So you may think it’s too early for holiday cookies. Well not in the Twin Cities – at least for participants in our Raising our Celiac Kids group. We have our gluten-free cookie exchange in November as we prepare for the holidays. All you need to do is share a few dozen cookies at the meeting and voila you have about 3 dozen different gluten-free treats for the holidays.
Adventures into Celiac-friendly Spritz cookies
This year I have had a little more time on my hands and I wanted to try a different cookie, something I’ve not done before. Last week I picked up the current Living Without magazine and it had a bunch of cookie recipes – which didn’t seem too difficult; included was a recipe for gluten-free spritz cookies. That was it. I have always wondered how they were made. I had just never ventured in that direction. Now was the time.
Spritz Cookies Ready for Baking
Armed with the recipe, I hit the store to purchase any necessary ingredients and then I bought a cookie press. I had no idea how to use it since spritz cookies just seemed to pop up around my holiday events. I never actually saw anyone make them. But I was up for the challenge. I figured out how to take apart (and put back together) the cookie press to clean it first. Then I mixed the ingredients and started “pressing” out the cookies. For the most part, they looked great!
The only thing I had trouble with was as I kept “pressing” the dough tended to get stickier. Some of the shapes just didn’t work very well and stuck to the bottom of the cookie press and eventually fell apart. Since I have never made these before, I didn’t know if this was a problem unique to gluten-free dough or all cookie doughs. Hint: if you know the answer and how to avoid this in the future, please let me in on the secret!
Baked and Ready to Eat
I ended up adding a little bit of gluten-free flour to the mix and I think that helped a little bit and I was able to finish up the job with about 8 dozen cookies to show for it. And what’s better I didn’t even screw them up! What I really liked about this style of cookie was that they are not as fragile as my regular holiday sugar cookies, which break apart when I’m just gently scooping them off the cookie sheet.
The final word—try the spritz cookies if you haven’t. I actually feel like I made something worthwhile my first time trying! Thanks to Living Without for the push I needed to make them happen!
Tags: baking, gluten-free, holiday cookies, recipe, Spritz cookies, sugar cookies
November 23rd, 2008 at 4:59 pm
Try refrigerating the dough and take out only the portion you need for the press for each use so it stays as cold as possible (for the sticky dough issue).
December 23rd, 2008 at 1:54 pm
what helps is chilling the pan, and semi cold dough, not so cold you can’t put it through the press but not so warm its unmanageable. if the pan isn’t colder than the dough it doesn’t stick. the butter just heats up and slides around making it difficult to work with.