cookies

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!

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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.

GF Gingersnaps!

I really don’t like the store-bought gf gingersnaps, pretty sad tasting and pricy too. So, I went looking for a likely recipe. I ended up combining from 2 recipes and I include some notes on best ideas for this recipe.

They are thin and crispy with a delightful ginger flavor. Even people who wrinkle their noses as they say “no, I don’t like gingersnaps” will agree to taste one and then they suddenly are lovers of gingersnaps! I think homemade is always tastier. I hope you will agree.

I bake these to make gingersnap crust but if you want them for said purpose make sure they are very crispy and bake them at least 3-6 days in advance or they will be too fresh. Basically, they melt when baked; into one giant cookie crust which isn’t bad but if you want a traditional cookie crumb crust you should bake long before you make the crust.

Notes: You could dip the raw balls of dough in granulated sugar before baking but honestly most of that sugar disappears. I use Bob’s Redmill GF All Purpose Flour Blend. Last time I made it I was a bit more than a half cup of flour short, so I used a bit of a different flour blend by King Arthur. It led my cookies to spread a bit more than I would like so I plan to get a new bag of the correct flour before my next batch. You will need the xanthan gum if you use this Bob Redmill blend. Warning; the flour does contain bean flour but you will never know that when you bite into one of this crisp beauties!

Angie’s Spicy Ginger Snaps

Ingredients:

3/4 cup butter softened

1 cup sugar

1 lg egg, room temp

1/4 cup molasses

2 cups Bob’s Redmill GF All-Purpose Flour blend

1/2 tsp. xanthan gum unless you use a flour blend with it built in

1/4 tsp. salt

2.5 tsp. baking soda

1 1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon

1 tsp. ground ginger

3/4 tsp. ground cloves

Directions: Put all the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl and whisk until well blended. Start oven preheating to 350 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. In a mixing bowl, beat the sugar and butter until fairly smooth; add the egg. beat a bit, add the molasses. I used a stand mixer, but a hand mixer could work. Slowly add to the wet ingredient bowl, mixing as you add. When it is fully blended in it is ready to spoon out. Using a tablespoon cookie scoop portion out cookies onto baking sheets. I did 12 cookies a sheet. Bake for 13-14 minutes. If you are using them for a crust bake them the full 14 minutes. They shouldn’t be super dark though. Let cool 4 minutes on sheet before moving to a cooling rack. Store in a cookie jar. I like to freeze some for later; use a freezer Ziplock bag and consume within 3-5 weeks. Enjoy!

Peanut Butter Cookies: Old School Beauties

Lots of families make peanut butter cookies for Christmas so I decided to repost my recipe. Guys especially love them! Making a batch today at a friend’s house. There are lots of gf recipes out there but mostly they are not like what i grew up eating. And I heard about recipes for three ingredient traditional peanut butter cookies. I wanted something a bit more actual cookie texture (think less greasy) and with less sugar than the versions I have come across. So, I decided to play with the proportions plus I wanted to add some gf flour. I cut the sugar by one fourth and dumped in a small amount of flour. To make sure my results weren’t like a brick I added some baking powder and to keep them from being incredibly crumbly messes I tossed in a touch of xanthan gum. The resulting dough was still a tad crumbly but when you scrunch up about a tablespoon with your fingers it forms a ball that can be flattened with a fork dipped in granulated sugar in the traditional cross hatch of all great peanut butter cookies.

The results: simple but tasty = peanut butter heaven. I must advise that I used chunky peanut butter. I don’t much care for creamy peanut butter, so I try not to have to buy it for recipes. So, I chunked it and my somewhat picky eater who doesn’t like chunky peanut butter was in love with these beauties. I am guessing it would work with creamy. Let me know how they turn out if you make them with a creamy peanut butter.

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To review, significantly lower in sugar than most three ingredient recipes, great flavor and texture and simple to make. Bonus: they still remind me of the peanut butter cookies of my childhood…which were full of all purpose flour! I used my typical flour blend; King Arthur gf blend but I am sure Better Batter or Cup for Cup will work. If your blend has gum in it no additional gum is needed so leave that quarter teaspoon out.

Note: if you love the salty cookie concept, sprinkle with coarse sea salt before baking, I now do that. Either sweet or salty they are somewhat addictive, especially fantastic with a glass of cold milk.

