Big Batch Gluten-Free Christmas/Sugar Cookie Recipe November 15, 2006
Posted by Karen Joy in Celiac Disease, Cooking/Baking/Food/Recipes, Dairy-free, GF Recipes, GFCF, GFCF Recipes, gluten-free.trackback
I have used this recipe many times; it is so versatile. It produces a wonderfully flavored, wonderfully textured cookie that NO one will guess is gluten free (it is also casein/dairy free, for those who need to eliminate those ingredients).
I got the recipe, basically, from Special Diets for Special Kids II, which is a really good gf/cf cookbook. However, it simply calls for “GF Flour,” and I experimented to make my own flour mixture, as listed below. The original recipe also calls for the cookies to be made small and flat, vanilla wafer-style. However, I found that the recipe works wonderfully for thicker, chewy, soft cookies.
I always make it in a huge batch, often even bigger than I have written up here. This is basically a 6X recipe of the original.
I have hot linked ingredients to my favorite supplier. NOTE: Make certain that you have sweet rice flour, as called for, not plain white rice flour.
(Instructions edited a wee bit on 12/02/06, as I am making a batch and had some clarifications to add to the mixing process.)
Big Batch Gluten-Free Christmas/Sugar Cookies
- 3 cups powdered sugar
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 2 cups shortening
- 6 eggs
- 1 Tbsp salt
- 1/4 cup vanilla (yes, that much)
- 1 cup amaranth flour
- 2 cups potato starch
- 2 cups sweet rice flour
- 4 cups brown rice flour
- 2 Tbsp xanthan gum
- 3 Tbsp baking powder
Preheat oven to 325*. Mix together the flours, starch, xanthan gum and baking powder with a whisk until well-combined. Set aside. Cream together the sugars, shortening, eggs, vanilla and salt. Add flour mixture, about 1/4 at a time, stirring with a wooden spoon. Once the flour mixture is mostly incorporated, knead the dough in the bowl, slowly punching the dough down in the middle and folding the sides of the dough into the middle. Or, put the dough on a non-stick surface (like a silicone mat or a marble slab), and knead it on there. The mixture will have the consistency of Play-Doh, but not too soft. If it is too dry, add a Tbsp of water at a time until it will gather into a ball. Resist adding water if at all possible. The dough works best if it is not very moist.
After the dough is well-mixed, several things can be done with the dough. For all recipes, greasing the pan is not necessary. Unless a crispy cookie is desired, bake (preferably on insulated pans) at 325* until the edges are just golden. (Hint: for your own insulated pans, take two regular jelly roll pans, and between them, add a layer of heavy duty aluminum foil that has been balled up, then mostly-smoothed out, retaining many of its wrinkles, creating an air gap between the two pans.)
For “plain” sugar cookies:
- As suggested in the cookbook, roll dough into very small balls and flatten to a wafer with the bottom of a sugar-dipped glass or cookie stamp. Bake until golden brown. This will produce a light, crispy cookie.
- Roll into larger balls and flatten to about 1/4″ thick. Bake until edges are just golden. This will produce a soft, chewy cookie.
- Divide the dough into about 4 parts, wrap each ball in plastic wrap, and refrigerate until fairly firm. Place chilled dough on a pastry mat or on wax paper, top with plastic wrap, and pat and roll out until dough is about 1/8″ to 1/4″ thick. Use cookie cutters for your desired shape(s). The thinner the dough, the more crispy the cookie.
Or, divide the dough into 2 or more sections, and try these mix-ins. Knead in the added ingredients, roll a bit, or drop by teaspoons, then press with a sugar-dipped cup. These cookies puff well, but don’t spread at all, so don’t work a simple “drop” cookies.
- crushed candy canes
- chocolate chips of any size
- chopped nuts and/or dried fruit – One very successful variation we tried were black walnut and dried cranberries
Or, use them as a base for chocolate Kiss cookies, or jam thumbprint cookies.
Or, chocolate swirl cookies: Take 2 equal portions of dough, and roll one out about 1/8″ thick, keeping as close to a rectangular shape as possible. Take the other portion, and mix in plain cocoa powder, until it is nice and dark. Roll that section out to 1/8″, as well. Place one layer on top of the other, with the smaller section (if one is smaller) on top. Starting with the longer side of the rectangle, roll the layers together, until you have a log. Smooth the end of the roll with your fingers, pressing it gently into the log. Roll the log in plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm. Then, slice the cookies about 1/4″ thick, taking care to keep the log as round as possible. (These are my kids’ favorite cookies.)
