Chocolate Crinkle Cookies

I had a friend share one of these with me today and I immediately came home and busted out a batch that was gluten free.  They are super easy, super fast to whip up and they are DELICIOUS!!

The recipe I used is from Williams-Sonoma and all I did was change out the flour to be GF.

Chocolate Crinkle Cookies

½ C powdered sugar
1 2/3 C GF flour
1 ¼ tsp xanthan gum
½ C cocoa powder
1 ½ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
½ C butter at room temp
1 ¼ C sugar
2 eggs
 ½ tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cream together sugar and butter. Add one egg and blend together.  Add second egg and vanilla and blend together. Add dry ingredients except for powdered sugar. Beat on low just till blended.  Roll into 1-2 inch balls and then roll each ball in the powdered sugar.  Place on greased or parchment lined cookie sheet.  Bake @ 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes.  Remove from oven and place onto cooling rack for a few minutes and then store in airtight container if there are any leftovers!

Sugar Cookie Squares

Who doesn't love a soft sugar cookie?  I have not found pleasure in trying to 'roll' out sugar cookie dough since going GF, so this is something I put on the back burner.  Then one day, I saw a pin on pinterest called 'Sugar Cookie Bars'.  You just spread the dough out onto a cookie sheet and bake the whole thing at once and then frost, cut and serve!  Well, duh, why didn't I think of that?!  I pulled out my old favorite recipe from back in the day and viola, we have yummy sugar cookies....all shaped like squares!  It was a good day.  The first time I made it using the full recipe and the cookies were like cake thickness.  A bit much for me, so the second time, I halved the recipe and they were much thinner (as pictured below).  So pick what suits your fancy and enjoy!

 Sugar Cookie Squares

½ cup shortening or butter

1 ½ cups sugar

2 eggs

1 cup sour cream

1 tsp. vanilla

½ tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. salt

1 ½ tsp xanthan gum

3 cups GF flour

Cream together shortening, sugar and eggs.  Add remaining ingredients.  Spread dough out onto greased cookie sheet. (One with sides)  Bake at 375 degrees for 10-12 minutes; until light golden brown on top.

Frost with your favorite frosting.  I use Betty Crocker Cream Cheese flavored frosting.

Caramel Pretzel Cookies

If you like a sweet and salty combination, this is it! It's not very often that the kids come home from school to baked cookies, so this was a special treat today.  A sad detail to these cookies is I got so excited about the picture and getting it edited, I forgot about the second batch in the oven and burnt them to a crisp...So we thoroughly enjoyed the 16 cookies from the first batch.  So don't do what I did and get distracted and loose half your cookies!  You know want to go make some. The original recipe came from here.

Caramel Pretzel Cookies

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, room temperature

1/4 cup plus 2 Tbsp sugar

1/4 cup plus 2 Tbsp brown sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla

1 egg

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 cups GF flour (I use featherlite)

¾ tsp xanthan gum

3/4 cup GF stick pretzels, broken into thirds

1/2 cup caramel bits

1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Cream butter and sugars.  Add vanilla and eggs, mixing until well blended. Scrap the sides of the bowl.

Combine salt, baking soda, xanthan gum and flour.  Gradually add to wet mixture.  Mix until well blended.  Fold in broken pretzels, caramel bits, & chocolate chips with a spatula.

Spoon onto a baking sheet with parchment paper. Bake at 350 degrees for 13-15 minutes (or until golden brown). *Makes around 2 dozen cookies.

Peanut Butter Bars (School lunch style)

Remember those yummy peanut butter bars they used to serve at school lunch?  Found this recipe here and decided to give it a try.  Since my kids have never eaten school lunch, they really didn't know what they were missing out on.  Let's just say that out of a whole cookie sheet and sharing with a few friends, there were no leftovers.  Next I make it, I would like to try freezing a few and see how that works out. 

