Gluten Free Gingerbread Cookies

"Oh No!  Please don't eat me!"  Ceci helped with this one, makes me laugh.

I love holiday time!  I was so fortunate to grow up with some wonderful family traditions, like decorating gingerbread houses with our family friends.  My brother and I would so look forward to this event every year, because we got to see our friends, the Arndt family, and eat candy till we burst.  Another favorite holiday tradition was the Safeway Bakery Cookie Bake, with my dad's entire family.  My grandma worked for the Safeway Bakery and once a year the company shut down the bread making process for a day and invited all the worker's families in to bake cookies.  They sold dough (glutinous of course) in 10 lb lumps of either sugar or gingerbread, and gave you HUGE cookie sheets to run them through their ovens.  It was fantastic, even if there was gluten, I just loved being around everyone and the smell of delicious cookies and holiday music filling the air of this enormous factory.

Now that I'm grown and have my own family, and live far away from my parents, I work very hard to build traditions for us.  We are so lucky to have wonderful friends who love to be a part of our traditions.  I have been doing a gingerbread decorating party for a few years now, and really enjoy it.  Last year I made the houses out of Gluten Free Gingerbread and was sorely disappointed!  So this year I went back to making the houses out of cardboard, it's so much easier!  I figure that no one actually eats the house in the end because it's so stale and awful, so why not start with a sturdier easier method.  I felt guilty for making the houses cardboard, and then made a two batches of Gluten Free Gingerbread cookies to send home with our guests.  Plus it gives something else to decorate at the party besides the houses.

I couldn't be happier with the way the cookies came out, I prefer soft, thick cookies, and these are perfectly spiced with a touch of sweetness, and are even more delicious when you add powdered sugar icing on top.  I make my icing with orange juice so it adds a citrus flavor to complement the perfect spiciness of the cookies.  I also crumbled the cookies over my bowl of egg nog ice cream last night and was very happy.  I think I would eat them for breakfast too, if I didn't have a 3 year old watching my every move, being responsible doesn't always taste good.  Ceci loves the cookies too, sneaking nibbles of the dough while we are cutting the cookies.  She really enjoys the decorating part too, I love that she just wants to sit and decorate for so long, it's wonderful, I think she has more patience for it than I do some times.

I do have to warn that I wouldn't use this recipe to make a gingerbread house, it's too soft of a dough to hold up to the structural demands of decorating.  Plus it tastes delicious and who wants to waste that on a house that no one eats.

Can you guess which one Ceci decorated?  

Gluten Free Gingerbread Cookies

1/3   Cup Soy Flour
2/3   Cup Brown Rice Flour
1      Cup Sweet Rice Flour
1      Cup Tapioca Starch
1 1/2 tsp Xanthan Gum
1 1/2 tsp Baking Powder
3/4    tsp Baking Soda
1/4    tsp Salt
1       Tbs Ground Ginger
1 3/4 tsp Ground Cinnamon
1/4    tsp Ground Cloves

6      Tbs Unsalted Butter (softened)
3/4   Cup Brown Sugar (packed)
1      Egg
1/2   Cup Dark Molasses
2      tsp Vanilla

Preheat oven to 375 degrees (F), and prepare 2 baking sheets lined with silpat or parchment paper and set aside.  Pick out cookie cutter shapes to use.

Wisk together dry ingredients in a mixing bowl and set aside.  Cream Butter and Brown sugar on medium speed in a stand mixer until combined.  Add egg molasses and vanilla and beat until incorporated, scraping down the sides of the bowl if needed.
Gradually add in dry ingredients until well blended and smooth.  Divide dough in half, wrap in plastic and allow to rest at room temp for 2-8 hours.  Dough will be incredibly soft at first and will firm up when left out.
Working on a lightly floured surface roll out one ball of dough to 1/4 inch thick and cut out cookies, place the cookies on the prepared baking sheets and bake in oven for 5-7 minutes, depending on the size of the cookies, and preferred doneness of cookies.  Gather the dough scraps and re-roll and cut until all the dough is used, or dough is to tough to roll out.  Repeat rolling, cutting and baking for the second ball of dough.
Allow cookies to cool completely and then frost and decorate with Powdered Sugar Icing Recipe.  After the Icing hardens you can pack these cookies up into pretty boxes and give to friends, just remember to separate layers of cookies with wax paper so they don't stick to one another.