The possibilites are nearly endless. If anyone ends up using this recipe and tries a variation not mentioned here, do comment and share!!!
NOTE: Unbaked dough does freeze very well. Wrap well in plastic wrap, place inside of a ziploc bag, and freeze. Thaw in fridge, and bring to nearly room temp before rolling.
Enjoy!!
What do you think would happen if I used butter instead of shortening? Or coconut oil (we just have the cheap, refined, grocery store kind available here)? Also, do you think they would work with tapioca starch instead of potato? I am just trying to use what’s in my pantry… These are rapidly turning into a different recipe, I know, but have you ever tried sorghum flour in place of the amaranth?
I think coconut oil would work better than butter. The kind you have is thick, right? Not liquid? Tapioca starch would probably work instead of potato starch, too. But… I don’t think I would try sorghum. Much as I’m a fan of it, it’s too rough of a flour, and I think the cookies would lose much of their texture. Then again, it’s only 1/9 of the flour, so who knows?
I always mess w/ my recipes, depending on what’s on hand, so IKWYM. But on this recipe, I picked ingredients specially for their fine-textured, super-chewiness. So, I don’t know how the end result would be affected, if ingredients are substituted. Do you have any potato flour? If you do, add 1/3 cup to the whole recipe, and that would probably put some “chew” back into it.
If you do substitute, let me know how it turns out!!!
Thanks. I’ve bookmarked this so I can hopefully make some this month.
[...] Holy cow. Or, holy cookies!! I can’t believe all the people searching for gluten free Chrismas/sugar cookies today. So far today, 23 people have at least read that post. That’s a lot for this blog, for one post. [...]
I want to make these so bad! But, unfortunately I haven’t been able to find sweet rice flour anywhere! Which i think is crazy, i shop everywhere. I’ve looked at Whole Foods and most organic food stores. I’m in PA, any idea? Also, amaranth flour i haven’t found either. I might check this bulk foods store by my house for it, they carry tond of Bob’s red mill. So, no white rice only sweet rice flour?!?
Ener-G makes sweet rice flour — look for the yellow box. Online, it’s: http://www.ener-g.com/store/detail.aspx?sn=Flours&id=115&cat=10 (You can even buy a 5 lb bulk bag of it).
Bob’s Red Mill makes it,too: http://www.bobsredmill.com/catalog/index.php?action=showdetails&product_ID=379
Also, check the Asian section of your regular, well-stocked grocery store. That’s where I get mine. It’s far cheaper that way. Even cheaper might be an Asian grocery store.
The reason that sweet rice flour is so important is that it is “the” pastry flour of g.f. baked goods. It has the “heft” of a heavier flour, like brown rice or sorghum, but the fine texture of a starch… Same thing with amaranth. I *LOVE* amaranth flour, but it gives too nutty a flavor if used too much. You can toy around w/ replacing either, but you run the risk of losing the chewiness and fine texture if you go too “heavy” — but replacing them w/ a starch, you run the risk of your cookies becoming dense, sodden lumps.
I am by NO MEANS a g.f. baking expert. However, I’ve toyed with recipes a lot, and when I find one that works… well, I hold onto it for dear life. Anyone who has entered the weird world of gluten-free baking knows that it’s all too easy to come up with a disastrous, inedible mess. For me, that’s *so* disappointing, b/c time is short and ingredients are expensive. KWIM?
So, it’s not like I’m saying, “DON’T SUBSTITUTE, EVER!!!!!!” I just want all of you to have tasty cookies that you’re thrilled to eat, and can be proud of giving away, even to non g.f.’ers.
[...] my gf/cf sugar cookie recipe would have gotten 300+ hits in the last couple of weeks. [...]
Hi ,
I don’t like your recipes
Uh… sorry, Nadeen. What is it that you don’t like? Did you try the recipe and you didn’t like the way it turned out? Gluten-free baking is hard in general… and not everyone likes everything, but I promise that I wouldn’t put a recipe up here that wasn’t *usually* successful. I just made a batch of these cookies, and everyone around here (including people on a regular diet) likes ‘em.
