Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

Makes 3 dozen

Quinoa flour makes these cookies chewy and scrumptious.  For last-minute cookies, keep a batch of prerolled unbaked cookies in your freezer for up to one month.

Ingredients:

2¼ cups quinoa flour (or 1¼ cups quinoa flour and 1 cup all-purpose flour)

½ tsp baking soda

1 cup butter, softened

¾ cup white or cane sugar

¾ cup packed brown sugar

1 tsp salt

2 tsp pure vanilla extract

2 large eggs

1½ cups semisweet chocolate chips

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350°F.  Grease a large baking sheet or line with parchment paper.

Mix the flour and baking soda in a small bowl and set aside.

In a large bowl, blend the butter and sugars until smooth and fluffy.  Add the salt, vanilla and eggs and mix until well blended.  Stir in the flour mixture and blend well.  Mix in the chocolate chips.

Roll the dough into 1-inch balls and place 2 inches apart on the baking sheet.

Bake on the center oven rack for 8 to 10 minutes.  The cookies will be puffy and soft when removed from the oven, but will flatten when cooled.  Allow the cookies to sit for 1 minute before removing from the pan to a rack to cool completely.  Shore in a sealed container in the refrigerator for up to 1 week or freeze for up to 1 month.

Recipe submitted by Beth Harris from the cookbook “Quinoa, the Everyday Superfood 365” by Patricia Green and Carolyn Hemming.  More information on the cookbook and on quinoa can be found at their website:  www.quinoa365.com

Beth writes:

This recipe is the most recent of my quinoa baking trials and they are super yummy!  They are chewy and sweet.  I especially like the fact that I can send my kids a treat in their lunch knowing they are getting nutrition from it!  I used part quinoa flour and part unbleached flour, but it can be gluten free if you use all quinoa flour.