Gluten-Free Chokeberry Oatmeal Bars + Recipe

Today I made Chokeberry Oatmeal Bars for a Memorial Day cookout.  These bar cookies are adapted from the Quaker Oatmeal Vanishing Oatmeal Raisin Cookies recipe.  Substitutions for those who use regular wheat flour are included!  If you don't have access to chokeberries (which are really cool and easy to grow!) you can use blueberries instead.  


If you're interested in growing native fruits, like chokeberries - check out Oikos Tree Crops - they sell two varieties of chokeberries (my parents have the 'Nero' Black Chokeberry).   I used up the last of my frozen chokeberries with this recipe, so I'll have to wait til late summer/early fall to harvest more from my parents yard!

Chokeberry Oatmeal Cookies (Gluten-Free)
Makes about 28 cookies    

Ingredients:    
1 cup butter, softened   
1 cup brown sugar, firmly packed   
½  cup white sugar    
2 eggs    
1 teaspoon vanilla    
½ cup millet flour*   
½ cup sweet sorghum flour*  
½ cup quinoa flour*   
1 teaspoon xanthan gum**   
1 teaspoon baking soda    
2 teaspoon cinnamon    
½ teaspoon ginger    
½  teaspoon salt    
3 cups gluten-free oats, uncooked***
1 ½ cups chokeberries    
½ cup candied ginger, chopped into small pieces    

Directions: Heat oven to 350°F.  Beat together butter and sugars until creamy.  Add eggs and vanilla; beat well.  Add flours, xanthan gum, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger and salt; mix well.  Stir in oats, chokeberries and candied ginger; mix well.  

To make cookies: roll dough into small balls (roughly the size of a ping pong ball), flatten slightly on an prepared cookie sheet.  Bake 15 minutes or until golden brown.  Cool 1 minute on cookie sheet; remove to wire rack.  

To make bar cookies: spread dough into a lightly greased 9x13 inch baking dish and bake for about 40 minutes.

*Use 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour if not making gluten-free.
**Omit if not making gluten-free.
***Oats do not have to be gluten-free if you are baking with wheat flour.

These cookies are great as regular cookies, they end up pretty big and chewy!  But I was enjoying a lazy Sunday morning yesterday and didn't feel like rolling the cookies.  The bar cookies hold their shape pretty well and our non gluten-free friends enjoyed them at the cookout!

Enjoy and Happy Memorial Day!