Monday, July 25, 2016

(Gluten-free) Chocolate Chip Cookie Love


Diabetes nearly killed my love for cooking.

I was the kid in the kitchen, making bread and cookies with my mom. Since then, I’ve always loved to bake and cook. It’s like therapy for me. There is nothing more stress relieving than throwing some butter and sugar in my KitchenAid mixer and starting the beater whirling.

When Finn was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes in 2013, all the joy went out of cooking. Each morsel had to be considered, counted. I was never a cook-by-the-recipe kind of chef. I always saw each recipe as a starting point, a springboard into something more interesting, more suited to my tastes.

Now I had to follow recipes, multiply and divide and add and subtract to get the right carb counts, and hope, just hope, that I cut that lasagna portion exactly like the others. Cooking became about managing blood sugars and about math, instead of about creativity and feeding my family the food they loved (or really, the food I loved and they tolerated).

When Finn was diagnosed with celiac disease in 2014, it was like the nail in the coffin. I still had to make dinner, of course, but flour now looked to me like poison. For at least a year, I gave up completely on baking. 

Something else you must know about me: I have four hungry kids. The older three (13, 11 and 8) eat like adults, and if I ate their volume in food, I would double in size. The doctor says my daughter will be 5’10”, my boys 6’4”-6’5”, and I think they are practicing for their pending giant status. Budget and volume are two other factors in my meal planning and cooking. I have a four-fold challenge when it comes to cooking: diabetic-friendly, gluten-free, high volume, low cost.

After about a year of pouting and stressing and having myself a nice little pity-party, I pulled up my big girl pants and figured it out, baby step by baby step. No sense in whining over this life. It is what it is, and I might as well live it well.

I started with my favorite thing in the whole world (other than Jesus, Todd, and my kids, of course, and maybe a big fat Cabernet Sauvignon): chocolate chip cookies. I borrowed some gluten-free cookbooks. I scoured Pinterest. I tried a few different gluten-free flours. My kids still talk about the cookie soup I once made - they want me to recreate it because they liked the chocolate goo so much. (I couldn't even if I tried!)

Finally, I modified my favorite cookie recipe: I cut the sugar by 30%. I added oats, then walnuts, then flax seed (anything to increase the fiber and protein and slow down the blood sugar spike). I used my favorite new gluten-free flour, Bob's Red Mill 1 for 1 baking flour. Then I let my kids help me make them (my diabetic included, with an extra little 10g carb bolus), and even eat the batter. Now these cookies are a weekly staple in my house. I let them have two cookies in the afternoon, then I kick them outside to play. The exercise tempers the blood sugar spike and the cookies prevent the late afternoon lows.

Without further ado, THIS is my recipe.
  

Jen’s favorite gluten-free oatmeal chocolate chip cookies

¾ cup butter, softened
½ cup packed brown sugar (105g carbs)
½ cup white granulated sugar (100g carbs)
1 t. baking powder
¼ t. baking soda
 1 t. cinnamon
1 t. real vanilla extract
2 eggs
1 ¾ cup Bob’s Red Mill 1 for 1 gluten-free baking flour (210g carbs)
2 cups oats (100g carbs)
½ cup walnuts, chopped fine
1 cup chocolate chips (160g carbs)
---------------------------------------------
Total carbs = 675g

Beat the butter until it’s until its soft and whippy (that’s a technical term). Add the brown and white sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, vanilla and eggs. Mix until well combined, scraping the bottom and the sides of the bowl (make sure to lick the spoon). Add the flour, oats and walnuts, mixing well, then fold in the chocolate chips. (Make sure you make yourself a separate little pile of chocolate chips for yourself and the kid “helping.” 1 T. chocolate chips = 10g carbs.)

Drop spoonfuls of cookie batter onto an ungreased cookie sheet and bake at 375 degrees for 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and let the cookies rest for a minute on the sheet (if you can stand it) then transfer to a cooling rack for 30 more seconds (because that’s all you can wait) until you eat the melty goodness.

For the carb count, count how many cookies you made (each batch is different) and divide that number by the total carbs in the recipe. For example: 675g / 28 cookies = 24g carbs each. 

Dosing your favorite diabetic 20 minutes ahead of time will also help with the blood sugar rise. I also add 10g carbs for his chocolate chip pile and don’t worry about all the “licks.”

And there you have it, some chocolate chip cookie love from me to you. Baking and cooking for a diabetic with celiac disease can be challenging, but it is possible, and can still be fun. 



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