Gluten-Free Vegan Orange Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients

• 100g Dairy Free Butter (I used Stork Original Baking Block)
• 75g Soft Light Brown Sugar
• 145g Gluten Free Self-Raising Flour (I used Dove's Farm)
• 1/4 teaspoon Xantham Gum (I used Dove's Farm)
• 30g Cornflour
• 1/4 teaspoon Salt
• 2 tablespoons Golden Syrup
• 1-2 tablespoons Vegan Milk (I used Almond)
• 100g Vegan Chocolate (I used Galaxy Vegan Orange Chocolate)
• 1/4-1/2 teaspoon Orange extract - Optional (I used Nielsen Massey Pure Orange Extract)

Method

1. Line two baking trays. Chop the vegan orange chocolate bar in to chunks.
2. Cream the dairy free butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
3. Add in all other ingredients in except the vegan milk, and mix until fully combined. Add the vegan milk a little at a time until the mixture reaches a firm but sticky stage (it should be slightly softer than typical cookie dough mixtures)!
4. Divide the cookie dough in to 12 portions (mine weighed 42g each!), roll in to balls, and then place on the prepared baking trays. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
5. Heat oven to 180°C (350°F) standard / 160°C (320°F) fan. Take the cookies out of the fridge and flatten them down slightly (these cookies don't spread much when baking). Bake for 11-12 minutes (note that these cookies will NOT become golden due to their use of GF flour. Take them out of the oven at 12 minutes; they're cooked. Overbaked cookies are sad cookies!). Leave your cookies to cool for a few minutes on the baking trays before removing them and leaving them to cool fully on a cooling rack. Enjoy!

Notes

• - These cookies are best eaten on the day of baking, but they keep for up to 1 week when stored in an air-tight container at room temperature!
• - If you don't need these cookies to be gluten free - Remove the Xantham Gum and switch out the gluten free self-raising flour for your usual self-raising flour!
• - I like to have one tray in the oven at a time when making biscuits/cookies. However if you choose not to and have your baking trays on different shelves of the oven, rotate them half way through cooking to help the biscuits cook evenly.