I’ve been a diagnosed “celiac” for about 7 years now and my philosophy has always been fake food tastes fake….real food tastes better.  So packaged food or recipes labeled as “gluten free” are always dubious and never taste even close to whatever they are imitating.

I don’t usually subject myself to buying quantities of specialty flour to make cookies, cakes or whatever baked goods I’m trying to recreate.  I look for different ways to put things together in order to satisfy my taste buds.

I ran across this recipe on  had it on my list of “try it out” recipes and well both my husband and I were shocked.  Neither one of us could believe how decadent these cookies tasted, how chewy the texture was…but yet incredibly light.

Of course I altered the recipe a little from its original source (http://www.food52.com/blog/4615_jennys_glutenfree_chocolate_cookies) because I wanted to ensure I got a really dark chocolate taste and not a semi sweet chocolate taste.  Mission accomplished.  Once I tasted them, however, I was already thinking of the different things I could try out in the next batch.  Orange zest perhaps….A solitary almond in the middle of a small ball shaped cookie…..Perhaps even a dried cherry.  You can taste them and let your imagination run wild.

As the author states in her original blog, the batter looks really weird when you mix this up.

A little more like frosting than cookie batter, but remember it’s the egg whites and they’ll bake up great.

To all my gluten free friends….Indulge!

Divine gluten free chocolate cookies. No seriously.

Ingredients:

This recipe serves a crowd

2.5 cups powdered sugar

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

3 egg whites

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2.5 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350F and line baking sheet(s)with parchment paper

In a bowl of standing mixer or large bowl with hand held mixer , mix powdered sugar, cocoa powder, cinnamon, and salt on low. Stir in the egg whites with a stand or hand mixer until the batter is well mixed. Stir in the vanilla extract and chocolate chips by hand. The batter will look weird. Don’t worry about it.

Using a small cookie scoop or spoon blob batter onto the baking trays, about an inch apart. They will spread a bit.

Bake until the cookies are cracking on the surface, about 15 minutes.

Let cool for ten minutes on the trays then carefully remove to cooling rack.

These will keep in covered container for three days but you’ll never keep them that long.