School Lunch Peanut Butter Bars

Ingredients:

1 1/2 C GF Flour (featherlite)

1¼ tsp. Salt

½ tsp. Baking Soda

¾ C Butter

¾ C Sugar

¾ C Brown Sugar

1 ½ tsp. Vanilla

1 1/2 C Creamy Peanut Butter (split)

2 Eggs

1 ½ C Quick Oats (I blended mine to make more of a flour like consistency)

¾ tsp xanthan gum

Frosting:

½ C Butter (1 stick)

3 ½ C Powdered Sugar

2 T Cocoa

¼ C Milk (I use whatever I have in the fridge)

1 tsp. Vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a small mixing bowl, mix together flour, xanthan gum,baking soda and salt. In a large mixing bowl, cream together butter, sugars, 3/4 C peanut butter, eggs and vanilla until light and fluffy. Gradually add dry ingredients, just until incorporated. Then, stir in the oats. Spread onto a greased 11 x 15 Jelly Roll Pan (cookie sheet). Bake for 12-15 minutes, or until golden brown. Cool for 10 minutes.

The frosting is a two-step process. First, whip the remaining ¾ C Creamy Peanut Butter until it becomes lighter colored and fluffy. Carefully spread the whipped peanut butter over the pan cookie.

Then, add butter to a small sauce pan and melt the butter. Add the milk and cocoa. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly. Heat just until boiling. Remove from heat and add vanilla. Then, gradually add the powdered sugar. Stir until thickened. Pour over the peanut butter and gently spread over the cookie. Cool completely, and slice into bar cookies.

Never on Sunday, Sundae

My sister spent a few weeks with us this summer.  She whipped up this very tasty ice cream cookie sundae.  She just used the cookie recipe from here.  For the sundae recipe, instead of making lots of individual cookies, you just need one or two 8-9 inch round cake pans.  Line them with parchment paper, divide the cookie dough in half and spread evenly into both pans.  Bake as directed in cookie recipe or until cookie is golden brown and done looking.  Let cool slightly and then top with favorite sundae toppings...ice cream, chocolate and caramel sauce, whipped topping and sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar.

**You only to make half a batch of cookie dough to get two 8-9 inch round cookies.

Never on Sunday, Sundae
1/2 batch of cookie dough recipe (here)
Chocolate sauce
Caramel sauce
Whipped topping
Cinnamon and sugar

Caked Oreo's

I found this recipe over here at Picky Palate.  Her version is NOT GF, but I switched a few things to make them work for us.  I chose to use a GF cake mix rather than the brownie mix.  The cake mix tends to be a bit more runny which makes covering the Oreo's a little easier. They are DELICIOUS!!  These little cakes are simple to make and very adaptable for any holiday or occasion.

 

1 Brownie mix (I used Betty Crocker Chocolate Cake Mix)
1 package GF Oreo's (I used Kinnikinnick Brand)
White chocolate, melted for drizzle
Sprinkles

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Prepare cake/brownie batter according to package directions. Leave in mixing bowl. Dip Oreos in cake/brownie batter, then place in bottom of cupcake tins that have been generously sprayed with cooking spray. (I used cupcake liners in mine instead of spraying them. I do not enjoy cleaning/washing cupcake pans!) Bake for 12-15 minutes, until cake/brownie is cooked through (doesn’t take long). As soon as you remove, take a plastic knife and run along edges if not using liners, (this is VERY important so you can get the cake/brownie and cookie out together.
2. Let cool for 5 minutes, remove and drizzle with melted white chocolate and add sprinkles.
 Enjoy !!

** There are only about 21 cookies in the Kinnikinnick Oreo package, so I just made candy cane cupcakes with the rest of the batter.  (I smashed a bunch of candy canes and stirred them in into the batter).

Pumpkin Spice Cookies

Just in time for fall and the upcoming holidays. There is something about pumpkin, cream cheese and chocolate all together at the same time!  They freeze well (without the frosting) and they are super moist and yummy.  Even without frosting on top they are a very delicious cookie. I have to thank my friend Erin for sharing this recipe with us. 

