The Ultimate Gluten-Free Cookie Book (13 page)

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, except for the chocolate, and mix well. The cookie dough will form large clumps, but will not quite come together to form a ball; this is okay.

Melt the chocolate in a microwave-safe bowl or cup in a microwave on HIGH for about 1 minute. Pour it over the dough and stir it in with a few swirls of a fork just until a marbled effect occurs (do not overmix).

Roll out the dough to ¼-inch thickness and cut it with a 2½-inch round cookie cutter (or other cookie cutter of your choice).

Bake the cookies for 9 to 10 minutes, until they have the slightest hint of color. The tops will be dry. Let cool on wire racks before serving.

brown rice flour
MAKES ABOUT 50 COOKIES

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

In a medium-size bowl, combine the butter 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 beat well. Continue beating until the dough comes together; it will be soft and almost creamy.

Place the dough in a pastry bag and pipe the cookies onto the prepared pan. Bake for about 12 minutes, until the edges begin to brown and the cookies lose their sheen. Let cool on wire racks.

For the topping, break up the chocolate into a microwave-safe cup or bowl. Melt, stirring often, in the microwave on HIGH for up to 1 minute. As the container may be very hot, use care as you dip the tines of a fork into the melted chocolate and drizzle it over the cookies.

brown rice flour
MAKES 10 TO 12 LARGE GRAHAM CRACKERS

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 beat well. Continue beating until the dough is thick and heavy. Continue beating for an additional 30 seconds to 1 minute for additional dough stability.

Roll out the dough to ⅛-inch thickness. Using a pizza cutter, cut the dough into 5 by 2¼inch rectangles and place them on the prepared pan. Lightly score each cracker with a lengthwise and a crosswise indentation (to quarter each cracker), not cutting all the way through. Prick the tops of the crackers with a fork.

Bake for about 9 minutes. As the crackers crisp during cooling and it is hard to tell what browning is taking place under that cocoa color, the proof is in the cooled cracker. I suggest you bake one as a test to determine the exact, best baking time—not enough leaves a slightly soft (although delicious) cookie; too much leaves an overly crisp cracker. Let cool on wire racks before serving.

MAKES 35 TO 40 COOKIES

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

In a medium-size bowl, beat the egg whites, sugar, and vanilla until the whites form stiff peaks (This takes several minutes, depending upon the strength of your mixer. It also takes longer for stiff peaks to form with the inclusion of the sugar than if the egg whites were beaten alone.) The batter will look like marshmallow cream. Sprinkle the cocoa on the batter and gently fold it in. The dough will then look like whipped cream.

Using a piping bag with a large star tip, pipe large stars of dough onto the prepared pan, or just drop rounded teaspoonfuls of dough onto the pan. Bake the cookies for 15 to 20 minutes, until the bottom edges just begin to brown (which is hard to tell on this chocolate version) and the tops appear dry. Let cool on wire racks before serving.

brown rice flour
MAKES ABOUT 25 COOKIES

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

In a medium-size bowl, combine the butter and sugar. Beat well. Add the 1¼ cups of brown rice flour and beat well. Scrape down the sides of the mixing bowl at least once during mixing. Add the egg, egg yolk, baking soda, salt, xanthan gum, and vanilla, and beat well. Continue beating until the dough comes together; it will be soft and almost creamy.

Remove half of the dough (220 grams) from the mixing bowl and set it aside in another bowl. To the dough remaining in the bowl, add the remaining 2 tablespoons of brown rice flour and the baking powder and mix well. Set aside. To the other half of the dough, add the cocoa and mix well. Set aside. Both batches of dough may be refrigerated for 30 minutes for easier handling.

Pat the lighter dough on a lightly greased surface (waxed paper is nice) to form a 12 by 6-inch rectangle. Top the lighter dough with the darker dough, creating one rectangle with two layers. Roll the dough into a long log, rolling from the longer side, to create a spiral effect. Refrigerate the log until firm, about 30 minutes.

Slice the dough into ⅓- to ½-inch slices and place them on the prepared pan.

Bake the pinwheels for 10 to 12 minutes, until the edges begin to brown. Let cool on wire racks before serving.

sorghum flour
MAKES ABOUT 24 COOKIES