Powdered Sugar Icing

2   Cups Powdered Sugar
1 1/2 Tbs liquid (milk or orange juice, I like the flavor of orange juice with the cookies)

Mix in a bowl until smooth.  Adjust consistency as needed by adding more powdered sugar or liquid.  Add food coloring and place into a piping bag, or a zip top bag with a bottom corner cut off.  Decorate cookies as desired, and ENJOY!

Gluten Free Oatmeal Cookies with golden raisins

Soft and Chewy Gluten Free Oatmeal Golden Raisin Cookies (extra large size cookies)

A few months ago I had a serious craving for oatmeal raisin cookies, just had to have them kind of craving!  Unfortunately the only recipe I had was one from my mom's childhood that she loves.  Only problem with that is that Mom and I have serious fundamental disagreements on the type of cookies that qualify as perfect.  Mom loves thin, crispy, and crunchy, I prefer soft, chewy, and thick cookies, in fact borderline undercooked is my real preference.  I had to dig through a few cook books to find something I could work with, but I found one and started manipulating away.

I was heading over to Sheri's house for dinner, which usually means I bring dessert, so it was a perfect fit.  I was craving the oatmeal cookies and needed to bring something sweet to eat.  I knew I hit a home run with them when I had just arrived around 3pm and Sheri was already digging into the zip lock bag I had brought.  I was certain I had done really well when she didn't send the left overs home with me.

inside of extra large oatmeal raisin cookies

I couldn't have been happier with the result of the cookies, chewy, soft, sweet, fluffy, down right perfect!!  I would make these everyday if I could I love them!  Ceci loves them now too, the last time I made them she was right there next to me digging into the raw dough.  Maybe she is my daughter after all, sometimes I question, like when she eats ketchup on carrots and quesadillas, then she redeems herself by eating pinches of brown sugar out of the jar, or licking the rubber spatula clean of the brownie batter.

My new secret was to use my Cuisinart stick blender with the food processor attachment to pulverize the golden raisins.  I really enjoyed having the raisins chopped into tiny bits, it gave a beautiful texture to the cookie, and spread that sweetness more evenly throughout the cookie than the traditional whole raisins.  Ceci loved to push the button on the stick blender too, I love hearing that squeal and laugh as she sort of freaks out every time she pulses the button.

I hope you enjoy making and eating these deliciously spicy and sweet cookies as I do.  Unless you think cookies should be thin and crispy in that case I will have to work on converting the recipe from my mom's childhood.

Gluten Free Oatmeal Cookies with Golden Raisins

1    Cup Unsalted Butter
1    Cup Brown Sugar, packed
2    Eggs
2 1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract
1/4 Cup Soy Flour
1/2 Cup Brown Rice Flour
1/2 Cup Sweet Rice Flour
1/2 Cup Tapioca Starch
1/2 tsp Xanthan Gum
3/4 tsp Baking Soda
3/4 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Salt
1    tsp Cinnamon
1/2 tsp Nutmeg
1    Cup Golden Raisins (finely chopped)
3 1/2 Cups Rolled Oats

In a stand mixer cream butter and brown sugar, add eggs and vanilla, mix until well blended.

In a separate mixing bowl combine all dry ingredients together.  Add dry ingredients into mixer with wet ingredients and slowly mix together, batter will be really wet looking at this point.

Using a food processor or finely chop golden raisins until nearly pulverized.  Fold chopped Raisins and Oats to cookie batter in the mixer and blend together until well combined.

Line a cookie sheet with silpat sheet or parchment paper, scoop cookies onto sheet by the tablespoon full for "normal" size cookies.  Or use a large cookie/cupcake scooper to make extra large cookies.

"normal" size gluten free oatmeal raisin cookies on a parchment lined baking sheet

Bake in a 350 degree (F) oven, 10-12 minutes for "normal" size cookies, or 18 minutes for extra large size cookies.

Place on a wire rack to cool.

"normal" size cookies fresh out of the oven

Gluten Free Cookie Swap and Gingerbread Houses

From top to bottom, left to right (GF Sugar Cookies, GF Pinoli Cookies, GF Chocolate Pudding Cookies,
GF Chocolate Peppermint Cookies, GF Coconut Macaroons, GF Vanilla Meringue)

A few years ago I hosted a Gingerbread house decorating party, like the ones my mom and her friend Sue would throw for us when we were kids.  That party was a great time, so last year I decided to throw a cookie swap instead because I didn't think I could make gingerbread houses for everyone with a busy toddler in the house.  The cookie swap was so much fun, we sat around chatting, having wine, and decorating sugar cookies.

