Cookie exchange! Part 2: The new old-fashioned way

OK, so I know it's a little last-minute, but I have some more cookies to share with you! Several of the traditionally-GF cookie recipes linked in this post make great holiday cookies and have traditionally been used as such, especially various types of amaretti cookies and other similar pastries using nut meals, such as zimmtsterne (cinnamon stars), mandelhoernchen, and kransekake. However, I’d like to focus on some of the traditional rice-flour cookies from other parts of the world. Some of these are already considered Christmas cookies - achappam, for instance, is a rice-flour-based variation on European rosette cookies, traditionally made at Christmastime. Others, though, are for different holidays or occasions, and we can build on some of these traditional rice cookie formulas to make more types of European Christmas cookies that are usually made of wheat flour!

Spritz cookies are formed by extruding the soft dough through a press to make various shapes. This means it doesn’t need to be rolled out or handled very much, which in this case is good. The texture and flavor of the wheat-flour-based recipe, from what I recall, are somewhere between that of a rich buttery shortbread and a sugar cookie. This is remarkably similar to some of the traditional Persian rice-flour shortbread cookies (naan berenji), also featured in this post. With just a few adjustments, I found a naan berenji recipe can indeed be the basis for some pretty tasty spritz cookies! As a traditionally-GF recipe, these cookies of course use no gum, nor any other binding additives (no psyllium, pectin, flax, etc).

This recipe, with some changes to the flavorings, made a stiff dough which I shaped by hand just to test it. I found the cookies quite tasty. However, they have a softly powdery mouthfeel - this is typical of some of the styles of traditional shortbread-like cookies from (what was formerly) Persia (now areas including Iran, Pakistan, etc). I personally like this texture, but it probably wouldn’t seem quite right to someone familiar with traditional spritz cookies.

First test.

Another more involved recipe, with the same changes to the flavorings, made a dough that was too soft - it melted and the shapes were lost during baking. Considering the pictures in this post, I don’t think it is supposed to be this soft. One possibility is that the author of the original recipe was using a measuring cup that actually held a little more than a cup, resulting in my dough not containing quite enough flour. The other possibility is that my syrup was not as thick and viscous as it was supposed to be - I had problems with the sugar recrystallizing, which caused it to have a sludgy consistency instead of thick and syrupy.

Second test.

These second cookies were too crisp - probably again due to the crystallized sugar, but a little more flour wouldn’t have hurt here either.

My third formula is sort of an average of the other two, and this created the best balance of flavor and texture and the dough worked perfectly in my cookie press. Egg yolks contribute a rich shortbread texture and golden color, and a little syrup helps the dough stay smooth and helps keep the cookies tender. Here is this recipe:

Merry Christmas!

Rich rice-flour spritz cookies

160 g Thai/water-milled rice flour (**see note**)

10 g potato starch (optional - you may instead simply use 10 g additional Thai rice flour)

1 tsp baking powder

70 g powdered sugar

¼ tsp salt

125 g butter

1 whole egg

2 additional egg yolks

10 g lemon juice

10 g water

10 g golden syrup (or other fairly thick syrup/honey)

½ tsp each almond extract and vanilla extract

Butter and eggs need to be at room temperature. Cream together the butter, powdered sugar, and salt until fluffy. Combine the whole egg, egg yolks, water, lemon juice, and extracts, then add this mixture to the butter mixture and beat until smooth. Stir the baking powder into the flour(s), then add this to the previous ingredients until well combined. Chill dough overnight, or at least for a few hours.

Preheat the oven to 350º F. To shape the cookies, gently form the chilled dough into a log and load it into the cookie press. Hold the press flat against a cookie sheet and squeeze out just enough dough so that the cookie will stick to the sheet, then lift the press straight up and the cookie should remain in place. (This is a little hard to explain if you’ve never made spritz cookies before - it’s not as complicated as it sounds! There are probably plenty of youtube videos etc. that can help clarify if this step doesn’t make sense!) Sprinkle cookies with plain or colored sugar or decorative sprinkles, if desired. Bake for 10 minutes.

**Note on rice flour: For this recipe you’ll need wet-milled rice flour, not stone-ground. You can get wet-milled Thai rice flour at an Asian market - I’ve seen several sources saying Erawan brand is trusted to be gluten-free. Please do not try making this with stone-ground flour (Bob’s Red Mill, etc) - it will probably not work right! Stone-ground flour is not only more coarse, it also has a higher proportion of damaged starch; both of these factors will affect the amount of water needed, the stickiness of the dough, and the texture of the final product.

{Ratio Rally} Norwegian potato lefse

Having lived in the Midwest, I'm pretty familiar with the food stereotypes of the region...several of which can probably be traced back to the areas with a lot of Scandinavian influence. And while anyone who's spent time in that region (or listened to A Prairie Home Companion) has likely heard jokes about the ubiquitous cream-of-something-soup casseroles and the notoriously-polarizing lutefisk, it seems some of the best foods are virtually unknown in most other parts of the country! Lefse is one of those foods, and when I saw that Brooke had chosen "Tortillas and Wraps" for this month's theme, it's exactly what came to mind.

