Gluten Free Lemon Crinkle Cookies(Dairy Free Too!)

Sorry about the picture, I couldn't figure out how to turn it!

My daughter loves lemon, and one day as I was looking at a great food blog, I spotted this recipe and knew I had to try them.  I revamped the recipe to be gluten and dairy free and then put my daughter to work.  They were a hit.  Thanks to Mel's Kitchen Cafe for the great recipe.


Lemon Crinkle Cookies
6 T. shortening(Organic Spectrum, it actually cooks better than the other stuff, plus it is healthier)
1 c. sugar
1/2 t. vanilla
1 egg
1-2 t. freshly grated lemon zest
1 T. freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/4 t. salt
1/4 t. baking powder
1/8 t. baking soda
1 t. xanthan gum
1/2 c. tapioca flour
1/2 c. sorghum flour
1 T. coconut flour
6 T. millet flour
1/2 c. powdered sugar
In a large bowl, cream shortening and sugar together until light and fluffy.  Add vanilla, egg, lemon zest and juice and mix well.  In a separate bowl, sift together dry ingredients(except powdered sugar) and add to mixture.  Mix until just combined.  Place powdered sugar in shallow bowl.  Roll balls of dough in powdered sugar and place on baking sheets(sprayed or silpat lined).  Bake at 350 for 9-11 min.  The cookies will not be browned but will have lost a bit of their shininess, don't overbake.  Cool and enjoy.  I usually like a warm cookie, but I think these ones might be better cool, try them both ways.  Makes 18.


These are linked to Linda's Gluten Free Wednesdays and Laura's Allergy Free Wednesdays!

Gluten Free Snickers Cookies (healthy style)

We love cookies, we love peanut butter, and we love snickers, therefore, we love these cookies!  It seems you can get away with the healthier flours when cooking with peanut butter, so I threw out the starch and added in some healthy grains and seeds.  I usually make the cookie batter dairy free, and make a few plain peanut butter cookies for those who can't have dairy, but for those of us who can handle it, I wrap that yummy stuff around the mini snickers.

Snickers Cookies

1/4 c. butter(Earth Balance works great for those additional allergy needs)

1/2 c. peanut butter

1/2 c. sugar

1/2 c. brown sugar

1 egg

1 t. vanilla

2 T. coconut flour

1 T. chia meal(I grind the seeds in a coffee grinder)

1/2 c. sorghum flour

1/2 c. millet flour

2 T. teff flour

1/2 t. baking soda

1/2 t. baking powder

1/2 t. xanthan gum

1 bag mini snickers

Cream together the butter, peanut butter and sugars.  Add the egg and vanilla and beat well.  In a separate bowl combine the dry ingredients.  Add the dry ingredients to the wet stuff and mix until combined.  Preheat your oven to 375, unwrap your snickers(snitch one or two), and the fun begins.  Grab a small ball of dough and wrap it around the snickers and place it on a Silpat lined cookie sheet, or whatever works for you.  Bake for 9 min.  They will still look like balls when you pull them out of the oven, so take the back of something flat and give them a slight squish.  Enjoy!

*If you don't have chia or coconut flour, they don't substitute equally.  Replace them with twice as much flour.  Ie. 1 T. chia meal = 2 T. potato starch 

*These are part of Linda's Gluten Free Wednesdays & Tessa's Allergy Free Wednesdays.  Thanks for all the great recipes!

Gluten Free Double Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies - starch free

I saw this recipe on a blog the other day and knew they would be the perfect gluten free cookie.  Anything with peanut butter always turns out great, plus with chocolate - who can lose?  I also figured with the help of the peanut butter and chocolate,  I could throw in all my healthy flours for a delicious, starch free, "healthy" cookie.  I made these for a lunch at my house and everyone asked for the recipe.  I told them the original link so they could get the gluten filled version.  My neighbor told me a few days later that mine were better, and that always makes a gluten-free cook smile!  Easily dairy/soy free!  These will definitely satisfy your craving!

Double Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies

adapted from The girl who ate everything

3/4 c. teff flour
1/2 c. millet flour
1 T. coconut flour
1/2 t. xanthan gum
1/2 cup cocoa
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 c. shortening(Spectrum Organic is awesome)
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup peanut butter
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips(use Guitard semi-sweet for dairy free or Enjoy Life for soy free)
In a small bowl, combine dry ingredients and set aside.  In your large mixing bowl, cream together the peanut butter, shortening, and sugar.  Add eggs and vanilla, and  mix some more.  Add the dry ingredients and mix until combined.  Stir in chocolate chips.  The dough will be thick.  Place balls of dough on greased or Silpat lined cookie sheet. Bake for 10 min. at 350.  Do not overbake.  Delicious when warm out of the oven.  Makes 3 doz. delicious cookies!
These are linked to Linda's Gluten Free Wednesdays.

