While some people enjoy eating anything that tastes good, others may have to follow certain dietary restrictions. One may suffer from certain allergies due to which one has to avoid specific foods. Gluten is one example. Those suffering from celiac disease or colitis are often recommended gluten-free alternatives since digestion of gluten is a problem. In such a scenario, would you skip your favourite cookies?
You don’t need to because you can make them gluten-free too. Gluten refers to a protein that is found in most grains, including wheat. Since the Indian diet commonly includes roti or chapati made with wheat flour and other grains, gluten-free options become all the more necessary. If you want to satiate your sweet tooth and can’t make those delicious gluten-free cookies till now, here are a few tips and tricks that will help you ace the game.
1. Use Good Quality Flour
The base or main ingredient of any cookie is the flour. Ensuring that you are using high-quality gluten-free flour is very important while making cookies. For instance, there is a binding agent that you’d find in the composition of your gluten-free flour. This agent, like xanthan gum, is essential to give that elasticity to your cookie.
2. Add Nut-Based Flour
Do you complain about the cookie being too coarse and gritty in texture? Well, it seems like your cookies could use some almond flour then. This nut-based flour is great for giving your cookies that softness and nuttiness along with a chewy texture. This even lends a beautiful golden-brown colour to your cookies. If almond flour doesn’t suit you, you can always substitute with some more gluten-free flour.
3. Butter Better Be Brown
Why do we say that? This is because browning the butter lends the cookies a great colour, just like almond flour. Not just that, browning of butter allows the cookies to have a deeper and richer flavour by adding nuttiness and a caramelised touch to the cookie. Lightly toast the butter until it is brown and the liquid evaporates slightly.
4. Use Some Milk
Since you’ve drained the butter of its moisture through the browning process, you need to retain it too. This is possible by adding some milk to the batter and mixing it well. This makes the cookies softer and less gritty. For this, ensure that you aren’t adding too much milk. A tablespoon would suffice for a batch of 10 cookies.
5. Let The Dough Rest
While you’re making the dough, don’t be in a hurry to flatten it and give it the shape of a cookie right away. Let the dough rest for some time and absorb all the flavours of its ingredients. Once that is done, you can take it out, roll out the cookies and start baking them. This hack aids in making the cookies softer and less coarse.