Almond Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies {Gluten-Free}

Everyone, it seems, is on an endless search to find the perfect chocolate chip cookie. Crunchy or soft, chewy or melt-in-your-mouth, each person has a personal preference with a set of criteria to match. There is a reason why there are twelve million hits when you search for the "best chocolate chip cookies"—like a soul mate, we all want to find "the one." While the back of the Nestlé Tollhouse chocolate chip package and the New York Times' cookie recipe are among the top, most popular contenders, my cookie preferences fall into a much different camp.

Have you found your perfect chocolate chip cookie recipe?

My mother's homemade cookies consisted of store-bought frozen cookie dough, already packaged to go from bag to baking sheet without needing a single utensil. To be fair, she did make her daughters cookies from scratch occasionally, but the frozen cookies are the ones we remember and hold in our hearts. When my sister and I head home over long weekends or holidays, she always has a package in the freezer waiting for us. It does not matter that I am a proficient baker and could make a batch of cookies with my eyes closed, these are the cookies I look forward to most. Nostalgia has a sneaky way of suppressing any qualms I may have about store-bought baked goods.

Truthfully, I believe the qualities of the cookies we grow up with are the same as the cookies we prefer once when we grow older. My grandmother makes delightfully crunchy cookies that baptize the kitchen table with cookie crumbs each time a bite is taken. My dad loves these cookies, calling them "milk dunkers." My sister and I make help to make a further case for this claim.

When I set out to make a batch of cookies last weekend, I did not intend to create my boyfriend's perfect chocolate chip cookie, but somehow it happened. I had almond butter in the cupboard and, inspired by these flourless peanut butter cookies, I played around with a few ingredients. The batter is a bit oily from the almond butter, but the nut oil crafts the most delightfully chewy cookie once it bakes. After stealing two straight from the oven, my boyfriend asked me what was in them, astonished at how unexpectedly perfect he found them. When I told them they were gluten-free, he refused to believe me, claiming the texture was too similar to a traditional chocolate chip cookie.

He ate six more before the day came to an end. I have already purposely filed this recipe away for the future.

Almond Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies are fantastically chewy and, shockingly, gluten-free. Almond butter forms the base of the cookies, though it adds only a subtle flavor (if any) to the final product. While sugar sweetens the cookies, a pinch of salt really helps to bring out a contrast of flavors. I prefer to use miniature chocolate chips because they provide a little chocolate to every bite, but larger chocolate chips will work just as well. These cookies are something special, trust me.

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From the Archives: Chocolate Chip Raisin Oatmeal Cookies

Inventing and developing new recipes has become a weekend pleasure for me. Creating wild combinations and indulging in my favorite ingredients is a perk of the job. Even though I love sharing original recipes with you, every so often I find myself looking back through the archives with nostalgia, wishing I could bring back the magic of sharing my favorites with you once more. Then I realized, why couldn't I?

With a spruced up look and a pleasant reminder, maybe you will fall in love with them all over again. While a few archived recipes may pop up from time to time, you must not worry. I do not plan to stop playing with my food any time soon.

This recipe for Chocolate Chip Raisin Oatmeal Cookies was among the first handful I posted on this website. The recipe is not of my own invention, but the credit can instead be attributed to my wonderful university physics professor and his wife. As with any great recipe, there is usually a story behind it. This is no exception.

While getting my degree in physics, the physics department of the university held an annual spring picnic to bring together the students and professors for an afternoon of fun. Along with a tower of board games, there was a smoking grill and a table spread with salads, potato chips, and these cookies. Each year, rain or shine, these cookies found their way into the spread and, soon after, found their way into my heart. I would eat three or four in an afternoon's time; more than once, I wrapped one up in a napkin to take home. I had fallen in love with theses cookies and made sure my professor (and everyone there) knew it.

It was the third picnic when my professor casually revealed that the cookies had a secret. The cookies, he whispered, had no added sugar. Naturally, I did not believe him at first, skeptical that a cookie could taste so positively delightful without sugar or a sugar substitute, but the truth was staring me in the face. In many ways, this simple fact made these cookies that much more precious. After prodding him for the recipe for at least a dozen times, he told me to be patient and that the time would come.

On my graduation day, he congratulated me, shook my hand, and gave me a small sheet of paper with the typed up recipe, entrusting me with cookies I treasured. Every time I make these cookies I am reminded of those spring picnics and all of the memories that come with it. By trusting this recipe with you, I hope that you will bake and share these cookies with the people you love, creating memories of your own.

Chocolate Chip Raisin Oatmeal Cookies are thick, chewy, and have no added sugar. The cookies are made with oatmeal and an abundance of chocolate chips and raisins. While the batter isn't sweet, the add-ins are delightfully so. Do not fret! This cookie will please even the most sugar-happy children. The cookies are formed with a 1/4 cup measuring cup and will keep their shape while they bake; they will not spread. I adore these cookies for both their unique texture and characteristics and I hope you will too.

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Lavender Lemon Shortbread

The sun finally feels like it is beginning to come out of hibernation, indulging in a few more precious moments with me each day. After spending a winter in England, I realized just how dependent I am on her warm rays. The cloudy English skies and brilliant fogs, while a novelty at first, grew to become oppressive. I soon felt as withered as the waning plant I kept in my windowsill; the plant turning a shade of brown as it slowly tossed its leaves to the floor. Each day the sun stayed hidden behind the clouds, my energy drained ever so slightly from my limbs, taking a small part of my spirit with it.

The sun, I have discovered, is the cure to the simplest case of winter blues.

As a respite from trudging through foot high snow drifts and scraping the frost off frozen windshields, the sun brought the feeling of spring the last few days. With temperatures above freezing for the first time in months, I shed my winter coat and walked around in a simple sweatshirt. Though it was still far to cold outside for such antics, I wanted to feel the warmth of the sun on my face, to absorb the glow deep into my skin, to replenish the energy a winter of bone chilling temperatures took away.

The sun's rare gift of spring will quickly decline back into winter, but I feel recharged, ready to put back on my mittens and wrap a scarf back around my neck.

With a feeling of spring in the air, I was taken back briefly to the flavors of last summer and a resplendent glass of my summer drink of choice—Lavender Lemonade. Even though it is too soon to dream of enjoying a glass while basking in the hot summer sun, I could not resist but bring the flavors together in a new form.

Shortbread is a clean slate in terms of flavor. The buttery, sandy texture of shortbread, while lovely on its own, lends itself well to simple mix-ins. The zest of a couple lemons and the subtle scent of lavender brought a feeling of spring into my kitchen, the aroma hanging in the air long after the cookies emerged from the oven.

Lavender Lemon Shortbread brings a bright, refreshing flavor to a winter's afternoon. The classic sandy texture of shortbread meets lemon zest and lavender buds. The lemon is the predominant flavor while the lavender imparts a subtle tone to the overall profile. To add extra sweetness, the cookies are rolled with lemon-scented sugar before heading into the oven. These shortbread cookies are best accompanied with a warm beverage and visions of spring.

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