Gluten Free Ranger Cookies - Healthy style

Yes, I love desserts, and we eat way too many of them at our house!  Because we eat so many, I make them as healthy as possible and then rationalize that I can eat a dozen in one sitting.  So, although this is a cookie, I can happily say that they are made of 100% whole grain, no starch, reduced fat and sugar - and of course they are delicious. Plus they are dairy & soy free as well.   These are my gluten eating neighbor's favorite cookie!

Ranger Cookies

½ c. shortening(Spectrum)

1 c. brown sugar

½ c. sugar

2 eggs

1 t. vanilla

1/3 c. millet flour

1/3 c. teff flour

1/3 c. sorghum flour

½ c. gf oat flour

1 t. xanthan gum

2 t. baking soda

½ t. baking powder

2 c. gf rolled oats

2 c. gf rice krispies

Chocolate chips, m&m’s, Craisins, or whatever you want

 In a large mixing bowl, cream the shortening & sugars.  Beat in the eggs and vanilla.  In another small bowl sift together the flours, xanthan gum, soda, and powder.  Stir flour mixture into sugar mixture.  Stir in oats.  Stir in Rice Krispies, and then stir in chocolate chips.  The dough will be crumbly, because there isn't really a lot of dough to hold all the stuff together.  Just pack it into your cookie scoop and bake at 350 for 10 min. Makes 4 dozen.

Gluten Free Nutella Cookies

One day I was looking for something new to eat and came across this recipe.  I know Nutella has milk in it, so I'm sorry to those of you who can't do dairy, but for those of you who can, these are awesome.  I knew they would be good because I know that nut butters give gluten free cookies a great texture.  Plus, these are chocolate so I knew it would be easy to make them healthy.  Put the 2 together and you now have a whole grain, gluten free, yummy cookie.  I adapted the recipe from two peas and their pod.

Nutella Cookies
1/2 c. teff flour
1 T. coconut flour
2 T. potato starch
1/4 c. sorghum flour
1/4 c. millet flour
1/2 t. xanthan gum
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup cocoa
1/4 cup butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1/3 cup Nutella
1/3 cup milk

Preheat oven to 325.   Whisk together dry ingredients, set aside. In a mixer, add the butter, sugars, and vanilla. Beat until smooth and creamy.  Add the Nutella and mix until batter is smooth.  Add the flour mixture in 2 batches, alternately with the milk in one batch, mixing well. Chill dough for at least 15 minutes before baking.  Drop dough onto cookie sheets(Silpat liners are the best) and bake for 10-11 minutes or until soft, but starting to set. Remove cookies from the oven and let cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes. Transfer to a cooling rack and let cool completely. 

*I'm posting these at Linda's gluten free Wednesdays, there are always lots of great recipes.

Gluten Free Graham Crackers

 I usually buy the Kinnickinnick Smoreables at the store because they are convenient and edible.  I have made homemade graham crackers before but they took a lot of  time.  My friend needed some graham cracker that needed to be gluten, dairy and soy free, so I offered to make some.  I pulled out my recipe, made a few adjustments, and we are now hooked. Now that we have been spoiled by these yummy ones, it will be hard to use the ones from the store.  I have figured out some tricks that make them much easier.  #1- you need a Silpat liner when rolling out gluten free doughs.  The doughs are so fragile that it is  hard to transfer them. When using a Silpat liner-  just roll it out on the liner, then slide it onto the pan.  They work great for these, as well as sugar cookies, or any dough that needs to be rolled.

#2- refrigerate the dough, and #3- use a cut Ziploc bag on top, this keeps the dough from sticking to the rolling pin.  This might sound intense, but doing these 3 things you will have your homemade graham crackers in no time.  I usually throw together the dough the night before and then it is ready for me the next day whenever I have time.  Now, with all that said, here is the recipe!

Graham Crackers

½ c. brown sugar

½ c. millet flour

¾ c. sorghum flour

1/3 c. tapioca flour

1/3 c. potato starch

1/3 c. oat flour(if you can't do oats, just use one of your favorite flours instead)

1 t. baking powder

½ t. xanthan gum

½ t. baking soda

½ t. salt

6 T. butter(Earthbalance dairy/soy free works great)

1 T. molasses

2 T. honey/agave(honey makes it tastes the most authentic, but agave is great too)

1 t. vanilla

3 T. cold water

Mix together dry ingredients.  Work in butter until crumbly.  Stir in remaining ingredients.  Refrigerate dough for 1 hour.  Place ½ of dough on a Silpat liner(this makes it so easy because you don’t have to transfer the dough).  Take a gallon Ziploc bag and cut the sides and place on top of the dough and then roll until about 1/8-1/4” thick.  Use pizza cutter to cut into desired size, prick with fork and bake at 325 for 12-15 min.  As soon as you take them out of the oven, use the pizza cutter to go back over the lines and cut again.  Repeat with remaining dough. 