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Chunky Peanut Butter cookies

1 cup chunky peanut butter
¾ cup sugar
1 large egg (room temp)
½ cup gf flour blend (I used King Arthur basic gf blend)
½ tsp. baking powder
¼ tsp. xanthan gum

¼ cup sugar for fork action
Coarse sea salt (optional)

Directions: Mix first six ingredients well in stand mixer. Form into balls by squeezing in hand. Place on ungreased cookie sheet, press with fork dipped into sugar. Sprinkle with coarse sea salt if desired.

Bake at 375 for 9 to 11 minutes. Watch carefully – they burn easily. Let stand one minute before lifting off with pancake turner to a cooling rack. Eat and enjoy these gems of cookies…you will be taken back to your childhood.

 

Sugar Cut Out Cookies… My Best Ever!

I have to say that sugar cookies are difficult to make out of gf flour; they have to be sturdy enough when rolled out that you can handle them and get them to the baking sheet and still taste delicate and delicious. I had trouble finding a great recipe; not terrible but just not the best. A few years ago, I tried a totally different tack; I used my favorite Betty Croker cookie cookbook recipe that is normally made with all-purpose flour and just subbed in 1 for 1 GF flour; I used Bob’s Redmill. Exact same amount. They were a bit fragile in the cut-out process, but I was able to do it and the flavor and texture is superior in my opinion. Making a batch this afternoon with friends!

Notes: I added lemon extract to give a bit more flavor and I sprinkled them with colored sugar. Do suggest you sprinkle as you make and not get the baking sheet coated in colored sugar as it burns and can have a negative flavor impact as well as causing cookie edges to burn. Let them cool on the cookie sheet for about 3 minutes so they are a bit firmed up and be gentle in that moving process to the cooling rack.

I kinda got these too brown; there was a lot of stray colored sugar on the baking sheet and I think 400 degrees was just too hot; I tend to generally lower the oven 20-30 degrees to keep things from over baking.

Angie’s GF Sugar Cookies

Ingredients:

3/4 cup butter or other solid butter substitute at room temp but not squishy

1 cup granulated sugar

2 room temp eggs, large

1/4 tsp. vanilla extract

1/4-1/2 tsp. lemon extract (or orange or more vanilla)

2 1/2 cups 1 for 1 GF flour mixture (I used Bob’s Redmill)

1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. salt

Directions: Put butter and sugar in stand mixer bowl, Beat until very smooth and light. You might want to stop a couple of times to scrape the bowl sides to help it blend. Add eggs one at a time, beating until blended in. Add extracts. Mix the flour and dry ingredients in a small pour spout bowl. Add to dough mixture in bowl, at slowest speed. Blend until smooth. Chill 1-3 hours. Use 1/4 of the dough at a time to roll out on lightly floured bread board. Roll to 1/8-1/4 inch thick. Use more flour to help it to not stick to rolling pin. I actually used a thin flat metal pancake turner/spatula to shove under th dough edges to release the dough from the board as it kept sticking. Too much flour will make them tough so the pancake turner helped keep me from excessive flouring. Cut with your favorite cookie cutters. Use that same turner to move them to the baking sheet. I strongly urge that you decorate before placing on an ungreased cookie sheet. Our favorites are green and red decorating sugar for much of the cookies, a blue for stars, and some tiny colored decorating balls on the Christmas trees. We love Christmas pigs and fish as well as the traditional trees and stars. Don’t try any super fancy cutouts; this dough is not so good for fancy shapes. Narrow necks, complex curves etc are not do-able.

As you are cutting them out get the oven ready. Put oven shelves on two middle racks. Heat oven to 380 degrees (the 400 degrees of the original recipe seems too hot). Leave 1 to 1.5 inches between cookies. Bake 6-9 inches. I like to put all the small cutouts on one sheet and the bigger ones on its own baking sheet as the small ones will bake a bit faster. Watch them closely; the outer cookies bake faster and smaller ones faster too. Pull out when the edges are a light brown. let stand on sheet for 3-5 minutes. Gently move each cookie to a cooling rack using that flat metal spatula. Best consumed when they are fully cooled; warm they don’t have the correct texture.

I did only make a half recipe last year; with 6 tbsp. of butter. as I just didn’t have the audience to eat a whole batch of them. I have half the dough wrapped tightly and stored in the fridge for making fresh next week. I save all the scraps and roll them out as the last roll out of dough. More than 2 roll outs will make that dough tough and dry, so some scraps end up in the trash as they get too reworked. Enjoy these cookies; they are definitely worth the effort and are a blast from my Christmases before my diagnosis of celiac disease.

