Many years ago, maybe 1999 or so, I saw Martha Stewart on TV with guest Torie Hallock making cookies that sounded divine. They included chunks of chocolate, toffee and dried cherries. I went to the store to find the ingredients and couldn’t find the cherries. I substituted Craisins, added a bit more flour, used chocolate chunks instead of the bittersweet chocolate called for in the recipe…Basically I made it my own. They became MY cookies. People would ask for the recipe, they would ask me to bring those cookies when I came over. Not willing to give up MY cookies, I de-glutened them for this week’s sweet.
These cookies are chewy, crunchy, sweet and tangy. They freeze well, as does the dough. And I love them. I hope you do, too.
Choco-Toffee-Craisin Cookies, makes approximately 48 cookies, about 130 calories each
Inspired by Torie Hallock’s Cherry Chocolate-Chunk Cookies
2 sticks, 1/2 pound, butter, unsalted at room temperature
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
1 Cup Bob’s Red Mill Gluten-free All Purpose Flour
3/4 cup Garbanzo Flour
1 teaspoon xanthan gum
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 cups gluten-free oats
1 cup Craisins
3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chunks
1 cup toffee pieces (usually chocolate toffee pieces are all I can find)
Preheat oven to 350. Line baking sheets with parchment paper or a baking sheet liner. Sift flours, xanthan gum and baking soda together.
Cream butter and both sugars together in mixer. Add egg and vanilla, mix to combine. Add the flour mixture on low until well combined. Add the remaining ingredients one at a time.
At this point you can roll the dough into tube shapes, like the cookie dough in the dairy section at the grocery store, and freeze. It freezes well and you can slice off a few cookies at a time to bake when you get the urge. Or you can back them all right now.
I use a cookie scoop, approximately a 2 tablespoon size. Bake the cookies for approximately 14 minutes. Enjoy!
This week’s Sweet Friend is Tina. I met Tina at the gym (are you seeing a trend?) last year. She means business at the gym, yet manages to have a lot of fun, too. She is quick to let out snarky comments and has a hearty laugh. I love that about her. She is also incredibly supportive of all of us gals battling the bulge and pounding the pavement. I also think she has great taste in running shoes, but that’s best kept for a different blog.
(Tina’s spinning away in the blue shirt and matching hat–she’s fit AND fashionable!)
I chose Tina to be this week’s Sweet Friend because of a conversation we had earlier in the week. Tina signed up for her first triathlon and had some trepidation about the race. I had done the same race last year and shared my experience with her in an e-mail, concluding that they had cookies at the end of the race. She replied that I should I have just told her from the beginning there would be cookies and she would have been fine. And so I decided there would definitely be cookies because I was bringing them!
Never mind the cookies, Tina didn’t need them to get her through the race. She totally rocked it at the triathlon and took first place in her division! Now THAT is sweet!
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