Gluten-free Oatmeal Cookie Recipe Review

For the past few weeks my daughter has been asking me to make gluten-free oatmeal cookies and  I finally made them!

First and most importantly if you as a gluten intolerant person can tolerate oats you must make sure they are gluten-free oats.

More then a few companies sell certified gluten-free oats; Bob's Red Mill, Gluten Free Oats are the first 2 companies that come up when doing a Google search.
Many grocery stores that carry gluten-free items will have Bob's Red Mill gluten-free rolled oats although the quick oats can be more difficult to find in stores.

I was able to find the Bob's Red Mill gluten-free rolled oats at PCC Market in Edmonds, WA. after buying the oats all that was left was to find a recipe. I didn't really feel like doing much recipe researching at that moment so I opened my copy of 1000 Gluten-Free Recipes by Carol Fenster.

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies were described as "large cookies, like Grandma used to make." From that description I ended up expecting a large flat chewy oatmeal cookie. What I ended up with was a round fat cookie that didn't spread and was more cakey~dry then chewy.

I'm not complaining, it just wasn't what I was expecting. The recipe has a small amount of butter,egg and sugar to the amount of flour which I think accounts for how the cookies turned out. It isn't a bad thing either - eating extra fat and sugar in my cookies isn't something I need to do all the time. But then again if I want cookies I want them my way which means more extra butter and sugar.

I would prefer the flat chewy cookie but these are alright with good flavor. My daughter on the other hand wasn't so happy with them because she was expecting a flat ~ chewy cookie. I maybe would eat them twice, she would not. Most likely I will not make this recipe again, too many cookies ended up uneaten as they were dry and stale rather quickly, granted they started out fairly dry in the first place.

Next time I will try the recipe from Smitten Kitchen but convert them to gluten- free.

You know how I LOVE to fiddle with recipes, I made this recipe as is, no fiddling and the recipe below is as it came out of the book. To be fair to recipe testing it's best to not fiddle. 

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
from 1,000 Gluten-Free Recipes by Carol Fenster
makes 18


1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 Tbsp molasses (not blackstrap)
1 egg
2 tsps pure vanilla (homemade is wonderful)
2 cups gluten-free flour blend
1 1/2 tsps xanthan gum
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt (too salty)
1 1/2 cup gluten-free rolled oats
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (I left these out)


1.Place a rack in the lower-middle position and another in the upper-middle position of the oven. Preheat the oven to 375°. Line two 15x10-inch nonstick (gray, not black) baking sheets with parchment paper.


2. In a large mixing bowl, beat the butter, granulated sugar and brown sugar with an electric mixer on low speed until smooth, about 1 minute. Beat in the egg, molasses, and vanilla just until blended. Gradually add the sorghum blend, xanthan gum, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking powder, and salt and beat on low speed just until blended. Do not overbeat. Stir in the oatmeal, raisins, and walnuts. The dough will be fairly stiff. 


3. Shape 18 balls of dough, each 1 1/2 inches in diameter, and place the balls at least 2 inches apart on the prepared baking sheet, 9 cookies per sheet. Roll the balls in hands for uniform shapes. Place one sheet on the lower-middle rack and another on the upper-middle rack of the oven.


4. Bake 15 to 18 minutes, or until the cookies start to brown around the edges, rotating the baking sheets between racks halfway through baking. Cool the cookies 2 to 3 minutes on the baking sheet, then transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely. Store tightly covered, for up to 2 days or in the freezer for up to 1 month.

Thank you for reading What The Food~Gluten Free