Kiffles, Classic Cookie for Christmas

Kiffles are a local favorite here in eastern PA when it comes to cookies, particularly Christmas cookies. The Kiffle Kitchen on Rt. 512 north of Bath, PA has made their reputation on their outstanding kiffles, now sold on line! I used to enjoy them but never took the time to make them in the past. Now that I can’t eat gluten anymore I thought, why not bake some gf kiffles? They are a sort of local Ukrainian specialty (Their origin is Austria-Hungary in eastern Europe) so finding them in a cookbook and also gf was a challenge. Luckily, early this year I purchased “Gluten-Free Baking Classics The Heirloom Collection” by Annalise G. Roberts. It was published in 2014 and I bought it brand spanking new – not one miss in anything I have baked from it so far. Page 170 had the answer to my search; Rugelach, Kiffles, and Kolaki.

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I got my courage up and made a batch of kiffles (the preferred local spelling) on Christmas Eve afternoon. I just did jam filled, apricot and raspberry. The cream cheese dough in formed into two discs and chilled before rolling out between wax paper sheets into an 8 inch square. I did find myself chilling the rolled out dough a bit to keep it from getting too soft as I filled and formed the kiffles. Not too cold but chilly. After rolling and a slight chill, cut each big square into 16 two inch squares and put a tsp. of best quality jam on each; fold together so the filling peeps out both ends and chill some more on the baking sheet. I brushed them with heavy cream and sprinkled a touch of granulated sugar on before they hit the 350 degree oven. The cute packets of dough and jam bake up lightly browned and delicate in about 15-20 minutes.  Success was felt when my mom ate a few that evening. Her smile told me how yummy they were.  I wish she was still around to share them with. This is my fourth Christmas without her….christmas baking 2015 025christmas baking 2015 026christmas baking 2015 027christmas baking 2015 028

A couple of years ago I made them with the nut and cinnamon filling that is very traditional around the Lehigh Valley. Delish! I also hear that some stores sell special kiffle filling meant just for these cookies. Gonna look for it; hopefully gluten free and therefore safe for me to enjoy.

If you use jam try to find jams made with regular sugar, not corn syrup or other such substitutions as the jam will then tend to bubble and run and you won’t get a good result.

So if you are gluten free and crave kiffles; this cookbook by Annalise Roberts is the place to find a workable recipe. She has never failed me yet with her desserts and I thank my lucky stars her cookbooks are on my shelf to guide me through holiday, parties and everyday meals. I don’t mean to sound like a salesperson for her but I can’t say enough great things about this new cookbook and her prior best seller Baking Classics – my copy of that is well worn and I couldn’t exist without it. This kiffle recipe is way too involved to type out for you and I think that if you are serious about baking gf you need to check it out and get your own copy, real soon!  Here are the ingredients for the dough and a brief directionns paragraph but this is a three page recipe in her book and if you want the entire directions you should support the author by buying her awesome cookbook called “The Heirloom Collection.

Cookie Dough:

1 cup King Arthur basic gf flour

2 Tbsp. sugar

1/2 Tsp. xanthan gum

1/2 Tsp. baking powder

1/4 Tsp salt

6 Tbsp. unsalted butter at room temp.

4 ounces full fat cream cheese

1 -3 Tsp rice flour for rolling it out.

1/2 cup apricot, raspberry and or cherry jam

Mix sugar and butter in stand mixer. Mix dry ingred. Add slowly. Form into 2 patties, wrap in plastic and chill 30-60 minutes. Roll out on lightly floured surface to 8 inch square; cut into 16 squares. Put rounded half teaspoon jam on center; fold up two sides and pinch. Place on parchment covered cookie sheet. Chill 15-20 minutes. Brush with optional egg wash or heavy cream and then bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes. For a longer recipe buy the book! I will say that you should avoid jams with corn syrup in them; they boil out of the cookies; use jam made with cane sugar.

Note: I did a search on line for a gluten free kiffle recipe and didn’t really find one; lots of other cookies but these are quite a specialty and not made by most home cooks except in areas where they are popular and what you can buy is definitely not gluten free. I am very happy with these utterly delicious cookies and can heartily recommend them to you for your gf holiday baking. Enjoy

Originally published in 2016; just added ingredient list and minor text changes done 12/2020, reprinted 12/21 with no changes.