Single-flour ginger cookies from an heirloom GF recipe

I have previously mentioned the wealth of historically-GF recipes that stemmed from wheat rationing during the first World War. Though these recipes were widespread just a century ago, few of them survived the 20th century's changes to our food system and eating habits. And, like early versions of many recipes, quite a few of these formulas were not quite perfect - the rationing only lasted a couple of years, and changes in wheat production and distribution led to our GF flours falling sharply in popularity shortly after the war. (While there are vast numbers of traditionally-GF recipes that were popular for decades or centuries preceding this time, the GF formulas in vogue during rationing were primarily all-new, all-modern approaches designed to use only techniques and ratios similar to those used with wheat, so these new formulas just didn't have time to get the kinks worked out.) But! With these recipes now being in the public domain, it's easy to find potential gems worthy of attention and fine-tuning!  

The original, unspiced version with maple.

One such gem: Buckwheat Cookies. Three versions of a buckwheat cookie recipe appeared in the periodical American Cookery in 1917-1918; Maple Buckwheat Cookies, using maple syrup in place of (also rationed) sugar was given in October 1918, and Buckwheat Cookies made with plain sugar appeared two months later in December. The earliest prototypical version, using no leavening or salt, was printed in April 1917, as part of an article containing some insights on working with buckwheat flour. All three versions instruct to simply roll out and cut the dough. For this to work with the maple version, the syrup needs to be boiled until quite thick. I decided this seemed too fussy - too much guesswork about just how much boiling - so for my first trial, I made a hybrid version using mostly sugar with a little maple, following the instructions for mixing and beating the eggs. Still, rolling and cutting was not really an option with this thick sticky batter, even after chilling.

The magazine's photo of the maple recipe proves it must be possible in theory. There are, however, a number of variables at play - most notably, the fact that eggs have gotten larger in the intervening decades, and the inevitable impreciseness of volume measurements for flour. Several test batches later, I still hadn't gotten it to be worth the trouble of rolling and cutting. (You'll see some successfully cut cookies in my pictures, but it was just too fussy and messy compared to simply pressing flat balls of dough.) But in the meantime, each successive batch became tastier, so I decided to give up on the rolling part and just make round cookies. 

I will share my interpretation of the original recipes some other time, but for now - because it's Christmas - I'm sharing a delightfully spiced gingerbread spin on this cookie! Now, I have tweaked the recipe quite a bit by this point - for this version, instead of my original combination of sugar and syrup, I've used sugar and buckwheat honey to complement the buckwheat flour. Also, to combat the overly-sticky/battery nature of earlier trials, I have reduced the quantity of liquid by replacing the egg with a smaller quantity of my favorite egg substitute: bean broth, AKA the stuff from a can of chickpeas (if you've never heard of this, I have a very in-depth post in the works covering all the particulars of this ingredient and why it's way more than merely an egg sub; in the meantime, you can look up "aquafaba" as some people call it). 

I really like using an egg substitute like this because I'm not limited to the size of pre-existing eggs, making recipes both endlessly adjustable and extremely scalable! (Much nicer and simpler than ending up with those little jars containing 1/4 or 1/3 of an egg populating the fridge. ...What, surely I'm not the only one who's done this in the name of science?!) I've also simplified the mixing procedure a bit compared to the original, as with no actual egg, there is no need to develop the egg protein structure by beating. And of course, this conveniently makes the recipe all ready to go to accommodate those with egg sensitive or vegan dietary needs. Yay, cookies for all!

Makes about 20-24 small cookies - scale up or down as desired!

56 g natural palm-coconut shortening or butter, room temperature

140 g buckwheat flour (I tested with Arrowhead Mills, as it is widely available and certified GF)

74 g sugar

30 g buckwheat honey (you may also use molasses, beet syrup, or maple syrup for fully vegan)

40 g bean broth, room temperature (see note above)

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

ginger and cinnamon and other spices (i.e. allspice, cardamom, cloves) or mixed spice / pumkin pie spice / etc to taste (use at least 1/2 tsp total)

optional: currants/raisins and/or candied citrus peel

Combine the flour, baking powder, salt, and spices in a bowl. In the bowl of a mixer or other bowl, cream together the shortening or butter and the sugar, then mix in the honey. Beat in some of the bean broth, then part of the dry mix, then the rest of each and mix until uniform. Chill the dough for a couple of hours (optional, but makes it easier to handle and improves texture). Roll the dough in small balls, press flat on a parchment-lined sheet, and if desired, decorate with currants and/or candied peel. Bake at 350ºF/175ºC until lightly browned at the edges (exact time will vary based on the size of your cookies - about 11-15 minutes).

More GF Christmas cookies and cookie tips:

The above recipe can be iced for a more festive cookie. The round one in this picture is an earlier version of this recipe made with beet syrup instead of honey; these are iced with a vegan royal icing made from the same bean broth used in the cookies! 

