Gluten free double chocolate halloween cookies

Gluten Free Double Chocolate Cookies

1 cup

Bob’s Red Mill 1-1 Gluten Free Flour

1/2 cup

cocoa powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp kosher salt

1/2 cup unsalted butter

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

2/3 cup white chocolate chips or

M&M'S Halloween Candy Corn

Preheat oven to 350˚F and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream butter and sugars. Scrape the bowl to get everything combined and add salt, egg and vanilla. Mix until combined.

In a separate bowl, sift together dry ingredients; flour, cocoa powder and baking soda. Add to stand mixer and mix until everything comes together into a thick dough.

Add white chocolate chips or M&M's and stir until distributed evenly (since the M&M's are quite large, mixing with a stand mixer will break them up. If you want them to remain whole, stir together with a spatula or spoon by hand).

Form dough into small round balls and place on cookie sheets with room to spread. I put 6 balls of dough per tray. Place in oven and bake for 12-15 minutes. Allow to cool before serving.

Ugh. You guys. I'm still sick. I feel like I've been sick for months. It's like a combo allergies, flu, hormones, and medication, so there's no way to really understand how much longer I'll feel so bad. But, I'm seeing my doctor this week so hopefully I get sorted out soon.

Honestly though, the hardest part of being sick is not being able to work. I have all these ideas in my head but my body is like bleh no way man. So today, I'm just pushing on. I'm taking lots of breaks and planning my energy use, so if I have to go to the kitchen, I make sure I have the list of things I need to do and what order to do them. I really wanted to get you these cookies in time for Halloween.

I made two options for you. First is chocolate cookies with white chocolate chips, and second is the candy corn M&M version for a little sweet Halloween fun.

These are really simple and straight forward. No folding or whipping or boiling. They're pretty quick too. I was able to finish a batch in one episode of Gravity Falls.

Start by creaming a stick of softened, unsalted butter with brown and white sugar. Yum. Add an egg, vanilla, and salt. The reason I'm having you add the salt here and not with the dry ingredients is because I'm having you use kosher salt, which will be too big to run through a sifter. Just toss it in here and continue mixing, and it will distribute fine.

Then, in a large bowl, you want to evenly distribute the dry ingredients before putting everything together. Make sure you run this through a sifter as cocoa powder likes to ball up. This will break it up and make sure you get even cocoa throughout. Add to your stand mixer ingredients and mix until everything combines into a nice, smooth and thick dough.

Here is where you can either make them everyday cookies, or Halloween cookies. If you're going for straight up cookie time, add your white chocolate chips and let your stand mixer spread them throughout the dough. If you want to go for Halloween magic, you can either mix in the M&M's by hand or let the mixer do it. If you go with the mixer, the paddle will end up smashing up the candy a bit. This is good if you want smaller candy bits throughout, but if you want whole pieces, go with the by-hand method. It's really not better or worse, it just depends on what you want. Personally, I like to have them smashed up, but I have a few candies to stick into the top of the dough when they're ready for the oven so they come out looking all posh.

Posh is a fun word. So is bespoke. And short-shorts.

My method for filling the cookie sheet involves this fun little tool, an ice cream scoop. My husband got it for me after researching what bakers generally agree is the "correct" cookie size. It's a #40, purple handled ice cream disher. It will scoop up the perfect amount of batter in most cases, including this one. You can place the dough directly on your parchment paper from the scoop, or, for a more uniform edge, you can roll the scooped dough in the palms of your hands to create an even ball. Lightly press this down on your baking sheet and top with M&M's (though, I do not recommend topping with the chips - they can get a little burnt).

Place in your oven at 350˚F and bake for 12-15 minutes. These cookies are rich, so I recommend a nice glass of milk on the side. Tada! You done.