a great one. {I pray that we are given many more years together.} Some where along the way, I’ve had to learn to embrace change and like it and to step out of that “Comfort Box”. After all, I really had no choice with some of our circumstances. I think it’s better to try and have a good attitude about the circumstances that you are given than be miserable.{Trust me, I still struggle with this, but I try.}  After my heart surgery almost nine years ago, I learned that life is extremely short and I better live it to the fullest and step out of my “Comfort Box” every once in a while. I don’t sweat the ticky-tack stuff any more, like locking my keys in the car or leaving Red Box movies on top of my truck and driving away, only to retrace my steps to find them ran over and ruined, yes, all me! There’s no need anymore in my eyes to sweat things like this. When you have faced your husband having cancer and going through treatments, and on a separate occasion been told your husband maybe has two to six months to live, because of a suspected cancerous mass in his liver, and you have died on the operating table while having heart surgery, experienced six miscarriages and again faced cancer with your husband having melanoma, the little ticky-tack things just don’t matter. So, I choose to step out of that “Comfort Box” every now and then. I am finding out the more and more I do so, the easier it gets! So, Gluten Free Baking, I’m going to conquer you!

 Have a Thankful Thursday!

Ingredients
1/2 cup sorghum flour
1/4 cup potato starch
1/4 cup millet flour
1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup 100% pure cocoa
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup salted butter, room temp.
1 large egg, room temp.
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup white morsels {Nestle’ premier white morsels are GF}
1/2 cup semi-sweet morsels {Nestle’ semi-sweet morsels are GF}
1/2 cup dried cranberries {Ocean Spray brand, aka craisins are GF}

Direction
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. In a medium sized bowl, combine flours, salt, baking soda and cocoa, whisk well.
3. In a standing mixer, beat butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
4. Beat in egg.
5. Stir in flour mixture until combined.
6. Stir in  morsels and cranberries.
7. Take about 11/2 teaspoons of dough and roll between your palms into a ball. Place dough balls on a parchment lined baking sheet 2 inches apart. Bake 10 minutes or until center is set. Let cookies set on baking sheet for about 2 minutes before transferring to cooling rack.
Printable Version

Disclaimer: Make sure to check your product labels well for GF labeling, as companies can change their products without notice.

Notes:  The confection setting is used for all our baking. Butter, unless stated is salted, eggs are large sized. If you would like to have white morsels showing on the tops of each of your cookies, right before baking press additional morsels into each dough ball.