My Chocolate fix

After a nice meal, we usually crave for something sweet - dessert. Eating out, there is always the temptation of cakes, cookies and muffins just ready for the taking. But being gluten free means that you if you wanted cake, cookies or any baked goods, you have to make them yourself. Yes, it seems daunting..the thought of not being able to satisfy your sweet craving other than ice cream and chocolate. But sometimes, you just need to have cake.

Being a novice baker, the complicated cakes and icing will be set for a later time as I get comfortable in the baking realm. So in small baking steps I try baking cookies. Finding a nice easy recipe to start with was hard. I did not want to deal with creaming butter and sugar as I am too lazy to take out my hand-held mixer for that. Only if I had a nice deep purple Artisan KitchenAid in my kitchen counter for that.

Enough of the dreaming, now let's go on and make those cookies! I came across this recipe. I am not a fan of putting nuts in my cookies, so I made tweaks of my own. I love the fact that this 
chocolate cookies have no added fat and no gluten. Impossible! But it's true: these flourless chocolate cookies get their texture from egg whites, and their flavor from cocoa powder (which represents the only fat in the recipe). Plus they're easy to make: Just stir together a few simple ingredients, scoop onto a pan, and bake for 8 minutes. You won't believe the delicious result. 

Chocolate Chewies

2 1/4 cups confectioners' sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon espresso powder, optional but good

1 cup cocoa powder, Dutch-process

3 large egg whites

2 teaspoons gluten-free vanilla extract

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly grease two baking sheets. Or line with parchment, and grease the parchment.

Stir together all of the ingredients till smooth. Scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl, and stir again till smooth.

Drop the soft, batter-like dough onto the prepared baking sheets in 1 1/2" circles; a tablespoon cookie scoop works well here.

Bake the cookies for 8-10 minutes; they should spread, become somewhat shiny, and develop faintly crackly tops.

Remove the cookies from the oven, and allow them to cool right on the pan.
Be patient, let them cool completely otherwise you will break up the cookies.

The result? . These came out ultra-chewy, rich and definitely very chocolatey. For the nut lovers out there, you may want to add walnuts for a nice contrasting crunch and if you think you still need more chocolate, go ahead and add a handful or two of chocolate chips in the batter. Chocolate overload indeed. My personal score: 10/10. This one is a keeper!