Gluten-Free Vegan Peanut Butter Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

Store-bought gluten-free cookies are about as tasty as a mouthful of cardboard.  And I miss the kitchen smells wafting from a pan of freshly-baked cookies.   Cry no more.... the name says it all.  Honestly, they are amazing.  I have made them before, but always struggled with an acceptable egg replacer.  Lately I have experimented with using ground chia & water, and it has turned out to be the secret ingredient for cookies.  Hooray!
You will notice there is no xanthan gum - not a typo.  Oat flour is very close to wheat flour in consistency, so it doesn't seem to need any.  Enjoy the recipe.  


½ cup Earth Balance vegan shortening
¾ cup natural peanut butter
¾ cup light brown sugar
1 tbsp ground chia seeds & 3 tbsp water; combine and let sit for 10 minutes
1 tsp vanilla extract
1½ cups Lara's wheat-free whole grain oat flour (available at Choices Market)
2 tsps baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
½ cups wheat-free rolled oats 
1 cup dark chocolate chips or chunks of dark chocolate (at least 75% cacao)

Preheat your oven to 350°F

In a separate bowl, combine the flour, oats, baking powder and soda. With a mixer, cream butter, sugar, and peanut butter together. Blend chia seed mixture and vanilla into butter mixture.  Add dry ingredients slowly to mixture. Fold in chocolate chips by hand. Place cookies of your desired size onto cookie sheet. I squish slightly with a fork.  Bake on parchment-lined cookie sheet for 15 minutes or until done.

Cool on cookie sheet for 2-3 minutes before transferring to cooling rack.
Makes about 40 medium-sized cookies.

---