My idea list for baking projects is never short. A stack of cookbooks sits on my coffee table, my bookmarked list of recipes that have caught my eye is lengthy. Yet I didn’t plan out all 52 Sweets in advance, I often waited for spur of the moment inspiration. Wouldn’t you know the idea for Sweet #51 came at just the right time, no digging in the archives, cookbook library or box of magazine tear-outs required!
I wanted to make an All-American classic recipe this week, but with a twist of some sort. Maybe a chocolate chip chile cookie or an apple pie with spices whose names I can’t pronounce. At just the right time, a TwitterFriend* mentioned cookies that contain cornflakes and oatmeal, Secret Ingredient Chocolate Chip Cookies from Cindy Mushet’s book, Baking Kids Love. Last week I had looked at this book at Sur La Table in Omaha. It has a beautiful cover, but I put it back because it wasn’t gluten-free and I don’t often bake with kids. That shouldn’t stop me! First, I am learning to de-gluten anything (that’s right, bring it!). Second, I don’t mind a messy kitchen and am learning that it is okay to use my hands instead of a kitchen utensil. I should have bought that book!
*What do you call people you know only on Twitter? Friend? Acquaintance? Friendly? Twiend? I am relatively new to the whole Twitter thing and am going with TwitterFriend. Share the right word if you’ve got it!
I found the recipe here. You can click on the link to find it OR you can go buy the book. I think you should. I’m going to. And then I’m borrowing some cute kids to bake with soon.
Here are my modifications to the recipe:
*I used my favorite gluten-free flour blend to make these gluten free
*Added one extra egg (making the total 5)
*Added 2 teaspoons guar gum to the flour blend
*Used Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free Rolled Oats
*replaced Kellogg’s Cornflakes with Nature’s Path Gluten Free Honey’d Corn Flakes
*refrigerated dough for about 15 minutes before baking, placing back in the refrigerator between batches
I made these small (a heaping tablespoon of dough) and baked 8 to a large cookie sheet for 12 minutes. I got more than 75 cookies from one batch. I do not know what the texture is like with the original recipe. With my gluten-free modifications, they were like a bit like a Toll House cookie, rather thin, with a really crispy surprise, the cornflakes. These cookies scream for a glass of cold milk, so much so that I delivered them with my favorite milk.
This week’s Sweet Friends are Bentley and Connie. That’s right, it’s a two-for-one special this week!
Bentley and Connie are, to me, the perfect example of an All-American family, just with a little twist…like this week’s recipe. A blended family, beautiful kids who make me giggle, a dog, a house in the suburbs and a SUV with the added twist of more talent and creativity than most.
Bentley and Connie are both incredible photographers. Remember those beautiful photos on my blog when I made Gluten Free Girl’s brownies? Bentley shot those. Both Bentley and Connie have been very gracious in offering to photograph food for me, to teach me more about photography, to offer tips on what camera to buy more times than I can count. Bentley is my PhotoShop go-to when I need photo help for my job and has talked me through photo editing on the phone too many times, never pointing out that he has surely told me what I need to know many times before. Connie and I have shared many laughs at the funny things people outside of the special events industry say to those of us who live and work there. I feel like they “get” me and that’s a really great thing to find in a friend. Soon I’m going to get myself a real camera, one of those fancy ones that takes purty pictures…and then I’m turning to Connie and Bentley to learn the real secret of photography, you know…that it isn’t so much about the camera as it is about the person holding it.
I use a point and shoot camera and an iPhone for my food photos. Bentley has said several times he can show me how to get better photos with what I already have. To prove this point, he sent me these beautiful photos, taken with a point and shoot camera. Amazing. Bentley and Connie inspire me to work harder to take photos that are as delicious as the sweets I bake…and I WILL work on that soon!
 |
| Photo by Bentley Skeie |
 |
| Photo by Connie Skeie |
Leave a Reply