Not your everyday chocolate chip cookie, these taste thoroughly decadent. If possible, use 60% chocolate chips as they are noticeably silkier than the regular variety.
Ingredients
- 4 tablespoons (2 ounces) unsalted butter, softened
- 3/4 cup (6 ounces) creamy peanut butter, at room temperature
- 1 large egg
- 1/2 cup (4 ounces) packed dark brown sugar
- 1/4 cup (1 1/4 ounces) brown rice flour
- Pinch fine sea salt
- 1/8 teaspoon xanthan gum
- 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 cup (2 1/2 ounces) dark chocolate chips, such as Ghirardelli 60%
- 1/2 cup (2 ounces) coarsely chopped walnuts or pecans, coarsely chopped
Directions
Heat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 17- x 11-inch baking sheet with parchment paper.
Using a wooden spoon, cream the butter until smooth. Beat in the peanut butter, then the egg. Add the brown sugar, rice flour, salt, xanthan gum and baking powder, and stir to blend.
Stir in half the chocolate chips and the chopped nuts. Pinch off walnut-sized pieces of dough, compress into balls and flatten them into 1 3/4-inch wide disks. Arrange on the baking sheet 2 inches apart. Bake until golden and just set, 12 to 15 minutes. Immediately top each cookie with a couple of the remaining chocolate chips, which will melt slightly and stick in place. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Cook’s Tip: Rolling cookie dough to an absolutely even thickness is important — especially for sandwich cookies — so they all bake in the same length of time, but it’s not easy to do. The secret is using a pair of guides, one on each side of the dough and placed about 10 inches apart, and running your rolling pin over them. The dough underneath magically flattens to an even thickness.
To make your own pastry guides, go to a hardware store with a measuring tape. Look for two wood, brass or aluminum flat rods that measure 1/8-inch thick by about 15 inches long. I use two lengths of pierced aluminum that are actually meant for supporting cupboard shelving. They cost less than two dollars apiece and work just fine. I also have a second pair for making cookies 1/4-inch thick. I wouldn’t be without either set.
Nutrition Analysis: 140 cal, 9 g fat, 15 mg chol, 45 mg sodium, 15 g carbs, 1 g fiber, 7 g sugar, 3 g protein.
Recipes © copyright 2012 by Jacqueline Mallorca.
The author of more than a dozen cookbooks, Gluten-Free Living Food Editor Jacqueline Mallorca has written titles including The Wheat-Free Cook and Gluten-Free Italian.