I’m sorry. Truly. I know what a bummer it is to buy ingredients for a recipe, then go through the time to make it, and not like the results.
I was just thinking yesterday that I wish there was a gluten-free site like http://www.allrecipes.com where people could rate the recipes and add their suggestions.
Karen
I hope the dough keeps awhile in the fridge b/c we have been pulling it out every now and then and trying something new. Today we rolled it really thin and cut out circles. Then we put a chocolate chip and a dab of peanut butter on one circle, then topped it with another. We sealed the edges and baked. Yummy.
Also, I forgot to say the other day that our favorite so far has been the walnut cranberry rolled in coconut.
The texture of the dough is perfect for cut-out cookies.
Usually if the cookie recipe has a enough fat in it, it’ll freeze well in wax paper covered logs and be handy to bake up in smaller batches. This looks like one of those recipes. I haven’t tried it because I don’t use sugar in my baking and instead substitute splenda and honey as well trying other things like stevia and xylitol. I get stumped as to how to eliminate the sugar whenever the recipe calls for brown sugar like in chocolate chip cookies or powdered sugar as in this one.
Just wanted to add to what I wrote earlier about freezing raw cookie dough into handy ready to use rolls. A typical good freezing recipe is the Tollhouse chocolate chip cookie recipe which I’ve made gluten free. When in doubt just freeze a small roll to try later.
If you google on the following: gluten free “sweet rice” cookies recipes
you’ll get quite a few cookie recipes. I chose to include “sweet rice” in my online search because it’s so good in cookies.
We had a cookie fest with this recipe today. I made them with butter and they turned out excellent for those who were/are wondering/ed.
My variations:
Instead of choclate swirl I used food coloring to making Christmas pinwheels.
I used half almond extract and half vanilla and then made balls, rolled them in egg whites, rolled them in crushed walnuts, put a thumb print in and filled it with jam.
I mixed in chocolate chips and cherries. These were the only ones I was disappointed with. They didn’t spread at all and felt more like scones than cookies. Do you get spread when you make these cookies?
Thanks for the great base recipe. This is my first year gluten-free and it is hard to recreate all my Christmas favourites.
Bordermama/Jill ~ Your peanut butter and chocolate chip variety reminds me — we have made similar cookies using leftover-from-truffles chocolate ganache, making sandwich cookies. On a different post, you said that the pinwheel ones turned out potato-y. Argh! I feel responsible! But the other ones didn’t?
Sheila ~ Thanks for your suggestions. I’m sorry, but I don’t know much about substituting alternate sweeteners! I have subbed honey for sugar in other recipes, then cut back on the liquids… but the only liquid in this recipe is from eggs! So, maybe include egg whites, and measure the yolks, replacing that amount with honey, and cut back on the sugar. ???
Molly ~ I was SO thrilled that you were so pleased with the recipe, AND that you came back to share the joy!! It sounds like you made some great variations. About spreading: I was thinking about editing the OP to put that in — the cookies puff, but hardly spread at all. For virtually every variety I make, I smash them down with the bottom of a cup dipped in sugar. You’re right — they don’t work as drop cookies.
I think I’m going to have to make some more cookies! I have a pre-mixed batch of (modified) Bette Hagman’s featherlight mix, and I think I will make another batch in the next few days using that flour mix and see how it turns out. I’ll let y’all know!
This is great, my sister found out 2 years ago that she is allergic to gluten, this year my husband and I don’t have money to buy everyone gifts so we were thinking we’d make cookies. This recipe sounds like it will be perfect for her and everyone else will like them too. I’m excited to try these.
hi,
I am really looking forward to trying this recipe! This is the first Christmas my 3 year is spending gluten free so I definitely want to make cookies! The problem is I can’t find sweet rice flour. Have you ever ground your own? I can find brown rice flour and just regular rice flour and sweet rice but not sweet rice FLOUR. Should I attempt grinding my own??
Thanks! Amanda in sunny NC
Hi, Amanda!
Your post somehow got marked as spam, so I had to rescue it from my spam-catcher.
I’ve never tried grinding my own. If you have a *clean* grain mill, I think it’s worth a shot. But… no Ener-G, no Bob’s Red Mill in your area? The Asian section of the best-stocked grocery store in your area doesn’t have any? (White box — Koda Farms.)
