This is a great base cookie recipe and the condensed milk helps to make a lovely, gooey, chewy cookie.

If you don’t like pecans, you can substitute with fruit of your choice. But please keep the chocolate!

Makes 18–20

150g (6oz) butter/margarine

75g (3oz) caster sugar

225g (9oz) Denise’s Delicious flour blend (see below)

2 tsp GF baking powder

¼ tsp guar gum

90ml (3floz) condensed milk

75g (3oz) milk chocolate chips

40g (1½oz) unsalted, chopped pecan nuts

1 Preheat the oven to gas mark five/190°C/375°F. Grease a baking tray lightly and cover with baking parchment.

2 Cream the butter/margarine and sugar in a medium bowl using an electric mixer.

3 Sieve the flour, baking powder and guar gum in another bowl and set aside.

4 Add the condensed milk to the butter mixture and mix well. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture and combine. Stir in the chocolate chips and the nuts.

5 Using an ice cream scoop, spoon the mix out on to the baking tray, leaving plenty of space between the cookies to allow them to spread.

6 Bake for 10–15 minutes until golden brown.

7 Remove from the oven and allow to cool on the tray for five minutes before removing to a wire cooling tray. Store in an airtight container.

Denise’s Delicious flour blend

Makes approximately 850g (2lb) flour blend

250g (10oz) rice flour

25g (1oz) tapioca flour

275g (11oz) potato flour

275g (11oz) corn flour

13g (½oz) teff flour

1 tsp gluten-free (GF) baking powder

1 tsp guar gum

1 Sieve all the ingredients into a bowl and mix well.

Recipes by Denise O’ Callaghan from her book Recipes from my Gluten-Free Kitchen (Mercier Press). Denise is the founder of Denise’s Delicious Gluten-Free Bakery, whose product range is available across Ireland from the major supermarkets, artisan food stores and the online store at www.delicious.ie.

Denise appeared in Neven Maguire’s RTÉ series, Healthy Home Chef, demonstrating gluten-free baking. She also appears regularly on TV3’s Ireland AM.