Gluten-Free Chocolate Chip Cookies

I have a quite a few friends who have to eat gluten-free and I always feel badly when I'm all like, "look at these delicious treats that I made that you can't eat or else you will be in an immense amount of pain." Yeah, not cool, not cool at all.

I knew that finding gluten-free recipes was becoming easier, but I did have some trouble finding ones that were for high altitude. I was pretty excited when I somehow stumbled upon this page and even more excited when I realized that the blogger had a cookbook out as well. Obvi, I immediately ordered it. The book has some great ideas, but I did tweak this recipe a bit since I prefer more salt and the batter was really dry. Also, the directions were a little confusing/unclear. But it got the important things right so I was satisfied.

I was more nervous than usual making these since I've never made any gluten-free desserts before and had no idea how they would turn out. I always think of gluten-free as being pretty terrible and I certainly did not want to force my friends to eat something terrible and then have to pretend that it wasn't terrible. I was also nervous cause I was petrified that even though I was following the recipe that I would somehow screw it up and put gluten into it and then my friends would be sick. But, thankfully, neither of these things occurred.

I suspected that everything was going to be okay when I tasted a bit of the batter and realized that it tasted exactly the same as regular Chocolate Chip Cookies. I knew that everything was going to be okay when they got out of the oven and my husband asked to taste test them and then proceeded to eat them and I had to tell him to stop because I was afraid there wouldn't be any left for the people they were intended. And further proof that they were a hit? I was told that they were better than the ones my friends had gotten from a bakery.

Gluten-Free Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 1/2 cups white rice flour

3/4 cup cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup butter
2/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips
2 tablespoons water

Preheat oven to 375.

In a medium bowl, combine flour, cornstarch, xanthan gum, baking soda and salt. In a large bowl, cream sugars and butter. Add egg and vanilla and beat until smooth. Add flour mixture slowly and thoroughly, a little at a time. Stir in chocolate chips and water. Drop cookies, about an inch around, onto an ungreased cookie sheet about an inch apart. Bake for 10-12 minutes. Remove cookies from the cookie sheet immediately and place on a cooling rack or wax paper