photo provided courtesy of affairsofliving.com

These cookies feature mesquite flour, an aromatic and flavorful flour made from the beans of the mesquite pod. Mesquite grows in the southwest portion of the United States, and the flour has a wonderful cinnamon-cocoa-coffee flavor. Find mesquite flour online or at well-stocked specialty or natural foods stores. If you don’t want to include it, substitute with an equal weight of sorghum flour, but keep in mind the flavor of the cookie will differ.

Another flour note: these cookies also use sweet rice flour. Sweet rice flour is a flour made from sweet rice, a short-grain rice that is very sticky and is often used for puddings. Sweet rice flour is also called glutinous rice flour because of the sticky texture – but don’t be concerned by the name! Sweet rice flour and glutinous rice flour are totally gluten-free and safe for people with celiac, wheat allergies, or gluten-intolerance. It is a wonderful flour because it helps to maintain moisture and hold things together, and adds a great chewy quality to baked goods. It is also a great thickener for sauces. I buy sweet rice flour at my local Asian market – a one pound bag of flour is only $.99. Because of its unique qualities, sweet rice flour is very much unlike white rice flour or brown rice flour, and they can not be substitutes for each other.

I prefer to measure my ingredients by weight, which is a more accurate and much easier (and creates fewer dishes to wash). I did, however, include approximate volume measurements for those of you that haven’t yet jumped on the food scale bandwagon.

filling ingredients

• 132 grams / 1 cup sorghum flour
• 120 grams / 1 cup amaranth flour
• 120 grams / 1 cup sweet rice flour (NOT regular white or brown rice flour)
• 96 grams / .75 cup arrowroot starch or arrowroot flour
• 40 grams / .25 cup mesquite flour
• 6 grams / 1.5 teaspoons baking soda
• 5 grams / 2 teaspoons homemade corn-free baking powder
• 7 grams / 1.5 teaspoons unrefined salt
• 275 grams / 1.25 cup softened butter
• 300 grams / .75 cup + 2 tablespoons honey
• 3 grams / 1 teaspoon plain or vanilla stevia liquid
• 2 large eggs
• 10 grams / 2 teaspoons gluten-free vanilla extract
• 250 grams / 1.5 cup allergy-friendly chocolate chips or carob chips
• sea salt flakes, such as Maldon

directions

1. Place flours in a large bowl and whisk together briskly to introduce air and make light and fluffy. Add baking soda, baking powder, and salt, and whisk to combine. Set aside.
2. In a large bowl, cream butter until smooth with a mixer or hand-mixer. Add eggs and beat until just combined, then maple syrup, and vanilla and continue to beat until just evenly combined (the consistency will look a little goopy, that’s okay). Gradually add dry ingredients and beat until well-incorporated. Fold in chocolate chips by hand until evenly incorporated.
3. Cover dough and let sit in the fridge for 1 hour. The flour will absorb some of the moisture and yield a thicker dough and yummier cookie.
4. After an hour, pre-heat oven to 350º F and remove dough from fridge. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper, and scoop out dough by the heaping tablespoon, leaving 2-3 inches between cookies to leave room for spreading. Sprinkle cookies lightly with sea salt flakes, making sure each one gets a healthy dose, then place in the oven. Bake for 14 minutes, or if baking two pans at a time, bake for 7 minutes then rotate pans between the racks and bake for another 7 minutes. Cookies should be firm around the edges but still slightly soft and puffy in the middle – they will deflate as they cool. Also, the cookies will not brown very much, so don’t wait for them to be golden.
5. Remove cookies from oven, and let cool for 5 minutes on the pan before transferring cookies to a cooling rack. Cool completely before eating – they are best when cooled. Store in an air-tight container for up to 3 days.

makes approximately (32) 3-inch diameter cookies

recipe courtesy affairsofliving.com