Gluten Free Pumpkin Cookies

Ever since we went to Disneyworld last year our kids love Mickey, especially Lulu the two year old. On a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse video we found a recipe for "Mickey's pumpkin cookies". The kids have been wanting me to try it out for a while now, but I just hadn't gotten around to it until tonight. It worked pretty well. I have also been trying to omit xanthan gum from recipes lately, but I did add some to part of the cookies. It really did help the shape of the cookie and I took pictures so that you can see the difference, but am having difficulty loading them. They were puffed in the center, but spread out about a quarter of an inch around the edge. They still tasted good, even if they didn't look as nice. I know that some people can't digest the gums, so I figured I'd do an experiment in case people out there can't use them.

1/2 cup margarine
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup canned pumpkin pie filling
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 cup GF flour
1/2 tsp xanthan gum (if using)
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 cup cinnamon chips (optional)

Grease cookie sheets and preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream the margarine and sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg, pumpkin filling and vanilla. Mix well. Sift together dry ingredients, and add them slowly to the mixture. Drop by teaspoons onto greased cookie sheet; bake for 10 minutes until light brown and puffed. I added the cinnamon chips as an afterthought (at the same time as I added the xanthan gum), but I also think that pecans, raisins, or even chocolate chips would taste great in these cookies. The girls loved them.

GF Chocolate Peppermint Christmas Cookie

So, ever since I made the excellent gluten-free chocolate oreos, I've been devising a way to make my own Thin Mints of Girl Scout fame. Well, this month in Martha Stewart Living, there was her own take on the greatest little cookie, Christmas style. Well, I took a leaf out of her book, and used her basic idea to make my own little gem. I tried her chocolate cookie recipe, and was not a fan. The dough was incredibly difficult to work with, and didn't have the satisfying crunch of the oreo cookie. I'm not going to reprint the recipe here (sorry) but you can follow the link. But, to make it a wonderful little mint cookie, add 1/2-1 tsp pure peppermint extract to your dough, once it's all mixed together. This will depend on how minty you like things to be. Just taste to see, I'm sure you don't mind an excuse to sample the dough. I have decorated the cookies two ways now, and I'll tell you about both. First, I made them more authentically girl scouty, by dipping them in melted Hershey's Mint Chocolate Chips, they were so good that I ate them all before photographing them, and I couldn't get my hands on any more chips today to make some more. Sorry for the lacking visual. The other way is Martha Stewart's design, and very appropriate for the Christmas season. She suggests to dip the cookie in white chocolate (Melissa and I dipped these in white almond bark which was very nicely white) and then, right after dipping, sprinkle with crushed candy canes. As a tip, try to dip the cookies quickly, because the heated chocolate starts to soften the cookie and some don't hold their integrity. They look beautiful, and taste fantastic, too. And, again, because the base recipe is so great, non-celiacs will be equally impressed.

Ambrosia Macaroons

I get on kicks. Right now my recipe kick is with Bon Appetit magazine. I love macaroons, especially since they're typically gluten free without modification. I also adore the combination of orange and dark chocolate. So, as soon as I saw the spread in the magazine for these cookies, I knew I had to try them. I was interested in the recipe because it has a very different make-up than the other macaroons I've previuosly made. I didn't want to make the whole batch, partly because I was short and egg, and also because I'm trying not to inundate myself with such calorie-laden goodies this Christmas season. So, I did a little fanagling with the recipe, but really, it's all Bon Appetit. I also have to admit that I loved making them because I love the drip method of adding a bit of chocolate cookies. I have a master's degree in Art History, and I loved feeling a bit like Jackson Pollock in creating these beautiful cookies. Yes, food is an artistic outlet for me. Enjoy!1/3 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup granulated sugar
dash salt
grated peel of one navel orange
2 eggs
4 cups coconut, packed (I used a 14 oz bag, plus some)
4 oz Hershey's Special Dark chocolate chips

With rack in center of oven, preheat to 325. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. Beat butter until smooth. Add sugar and salt until light and fluffy. Add orange peel, then eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition. Mix in coconut. I used a large cookie scoop to drop the batter by tablespoonfuls onto the parchment, leaving them in a mound for a nice round look. Bake macaroons for 20-25 minutes, or until they're browned on the bottom, and throughout the cookie. Allow the cookies to cool on the pans, to finish cooking through. Once cooled, melt your chocolate and, using a fork, drizzle the chocolate across the rows of cookies for a nice added touch. This made about 30 cookies for me.

