Cookie Chaos!

Hello, good afternoon and how the devil are you? Good? Marvelous!

Will you allow me to eulogise for just a moment on the topic of cookies? When I was about 14, my Dad got my sister and I into the habit of going to do the weekly shop with him every Thursday night. This was turned into something of an event for us, as we were given £10 each with which to buy the food for our packed lunches for the week, and we were allowed our own trolley each. Ooh, the excitement!

I promise, I'm getting to my point. Bear with me.

I would buy the cheapest possible bread, crisps, almost everything in fact. Because what I wanted more than anything was a double chocolate chip cookie from the Bakery counter. This wasn't just a cookie. It was a large cookie that was thick and soft and chewy, and taking a bit of it was as close to heaven as my 14 year-old self could get. Washed down with a glass of milk, it was to be savoured, bite by bite, really enjoying the chewy gooey-ness of it.

Of course, when I was diagnosed with the coeliac disease, I knew that cookies would leave a big gap in my life. Aaah, I hear you say. But there are LOTS of cookies on the market you can eat! Unfortunately, not, dear friends. Because almost all of the best ones contain oat flour, something I only recently learned I can't eat, my attempts to create great cookies has stepped up a notch. After all, I can't be the only coeliac who misses these cookies but can't eat oats?

Well...I've had two failed attempts this week. They've had all the stability of a nervous breakdown (something they almost drove me to, trying to make them) no matter what I've tried! Less egg. Different sugars. Different types of flour. BAH.

But today, finally. FINALLY!!!! I got it right! Less egg, light muscovado sugar instead of dark brown soft, and much less sugar. Et voila! Here we go. Delicious crisp but chewy, dense, perfect-for-dunking-in-milk cookies, that I'll be able to include in my products list (once I've fiddled with it a little more, anyway). Soooo many possibilities! So now, I think I deserve a cup of tea and a chef's prerogative. Until next time...