This year I wanted to have a gluten free cookie swap, and I eventually got brave enough to produce two gluten free gingerbread houses for decorating.  The houses were intended for Ceci and her best buddy Brodie to decorate, which I knew would last about 10 minutes and then us parents got to play with all the candy.  We were able to also include the cookie swap as well, so I am left with dozens of cookies, a huge bag of candy, and a decorated gingerbread house.

Mountain of supplies to start cookie making process

I have decided I will not share or post the gingerbread recipe I used to make the houses, I was so disappointed with the result, I can't reccomend anyone else use it.  I also commited a few mistakes, so I shouldn't entirely blame the dough, but still there are easier ways.  I think next year we will go back to my strategy from 3 years ago, cardboard houses!  It's simple, sturdy and effective, just be wary of the boxes you use to create them.  You may think it's an odd suggestion, but consider, simply picking out the style of house you like, cut it out of the cardboard and hot glue it together, and you are ready to decorate.  Now to describe the gingerbread version, find a recipe, get ingredients, make dough, chill dough, roll out dough, cut out pieces, bake pieces, cool pieces, let pieces harden, reshape pieces that may have mutated during baking, make molten sugar, try not to burn yourself, race to dip pieces in molten sugar and put together, still trying not to burn yourself, try not to curse when you start breaking pieces or they don't fit together right, pray the whole thing doesn't collapse and then take a breath!  Did you get all that?  See why I'm considering revisiting the cardboard next year.  And lets face it who actually eats the house in the end, seriously, stale rock hard gingerbread?   There are a good many things I would prefer to consume before that.

That said, the houses turned out great, and so much fun to decorate, Ceci made a pretty serious attempt to decorate, I think it was only because she got to eat "Chocolate Chippies" during the process.  Sneaky little monkey!  I can't wait for next year when I can get another 2 minutes worth of decorating out of her.

For the cookie swap, abundance doesn't even begin to describe what happened!  I think the final count was 6 different types of cookies, everyone of them delicious and gluten free!  I made, coconut macaroons, sugar cookies, and chocolate peppermint cookies.  Sheri brought pinoli cookies and some chocolate pudding cookies made with gf bisquick, and Marlene brought meranges.  Seriously, I'm going to be in a sugar coma when this is over.  And I'm already planning for next year, because I can't wait!

Coconut Macaroons

One of my favorite cookies growing up, it was one of the few things my mom could find commercially made so it was a rare treat to have a store bought cookie.  That sounds so backwards, a kid getting excited to have a store bought cookie, but it did make me feel a bit normal that I could have something at the store, never mind how happily spoiled I was to always have home made cookies.  I didn't learn to make these until 2 years ago when I found a recipe in Better Homes and Gardens Magazine, inspiring me to make macaroons for myself.  I was very displeased with the resulting cookies from that recipe and have spent the last two years tweaking the recipe to my preferences.  I'm now very happy with the cookies that  I create from this recipe and often get compliments for them, I get even more complements when I drizzle them with chocolate.  Yummm...

Some words of advice when making these, egg whites are incredibly temperamental, and need lots of attention.  It's not a good idea to make these cookies during the Long Island summers when the humidity is unbearable, the eggs just don't set up correctly.  And now in the winter I had to coax them a little with a warm damp towel wrapped around the base of my kitchenaid stainless steel bowl, and this is after I warmed the bowl it self.  Did I mention we keep our house unreasonably cold in the winter?  If you don't then maybe the eggs won't be so upset with you.

Coconut Macaroons

2  Egg Whites
1  tsp Vanilla extract
1/4 tsp Cream of Tartar
1/8 tsp Salt
1/2 Cup Sugar
1  14 oz package of flaked Coconut

Preheat oven to 325 degrees (F).  Line 1 large cookie sheet with parchment or use a silpat.  In a large mixing bowl beat egg whites, vanilla, and cream of tartar on high speed until soft peaks form (tips curl when beater is pulled out).  Add salt, and then sugar 1 Tablespoon at a time, beating until stiff peaks form (tips stand straight when beater is pulled out).  Fold in coconut

Using a small cookie scoop, drop coconut mixture in mounds on prepared cookie sheets.  Place in the oven and bake 20-25 min, leave in oven and turn oven off.  Let cookies dry in oven for  10-12 min, then remove from oven and transfer to a wire rack to cool.

