The Ultimate Gluten-Free Cookie Book (27 page)

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

In a medium-size bowl, combine the shortening and brown rice flour. Beat well. Scrape down the sides of the mixing bowl at least once during mixing. Add the remaining ingredients and mix well. The cookie dough will be quite heavy in texture. Once the dough comes together, continue beating for an additional minute or so to make it easier to handle. The dough will be very soft and may be refrigerated for easier handling.

Roll out the dough to a scant ¼-inch thickness and cut it with your favorite cookie cutters. Top with sprinkles, if desired. Bake the cookies for 7 to 9 minutes, until the edges just begin to brown. Let cool on wire racks. Decorate with icing, if desired.

brown rice flour
MAKES ABOUT 30 COOKIES

Preheat the oven to 325°F. Lightly grease a cookie sheet.

In a medium-size bowl, combine the shortening and brown rice flour. Beat well. Scrape down the sides of the mixing bowl at least once during mixing. Add the remaining ingredients and mix well. The cookie dough will be quite heavy in texture.

Drop rounded teaspoonfuls of the dough onto the prepared pan. Use your fingertips to press them to ¼-inch thickness. Bake for 7 to 9 minutes, until the bottom edges begin to brown and the tops take on a little color. 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 shortening and brown rice flour. Beat well. Scrape down the sides of the mixing bowl at least once during mixing. Add the remaining ingredients and mix well. The cookie dough will be quite heavy in texture.

Drop rounded teaspoonfuls of the dough onto the prepared pan. Press to ¼-inch thickness with your fingertips. Sprinkle the tops with sugar or sprinkles, as desired. Bake the cookies for 7 to 9 minutes, until the bottom edges just begin to brown. Let cool on wire racks before serving.

cornstarch or potato starch
MAKES ABOUT 20 COOKIES

These cookies would be great to make at the same time as the Almond Joy-Style
Cookies (page 144) as each use just
½
cup of sweetened condensed milk. These
will be enjoyed by most guests at your holiday party, not just the fruitcake lover!

Preheat the oven to 325°F. Lightly grease a mini-muffin pan.

In a medium-size bowl, combine the coconut and starch. Stir well. Add the remaining ingredients and mix well. Drop rounded teaspoonfuls of the dough into the cups of the prepared pan. With moist fingertips, press down the cookie dough a little so that the cookies stick together.

Bake for 13 to 15 minutes, until the tops just begin to brown. Allow the cookies to cool briefly before removing them from the pan. You can loosen them with the tip of a knife if necessary.

brown rice flour
MAKES ABOUT 24 TASSIES

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly grease a 24-count mini-muffin pan.

For the tart shells, in a medium-size bowl, combine the shortening and brown rice flour. Beat well. Scrape down the sides of the mixing bowl at least once during mixing. Add the remaining dough ingredients and mix well. The cookie dough will be quite heavy in texture. Once the dough comes together, continue beating it for an additional minute or so to make the dough easier to handle; it will be very soft.

Drop rounded teaspoonfuls of the dough into the cups of the prepared pan and press the center with the back of a spoon to evenly form tart shells. Set aside.

For the filling, combine all the ingredients and mix very well. Place rounded teaspoonfuls of the filling into the center of the shells.

Bake the cookies for about 9 minutes, until the shell is golden and the filling is set. Allow the cookies to cool in the pan for about 5 minutes, for easier removal. Let cool on wire racks before serving.

brown rice flour
MAKES ABOUT 55 COOKIES

Preheat the oven to 375°F. Lightly grease a cookie sheet.

In a medium-size bowl, combine all the ingredients. Beat (or mix with your fingertips) until the dough forms a soft ball.

Roll out the dough to ¼-inch thickness. Cut it into cookies with a 1-inch cookie cutter and place them on the prepared pan. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, until the bottoms of the cookies are tinged with color. Let cool on wire racks before serving.

 

 

9

In baking gluten-free, we are often tempted
to purchase many different flours, either because they are new and exciting (as was the case when coconut flour first came out), for nutritional content (such as bean flours, or certain pseudograins), or simply because they are called for in a blend. It is hard to get to know the nature of a flour when it is just one of many. The old theory that you must use a blend to bake good foods hasn’t helped, either.

While the other recipes in this book call for either brown rice flour or sorghum flour, the cookies in this chapter use a variety of flours, just one at a time, to let their character show through. We may even make a dent in that tower of flours you’ve accumulated over time. You can make a cookie out of almost any gluten-free flour. But that doesn’t mean you want to eat them. And, for that reason, a number of stronger-tasting flours, such as soy and teff, have simply not been utilized in this chapter.