Pumpkin Spice Cookies

1 cup shortening, (butter flavored) (I used softened butter)
1 cup white sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup canned pumpkin puree,
2 cups GF Flour (Four bean flour) (I used Featherlite)
1tsp Xanthan Gum
1 tsp Egg Replacer (did not use)
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon, ground
1 vanilla pudding, instant, 3.4 oz. package (sugar free optional)

Icing
1 16 oz. cream cheese, container of frosting
maple flavoring to taste or make cream cheese frosting from scratch and add maple flavoring
I just used cream cheese flavored frosting

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350. Grease cookie sheets.
2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter flavored shortening and sugar. Beat in the egg and vanilla then stir in the pumpkin puree.
3. Combine the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and vanilla instant pudding mix; gradually mix into the pumpkin mixture. (The dough will be very tacky and you may want to add ⅓ to ½ cup flour to the mix to be able to roll the dough and to adjust for high altitude to keep the cookies from spreading out as much when they bake).
4. Roll into walnut sized balls and place them two inches apart on the prepared cookie sheets.
5. Bake for 12-15 minutes in preheated oven, until lightly browned at the edges. Allow to cool completely before frosting.

**I ended up using about 2 ½ -2 ¾ c of flour.
I also like to add about a half a bag of chocolate chips

Chocolate Chip Cookies

All right, it is for real this time!  We have made a cooking breakthrough in the GF world.  I have been given a new flour blend that works miracles!  It's a variation of the Better Batter Flour Mix.  I used it in my old cookie recipe that I have grown up with and they turned out fabulous.  Thick, chunky, chewy, soft...need I say more?  No grit, no after taste, no complaints! Yeah!! 

Chocolate Chip Cookies
2 cubes butter or 1 C shortening
1 C brown sugar
1 C white sugar
2 eggs
3 C Better Batter Flour Mix
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
1 bag chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375°. Mix first 4 ingredients really well. Add remaining ingredients. Bake 7-8 minutes (or until golden brown) on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
Place on cooling rack. Store in air tight container.

This next set of cookies is a Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie...This recipe comes from Allrecipes.com.

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup peanut butter
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 egg
• 1 cup Better Batter Flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup rolled oats
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips (I use milk chocolate)
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. In a medium bowl, cream together the butter, white sugar and brown sugar until smooth. Stir in the peanut butter, vanilla and egg until well blended. Combine the flour, baking soda and salt; stir into the batter just until moistened. Mix in the oats and chocolate chips until evenly distributed. Drop by tablespoonfuls on to lightly greased cookie sheets.
3. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes in the preheated oven, until the edges start to brown. Cool on cookie sheets for about 5 minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely

Cinnamon Roll Sugar Cookies

If you are worried about sugar, fat and calories...this recipe is not for you!  I came across this recipe on a blog called Picky Palate.  Her recipe is NOT GF, but I knew I could convert it to be GF.  They were a hit!

4 C GF flour

1 1/2 C sugar

1 C Shortening

1 C Sour Cream

1 1/2 tsp Baking Soda

1 tsp Vanilla

 2 Eggs

2 tsp Xanthan Gum

Butter

Brown Sugar

Cinnamon

Cream Cheese Frosting

Cream sugar, shortening, sour cream and eggs.  Add remaining ingredients until well blended.  Chill for at least one hour.  Divide dough into three portions.  Roll out first one on a floured surface. 

For the filling:

Lightly spread some butter over dough and then sprinkle with brown sugar and cinnamon.

Roll the dough and then cut or slice through (I used dental floss).  Place on baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Repeat with remaining dough.  Bake at 375 degrees for 8-10 minutes.

Remove from baking sheet to a cooking rack and frost with cream cheese frosting.

