Gluten Free Spice Cookies

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Gluten Free Spice Cookies

Adapted from David Lebovitz and Alice Waters by My Little Blue Heron

David’s Lebovitz's blog is wonderful. From time to time he offers gluten free recipes or links to GF. This recipe is wasn't GF and was originally from Alice Waters (The Art of Simple Food). 

The spice profile is wonderful (thank you, Alice Waters!) The black pepper gives them a real zing, so if you want to de-zing them, reduce the black pepper. You can omit the black pepper and substitute with some allspice.

Spices are the playground area of baking. They won't effect the chemistry. Bundle up and go out and play! Reduce the black pepper, up the ginger, the cinnamon or down the cloves.  

I grind my cloves in an electric spice grinder. Buy an inexpensive coffee grinder and reserve it for spices.  I use two different varieties of ground cinnamon, both great. If cinnamon is fresh (less than a year old), it's perfect! Cassia or Ceylon - either will do.

GF flour (this is important): For this recipe, don't use a cup-4-cup blend or a blend that has added Xanthan or Guar gum. My favorite packaged blend in the U.S. is King Arthur Flour's Gluten Free All Purpose Flour (the one without 'gum'). It's not inexpensive. When you find it on sale, pick up a couple of boxes.

If you want your cookies to snap, make sure you bake these until they are quite brown. If you bake them light, they’ll be softer, more chewy. I like these chewy. In fact, if you throw in a cup of raisins, up the cinnamon and ginger and down the pepper, you'll have some lovely, chewy raisin-spice cookies* (variation below). Raisin cookies are comfort cookies.

Unbaked batter can be kept for a couple of days in the fridge or a month in the freezer. If they stick around, baked, they’ll keep in an airtight container for a week or more.. These freeze beautifully.

New Spice! New Year! Happy New Year!

Happy New Year
Happy New Year
May we all have a vision now and then
Of a world where every neighbor is a friend
Happy New Year
Happy New Year
May we all have our hopes, our will to try
If we don't we might as well lay down and die
You and I

peace and love,
jane

Ingredients:

4 c./480g. gluten free all purpose flour (King Arthur recommended) 
     (NOT "measure for measure" or "baking mix" or anything with added xanthan gum)
2 tsp. guar gum

2 1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. kosher salt

2 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon

2 to 3 tsp. ground ginger

1 1/2 tsp.freshly ground black pepper 

1/2 tsp. ground cloves (freshly ground is best)

8 oz./225 g (1 cup) unsalted butter, room temperature 

1 1/2 c./227g. coconut sugar

1/4 c./80g. molasses 

1/2 tsp. vanilla powder or 2 tsp. pure vanilla extract

2 eggs, size large, at room temperature

*Variation:
Add 1 cup/160g. of (organic) raisins at the end of mixing. You might alter spices: reduce or omit black pepper and increase cinnamon and/or ginger. Increasing cinnamon and omitting pepper will produce a milder tasting cookie. Increasing ginger will give more zing. 

Procedure:

In a medium sized bowl, whisk together the flour, guar gum, baking soda, salt and ground spices. Set aside.

Using the paddle attachment of your stand mixer, whip together the butter, sugar and molasses. Add the eggs and mix until lightened in color. Add the vanilla powder or extract. (MLBH truc: coat inside of glass measure cup with flavorless oil for an easy pour!) 

Dump in flour mixture and mix until completely incorporated and the batter is well-combined.

Transfer to a smaller bowl and refrigerate for an hour or more until the batter is firm.

Pre-heat oven to 350º F. (175º c), racks in upper and lower third of oven; and line two baking sheets with parchment. 

Using a small cookie scoop, or a tablespoon, place dough on baking sheets. Each sheet should have a dozen balls. Using your fingers (you can dampen then slightly with cold water), depending on how crisp you desire your cookies to become, flatten the balls into disks (start with 1/4"). After one batch, you'll be in the driver's seat.

Bake until the cookies are uniformly golden to dark brown, rotating cookies half way through the bake. This should take approximately 10-12 minutes. Darker will make them crispier, lighter will be softer.

Cool briefly on sheets and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Peanut Butter Cookies

Peanut Butter Cookies

Adapted from Julia Moskin by Blue Heron Kitchen

For some, this time of year is all about cookies. For me, all year is about cookies. This recipe is credited back to NYC’s City Bakery. Moskin calls for cultured butter. I used a combination of cultured butter and Plugra. I don’t know how many people can get their hands on or afford cultured butter, but if you can, try them with it.

For those who have nut allergies, try those “it’s not really peanut butter” spreads. Or try sunflower butter. I don’t know if they’ll be as good, but it couldn’t hurt.

Maldon brand salt is worth its salt. It’s becoming more available in the American market and if you can snag a box, do. I saw it in a local Asian market “hMart”! Thanks to my son, who lived for many years in the UK, I’ve hoarded accumulated several boxes. There are undoubtedly other flake salts on the market.

When pastry chef, Pichet Ong judged Moskin and Severson’s cookie bake-off, these gems were one of the two winners.

Pour a glass of milk and dunk.

Here's a peanut butter fan who prefers it straight from the jar with ice water...

with a smile and a song,

jane

Peanut Butter Cookies

Ingredients:

1 cup/228 grams/2 sticks unsalted butter room temperature, cultured butter if you can find it or can spare the extra dime

¾ cup/150 grams granulated sugar

¾ cup (packed)/150 grams light brown sugar

1 heaping tsp./6 grams kosher salt

2 cups/510 grams unsweetened peanut butter, creamy or chunky
(a 1 pound jar plus 53 grams of any peanut butter you have in the              house ..I used “Skippy”!)

2 eggs, size large, room temperature

2 cups/250 grams all-purpose flour

Flaky sea salt (Maldon is perfect!) or Kosher salt, if you don’t have fancy stuff; and coarse (Turbinado is great!) or granulated sugar for sprinkling

Procedure:

Heat oven to 350º F.

Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper or nonstick liners.

In a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugars until smooth and fluffy - about 3 minutes.

Add the eggs and beat until combined.

Add the peanut butter and mix. (Don’t bother to mix the separated oil – just dump it all in.)

Whisk in the heaping tsp. of salt to the flour and dump in the flour mixture, mixing until well combined.

In a small bowl, mix 2 tablespoons sugar with 1 tablespoon of flakey salt.

Using a small cookie scoop (about 2 teaspoons capacity), scoop dough onto prepared pans. The tops will be rounded but craggy. The cookies won’t spread much or change shape when they bake, so they can be placed quite close together, but do leave room for air circulation so they can turn golden brown.

Sprinkle each cookie lightly with sugar-salt mixture, getting it into the nooks and crannies.

OR .. One very cool variation on these is to sprinkle the sugar/salt ‘topping’ on a sheet of parchment and create a ‘roll’ for slice and bake, 

coating the outside with the topping, not unlike a sablé. Refrigerate and pull these out when you’re ready, slice about 1/2” thick and adjust baking time as needed. And .. wow! (I think I like these best!)

Bake 12 to 17 minutes, or until cookies are set and golden-brown. When cooled, removed from baking sheets and finish cooling on racks. Store in airtight containers, separated by parchment paper. N.B. These are delicate and crumbly, so don’t pack them too tightly.

Yield: approx. 6 ½ dozen