Peanut Butterscotch Cookies with Hershey's Chocolate Bits

As the December weather gets colder, I turn to the oven. Partially to help heat up our apartment, and also to warm myself from the inside with great baked goods. I've also been thinking a lot about cookies and candies lately with Christmas coming soon. I've planned to post some of my favorite cookie recipes, and figured I might as well start with the cookies I made today. I've mentioned before that I LOVE butterscotch chips. I still remember being a very small girl and walking into a bulk confectionary with my mother, and going over to the bin of butterscotch chips and just drinking in the aroma. I was about 4 years old at the time, and I still remember.
But, I always loved oatmeal butterscotch cookies. Even with the new gluten free oats, the cookies I've made just haven't been the same, and so I've been looking for another outlet for my favorite chip. I think I found it!
Today I was thinking about those butterscotch chips, and what I could do with them, and I thought about making the scotcheroos that are also delicious, then I thought, why not make my peanut butter cookies, and add butterscotch chips and chopped Hershey's chocolate bars? So, I did. I may not have been the first person to combine these, but, I will tell you all that they're fabulous.

I'm sure I've posted this cookie recipe before, but I'm happy to do it again. Because it's super simple. I always have it memorized and never have to look at anything for reference.

1 cup smooth peanut butter
1 cup light brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
I like to cream the peanut butter and sugar first, then add the rest of the ingredients and beat well. Then, I add the mix-ins, here I added about a half to 3/4 cup of Hershey's butterscotch chips, and then about 6 mini Hershey's bars that I broke apart in my hands.

Form into teaspoons sized balls on your ungreased cookie sheet. Flatten slightly before baking. I love soft and chewy cookies, so I always bake mine for 8 minutes. It seems the perfect time. If you want them a little crispy, then bake for about 10 minutes or until golden browned.

Basic Coconut Macaroons-Cholocolate Dipped

We were quite nervous and anxious for our first dinner party after John's diagnosis. We had no idea if John would be able to eat anything, and didn't want to offend the host. Thankfully, she knew he was celiac and had gone to great lengths to cook his chicken without any flour leaving off the sauce, to dress her own salad with oil and vinegar (no croutons) and even make polenta as the side dish. Then, she made excellent ricotta cream tarts (she set aside cream and berries in a bowl for John) and chocolate dipped macaroons. This was honestly the first time I had even thought about Macaroons as being an easy thing to make gluten free. Especially in its most basic recipe, which I prefer for its excellent chewyness. It's now a recipe that I crave often, and I made on a whim last night.

1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 14 oz bag of sweetened flake coconut
1 tsp vanilla

Mix ingredients together. Drop by spoonful onto a parchment paper lined cookie sheet. I try to smash the lumps down a bit. I like my cookies to be a bit flatter, so they brown better and are chewy throughout. If they're in balls, the centers don't cook so well, and I don't like them as much. The cookies will spread a bit, so keep that in mind. I wondered last night while making them if it would be good to add a tablespoon or two of flour to try to keep that spreading at bay.
Bake in a 350 oven for 10 minutes, turning once during cooking to brown evenly.

I remove the entire sheet of parchment to the cooling rack since the individual cookies are still quite sticky. Once they're dried a bit and are easy to pull off the parchment, I melt some dark chocolate in a shallow bowl. My favorite thing to use it just Hershey's Special Dark chocolate chips. Then, I drop the cookie in the bowl, and push the chocolate up around the sides. Then, lift it with a fork or spoon and drop it back on the parchment to cool overnight. They're simple, but they're also elegant.

GF Oreos, Softer Version with Peanut Butter Filling

I'm always changing my recipes, depending on the day and what I want. I've been wanting to adjust the Oreo recipe to make it slightly softer, a bit more cake like. I've also wanted to play around with the butter, and see what combination works the best. And today, I've been in a Reese's kind of mood, and I thought that a peanut butter frosting would make a great center for these cookies. So, here's the newer, softer GF Oreo:

3/4 cup Featherlight flour
1/2 cup GF flour
1/2 tsp xanthan gum
1/2 cup Special Dark cocoa
1 small pkg chocolate pudding mix
1/2 cup sugar (I think this could be bumped up, even to a full cup)
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup margarine + 2 Tbsp butter
2 eggs

Mix together dry ingredients. Add softened butter and combine. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Divide into small, even balls, flatten. Bake at 350 for 7 minutes on parchment paper lined cookie sheet.