To drizzle with chocolate, melt 1/2 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips in the microwave, or a double boiler.  Place macaroons on wax paper and dip a spoon into the chocolate and wave over the top of the cookies until chocolate is used up.  You can also dip the macaroons into the chocolate if you prefer, you'll just need to melt more chocolate.

Store in airtight container at room temperature for 3 days, or freeze up to 3 months.

Gluten-Free Chocolate Decadence Pecan Cookies

Amazingly good!

I saw this post Cookies Everyone will Love, the other day on my facebook news feed, when I opened it up and saw the first cookie picture I was so excited.  I used to get a similar cookie from Whole Foods bakery that was so delicious, but I don't go to Whole Foods very often these days.  The biggest problem with the whole foods cookies is that it is not a dedicated GF bakery so even with my lack of sensitivity to gluten right now I still worry that some uneducated person knocked some wheat flour into the mixer.  Plus why spend money when you can make it even more delicious at home.

One great thing about making these cookies was, I had all the ingredients in the cabinet, a few months ago I had made a Flourless Chocolate Cake from Food Network that called for bittersweet chocolate (I'll discuss that in another post, suffice to say it was incredibly delicious).  I did have to buy the pecans, but with the holidays coming they will be in good use around this house.

I'm pretty spastic when it comes to reading recipes off the computer but I really wanted these cookies, so I started making them.  Thank Goodness my husband and in-laws were home because I had to send Ceci away while I was making them.  The steps got a bit convoluted and I was really stressed out while making them, and having a toddler eating raw flour sitting on the counter does not lower my stress level. One thing I will change in the future is to toast the nuts prior to making the cookies, instead of trying to manage them while working the cookie batter.

 I have simply tidied up the formatting of the previous post so it is a bit more fluid to read, I also looked at the original recipe from LemonPi and gained a little inspiration.  I tried to simplify the mixing process to exclude the double boiler, but was unsuccessful, the double boiler stays, sorry.  I was really hopeful to be able to a few less dishes.

To give you an idea of what you are headed for when you finish making these cookies, they can only be described as the brownie of the cookie world, and the perfect brownie at that!  There is a light crispy outside crust, protecting an amazing chewy tender inside, and filled with toasted pecans,  they are perfectly delicious!

I can just finished a second batch today and it was much easier to make the second time around, I also used coffee instead of vanilla.  I can't say that I taste coffee, but I think the chocolate flavor is enhanced, I think it might be a keeper of a tweak on the old recipe.

Gluten-Free Chocolate Decadence Pecan Cookies

Adapted from Alice Currah's  Adapted from LemonPi and based on Alice Medrich’s recipe from Bittersweet

INGREDIENTS:

1/4  Cup sweet rice flour
1/4  tsp baking powder
1/4  tsp salt

8    ounces bittersweet chocolate chips (about 1 1/2 Cups)
2    Tbs unsalted butter

2    large eggs
1/2 Cup sugar
2     tsp pure vanilla extract (or coffee, or OJ (no pulp), or flavored liquor)

1 1/2 Cups toasted pecans, coarsely chopped
6     ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips (about 1 Cup)

2 sheets parchment paper


DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a small bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, and salt together, set aside.

Place bittersweet chocolate chips and butter in a medium to large microwave-safe bowl and heat for 1 minute. Stir the chocolate butter mixture and microwave again for 30 seconds. Repeat this until all the chocolate chips have melted and the mixture is smooth, set aside.

Using a double boiler or make your own double boiler whisk the eggs, sugar, and vanilla thoroughly in the top bowl/pan over simmering water in the bottom pan.  Whisk egg mixture until it is lukewarm and then add it to the chocolate mixture, stirring until everything is well combined.  If eggs are not warm when you add them to the warm chocolate, the chocolate will cook the eggs and be a horrible mess of chocolate scrambled eggs.

Add the flour mixture, semi-sweet chocolate chips, and pecans to the chocolate mixture. Your batter will look like thick cake batter. Do not fear, after they bake they will look like and taste like cookies!

Scoop dough (it will look very wet and sloppy) into rounded tablespoons (I used a small cookie scooper) on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper 2 inches apart from each other. Bake for 12 minutes until the surface of the cookies look dry and set.

