A Tale of Two Chocolate Chip Cookies

I used Ghirardelli 70% chips - which are not technically dairy free, but that little bit won't bother me, especially in a chip with such a high concentration of cocoa.

Twas the night before Christmas eve and all through the house there was not a safe baked good containing chocolate for me to have...

so I had to make a Christmas favorite, a Christmas tradition, and more importantly my dad's favorite since he was visiting in a few days!

Knowing that spending Christmas with my family would mean being surrounded by irresistible homemade baked goods (cookies, pumpkin bread - my fav, candies, cakes, pies, etc), I was determined not to cheat and cause my body havoc, but I was also determined not to deprive myself.

Over the summer I had tried my hand at GFCF chocolate chip cookies from one of my favorite sites, The Spunky Coconut. Recently, however, my body has not been taking kindly to flax - so when I made these cookies, eating just one made my stomach very unhappy. I will have to keep experimenting with this recipe, though, because I love the idea of using honey instead of refined while sugar. It was pretty hard not to have any after the first one gave me issues; they turned out looking irresistable:

I even doubled the recipe and made 2 batches! These are done - even browned at the edges though they still look like they may be raw

Karl brought them to work to get them away from me, and he actually shared. They were not the office favorite due to the healthy nature of the cookie, but they were well liked. Karl ended up eating most of them.

Alas, without this option and needing something to serve my dad in a few days, I turned to Google for another recipe to try. Lucky me, Alton Brown cooks gluten free! I found Alton Brown's GF version of his chewy chocolate chip cookie.

It felt miraculous: "The Chewy Gluten Free" Having 112 reviews with an average of 5 stars, I knew this would be a winner. The cookies turned out delicious and my dad even took some home with him - a sign that these were some good cookies.

These even look like the traditional homemade chocolate chip. Santa was a happy camper in this gluten free house.

The best part was that I got to enjoy Christmas treats after dinner alongside everyone else without the usual stomach upset. It felt like such a victory.