Gluten Free Cookies

First Posted January 4, 2012

    Below, you will see a recipe I came up with a few years ago.  Well, the results were...not good, but it turns out that I was on the right track.

3 cups of "flour" (1 cup Quinoa, 1cup Amaranth, 1 cup Brown Rice, 1/4 cup of Powdered Pysilium)
1 Cup of Vegtable shortning
2 large egs
1/2 cup of shugar
1/2 tsp of salt
1/2 tsp of Sodium BiCarbonate (baking soda)
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp vanilia Extract
1/4 tsp cinnamon

Mix all of the dry  ingredients togetgher in a separte bowl.  1 cup of Quinoa flour, 1 cup of amaranth flour, 1 cup of brown rice flour, 1/4 cup of powdcered psylium powered, 1/4 tsp of cinamon, 1/4 tsp of nutmeg, 1/2 tsp of salt, 1/2 tsp of baking soda...(Oh, but not the sugar you fool!).
In a second bowl, Cream the  shortening  and sugar until smooth.  Add the two eggs, one at a time.  Add the 1 tsp of vanilla.

Now, add the dry mix a little at a time to the wet mix...you should have a very nice dough now, but if you don't, whty did you download this recipe from this website anyway.  I am no pastry chef!

Warning...Do NOT try the above recipe.  It just didn't work.

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Cookie Recipe Version 2.0

OK, now for a recipe that I can say was about 80% successful.  It is similar to the above one, but we do things a little differently.

1 Cup of Butter (at room temperature)
1 Cup of Sugar
1 TSP Vanilla Extract
1 Egg

2 TBS of psyllium husk powder
1/2 cup of water

1 Cup of quinoa Flour
1 3/4 Cup of Brown Rice Flour
1 TBS of Arrowroot Starch.
1/2 TSP of Baking Soda
1 TSP of Backing Powder
 
You will notice that there are three groups of ingredients.  Start with the top group.  Put the butter in a mixing bowl and start to beat it.  It is best, in fact, almost always necessary to use a mixer.  As soon as the butter is starting to look smooth, add the sugar in 1/4 cup at a time.  Then add one egg and the vanilla extract.  Heck, I just let the thing run wile doing the next step.

Put the 2 TBS of psyllium husk powder into a 1/2 cup of water.  The psyllium husk powder will suck up that water, or should, and become a thick paste.  As soon as it has congealed, spoon chunks of it into the mixer.

While that is mixing, get a bowl and mix together the last group of ingredients.  Then add this to the mixer a spoonful at a time.  Scrape down the sides on occasion and make sure everything is well mixed.  You can now start making cookies.  You should be able to use this mix in a cookie press or just drop the dough onto a baking sheet.  I cooked mine at 400 degrees for 20 minutes.  You might want to check them at 15 minutes.

These came out surprisingly good.  A bit too sweet for me.  And maybe a little salt would have helped the flavor.  The texture was very good.  I have made other cookies using Xanthum Gum rather than the psyllium husk powder.  The trouble with xanthum gum is that if you use too little, the cookies fall apart.  When you get enough to hold them together they not only taste like rubber, but you can bend them and bounce them off the floor.

I am going to try and refine this recipe a bit more.

Guess I can almost call myself a Gluten Free Cookie Chef.