Month: December 2025

Pistachio & Cranberry Shortbread

This is my version of a recipe that I translated from all-purpose flour to a gf 1-1 blend with a few other tweaks to make it even better.

This holiday shortbread cookie is pretty easy to make and with fresh orange zest in the dough it has a delightful flavor. Of course, I made it with butter, so it has the proper shortbread texture and flavor. No one will ever guess that they are gluten free. They will just keep eating them!

Pistachio and Cranberry Shortbread Cookies

INGREDIENTS:

2 sticks (1 cup) softened butter

2/3 cup sugar

Grated zest of a large orange; do that before you squeeze some fresh juice for these cookies. If small orange do zest of 2

1 Tbsp. fresh orange juice

1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

2 1/3 cup King Arthur 1-1 GF flour blend

1/4 tsp. salt if using unsalted butter; leave out if you went with salted butter

3/4 cup pistachios, roughly chopped after measuring

3/4 cup dried cranberries, roughly chopped after measuring

INSTRUCTIONS;

Put softened butter and sugar in stand mixer bowl, beat until creamy, about 2 minutes. Can use a portable mixer if that’s what you have. Add juice and extract, beat until blended in. Add flour, salt and zest on low speed, blend well. Fold in the nuts and cranberries on low or with a spatula. Form dough into 2 logs; about 2-2.5 inches in diameter. Wrap in plastic wrap and put in your freezer for 30 minutes. Heat oven to 350. Put parchment paper on 2 baking sheets. Slice dough in 1/4-inch diameter coins. Place an inch apart on the parchment papered sheets. Bake 12-15 minutes, I did 15 minutes until edges are golden brown. Let them cool on the baking sheet for 5-9 minutes and then carefully move to a cooling rack. Let cool completely before eating so they have the desired crunchy texture. Store in a cookie jar. Makes about 40 cookies. Enjoy!

Note: I only baked half; other log is tightly sealed in plastic to bake in a week.

Lamb Keema Curry

This is a recreation of a curry recipe my older sister Margie had given me, it took me a while to try it as cooked lettuce sounded weird. But it was easy to make, it was so delish and therefore I made it quite regularly. I lost the recipe a few years ago and Margie has been gone since 2013, so I couldn’t ask her. I have done my best to make it as close to what I remember. It is my favorite mince or ground lamb curry. The original recipe was made with shredded lettuce. I do that occasionally but most of the time I use finely shredded green cabbage. I have never found a similar recipe in a cookbook or online so it’s a real treasure of a recipe. It’s a one pot meal and I love that too! You could also make this with ground beef. Probably will work with ground turkey or chicken.

Notes: I have an old frying pan I use only for curry as some of these spices really get ingrained into the pan; turmeric particularly comes to mind. Use lettuce or cabbage for the shredded greens. It’s a long list of ingredients but most of them are the spices, it’s really not complicated to construct.

I serve it over brown or white rice and sometimes I go all out and make flatbread to enjoy with this one dish meal. Enjoy!

Angie’s Keema Curry

Ingredients:

1 Tbsp. olive oil

1 large yellow onion, diced

3 garlic cloved minced

1/2 inch of fresh or frozen ginger shredded on fine side

2 tsp. ground coriander

1 tsp ground cardamon

skimpy tsp. of ground cinnamon

rounded 1/2 tsp. ground turmeric

1/8 tsp. ground cloves

1 pound ground lamb (or beef)

1 14 oz can of petite diced tomatoes and juices

1/2 to 1 cup filtered water; I like to rinse out the tomato can with half a cup of it

1 cinnamon stick (optional)

1/2 a small cabbage shredded, remove core; about 3-4 cups

1 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice

1 tsp. garam masala (optional)

Directions:

Heat large frying pan with the olive oil. Add the diced onions, cook on medium 3-4 minutes, stirring constantly. Add minced garlic and shredded ginger and cook 30 seconds. Add all dry spices, stir and cook a minute. Add lamb to center of pan; pushing out the raw meat so the onions etc. are on the outside edge like a ring. Let cook 3 minutes, flip lamb with a turner; I have a wide wooden one that I like for this. Let cook 3-4 more minutes until pink is gone. Add the tomatoes and stir well. Top with the shredded cabbage and then half the water. Cover and cook 30-35 minutes until the cabbage is fully cooked. Check on it and add more water if needed. Add fresh lemon juice and sprinkle with garam masala if you want. Serve on rice and with flatbread if available. Enjoy!

Mexican Wedding Cookies – A Classic

These miniature snowball cookies were the foundation of the Christmas cookie baking season when I was a kid.  They were always made every year, sometimes a second batch had to be baked as we had eaten them all well before the big day!   Some people call them Russian Teacakes… For me it is not Christmas without these cookies so I was extremely pleased to find a great gf recipe. My sisters think they are better tasting than the old regular recipe!

They are easy to make with not too many ingredients.  Don’t make them too big or they become very fragile… stick with the size as given. Be very careful lifting them off the pan as they are delicate until fully cooled. The texture and subtle flavor of this GF version is actually superior to the wheat flour recipe of my childhood. When you bite into one it shatters into a delicious mouthful of sweet cookie. They are delightful with a cup of tea or coffee.  My family clamors for a few to take home!

You can use pecans, but I rarely do; walnuts are somewhat cheaper, and I sort of prefer their flavor for this cookie. If you like them really sweet sprinkle on extra powdered sugar, less of it makes them perfect for those who are not used to too much sweetness. This recipe is from Annalise Roberts’ fabulous Gluten-Free Baking Classics with some minor changes by me. I have not tried them with any but this flour blend. I bet they might work with a measure for measure flour mix; just leave out the xanthan gum in that case.

Storage: they keep well; I put mine in an empty butter cookie tin with wax paper between the 2 layers; no more than 2 layers or they tend to break up easily. Or a cookie jar but do be careful about too many stacked on top of each other.  No one will ever know they are GF, and you will get complements on their flavor and texture.  Enjoy: they are rather addictive cookies!

xmas cookies 006

Mexican Wedding Cookies

1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

6 tbsp. powdered (confectioners) sugar

2 tsp. vanilla extract

2 cups King Arther Basic GF blend flour – aka brown rice mix (recipe below)

1 tsp xanthan gum

1 cup walnuts or pecans chopped fine

Confectioner’s sugar for sprinkling

Directions: beat butter and powdered sugar in large bowl of stand mixer until light and creamy.  Add vanilla, beat in.  Add flour and gum, mix in until well blended, stir in walnuts until distributed.  Chill dough for an hour, more than 2 hours; dough gets too stiff.

Heat oven to 350 degrees.  Form dough into 1-inch balls. Roll in powdered sugar if you like.  Place on cookie sheet lightly sprayed with Pam (not the baker’s version that has flour).  Place about 1 ½ inches apart.  Bake 13 to 15 minutes until lightly browned on top and bottom.  Cool on pan for 5 min and then sprinkle with lots of powdered sugar before placing on wire rack to cool. I like to sift it onto the cookies so the coating is even.  You could put a sheet of wax paper under the wire rack to catch the excess sugar.  Store well wrapped: in airtight container, in fridge for a week or freezer for up to 30 days.  You could store unbaked dough in fridge for a few days.

Brown Rice Flour Mix base mix  (same as King Arthur’s Basic gf blend)
2 c brown rice flour

2/3 c potato starch *not potato flour

1/3 c tapioca flour

Note: First posted December 2014 on my blog.  Minor revisions have been made since then.