GF Night with GFs

(Gluten Free Night with Girl Friends)

Last night I had dinner with Meg and Julie. I've known both of them for many, many years (since middle school and high school) and recently we've started meeting up for dinner every few months, which I love. Its so nice to be reconnected with them and we always have a lot of fun together!

Meg recently cut gluten out of her diet, so it was an evening of gluten-free foods. Julie brought some red wine and snacks (veggies with kalamata hummus, pistachios, and baked peas). Meg made an amazing dinner: Mexican lasagna casserole with Mexican baked rice. I'm hoping she'll post the recipe on her blog so I can make it at home! 

For dessert I was going to make these amazing peanut butter and dark chocolate truffles that I found a recipe for, but Trader Joe's just recently discontinued their peanut flour, so that was out. I'm really disappointed that it was discontinued - I'd been eying it for months but never got around to buying it! So instead I made flourless double-chocolate nut cookies.

These are monster-sized cookies! The edges are crispy, but once you bite into them the insides are chewy and very chocolatey! I bet these would make a mean ice cream sandwich. The original recipe is Martha's, but I made several changes based on what sounded good to me. 

In a large bowl, whisk together sugar, cocoa and salt.

Stir in chocolate and nuts.

Add egg whites and stir until just incorporated. I didn't think this would ever be enough liquid to wet all of the dry ingredients, but without any flour this worked out really well!

Drop dough by 1/4 cupfuls, 3 inches apart, onto two parchment-lined baking sheets. I added slivered almonds to one sheet of the cookies.

Bake 25 minutes at 325 degrees, rotating sheets halfway through.

Transfer sheets to wire racks and let cookies cool completely.

Flourless Double-Chocolate Nut Cookies (original recipe here)

Makes 12 cookies

Ingredients:

• 3 cups confectioners sugar
• 3/4 cup Dutch-process unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/2 tsp coarse salt
• 5 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped (I used about 5 ounces milk chocolate chips and 6 dark chocolate kisses, chopped)
• 1 cup roasted, salted peanuts, chopped
• 4 large egg whites, room temperature
• couple tbsp slivered almonds, for topping

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. In a large bowl, whisk together sugar, cocoa, and salt. Stir in chocolate and peanuts. Add egg whites and stir just until incorporated (do not overmix).
2. Drop dough by 1/4 cupfuls, 3 inches apart, onto two parchment-lined baking sheets. Bake until cookie tops are dry and cracked, about 25 minutes, rotating sheets halfway through. Transfer sheets to wire racks and let cookies cool completely.