Often the most frustrating part of wheat-free and gluten-free baking, is knowing which flours to use when. For basic sugar cookies, a combination of all-purpose flour mix, tapioca starch and almond meal provide the right blend of flavors and textures to make the cookies light, fluffy and perfectly sweet.
Why Tapioca Starch and Almond Meal?
Unfortunately, the lighter and fluffier the all-purpose gluten-free mix, generally the lower the nutritional value of the ingredients. Bob's Red Mill All Purpose Gluten Free Flour is made of a combination of fava beans, garbanzo beans, sorghum and tapicoa. This mix offers actual nutritional value including iron and fiber.
While this is a great standard mix for banana bread and chocolate chip cookies, it doesn't lend itself well to the light flavor of sugar cookies because the beans carry an earthy flavor of their own. However, this is easy to offset by using alternative flours for some of the mixture.
Gluten-Free Sugar Cookie Recipe
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit, and grease cookie sheets in preparation for baking.
Beat the following ingredients together until smooth:
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoons Vanilla
- 4 tablespoons Almond Milk (original or unsweetened)
- 2/3 cup Palm Oil shortening
- 1 1/2 cups white granulated sugar
In a separate bowl, combine:
- 2 cups Bob's Red Mill All-Purpose Gluten-Free flour
- 1 cup Tapioca Flour (sometimes labeled Tapioca Starch, this is the same thing)
- 1/2 cup Almond Meal
- 2 1/2 teaspoons Baking Powder
- 1/4 teaspoon Salt
- 2 teaspoons Xanthan Gum
Directions:
- Gently combine the two mixtures until well blended.
- This recipe does not lend itself well to drop cookies, as the dough puffs up considerably in the oven. Rolling the dough as thin as possible comes out with the most authentic cookies. Chill the dough for at least 10 minutes before rolling on waxed paper. Use tapioca starch liberally to keep rolling pin from sticking.
- For an easy prep and make later version , roll the dough into two thick snakes and freeze in a tightly sealed freezer bag. When it's time to bake, oil a sharp knife to slice the dough into pre-formed circles.
- Bake the cookies for 6-8 minutes at 400 degrees. Allow cookies to cool completely before serving or frosting.
Nutritional information for one cookie can be found below .
Traditional (Gluteny) Sugar Cookie Recipe
Because it can be interesting to experiment with traditional and family recipes, the original recipe this was converted from is provided below. The instructions for baking are identical; only the gluten-free and dairy-free substitutions have been made.
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoons Vanilla
- 4 tablespoons Milk
- 2/3 cup Shortening
- 1 1/2 cups white granulated sugar
- 4 cups Flour
- 2 1/2 teaspoons Baking Powder
- 1/4 teaspoon Salt
Alicia King - Alicia King has been writing for Suite 101 since June of 2007. For over a year, she was the Featured Writer for the Suite section about ...
