Paleo Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe {Gluten-Free} - My Natural Family (2024)

FAQs

How do you keep gluten-free cookies from falling apart? ›

Remember: Xanthan Gum is Your Friend

It might sound scary, but xanthan gum is key for successful gluten-free baking. It helps bind together the ingredients, preventing your cookies from falling to pieces. Be careful to not use too much; no one likes gummy baked goods.

13- Make sure your baking soda and/or baking powder are fresh. These are the leavening agents in your cookie recipe and if they are no longer active, your cookies won't puff up and may spread more. Try a fresh container if they've been open longer than 3 months. 14- Use a tried and true gluten free cookie mix.

Another reason is that gluten-free flours, such as almond flour or coconut flour, can behave differently than wheat flour in baking. They may absorb more liquid, for example, which can result in dry or crumbly cookies.

The Enjoy Life chips are also typically easy to find in most grocery stores. Hu Kitchen has fully paleo chocolate chips that are sweetened with dates, with no sugar added at all. Here are the Hu Kitchen chips. Evolved chocolate has a variety of semi sweet and dark chocolate chips that are paleo friendly.

Add extra liquid: Gluten-free flours tend to absorb more liquid than regular flour, so you may need to add more liquid to your recipes to compensate. This can help to keep your baked goods moist and prevent them from becoming dry and crumbly.

Binding agents (such as xanthan gum, guar gum, or flax) help give gluten-free baked goods the elasticity needed to create structure — so if your favorite gluten-free flour mix doesn't contain one, you'll probably want to add one.

Using xanthan gum helps provide some of the stickiness that gluten free goods lack, replacing some elasticity. Xanthan gum mimics some of gluten's most essential properties by sticking to flour and its moisture. This helps create moist goods that hold their shape after being baked.

Gluten free flours often contain lots of water grabbing gums and starches so we have to ensure that there is enough water present to fully hydrate the gums and gelatinize the starches. When starches do not gelatinize, the baked good can have a gritty texture, and this commonly happens with flours such as cornflour.

2 teaspoons of baking powder per cup of gluten-free flour is necessary to ensure proper leavening. Baking soda and buttermilk can be used to leaven instead of baking powder, but 1-1/8 teaspoon of cream of tartar should be added for each 1/2 teaspoon baking soda used.

Add more fat or liquid: It might just be that you need a bit more moisture in your recipe, especially if you're converting a regular “gluten-ful” recipe to gluten-free. Try adding anywhere from ¼ to ½ cup of liquid or fat to the recipe and see if that helps.

Why do gluten-free cookies taste weird? ›

Any taste differences also depend on which flour or flours are used and in what proportions. The variety of gluten-free flours is advantageous in that they can be blended to achieve the results that bakers want. Baking with gluten-free flour will produce some slight differences in taste or texture.

Chill the Dough

High fat cookie dough will get soft and sticky the longer it sits on the counter. Adding too much sprinkling flour can result in a gritty taste to your finished cookies. Learn to keep the dough cold by working with one piece at a time, leaving the rest in the fridge.

Popcorn is technically not considered paleo since it's a whole grain. However, most paleo experts agree that it's not a horrible snack to have in moderation, especially when it's prepared fresh and cooked in a healthy fat like coconut oil.

Unsweetened cocoa powder: this is just the cocoa solids. There's none of that delicious and healthy cocoa butter in here, but there's also no other monkey business, so it's a very healthy ingredient to use in recipes or for homemade hot chocolate. Paleo approved!

Gluten's elasticity allows batters and doughs to trap air released by leavening agents (yeast, baking powder, or baking soda), which is how they're able to rise. Without this protein, gluten-free baked goods have the potential to be grainy, dense, and crumbly, but they don't have to be!

If your cookie dough is too dry and crumbly, you can try adding more fat to it. This could mean adding more butter, shortening, or oil to the dough. If you're using a recipe that calls for melted butter, you could also try using cold butter and grating it into the dough.