Frosting

1 cup creamy peanut butter
1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
2 teaspoons vanilla

Beat together butters until nice and fluffy. Add sifted powdered sugar, mix on low until combined, then mix on medium speed until light and fluffy.
This makes for a thicker filling for the oreos. It's not super sweet, hence my suggestion to add more sugar to the cookie itself, but it is delicious. It's also a very large batch, so that you have plenty to use to overstuff the cookies. For this filling, I just frosted one cookie, then covered it with a cookie of similar size. As you can see, these cookies are nearly as perfect and round as the others I made, but I kind of like the rough look of these. They're small, only about 1 1/2 to 2 inchs in diameter, I'm just zooming in a lot on the cookie. The pictures almost make them look like whoopie pies, but they're really just like a double-stuffed Oreo.

GF Homemade Chocolate Sandwich Cookies (fake Oreos)

So, it was my love of all things cheesecake that brought me to discover this recipe and start to modify it. I've posted it on my family blog before, but have since changed it, and I plan to tweak it again. These make such an excellent crust for cheesecakes requiring a chocolate cookie crust. I guess it was actually the frosting that got me thinking I could make a good oreo. For my daughter's first birthday, I made a chocolate cake. I wanted white frosting, but I didn't want a buttercream frosting with my chocolate cake, so I devised a plan to make white chocolate frosting by modifying one of my favorite recipes from Nigella Lawson. The frosting was an amazing success and I decided it would be the perfect filling to an oreo cookie. I went online and found a gluten free fake Oreo posted on the blog "Hey, that tastes good". I made them, and liked them, have now adjusted them slightly, and here we are now. I'm posting the recipe I used to make these exact cookies.

1/2 cup GF flour
3/4 cup Featherlight mix
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder ( I used Hershey's Special Dark cocoa, so excellent!)
1/2 t xanthan gum
1 1/2 t baking soda
1/4 t baking powder
1/4 t salt
1 cup sugar
5 T unsalted butter, room temp
5 T butter flavored crisco
1 large egg plus 2 egg whites

Combine dry ingredients in a stand mixer. Add butter and shortening, in pieces, mixing on low until combined. Add eggs one at a time, then mix until incorporated. Drop by SMALL teaspoonfuls onto cookie sheet lined with parchment. After you've made uniform balls, press the cookies down flat (this time I was able to use the heel of my hand to push them down, but if the dough is too sticky, I've used the underside of a glass coated continually in powdered sugar) so they will be more like a thin oreo cookie.
It's best to make these small so the chocolate cookie doesn't overwhelm the filling. Bake at 350 for 6-8 minutes. (This temp/time combo makes a really crisp thin cookie, much like the actual oreo, but play around if you want it softer, or chewier, I know I do.)

Filling:
1 cup plus 2 T unsalted butter, room temp
2 cup powdered sugar, sifted (really, you should do it)
1 T vanilla
1/2 cup white chocolate chips, melted

Melt chips 1 min on high in microwave, mix until totally melted and smooth. Let sit. Beat butter until smooth. Add sifted powdered sugar. Once the butter and sugar and light and fluffy, add vanilla and melted chocolate. Mix well. Using a plastic bag with a half inch opening, pipe a generous teaspoonful of filling on one side, then top with a similar sized cookie and push together to even out the filling. This is a big amount of frosting, because they really taste great with a lot of filling. You can halve it if you'd like less. The cookies aren't very sweet, so putting them with a lot of filling makes for a great sweetness. This makes about 30 sandwich cookies.
Enjoy!

Favorite Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies

When John was diagnosed three years ago, we at least knew we'd have our favorite Peanut Butter Cookies to eat. My sister gave me this recipe for flourless cookies about 4 years ago, and we loved them. I remember her giving me the recipe and thinking, why would you need to make flourless cookies? But the recipe was so simple, and I loved that they only made two dozen cookies, since I can eat all of them in one sitting. When John was diagnosed, I knew that a lot of other people had peanut butter cookies they liked. When I finally looked at another recipe, I realized it was different, and we tried them. I honestly think I threw them away because they were so bad in comparison. Remember, these were our favorite cookies even before we'd ever heard of Celiac or a gluten-free diet.

1 cup peanut butter
1 cup light brown sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla

Mix together until combined. I like to add about a cup of chocolate chips to these. Our favorites (and pictured) are the Nestle's Swirled Peanut Butter and Milk Chocolate chips. They taste excellent. If I go with chocolate, I stick with the milk variety. Chopped Hershey bars are excellent. Or, if you don't want chocolate, the best way to make them plain is with crunchy peanut butter. I don't know why this is, but the Adam's natural crunchy peanut butter is so fabulous in these. It makes for a really chewy and delicious cookie. As with most gluten-free cookies, these don't keep that well. They dry out pretty quickly, so you want to share them.

Drop the cookies in teaspoonfuls on the baking sheet and bake at 350 for 8 minutes. This recipe makes about 2 dozen.