Snicker doodles

Today is one of those days when I want to shout from the rooftop...HOORAY!! I have tried a couple different versions of snicker doodle recipes and failed. Today I was craving a cookie really bad. So I whipped out the cookbook to make a batch of Oreo Cookies when the thought occurred to me to make vanilla Oreo's instead of chocolate. Well, when I finished the batter, I thought to myself, this would make a good snicker doodle cookie. It sure did! The best part for me is that the cookies are not flat and greasy. They are fluffy and chewy.

The original Oreo recipe comes from Eating Gluten Free

The recipe below has the changes to make the Snicker doodles.

1 ¾ c. margarine
1 large pkg. instant Vanilla pudding mix
1 ½ c. sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla

4 c. featherlight mix
1 ¾ tsp. xanthan gum
¾ tsp. baking powder
1/3 tsp. salt

Cream margarine, pudding mix, and sugar. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each. Add vanilla. Combine dry ingredients and add to creamed mixture.

Chill about 1 hour. Roll cookies into 1 inch balls and cover with cinnamon and sugar blend. Place on greased baking sheet (I use parchment paper). Bake at 350° for about 10 minutes. Remove from cookie sheet and allow to cool. Store in air tight container.

Betty Crocker Cookies

Nothing is more exciting in the Gluten Free world than when you hear that a company has come out with a new product. Well, Little Ms. Betty Corcker has done just that. The first time I sent Jon to the store to pick one up, I learned that it is just shy of $5 a box! "No way!" I said. Curiousity got to me and I broke down and bought one. I would have to say that I am really disappointed. They are flat, greasy and very grainy. I have made others from scratch that have tasted better. It was absolutely nice to just open a box, add an egg and butter and be done, but for the price, I dont' think I will be buying the cookie mix again. Betty Crocker does have two cake mixes out that I might give a try, I just need a few days to forget how disappointed I am right now...

Happy St. Patty's Day

Just made up a few treats for the kiddos school class for St. Patrick's Day.

Click here for the Cookie recipe.

Click here for the cupcake recipe. (I just added green food coloring for this specific holiday)

Granola Cookies

This is a recipe that my daughter's teacher found. They have cooking committee every week (which has not been the funnest thing for me!) She asked me to try them and see how they turned out. So we did. Besides cooking them longer than I would have liked, they tasted pretty good. I only made a fourth of the recipe listed so I wouldn't waste the ingredients in case it did not turn out. I also added chocolate chips.

1 C butter
2 C brown sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
4 C GF oats
1 C chocolate chips (Optional)

In sauce pan, melt the butter and brown sugar. Add remaining ingredients and mix well. Pour into a sprayed baking dish (13 x 9 x 2) and bake at 350 degress for 20-25 minutes. (I did 25 and it was too much). Cut into small squares or bars. Makes about 4 dozen

Soft Batch Cookies

This recipe comes from www.eatingglutenfree.com. We really like them and they are moist.

Soft Batch Cookies

1 c. margarine
3/4 c. packed brown sugar
1/4 c. sugar
1 (3.4 oz) pkg. instant vanilla pudding mix
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
2 1/4 c. featherlight mix
1 tsp xanthan gum
1 tsp baking soda
1 c. chocolate/butterscotch chips
1 c. chopped walnuts (optional)

Cream butter, sugars, and pudding. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each. Beat in the vanilla. Sift together flour, xanthan gum, and soda. Gradually beat into the creamed mixture. Stir in the chips (and nuts if desired) Drop 2" apart on an ungreased baking sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 11 minutes. Let cool. Store in a Ziplock bag for at least 3 hours for best taste.

