The Ultimate Gluten-Free Cookie Book (15 page)

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly grease a cookie sheet.

In a medium-size bowl, combine the oil and sugar. Beat well. Add the brown rice flour and beat well. Add the remaining ingredients and mix well. The dough will be very thick, but still thin enough for rolling out.

Drop tablespoonfuls of dough onto the prepared pan. Using moistened fingertips, press it to ⅛-inch thickness. Prick the tops of the cookies with a fork. Or, for a prettier presentation, press the tops with a fondant cutter.

Bake for 10 minutes, until the cookies take on a bit of color at the edges and the tops appear dry. Let cool. The cookies will be very soft when removing them from the baking sheet, but will firm during cooling. Let cool on wire racks before serving.

brown rice flour
MAKES ABOUT 30 COOKIES

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly grease a cookie sheet.

In a medium-size bowl, combine the oil and sugar. Beat well. Add the brown rice flour and beat well. Scrape down the sides of the mixing bowl at least once during mixing. Add the remaining batter ingredients, except the egg whites, and mix well. The dough will be like a thick cake batter. Set aside.

Separately, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form. (This will take several minutes, depending upon the temperature of the egg whites and the strength of the mixer.) Gently fold them into the batter.

Transfer the batter into a zip-type plastic bag. Cut off a ½-inch angle at one corner. Pipe 3- to 3½-inch long fingers onto the prepared pan.

Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, until browned at edges and the sponge is firm. Let cool briefly on the pan for easier removal and then cool on wire racks before serving.

MAKES 35 TO 40 SMALL COOKIES

Preheat the oven to 300°F. Lightly grease a cookie sheet.

In a medium-size bowl, beat the egg whites and sugar until the whites form stiff peaks. (This will take several minutes, depending upon the temperature of the egg whites and the strength of the mixer. It takes longer for stiff peaks to form with the inclusion of the sugar than if egg whites were beaten alone.) The batter will look like marshmallow cream. Beat in the lemon extract. Do not underbeat, as the shape of cookie relies upon the ability of the meringue to hold its shape!

Using a piping bag with a large star tip, pipe a small star onto the prepared pan, or just drop rounded teaspoonfuls of the dough onto the pan. Bake the cookies for 15 to 20 minutes, until the bottom edges just begin to brown and the tops look dry. Let cool on wire racks before serving.

brown rice flour and almond meal
MAKES ABOUT 17 SANDWICH COOKIES

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly grease a cookie sheet.

In a medium-size bowl, combine the shortening and sugar. Beat well. Add the brown rice flour and beat well. Scrape down the sides of the mixing bowl at least once during mixing. Add the remaining ingredients and mix well. The dough will form lots of small clumps, and, with continued beating, will come together.

Roll out the dough to ⅛-inch thickness and cut it into 2-inch circles. Using a smaller cookie cutter, cut a small window in the center of half of the cookies. Place the cookies on the prepared pan.

Bake the cookies for about 8 minutes, until the edges begin to lightly brown. Let cool on wire racks. Place a small amount of jam on the bottoms of the full-circle cookies. Sprinkle the cookie tops (the ones with windows) with confectioners’ sugar. Gently sandwich in pairs to form sugar-topped, jam-filled cookies.

almond meal
MAKES 20 TO 30 COOKIES

Preheat the oven to 300°F. Lightly grease a cookie sheet.

In a medium-size bowl, beat the egg whites, about half of the sugar, the cream of tartar, and vanilla, until the whites form stiff peaks. (This will take several minutes, depending upon the temperature of the egg whites and the strength of the mixer. It takes longer for stiff peaks to form with the inclusion of the sugar than if egg whites were beaten alone.) The batter will look like marshmallow cream. Sprinkle the almond meal and remaining sugar on the batter and gently fold them in. The dough will now look like whipped cream.

Using a piping bag with a circle tip (or a zip-type plastic bag with a corner cut off), pipe wreath-shaped cookies onto the prepared pan and garnish with almond slices or bits. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until the bottom edges just begin to brown and the tops look dry. Let cool on wire racks before serving.

brown rice flour
MAKES ABOUT 30 TWO-INCH COOKIES