Gluten Free Cream Cheese Chocolate Chip Cookies

Gluten Free Cream Cheese Chocolate Chip Cookies

Around Christmas time, I made some gluten free chocolate chip cookies using my new-found Better Batter All Purpose Gluten Free Flour. They tasted okay, but they turned out really flat. I'm not a fan of flat chocolate chip cookies, and neither is my gluten-limited son. A couple of months later, I discovered how cream cheese wonderfully transforms regular chocolate chip cookies into something even more spectacular than they already are by replacing some of the butter in the Jaques Torres chocolate chip cookie recipe with some cream cheese. Yes. It was good. (Click here for that awesome cream cheese version.)
Anyway...I thought I'd see what would happen if I added cream cheese to a regular chocolate chip cookie recipe and then used Better Batter All Purpose Gluten Free Flour to make them gluten free. It worked. My husband's gluten free colleague loved them, but I still had most of the dough balls still in my freezer until this afternoon. Now, in the spirit of full disclosure, I have to tell you, that I'm not sure which chocolate chip cookie recipe I used for this. I think I used a basic Tollhouse Cookie Recipe, but I'm just not sure. If I follow my typical logic and what I remember about making these, then it's the recipe below. I'll have to make these one more time to make sure, but I do believe that if you use the Better Batter and replace half the shortening in your recipe with cream cheese, you'll end up with something delicious.
These cookies, as you can see, are puffy and crackly on top. They are soft and moist, and aside from a slight sandy texture, they don't taste very different from wheat flour cookies. I mean, with all the butter, cream cheese, and sugar, they're bound to taste good, right? Be sure to use the  Better Batter All Purpose Gluten Free Flour, though. It's really the best all-purpose gluten free flour I've found so far.

Gluten Free Cream Cheese Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 4 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 3/4 cup light brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs
• 2 1/2 cups Better Batter All Purpose Gluten Free Flour
• 1 1/2 cups mini chocolate chips

Instructions:
Mix together the butter, cream cheese, and the sugars until combined. 
Mix in baking soda and salt.
Add vanilla and eggs and mix thoroughly.  
Stir in flour just until completely combined.
Stir in chocolate chips.
Refrigerate dough at least 2 hours.  You can also leave the dough in the fridge and bake a few cookies at a time over the course of a week.  OR you can make your cookie dough balls and freeze them.  Just line a cookie sheet with wax paper, place the dough balls on the sheet so they don't touch.  Freeze thoroughly, and then transfer to a zip-top freezer bag.
Preheat oven to 350°F.
With a cookie scoop or spoon, spoon about a rounded tablespoon of dough onto a parchment-lined cookie sheet, leaving about 1 inch between cookies.
Bake at 350°F for 9-11 minutes, or until edges are browned and cookies are puffy.
Let cool on cookie sheet for 3-5 minutes before moving to a cooling rack to cool completely.
Store in an airtight container.

Makes about 5 dozen cookies