Why did my vegan gluten-free cookies turn out tough?

I want a cake-like cookie, almost like a whoopie pie, but I need vegan and gluten-free. I played around with a banana cake recipe today involving multi-purpose flour, tapioca starch, baking powder, bananas, light brown sugar, vegan butter, and flax seed/water mixture (in place of the egg). The flavor was great but the texture was not what I wanted. The insides were cake-y (though a little packy), but the outsides turned out tough, especially on the bottoms. What would have caused tough cookies?

a Whole Foods Market Customer
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1 Comment

Anitalectric
Anitalectric May 10, 2012
I would not recommend a banana cake for whoopie pies. Unless you are using a specialized method (like ground freeze dried banana slices added to the dry ingredients, which could also yield irregular results), banana bread is sticky and has an inconsistent texture...which is fabulous in loaf form but might not yield the best whoopie pies.

The best batter for vegan whoopie pies is pumpkin, or chocolate. I don't know why, but for some reason I have never seen any other flavor made. LOL

I would recommend finding a very simple gluten free pumpkin cake recipe. I would recommend adding extra flax paste to the batter (ground flax plus warm water blended together...there are recipes for this out there). I would also recommend chilling the batter in a plastic bag for at least 2-3 hours before piping out your circles and baking them.

Also, be sure to take them out of the oven around the same time you would cookies, and not a cake. Ideal temp would be between 350 to 375. Another common reason for cookies (or whoopie pies, in this case) getting overcooked on the bottom is the pan you are using. Double stack your sheet pan/cookie sheet inside another one and then put in the oven, if that is the problem. This will slow down the cooking on the bottom.

Hope this helps!
 
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