A little baking...

I love baking. I've got a horrible sweet tooth! I'm also gluten intolerant and this past New Years I made a resolution to go gluten free by the end of the year. I've tried several times before and couldn't seem to stick to it. Now that I live off campus and am much more in control of my meals I decided I would try again and it's been SO much easier. I was gluten free by the middle of my semester. I use gluten free pasta (the brown rice kind, not the kind made from corn which I find is really sticky) so I can still do easy, quick, familiar dinners. Occasionally I'll splurge and buy a gluten free mix by Pamela's (which I buy at Kroger) and will make cornbread or a cake. They're really good and most people like them as much or more than regular mixes, but they can be pricey. So not much baking has been happening and it's probably just for the best anyway. But while I really don't miss gluten I do miss baking sometimes. It is a fun thing to do.

Today I decided to try some gluten-free baking and adapted this recipe to make gluten free peanut butter cookies.

I tweaked a few things...I only used 1/4 cup of white sugar and used 3/4 cup of brown to try to make it a little chewier and instead of using shortening and butter I used a whole stick of butter (we never have shortening at the house). When it was time to add the flour I used 3/4 cup of Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free baking mix and 1/2 cup of Bob's Red Mill brown rice flour. When they were finished I let them set up a little and then melted some semi-sweet chocolate and spread it on half of it.

I have to say, it came out pretty well and they're not falling apart which gluten-free items are prone to do. Even my mom likes them.

I'll have to log this one away for future use.