What would Christmas be without cookies? Perhaps the tradition began with our childhood and the humble offering to Santa placed beside the fireplace the night before Christmas. Whatever the case, cookies and Christmas seem to go hand in hand. But what happens when you add the dynamic of the gluten-free diet? Great gluten-free cookies are often a challenge. Many times they come out either flat and misshapen or so dry that if you accidentally inhale as you take a bite you may choke! We’ve spent many years experimenting and developing some great cookies that don’t taste gluten-free. In fact they are truly delicious, even for those not on a gluten-free diet. This year we’d like to share some of our favorites along with some helpful tips!

Glutenfreeda’s Favorite Cookies:

Sugar & Spice Pecan Cookies
Holiday Spritz Cookies
Gingerbread Cookies
Lace Cookies
Stained Glass Cookies

Helpful Cookie Tips:

• We use The Gluten Free Pantry’s Country French Bread flour mix for the gf flour in all of our cookie recipes. This flour mix behaves much like wheat flour and yields the best results.
• When converting cookie recipes, choose recipes with 2 cups or less flour.
• Chilling or freezing the dough before baking tends to make a better gluten-free cookie. It prevents the cookies from flattening out and loosing their shape.
• Make sure that you carefully measure, or even weigh, your ingredients. Spoon your flour into a measuring cup to insure the proper amount. Even better yet, weigh the flour. Depending on how lightly you spoon flour into a measuring cup, a 1-cup dry measure holds anywhere from 4 to 5 ounces of flour. In baking, that’s a huge difference.
• For slice-n-bake, rolled cookies - to keep your logs round, use a cradle. If you happen to have a baguette pan, it makes a perfect cradle for chilling logs of dough. If you don’t, use an empty paper towel roll by cutting it in half lengthwise to make two cardboard troughs with rounded bottoms. After the logs have chilled for 15 minutes, turn them over once and chill until firm.

Of course, if you are looking for a delicious sugar cookie that you can have your kids decorate, but you don’t want to spend the time to make the dough, may we suggest Glutenfreeda Real Cookies:  Sugar Kookies.  These delicious &  light, sugar cookies are already preformed into dough balls – simply place a dough ball on a baking sheet and in minutes you have perfect sugar cookies ready to decorate.  These are the perfect solution for those non-bakers or perhaps for those busy parents looking for a quick solution for kid’s holiday parties.

Happy Holidays!

- Chef Jessica

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