Remove the cookies from the oven, with the cookies still on the parchment paper, slide the paper onto racks to cool. If you leave the cookies and the paper on the cookie sheets the cookies will continue to bake, and be dried out.  Gently peel the parchment paper back after cookies have cooled for at least 30 minutes. If you can wait that long to start eating them, I certainly can't.

Some serving suggestions for you to consider Peppermint ice cream and chocolate sauce.

Or, as we discovered tonight they make FABULOUS ice cream sandwich cookies!  with Pumpkin Ice cream, Yummmm...... 

Ceci's Birthday Treats, Gluten Free Sugar Cookies

At Ceci's 2nd Birthday party I wanted to provide fun activities for the kids so I got some aprons for them to decorate with markers after I added Mickey Mouse designs to them.  Once the aprons were done and we had eaten some dinner I broke out the cookies for the kids to decorate with royal icing which I colored and we had sprinkles, marshmallows, and raisins.  The raisins were a huge hit that I didn't expect.

I previously used this cookie recipe last winter when I held a cookie swap at the house, everyone said it was so good and disappeared quickly at their own home.  So I figured it would be a good one for the kids to use, and it's deliciously plain and a good way to deliver icing and other treats to your mouth.  Because as far as I'm concerned that's one of the most important functions of a good cookie, how much frosting can it structurally hold and get into my mouth.

Gluten Free Rich Sugar Cookies


2     Sticks of Unsalted Butter
2/3  Cup Sugar
1     Egg
1/4  tsp Baking powder
1/8  tsp Salt
1 1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract
1/3  Cup Soy Flour
1    Cup Sweet Rice Flour
1    Cup Tapioca Starch
1    tsp Xanthum Gum

Cream butter and sugar together in mixer on med-high speed for a minute, add in Egg, Baking powder, salt, and vanilla, mix until combined.  Scrape down sides of bowl and mix again if needed to thoroughly incorporate ingredients.  In a separate bowl, mix flours and xanthum gum, add flour mixture to butter mix one cup at a time, with mixer on low.  Once flour is entirely mixed in, run mixer on medium high for about a 30 seconds to make sure everything is blended in.  Turn off mixer, remove bowl from machine, split dough into two portions and wrap each one tightly in plastic wrap.  Place dough in fridge for about an hour.
While waiting for dough to chill, collect desired cookie cutters, rolling mat, rolling pin, spatula, extra flour (I prefer Sweet Rice flour), cookie sheet, silpat (I can't live without mine), and wire cooling rack.  Yes, sugar cookies are a lot of work, but I figure they are worth it.
Remove one dough ball from fridge. Preheat oven to 350 degrees (F).  Generously flour rolling mat, and rolling pin with extra flour.  Press out ball of dough onto mat and roll out with rolling pin, rotating and flipping dough every few rolls.  Work until dough is about 1/4 inch thick, begin cutting out cookies and placing on cookie sheet (with silpat in sheet, if you have one).  Place cookies about 1 inch apart to accommodate for spreading in the oven.  Bake cookies for 6-9 minutes until golden brown around the edge.  Place on a wire rack to cool.  Scraps of dough can be combined and rolled out again for more cookies, be aware that continuing to add more flour for dusting can result in a tough cookie.  I usually only recycle my scraps 1-2 times before giving up on them.  Repeat the process for the other ball of dough until all dough is made and you have a bunch of delicious cookies.

Wait until cookies are completely cooled before icing, you can use either a royal icing if you like a thicker layer of frosting, or I like to use a powdered sugar icing with food coloring to make all sorts of fun designs.

Christmas cookies, Ceci had a blue cast at the time.

Powdered Sugar Icing

2   Cups Powdered Sugar
1 1/2 Tbs liquid (milk or orange juice, I like the flavor of orange juice with the cookies)

Mix in a bowl until smooth.  Adjust consistency as needed by adding more powdered sugar or liquid.  Add food coloring and place into a piping bag, or a zip top bag with a bottom corner cut off.  Decorate cookies as desired, and ENJOY!

Some decorating inspiration:  I warn you I am not very good at decorating perfectly.  Some of the really "interesting" ones were decorated by Ceci and her friends.

Blue duck with hidden sprinkles (Ceci's)

Can you tell Ceci loves sprinkles?

Raw cookies with colored sugar

Stained glass cookies, sort of