For all two of you reading this who have heard of lefse, the title of this post probably seems a bit redundant. (Norwegian potato lefse? As opposed to....?) For the rest of you, though, let me introduce you to a new, very versatile traditional flatbread/wrap...made in a decidedly untraditional manner. 

You see, lefse is generally made by peeling, boiling, and mashing starchy potatoes with cream and butter, letting the potato mixture cool completely, then incorporating flour. As with anything "traditional," of course, every family recipe I found was different - many use just those ingredients, but others insist milk is essential, while still others add a little sugar. Even the consistency of the dough is not universally agreed upon; in fact, I was pretty surprised by just how widely the ratio of flour to potato could vary. Additionally, some people have re-worked their family recipes by making the mashed potatoes from instant potato flakes, then proceeding as usual. It saves the work and time of peeling all those potatoes, but still, most of those recipes instruct to refrigerate the mash overnight before making the dough. 

I decided to make things even lazier easier and faster - I simply used the appropriate amount of potato flour along with the rest of my dry ingredients, then mixed in the wet ingredients, and the dough is ready to go! (Potato flour is just dried potato, like instant mashed potatoes; in one batch I did try reconstituting the potato flour separately and then adding the other flours, but I couldn't tell a difference in taste or texture, and the dough was much more difficult to work with.) Whether it tastes all that different compared to the traditional method, well, I can't really remember - I haven't had "real" lefse in several years, and Jon (who is not gluten-free, and therefore is responsible for taste-testing my recipes for authenticity) has never tried it at all. However, he did think this bread tastes like naan - with its nice chewy texture and griddle-blistered surface, I can't say I disagree. 

I think it tastes pretty close to what I remember, though. Either way, I do know that this is a quick, very satisfying wrap bread, with a slightly sweet, hearty potato taste that complements all kinds of fillings. Unlike many gluten-free wraps, it is soft enough to roll up around a filling, and won't fall apart. Try it as a snack spread with butter and cinnamon sugar, or for lunch wrapped around cheese and lettuce, or even rolled up with peanut butter and jelly. (Yes, I used to take that last one to school for lunch. And got some funny looks for it. But I didn't care, because it was delicious.)

As I mentioned above, every recipe I found for lefse was a bit different, because every family has a slightly different version of the same food. The recipe below just happens to be a balance I like: not too floury or dry, a little bit buttery, moist yet not too heavy. My ratio, if I count the dried potato as part of the flour, is 6 parts flour:4 parts liquid:1 part fat. 

I calculated my ratio based on how many total grams of fat, rather than how many grams of butter and cream, went into it. Hopefully this will make substitution more successful for those of you who need to avoid dairy. If you try making a dairy-free version, let me know how it goes!

Lefse (the lazy way)

Makes 8 wrap-sized flatbreads

70g potato flour (not potato starch!)

70g white rice flour

55g potato starch, plus more for rolling out dough

15g buckwheat flour

2 tsp psyllium husk

1/4 tsp Pomona's citrus pectin

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp sugar

2 T butter, melted (this contributes about 22 grams of fat) 

35 g cream (approximately 13 grams of this weight come from fat, for a total of 35 g of fat; roughly 20 grams remaining counts as liquid) 

190 g water (this plus the ~20 grams from the cream equals about 210 g liquid)

Method:

Blend all dry ingredients together in a bowl. Mix in cream, melted butter, & water, knead until dough forms a ball. --At this point I recommend putting the dough in the refrigerator for about half an hour - the dough is much easier to work with if it's cold.-- When the dough is chilled, flour your work surface and rolling pin with some starch, and heat a heavy griddle over medium heat. Divide the dough into eight balls. To roll out, press each ball flat with your hand, making sure there is plenty of starch on both sides, and gently roll as thin as you can without tearing. Picture yourself using the rolling pin to stretch the dough outwards, rather than pressing downwards on it. (If it does tear, use damp fingers to repair it - just make sure to dust extra starch on that spot so it doesn't stick to the rolling pin. Also, don't worry if they're not perfect - it takes practice, and they'll still taste just as good!) To cook, roll the round of dough up onto/around the rolling pin - so it is draped over the rolling pin - then carefully "roll" it off onto the hot griddle. It should start to bubble up after about a minute, at most - if it doesn't, turn up the heat a little more. Cook for a couple of minutes on each side. Place the lefse between folded dish towels to cool (this keeps them soft). 

Leftover lefse should be frozen for best texture (not refrigerated). Keep them in a freezer bag and thaw in the microwave as needed.

~Check out all of this month's recipes for tortillas & wraps, hosted by Brooke of B & the Boy!~