Tuesday, May 20, 2008

My first GF baking failure/success: GF Levain Cookies


I have not had the pleasure to experience New York, but I read tons of posts about Levain Bakery and their fantastic cookies. I got a recipe from Cookie Madness for two BIG copy cat Levain Chocolate chip cookies and decided to try my new gluten free flour mix in them. Take a look at her cookies- fabulous! Then take a look at this:


My cookies spread over the entire cookie sheet. I added Xanthum gum which apparently you don't need to do with some flour mixes- I have to check to see if mine has it in it. Also, it is rare that you have to add it when baking cookies- two lessons learned. I was desperately disappointed as I was looking forward to trying to bake only 2 cookies, and gluten free cookies to boot. I used my favorite pb m&m's in these failures- a sad silent moment for their waste please.
Anyway, my partner loved them because he likes flat, crispy cookies while I like soft, cakey cookies (almost raw which is why I choose this recipe).


So my next challenge will be brownies! http://www.cookiemadness.net/index.php?paged=2 this is a small batch recipe, which is good, because if I mess it up like I did these cookies, I won't waste too much expensive baking products. This will have to wait until after Mexico though, don't want brownie belly on the beach (as I will eat any mistake I make in the kitchen- even the fish-flavored chicken I made once- blech).
From what I read, this kind of failure is common when first starting out with GF baking; other GF bakers have commented on many hockey-puck cookies, and flat cakes. I don't relish the potential for failures in the kitchen as I pride myself on being a pretty darn good baker with regular flour (but anyone can be). But I'll get over my pride and fear of flat, miserable cookies and cakes and saddle up again soon.

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