Moby Chip

I feel like Captain Ahab right now.

I'm not chasing whales, I'm in search of the perfect GF chocolate chip cookie recipe. I have never loved Tollhouse Chocolate Chip Cookies. They are too crisp for my taste. In our Days of Wheat I found cookie perfection in a recipe out of The America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook. Thick and chewy, those cookies were simply the Best Chocolate Chip Cookie Ever. It was the first recipe I tried to convert when I was familiar enough with gluten-free flours and gums to feel comfortable experimenting. It is also the recipe that I have had the least luck at converting. I have made many batches experimenting with different flour blends. As of yet I have had little success. They all taste great. After all, how can you go wrong with all that butter and sugar? My sticking point is the heft and chew of the cookie. The wheat version spread very little. They baked up stout with a slight crisp on the outside that gave way to soft chewiness toward the middle. My gluten free versions? They spread like mad and bake up thin and crispy.

I estimate that in the year or so that I have been trying to come up with the perfect GF chocolate chip cookie recipe I have made over 1000 inedible cookies.


I had a bit of a psychic connection going with this batch because I almost put them on a regular baking sheet but opted for a jelly roll pan just in case they spread so much they overflowed the pan. The only thing worse than disappointing mutant cookies are disappointing mutant cookies that set off the smoke detector.

This time I was foiled but I WILL develop the recipe for the perfect GF chocolate chip cookie, oh yes, I WILL.