Great Cookie Recipe for your Friends Who Need Gluten Free

‘Tis the Season of Sweets…I told Leslie today that the hard part about getting so many cookies and other sugary delights this time of year is the realization that resistance is close to futile (for those non Star Trek fans, that is a pop reference to the Borg…but, I digress).

We have a friend in Dillsboro who was diagnosed several years ago with Celiac Disease which means she has an allergy or intolerance to all wheat and gluten ingredients. This time of year for sweets is no big whoop to her, most cookies and candies are just gluten delivery systems. Before the diagnosis, our friend used to love those Moravian ginger snaps. They come in a can, are very highly ginger spiced and almost as thin as paper. We know she misses them.

Leslie was googling around on the internet the other day and came across some gluten free recipes, one of which was for Gingersnaps. Seemed like a great idea for a treat for our friend. We had all the ingredients. Instead of flour, the recipe calls for brown rice to be processed until fine. I’m here to tell you that the food processor can process until hell freezes over and the rice will not turn into flour. Forget the freaking food processor…if you have a coffee bean grinder though, you stand a good chance.

Anyway, I wasn’t expecting much of the recipe because after all…health food cookies…blah! Color me shocked though, it turns out they might just be our new favorite cookies. I'm glad Leslie found the recipe!

GINGERSNAPS

2 ¼ cups long or short grain brown rice

1 ½ tsp ground cinnamon

½ tsp ground cloves

3 TBS ground ginger…yes, that’s 3 TABLESPOONS!

2 tsp baking soda

¼ tsp salt

¾ cup butter at room temperature

1 cup packed dark or light brown sugar

1 large egg

¼ cup un-sulfured molasses (available in grocery stores)

Raw sugar for rolling cookie dough in　

Grind rice in coffee bean grinder until very fine and place in medium sized mixing bowl. Add the rest of the dry ingredients and whisk well.

In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar thoroughly. Beat in the egg and molasses until smooth. Fold in the dry ingredients until well combined. (I use a KitchenAid mixer for all this stuff).

Refrigerate dough for at least two hours (turns out this is an important step unless you want the cookies spreading all over the pan).

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Form teaspoon size balls of dough and roll in the raw sugar. Line the cookie sheets with parchment paper and place the cookies on the tray with plenty of space between each other. Flatten slightly with a fork. Bake 8 to 10 minutes until browned. Browning is important so that they will be crisp, crisp, crisp. Remove from the oven, cool on tray briefly and then transfer cookies to a rack. Allow to cool thoroughly.

Enjoy and share.

All these cookies makes us feel like we are waddling around it is so hard to be diligent about not over-indulging. Waddle Waddle.

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