C is for Cookie, that's good enough for me, Yeah!

This weekend I have all of T's family coming in for Easter, and I am scrambling for bread replacement recipes. I still need to find a recipe for sandwich rolls, but I am a dessert girl, so that's where I started.

Today I attempted to make my great-grandmother's Oatmeal Raisin Cookie recipe gluten free. Guess what? They are great!

I started out making these egg-free this past spring, partly because the little girl down the street was allergic and partly because I was out of eggs that day. They turned out really good, and it made me so happy that Jilly was able to eat them, especially since when she came to our house for Brooke's "Milk and Cookies" birthday party, she wasn't able to eat anything. My sister in law jumped into the pantry and ended up with a Cascadian Farms granola bar. Hostess with the mostest!

So making cookies for kids is kinda my thing. I love having fresh baked cookies for the girls and usually share them with my friends' families so that we don't eat them all, and also because there's just something about made-from-scratch, homemade cookies that is so comforting. My mom made these for us growing up pretty regularly, so maybe that's why they taste so good. Knowing that my sweet Great Grandma Brown made these for her family makes them even better to me.

Great Grandma was my mother's beloved grandmother, and she was, I believe, 4 foot 11, and as kind and loving as can be. She passed away when I was a junior in high school, but I can still hear her Canadian accented voice calling my mother "Pet." According to my mother, she used to hoard toilet paper and never learned how to drive. She loved my mother dearly and went to bat for her as a little girl when she would do something to make my great grandfather angry, like play in the yard and bend the blades of grass. For real. God Bless his soul, some men like things just so, don't they?

I'm sure they are not a secret recipe, she probably got it off the Crisco package since it calls for Crisco oil, but since she is gone, we are going to credit her!

Great Grandma Brown's Oatmeal-Raisin Cookies (Gluten, Dairy and Egg free)

1 c. Gluten Free All purpose flour *
1/4 tsp. xanthan gum
1 tsp. gluten free baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
Dash of cinnamon
3/4 c. brown sugar, packed
2/3 c. Crisco oil (I use store brand Canola oil, I'm a rule breaker!)
1 tsp. pure vanilla (can add another 1/2 tsp. if you are using a beany all purpose flour)
1 Tbsp. flax meal
3 Tbsp. lukewarm water
1 1/4 c. Certified Gluten Free Oats (I used Bob's Red Mill GF Rolled Oats)
1/2 c. raisins

Preheat your oven to 325 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Position racks in the oven so they are evenly spaced.
In a small bowl, place flax meal and lukewarm water, let sit for at least five minutes.
In a medium bowl, combine the first five ingredients and whisk together. Set aside.
In a large mixing bowl, (I use my stand mixer for this) combine brown sugar, oil and vanilla, then add flax meal/water combination, beat well.
Turn speed down, and add dry ingredients 1/2 cup at a time until all of mix is in, then turn the mixer speed up to medium and let it go for about two or three minutes.
Turn the speed down to low and add raisins, then oats. Stir until combined.
Using a small spoon, drop by rounded spoonfuls onto prepared baking sheets about two inches apart.
Bake for about 8-10 minutes, then remove from the oven and cool on the baking sheet. Enjoy warm and think of my Great Gram!

*The flour blend I used contained 1 cup each of white rice, sorghum, tapioca and almond flours, plus 1 cup of cornstarch. Mix all the flours together with a whisk and use 1:1 in place of all purpose wheat flour. I got the recipe from The Gluten-Free Bible, published by Publications International, Ltd. I like it because it doesn't use bean flour, which is more nutritious but tastes funky to me in cookies.

Because of the almond flour, this recipe is not nut free, but to do that, you could change the almond flour to coconut flour in the same proportion, or switch the flour blend to one that does not include almonds. Then this recipe would be pretty much allergen free!