Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Cookies with Roasted Strawberries

I cannot stop making cookies lately. I think it's because it's a quick, soothing activity that makes me feel like I have some shred of control over what feels like a rapidly shifting universe these days. The more life threatens to untether, the more I find myself heading to the kitchen; it's a refuge and a safe, constant space. Do you feel that way about it? 

In the past, I have often tried to get fresh strawberries into cookies, but to no avail. They're so watery that unless you pack the recipe with extra flour, which can make a cookie too cakey, it's hard to get them to stay together. 

I was re-inspired to approach this issue when I saw this recipe for Strawberry Muffins from Sarah Walker Caron, a fellow blogger and editor at the Bangor Daily News. She shared my same issue with soggy strawberries. This is the time when strawberries are in abundance and there's just no comparison between locally grown ones and the super-large, not as sweet ones you can get at the supermarket. 

Strawberries. The more local they are, the better they taste!

So the trick to imparting strawberry flavor without tons of extra moisture? Roast them first. It concentrates the flavor and takes some of the water out of it. It's part of the way toward what Sarah did; she used dried strawberries. What you get are swirly bits of flavor throughout the cookie. I also believe that because I did this with gluten-free flour, the result is different from what you would get with traditional, AP flour. But if you make this with regular flour, please let me know in the comments how it went. 

My chip of choice these days? The decadent Guittard cookie chips. Seriously. 

Guittard Cookie Chips. Thanks, Wegmans, for stocking these.

Ingredients

• 2 cups strawberries, halved (and quartered if large)
• 2/3 cup brown rice flour
• 2/3 cup sorghum flour
• 1/2 cup oat flour
• 2 T. potato starch
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. xanthan gum
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1/2 cup butter, melted
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 2 tsp. vanilla
• 1 cup good-quality chocolate chips

Instructions

Roast the strawberries on a rimmed baking sheet for approximately 20-25 minutes. This concentrates their sweetness and eliminates some of the wateriness. 

In a medium bowl, combine the flours through salt.

In a separate, larger bowl, whisk together the butter, sugars, egg and vanilla. Stir the flour mixture into the wet ingredients. Here's where you want to take a little more time than usual, because you can't necessarily overmix gluten-free cookie dough. Spend about a minute doing this. 

Add in the chocolate chips, and then carefully fold in the strawberries. Cover the bowl and refrigerate the dough for 1-2 hours or up to overnight (I prefer 1-2 hours for best texture.)

Preheat the oven to 375° Fahrenheit. Bake the cookies on parchment or Silpat-lined sheets for about 8-10 minutes, rotating the tray halfway through. Remove from the oven when they start to brown around the edges and get a little bit crackly on top. Cool for a couple of minutes on cookie sheets and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Gluten free chocolate chip cookies with roasted strawberries. Aren't they pretty?