Continuing with our recent theme of gluten-free cooking, I concocted this ridiculously named, but delicious, recipe for chocolate chip cookies.  These started out as a tasty recipe for 100% buckwheat chocolate chip cookies from The Little Loaf, which were really good, but I’m not one to let a recipe go unaltered. On the second batch, I added in some oat flour (well, oats ground up in our coffee grinder) and whole quick oats, which made for a softer and chewier cookie.  You might already know my opinion on chocolate and brown sugar together (it’s awesome), and adding the nuttiness of a little browned butter only makes them better.  And since these aren’t made with any refined grains, I can’t feel bad about eating them every day, right?

I should mention that this isn’t really a recipe you can throw together in a hurry when you’re craving chocolate.  Because there’s no glutinous flour, the dough ought to refrigerate overnight.  The flavors really blend together, and the oats have time to absorb some liquid, which helps the cookies bake up much better.  It takes some patience, but the moist, chewy cookies are totally worth it in the end.  I’ve just been keeping a bowl of  dough in the fridge all week, and popping a couple cookies in the oven when we’re ready for a snack.

Oatmeal-Buckwheat Chocolate Chip Cookies – makes about 2 dozen

13 T. butter, softened (you will end up browning 6 T.)
3/4 c. buckwheat flour
1/2 c. plus 2 T. oat flour (or rolled oats, ground in a spice/coffee grinder or food processor)
1 c. rolled or quick (not instant) oats
1 t. baking soda
pinch salt
1/2 c.  white sugar
3/4 c.  lightly packed brown sugar
1 whole egg
1 egg yolk
1 t. vanilla
1 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Brown 6 T. butter in a small saucepan over medium heat, swirling often, until it turns golden and smells nutty.  Remove from heat and pour into a small bowl to cool (or else the hot pan may keep cooking the butter past the point of goodness).

In a large bowl, cream the remaining butter with both sugars until fluffy.  Add the whole egg, egg yolk, vanilla, and cooled brown butter, and mix until combined.  Stir in the flours, oats, salt, and baking soda and mix until combined, then add the chocolate chips.  Cover and chill overnight.  When you are ready to bake them, preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Drop dough by tablespoonfuls onto a silicon or parchment covered baking sheet, and bake for 10 minutes, until the edges are lightly browned and slightly firm.  Cool on the pan for 5 minutes or so before moving them to a cooling rack.  I hope you like these as much as we do!