Gluten-Free, Vegan Cookie Dough!

I never thought it would be possible, but ready-to-bake (and eat raw) gluten-free vegan cookie dough exists! Whole Foods happened to carry this delightful treasure and I knew upon first glance it was something I had to try. 

First, what's in it? Ingredients include: 

• Gluten Free Flour Blend (Brown Rice, Garbanzo),
• Earth Balance® (Oil Blend [Palm Fruit, Canola and Olive Oils],
• Water, Salt,
• Less Than 2% Of Natural Flavor, Sunflower Lecithin, Lactic Acid [Non-Dairy], Annatto Extract [Color]), Organic Evaporated Cane Juice, Semi-Sweet Chocolate (Organic Cane Sugar, Unsweetened Chocolate, Cocoa Butter, Soy Lecithin [an emulsifier], Vanilla Bean Seeds), Brown Cane Sugar, Apple Sauce (Apples, Water, Ascorbic Acid), Pure Vanilla Extract, Baking Soda, Baking Powder (Monocalcium Phosphate, Sodium Bicarbonate, Corn Starch [made from nongenetically modified corn]), Sea Salt.

Overall, not too bad! Since there are no eggs, it is even possible to eat the dough raw, which is an added bonus.

However, the dough happens to lack the extra "umph" of regular cookie dough... that moment of transgression when you risk suffering from salmonella just to savor a satiating bite of raw decadence. 

Once baked, though, the cookies come out tasty, just not super sweet or gooey (probably due to lack of glue-y gluten), and perhaps, in comparison to the old Toll House days of childhood, a tad bland. 

Overall, for the convenience of a ready-to-bake product, safe for vegans and the gluten-free, I found the final product to be satisfactory and worthy of the sporadic indulgence.