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Saturday, December 5, 2009

Gluten Free Christmas Cookies


Ok so it was a grand idea and so far so good.

After being recently diagnosed with Celiac Disease and having other family members who are either also Celiac lifers or choose to be gluten free for other reasons, I decided to give us all a bit of our past for the holidays. The one thing I have heard a lot of Celiac lifers miss are traditional seasonal sweets. Especially lifers who don't bake, as a habit, for themselves. My family members are those lifers. They enjoy the treats but don't bake... or at least haven't since they became gluten free. So weeks ago I started searching out recipes. Boy was I pleasantly surprised to find so many out there. Most of them on various blogs like this one or adaptations from 'regular' cookbooks on Celiac group sites and other recipe sites. But I must say this one is FAB!

The recipe came from an un-noted blog and I have modified it slightly but kept pretty true to the original authors notes. These sugar cookies are light once baked and quite tasty but what got me was the ease of handling with the dough! As anyone who has ever worked with rice flour knows, baked goods are usually crumbly and fall apart VERY easily. This dough was handled, and handled and then handled more by myself and my girls. And another great attribute of this recipe - it doesn't require refrigeration, so we could make the dough and cut the cookies right away!! Thank you to the author for such a great Sugar cookie recipe.


Ingredients:

1c GF, CF shortening

1c white sugar

1 egg

2tsp GF Vanilla (I used real not artificial - I think it makes a difference)

1c white rice flour

1/2c tapioca flour

1c potato starch (not flour)

2-1/2tsp xanthan gum

1tsp salt

1tsp GF baking powder

extra potato starch for dusting board and kneading


Directions:


Pre-heat oven to 350F


In a large bowl, with an electric mixer cream together the shortening and sugar.

Add the egg and vanilla and beat until well combined and fluffy.


In a separate bowl combine all dry ingredients by sifting and re-sift.


Sift into the wet ingredients a little bit at a time. Mix well and add all dry ingredients. The dough will start to 'ball up' this is what you're looking for.


Coat your hands with potato starch and make the dough into a ball. Roll the dough onto a starched surface and roll with a starched rolling pin. Roll to 1/4inch thick. Cut into seasonal cookies. We did Christmas shapes.


Place on cookie sheet directly OR on parchment paper. I used both metal and stone ware and both worked quite nicely.


Decorate with sugars etc if desired or save decorating till after they're baked if you're going to ice them etc.


Bake for 12-14 minutes until very slightly browning on the edges. Cool on baking rack.


The author says they freeze well but so far I haven't had the chance to try that but I will be doing so and let you know.


Enjoy! I know we have.

1 comment:

  1. Congrats on the new blog!!! I will have to keep an eye on your posts to see what you're up to.

    ReplyDelete