You could always try it w/ regular white rice flour — they probably just won’t end up as chewy.
If you make them, come back and post what you subbed, and how it worked!
Did you ever hear back from Nadeen with more input? My xanthan gum order didn’t go through since i entered the expiration date of my card incorrectly. :O( Delays, delays….to my Christmas baking. I was gonna mention that about 10 years ago, Arrowhead Mills did not have a dedicated facility so I got rumbly when I used their flours and quit. Do you know if that has changed? If not, you may get a reaction from contamination issues??
Nope… she never replied here, or privately. Scrooge!
I think there’s still a danger of cross-contamination from Arrowhead products… From my understanding, the equipment is dedicated, but it’s in the same room or facility of their regular products. Every time I see a bag of Arrowhead Mills’ Vital Wheat Gluten, my stomach turns… but I haven’t had a problem w/ their stuff. They’re probably more careful about it than they were in the past.
Do you know how successful this recipe would be using EnerG Egg Replacer?
My son is severely allergic to eggs. Any advice you would have on this would be greatly appreciated. I am excited to try these – we just found out that my son needs to be gf as well as egg-free, casein-free, soy-free, peanut-free, and he cannot have berries or melons (mold food allergy which can also be a problem with most grains – ugh!).
Amy ~ I keep Ener-G Egg Replacer on hand, but don’t use it a whole lot, since we can have eggs. But, it’s worth a shot. Just make sure you mix your Egg Replacer w/ water beforehand… So, six eggs would mean 9 tsp (3 Tbsp) egg replacer and 12 Tbsp (3/4 cup) of water. This may not be enough liquid for the recipe, since its main source of liquid is from the eggs… You may need to add more water.
(BTW, stories like yours makes me feel thankful that my Wesley is only gluten-free, peanut-free, tree nut-free, as well as carob-, citrus- and olive-free.)
Amy,
Carol Fenster has written some cook books which include instructions for substituting eggs which you can probably find at the public library. Carol Fenster’s site: http://www.savorypalate.com
She’s also got a booklet for sale on her site about baking with egg substitutes. Another source: http://www.allergygrocer.com/id1142.html
I’ve never tried this, but I’ve heard that apricot puree (probably from canned apricot) is a delicious egg substitute in cookies.
Sheila
amy said,
December 22, 2006 at 10:59 pm
Do you know how successful this recipe would be using EnerG Egg Replacer?
My son is severely allergic to eggs. Any advice you would have on this would be greatly appreciated. I am excited to try these – we just found out that my son needs to be gf as well as egg-free, casein-free, soy-free, peanut-free, and he cannot have berries or melons (mold food allergy which can also be a problem with most grains – ugh!).
I tried your cookie recipe and I loved it. I am real picky about an after taste in my food and these cookies didn’t have an aftertaste at all. I used real vanilla and it was wonderful. I made plain rolled out sugar cookies, pinwheels, Snickerdoodles,thumbprints, and Butterscotch cookies.
I made a few types of the thumbprint. One was I added Orange extract to the dough and filled the thumbprint with strawberry jam. Also Lemon ones filled with raspberry. And then just plain vanilla filled with blackberry. I must say these did not stay on the plate long..=P
Also if you place lemon extract in the cookie or lemon zest which ever you have on hand. I make them as a chewy cookie then when they come out dust them with powdered sugar they are light and wonderful.
The butter scotch were crushed gluten safe candy cane. These were wonderful as well, Especially with a glass of milk when first out of the oven.
Thank you for sharing such a wonderful recipe with us. Also I couldn’t find the amaranth flour so I read up on flour textures and decided to use arrowroot in its place. I still did not get an awful after taste. ANd these cookies were not grainy. My family thanks you…
Wow, Acianna ~ Thanks for such good feedback, and some new, great ideas! The butterscotch made with the candycane sounds like a winner. Well, all of them do. Lemon zest dusted with powdered sugar… Yum. I’m glad the arrowroot worked for you! I’ll have to remember that in the future as an alternative.
Is there something I can substitute for the Amaranth flour? I couldn’t find any in my grocery store. Could I use Tapioca flour, or something? I’m new to GF cooking (my breastfeeding son requires it) and really want to try this recipe…but I don’t want to mess it up!