Cinnamon Graham Crackers

This past December being our first Gluten Free Christmas brought many challenges. All the potluck parties, the cookies and non other than the graham cracker gingerbread houses the kids make at school. Talk about feeling bombarded! We survived and will be better prepared for next year! This recipe is for Cinnamon Graham Crackers. We have made them just to have for a snack at the park and better yet, we have used them to make Smores when we went camping this summer. When making them for crackers, I roll it out very thin. The dough will rise slightly while baking. When I made the gingerbread house, I rolled the dough out thick. Cook it as a whole on the cookie sheet and a few minute before it is done, pull it out and cut out your house shapes. Return to the oven to finish cooking. All in all, I was very excited with how well the gingerbread houses turned out.

I received this recipe from a Cousin. Her and I have adapted it to work with the flours we already had at home. They turned out great! The changes can be found in red at the bottom of the recipe. I tried to find Mona's link on the internet, but found that it is down.

Mona’s Cinnamona Grahams
3 c. + 2 Tbs. Mona’s Multi Mix
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 Tbs. baking powder

¾ c. butter
¼ c. honey
1 c. brown sugar
1 tsp. pure vanilla
½ c. water

In a large bowl, beat butter, honey, sugar, and vanilla.

In a separate bowl, blend Mona’s Multi Mix, salt, cinnamon, and baking powder. Stir this into the creamed mixture alternately with the water, using just enough water to hold the dough in a soft yet firm ball. Divide in two, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least one hour. (Don’t do it too long or it is hard to roll out)

Roll out half of the dough on a piece of parchment paper which has been cut to fit on a cookie sheet, sprinkling with GF flour to keep from sticking. Roll out to 1/8 inch thickness, to fit exactly over paper.

Transfer the paper covered with the dough carefully onto cookie sheet. Cut into 2 inch squares and prick each several times with the tines of a fork. Bake at 325F for about 30 min.(Check at 20 min.) Remove squares from the outer edges if they are getting too brown. Cool on rack and store on counter top in airtight container.

***Mona’s Multi Mix contains: brown rice flour, white rice flour, tapioca starch, sorghum flour, potato starch, xanthan gum.
**So in this recipe I used 2 ½ c. + 2 Tbs. Feartherlite flour mix, ½ c. bean flour, and 1 ½ tsp. xanthan gum. The featherlite flour mix can be found under Flour in the label section on the right hand side of the blog.

O-R-E-O

, deFor the love of Oreo's! These are fabulous. I have tried making these two ways. The first was to cut out the cookies before cooking. I floured (GF flour) a piece of wax paper, rolled out the dough and placed another sheet of wax paper on top and then cut out the cookies. After baking them I frosted some and froze some for a later time. You can make these for any occasion and change the color of your frosting to coordinate to the event...Red for Valentine's Day, Orange for Halloween or Green for St. Patrick's Day.

The second way I have made these (finished product pictured below) is to just roll out the dough on parchment paper covering the bottom of a jelly roll pan or cookie sheet. Then cooking the dough just slightly under the instructed cooking time. At that time I pull the pan out and cut out cookie shapes as quickly as possible, then place them back in the oven to finish baking. What do I do with the scraps you might ask? Bag them up and crush them into smaller pieces and now you have oreo cookie chunks to add to your ice cream! I made these for the kids holiday class party instead of making GF gingerbread dough. They were a huge hit.

This recipe came from http://www.eatingglutenfree.com/

1 ¾ c. margarine
1 large pkg. instant chocolate pudding mix
1 ½ c. sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla

4 c. featherlight mix
¾ c. special dark cocoa powder
1 ¾ tsp. xanthan gum
¾ tsp. baking powder
1/3 tsp. salt

Cream margarine, pudding mix, and sugar. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each. Add vanilla. Combine dry ingredients and add to creamed mixture.

Chill about 1 hour. Dust a clean surface with potato starch or featherlight mix. Roll out about 1/8 of an inch thick, adding enough potato starch to make the dough less sticky. Cut with a small, round cookie cutter (about 1 ¾ inch in diameter).

Bake at 350° for about 10 minutes. Remove from cookie sheet and allow to cool.

**I frosted mine with Pillsbury cream cheese frosting.