Gluten-Free Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip

Is it wrong to be thinking about Christmas cookies in October? Every year holiday decorations seem to appear in stores earlier and earlier. I’m always that person who complains and shakes her head. Why can’t we enjoy fall and give Halloween and Thanksgiving their due before Christmas barges in and takes over? But then again, I don’t have kids yet, so Halloween passes by without much notice and for me Thanksgiving is more about the whole meal, so I’m giving myself a pass. It’s ok to be thinking about Christmas cookies right now.

When I lived in the Bay Area, my friend Debbie did an annual cookie exchange the first week of December, so I had to be thinking about these things in advance — what would I bring? So even though I’ve moved away, I’m still thinking about cookies before Halloween.

The two old standbys of my childhood are a given — Betty Crocker’s Snickerdoodles and Chocolate Crinkles, and in fact, I probably did these for my first cookie exchange. And I like Bobby Flay’s Triple Chocolate Cookies that came from Food Network’s 12 Days of Cookies 4-5 years ago.

But I always like to try 2 or 3 new ones each year. Yesterday, I went for a gluten-free peanut butter chocolate chip from Parsley, Sage, Desserts and Line Drives. They don’t scream Christmas, but I’m just getting warmed up.

I was amazed at how much they actually rose, just using 1 egg and a bit of baking soda. I won’t say they converted me to gluten-free baked goods (it’s not a requirement around here), but if you’ve got to go gluten-free, peanut butter is a good choice. I only had mini chocolate chips, so I used a 1/2 cup. And I used chunky peanut butter…the peanuttier, the better.

I also made some regular oatmeal chocolate chip with cranberries, but they weren’t anything memorable…so I’m looking for ideas. What cookies will you add to your baking line-up this holiday season?