*This is linked to Linda's gluten free wednesdays, check it out!

Oatmeal Cookies

The other day I was craving homemade cookies.  I whipped these up in no time and they really hit the spot.  You are going to see lots of oatmeal cookie recipes out there, but they are full of starch or unnecessary ingredients.  These cookies have no starch, use all whole grain, they are dairy free and soy free, and are also delicious!  Make sure you have gluten free oats!

Oatmeal Cookies

1/3 c. shortening(I use Spectrum Organic - it has no trans fats and is dairy & soy free) 

1/2 tsp. baking soda                         

1/2 tsp. xanthan gum

1/4 tsp. salt

½ c. brown sugar                              

1 egg                                                  

1 tsp vanilla 1 c. GF oat flour(I just blend them in the blender - about 1 1/4 c. oats will = 1 c. flour)
1 ¼ c. GF rolled oats

1 c. chocolate chips(Guitard or Ghiradelli semi-sweet are dairy free, Enjoy Life is dairy & soy free)

Cream shortening, brown sugar, egg and vanilla together.  Mix in flour, soda, and xanthan gum, then stir in chocolate chips. Drop onto greased baking sheets(or Silpat liners).  Bake 375 for 8-10 min.  This only makes about 2 dozen so feel free to double or triple!

Candy Cane Cookies

This Holiday Season our family is starting some new traditions, based on the book, "A Christ-Centered Christmas," by Emily Freeman(a fellow Celiac).  The book guides you through 7 traditions inspired by the nativity.  This week we focused on the shepherds.  As part of the evening we made these candy cane cookies, that were the shepherd's staffs.  The kids had so much fun rolling and twisting their dough to form these delicious cookies.  They came out perfect.  The original recipe comes from the book and I just altered it to fit our diet.
Here is the gluten free version so you can enjoy them with your family.

1/2 c. butter(I used Earthbalance's Dairy Free butter)
1 c. sugar
1/2 c. milk( I used 1 T. lite coconut milk + water to = 1/2 c.)
1 egg
 1 t. vanilla
1 t. baking powder
1/4 t. salt
1 1/2 t. xanthan gum
1 t. unflavored gelatin
1 1/2 c. sorghum flour
1 c. millet flour
1 c. tapioca flour
1 t. peppermint extract
red food coloring
Beat together butter and sugar until fluffy.  Add in milk, egg, vanilla and mix well.  In a separate mixing bowl sift togehter the dry ingredients and then add to the butter mixture.  Mix well.  Divide dough in half.  Stir red food coloring and peppermint flavoring into half of the dough.  Refrigerate doughs for 4-6 hours.
For each candy cane, roll 1 Tablespoon from each of the red and white dough into a 4 in. rope( if your hands get sticky, spray them lightly with cooking spray).  Place one red rope and one white rope side by side, press together gently and twist.  Place on ungreased cookie sheet (or Silpat). Curve top down to form a candy cane.  Bake at 425 for 9-11 min.  Let cool.

One of my favorite blogs is the Gluten Free Homemaker.  She hosts a cooking challenge each month and for December it is Christmas cookies.  I thought these would be perfect.  Check out her blog for other great recipes. www.glutenfreehomemaker.blogspot.com. 
This is also linked to http://www.thesensitivepantry.com/the-sensitive-pantry/2010/11/30/calling-all-cookies.html, this is a new blog I found and I can't wait to check it out even more.  They have some great cookie recipes posted.  Check them out!

1 Easy Recipe - 2 Great Cookies

Peanut Butter Blossoms or Peanut Butter Cookies

I'm sure most of you have seen a recipe similar to this simple flourless peanut butter cookie.  I reduced the sugar and added a twist to the recipe.  These are a great treat to take to a party or they make a quick and easy cookie to satisfy your craving.
 Basic Dough
1 c. peanut butter
3/4 c. brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp. soda
Mix well.  Makes 16 cookies.
Basic cookie
Scoop balls onto cookie sheet(I prefrer a Silpat), and flatten with a fork, forming a cross.  Bake at 375 for 8-9 min.
PB Blossom
Form dough into balls and roll in sugar.  Place on cookie sheet and bake 9 min.  Remove from oven and immediately press a Hershey's kiss into the cookie.