Basic Brown Rice Flour Cookies

I can't encourage you enough to bake with various grains! These are simple and the brown rice flour is a wonderful change from whole wheat pastry flour. Because brown rice does not have gluten the tapioca flour is added to help in the binding of the dough. Tapioca flour is a starch derived from cassava root. I love the texture it adds to baked goods. You can find tapioca flour in health food stores or in most grocery stores in their "natural food" section. It is fairly inexpensive. Go out on a limb and give these cookies a try. I believe you will NOT be disappointed. Kids will gobble these up without a second thought (especially if chocolate is added). They make a healthy snack and almost guilt-free!

1 14 cup brown rice flour
1/2 tapioca flour
1/2 cup nuts, oven roasted and ground into a powder (place nuts (I used pecans and almonds) on baking sheet and place in a 350 degree oven for about 5 minutes. Remove nuts and place in a small blender (I use our Magic Bullet) and grind into a powder)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1/3 cup oil of choice (I used 3 tablespoons butter and 3 tablespoons of safflower oil)
3/4 cup maple syrup
1 tablespoon vanilla
chocolate chips to your liking (optional, but necessary in my opinion)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine all the dry ingredients. Combine all the wet ingredients. Combine the wet with the dry, mix. Drop the dough by the tablespoon on to a cookie sheet. Bake for 12 - 15 minutes, or slightly longer for a crispier cookie. Enjoy!

Note: This last time I made this recipe (the batch pictured above) I realized I only had 1/2 cup of brown rice flour left. So I added 1/2 cup brown rice flour, 1/4 cup millet flour, 1/4 cup oat flour and 1/4 cup kamut flour (I love combining flours!). The cookies were delicious. You really can't go to wrong when you have a good recipe in the first place.