Gluten-Free Chocolatey Nutty Oats Cookies Recipe up on ManilaSpeak.com

My Gluten-Free Chocolatey Nutty Oats Cookies recipe is up at ManilaSpeak.com.

It was the first time for me to make something gluten-free. Baking is a science, where each ingredient has a specific purpose. Replacing ingredients is an interesting challenge. You need to find alternative ingredients that can chemically react similarly to what you are replacing. Sometimes, it’s a simple replacement of one ingredient for another, but depending on what the ingredient does for the recipe, it can take more than one replacement.

Flour mainly is used for its protein, gluten. Gluten acts as a structure to bind and give shape to many baked goods. It forms when water and flour is mixed together. More gluten is formed the more you mix flour. That’s why in breads, kneading is essential. It encourages gluten formation to give bread its characteristic texture.

Gluten is a binding element in cookies, but too much gluten will make them tough. So the replacement ingredient needed to be able to help the cookie hold its shape, but not be too tough. This recipe uses oats and an egg as a binder.