I want to bring cookies to a work meeting this Friday, so I tried out a couple new to me recipes this weekend. Because I know a couple of the people in attendance at the meeting can’t eat chocolate, and it hasn’t been my friend lately either, I decided to make a couple cookies that were chocolate free. Although cookies without chocolate hardly seem worth the effort 
The first cookie I tried was Chocolate Covered Katie’s Sugar Cookie. Because I’ve also been having trouble with gluten, I thought I’d try these cookies both gluten-free and with gluten. I also thought I’d go ahead and try to make a fat-free version with each flour and do a little taste testing.
For the gluten-free cookies, I used Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free Flour, which is a mix of a few different, gluten free flours. And, because I read someone I could sub out chia meal for xanthium gum 1:1, I went ahead and added 1/4 tsp chia meal to both batches in place of the xanthium gum. (1/4 tsp was suggested for cookies on the flour bag) For the fat-free cookies (both GF and WW), I used unsweetened applesauce.
Both full fat doughs were crumbly after adding the melted butter. I had to add a little more non-dairy milk to each dough so it wouldn’t crumble apart. Regardless of the fat or flour, I couldn’t have rolled out any of these doughs; if I’d wanted to use cookie cookies, I’d have been out of luck. Bummer.
The doughs all came together quickly and went off to the fridge to sit for a few hours.
Whole Wheat Fat FreeWhole Wheat Full Fat
Gluten Free Fat Free
Gluten Free Full Fat
Gluten Free Sugar Cookies Ready to go in the Oven
Super Puffy Whole Wheat Sugar Cookies Fresh from the Oven
haha, good information! So sad you can’t have chocolate!
Jane: It is sad! LOL
I wonder if it’s the high protein content of the whole wheat flour that’s made the cookies so puffy. That’s happened to me, too, in a batch of sugar-free, fat-free, whole wheat cookies I made about a year ago. Whole wheat flour contains a lot of protein. I’ve learned about that and other different flours and their protein contents through bread recipes. I think protein affects the gluten in flour to make it puff up and rise or something like that.
Lesli: You certainly could be correct. I haven’t baked much since Christmas, but when I get back into it, I need to do some more research on flours, learners, thickeners and such.