Hey, babes! Honest check-in: How are you doing?
I am… barely hanging on in a lot of ways. I had a breakdown this week. I cried in my bed for an hour and needed my husband to convince me to get out. JUST BEING HONEST. I am so uncomfortable, deeply disappointed I was having contractions for two weeks and still don’t have a baby *and now hardly having any since getting on an antibiotic*, and sad about how divided the world is. SO MANY EMOTIONS. But, all in all, we are good. In the words of Paul, he said, “Honestly, I am shocked you’re only just now crying.” HA! It’s been a stressful few weeks around here.
However, I know there is SO MUCH to be excited about, thankful for, and just generally aware of how lucky we are. To choose joy, I made cookies with Knox yesterday. He LOVES being in the kitchen, and it’s fun as he gets older to see the way he is able to actually help. I had him on mixing duty yesterday. And, aside from sneaking licks of the spatula every time I turned away, he did a really great job! I love including him in as much as possible to help him stay active AND find things he’s good at. I have shared TWO cookie recipes in my IG stories recently that were out of this world. I wanted to re-share here and also answer a few questions!
If you don’t know, I am gluten-free (not by choice). I found out about 5 years ago after years and years of seeing doctors who basically said nothing was wrong with me that I am allergic to yeast and gluten. Like a for real allergy… not just a sensitivity. And I had lived with it my entire life. I had white spots all over my body from yeast overgrowth and my brain was swollen! So many things in my life made sense all of a sudden, and all from a simple food allergy that had gone undiagnosed for over 20 years. Anyways, I love cooking and baking, but obviously things had to change drastically when I found out. It’s been a long journey of figuring out the best brands or how to bake for myself. But, I have a secret that’s been a game changer for all things baking…
Bob’s Red Mill 1-1 All Purpose Flour
Both times I have posted my cookies in the last couple of weeks I have received multiples messages about how the heck I got them thick AND gluten free. THIS IS THE ANSWER. For years, I have struggled to make cookies that are any good. They were either tasteless or crumbly… Plus, gluten free baking can be expensive when you’re trying to do all the fancy recipes with almond flour and potato starch and… all the things. This All Purpose GF flour just basically combines all that for you and you can replace it into any recipe you do/love to make it gluten free. And the best part is that NOBODY will know it’s gluten free. Bob’s Red Mill also has the baking powder and other various ingredients I need, but this flour is what changed my baking game forever. I have also been out of baking soda, so I have discovered you can replace it with baking powder in a 3-1 tsp. ratio. So for example, the Big Fat Cookie recipe below called for 1 tsp soda and 1 tsp powder. So I ended up doing 4 tsp baking powder and they were perfect. I did the same for the regular chocolate chip cookies!
SO, whether baking gluten free or gluten filled… Here are the cookie recipes you NEED TO TRY ASAP.
Big Fat Peanut Butter Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies: With a name like that… how can you refuse? These are SO yummy. I did a batch a little doughy, right on the 13 minutes, and then a little crispy… and they ALL are so good. So no matter how you prefer your cookies, these hold up. I definitely lean toward doughy/just done enough.
Soft Batch Chocolate Chip Cookies: I am not a baker by any means. My sister… she’s a professional pastry chef. I didn’t get that gift hehe. BUT, these cookies sure did make me feel like one for a hot second. They taste just like my FAVORITE cookie from Sprinkles Cupcakes! NOT KIDDING. To make them large, I used our ice cream scoop and then flattened them before popping into the oven.
Enjoy baking, friends! If you try these out, let me know. I wanna see!
xoxo
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