Gluten Free Chewy Butter Bars ~ Not Exactly Perfect Baking!

Today I had hopes of sharing a really great gluten free, dairy free, vegan shortbread cookie recipe for our Christmas in July week!  HOWEVER, as all good plans of mice and men, this did not turn out as I had hoped.  It did turn out tasty, just not short bready.  So we soldier on and make lemonade out of our lemons.  I figured it is always good to share a failure or two when they occur because we are all human and even the best of us makes a mess out of something from time to time.

That being said, I will say these were delicious but they were more of a chewy blondie texture with a crispy top than a short bread cookie that I was going for.  That will teach me to just roll with a regular recipe when trying to make a gluten free, dairy free offering.

These are made out of a gluten free flour blend from Bob's Red Mill, some demerarra sugar and some Coconut Oil baking sticks.  The dough went together really well.  It looked just like a regular shortbread cookie, however when baked they took on another appearance.  So we are now calling these a chewy butter bar because of their chewy texture and buttery flavor.  They will get eaten.  They would be a great addition to your holiday baking if you have a loved one or friend on your list who has these specific dietary needs.

In the end, I don't think this should be attempted as I did it, but I will post the recipe on my website in case you want to give it a whirl.  I think you should do either or, but not both the gluten free flour and the coconut oil sticks.  SO you could do a regular flour and coconut oil sticks OR you could do gluten free flour and regular butter.  I think those would both be more successful than my attempt.

In the end, I learned a few valuable lessons.  I hope that you take them away from this video as I did.  Gluten free baking is not always as easy as it seems.  You can't always just sub out one type of flour for another or one type of fat for another and expect things to go swimmingly.  There are lots of other Gluten free cooks who share great information on YouTube.  One of my faves is EZ Gluten Free.  She can be found here:  http://bit.ly/2aiMTnq

I think I will leave it up to those great cooks to sort out the gluten free, dairy free, vegan recipes.  I will do my best to give them a try from time to time and hopefully we can all see great results!

I hope you enjoyed today's video, however funny, helpful or disastrous it was!  in the end, we all had a good time and I enjoyed bringing it to you!  I hope you are enjoying Christmas in July week!  We will be back tomorrow with another gift idea for you to consider!

As Always, thank you for joining me and for being a part of this awesome community on YouTube!

Happy Eating!

Get the printable recipe here:   http://bit.ly/2axyfwc

Noreen's Kitchen

 Gluten Free

Chewy Butter Bars

Ingredients

2 cups gluten free baking flour 2 cups sugar 1 cup softened butter

1/2 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Step by Step Instructions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees

Cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.

Add salt and vanilla and blend till smooth.

Add flour and combine until smooth.

Press into a 9x13 inch baking pan or a 1/4 size sheet pan.

"dock" the dough by pricking the surface of the dough all over with a fork several times.

Place in the oven and bake for 30 minutes or until the edges are slightly browned.

Remove from oven and cut into squares or bars while still in the pan.

Return to the oven for an additional 10 minutes.

Remove from oven and place on a wire rack until cooled.

Store cookies in an airtight container for up to 1 week.

NOTE:  Originally I made this recipe with both gluten free flour and coconut oil sticks in instead of regular butter.  The result was not as I had hoped.  So I recommend that you use regular butter along with gluten free flour or use regular flour along with the coconut oil stick, but not both together.

Enjoy!

You can see how I made these in my YouTube video:  http://bit.ly/2af1Tlq