"Magic cookie bars" or "Seven layer bars" are conventionally made with graham cracker crumbs - you can use GF cookie crumbs, but you can also easily make a from-scratch crust, such as this one, for a simple, economical, and slightly different treat (this is how I always make them now)! A couple hints:

- You do not need to pre-bake the crust when using it for these cookies. 

- Instead of the mixture of oats and oat flour the crust recipe calls for, you may also use all oat flour in the cookie crust.

Assorted cookies from last Christmas, made with various mixes

Spritz cookie recipe from last Christmas

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.

Cookie exchange! Part 1: Mixes and other shortcuts

A couple of weeks ago I was on the local radio (!) talking about GF baking, including some ways of building structure using the properties of GF flours without using gums - recipes that are built from the bottom up rather than viewed as making substitutions. That's the approach I most prefer to take on a number of levels. As a result, I hardly ever use baking mixes or premade flour blends. That said, I think substitute-type methods can come in handy sometimes, and the hectic nature of the holidays can be one of those times. 

Since I've ended up with several mixes in my pantry from various events and projects, I decided to see how I could use some of them to simplify holiday baking! Between traveling, having houseguests, going to events and parties, and everything else going on in these busy few weeks, the prospect of locating and measuring multiple flours and finding good recipes/tinkering with recipes to make them work is daunting. It's a time when even the most seasoned bakers may be wary of experimenting with new recipes, and even more so if you're relatively new to GF baking and unfamiliar with the characteristics of these ingredients!

So, there are a few shortcuts that can help here. One approach is to start with a mix and strategically embellish it to make it more festive - I have a couple of examples of this below. Another option is to find a flour blend that can be directly substituted in your familiar, trusted recipes originally based on wheat flour. I'll focus more on this further on in the post.      
  

These Chocolate Crinkle Cookies start with a chocolate cookie mix from Ardenne Farm, one of the "goodies" from the GFAF event a few months ago. I was intrigued by the simplicity of this mix - all it calls for to add is butter (or non-dairy equivalent) and 3 T water. I wanted to stay true to this uncomplicated formula while still achieving the chewiness that makes crinkle cookies so good - one very simple way to make cookies more chewy is to use some kind of syrup. 3 tablespoons of water adds up to 45 grams, so I simply substituted in 10 grams of sorghum syrup for the same amount of water. The only other change is to roll the balls of raw dough in powdered sugar until thoroughly coated. They also spread and crinkled more nicely when I tried chilling a sheet of the dough balls for about 20 minutes before baking. 

To make easy Chocolate Crinkle Cookies: Cream 1 stick (113 g) of butter (or equivalent) until fluffy. Beat in 10 g syrup (sorghum syrup, molasses, or other thick syrup). Add in the mix and 35 g of water. Mix just until it forms a dough - it will look like a collection of crumbs at first, but it should come together with continued mixing. If it still doesn’t come together after a minute, sprinkle in more water a few drops at a time. Form into balls and roll each ball in powdered sugar. Leave at least a couple of inches in between them, as they will spread. Chill for about 20 minutes. Bake at 350º F 12-14 minutes. Makes about 20-22 cookies.

Verdict: Nice and chewy inside, with crispy surface and good chocolate flavor. Well-liked by (non-GF) taste testers. Very simple and quick to make. Side note: this mix is also allergy friendly (egg-free and can easily be made dairy-free).

These Peanut Butter Blossoms use another mix I received from the GFAF event, a cookie mix from Our House. There's a variation for peanut butter cookies on the back of the box, which I modified slightly to get the right flavor and dough consistency for this classic (added a little milk and vanilla, and coated in sugar). Wait, shouldn't there should be a bag of Hershey's Kisses in this picture too? Yes, there should. But when I went to take the picture after making the cookies, I discovered the leftovers had been polished off by a certain someone the previous evening, and the evidence had already been disposed of. Just pretend they're there, I guess!

To make Peanut Butter Blossoms: Beat 240 g (about a cup) of creamy peanut butter and 113 g (1 stick) of soft unsalted butter until fluffy. Beat in 2 eggs and a teaspoon of vanilla, followed by the mix. Lastly, add 1-2 tablespoons of milk to form a soft dough - the exact amount you need will depend on the consistency of your peanut butter. Chill the dough for at least a few hours or overnight. Form chilled dough into balls about 1 tablespoon each in size, and roll each ball in granulated sugar. Arrange the balls on a baking sheet, squashing each one slightly, and leave a little space between them - they won’t spread very much. Bake at 350º F for about 16 minutes. Immediately press one chocolate kiss onto each cookie while still warm. The chocolate will soften and will stay soft even as the cookies cool completely, but will then firm up again within several hours (they taste best after this has happened). Makes about 48 cookies.

Verdict: I was worried at first that these were a little gritty, which is a common issue with stone-ground GF flours. But after I saw how quickly they disappeared when I brought a tray to a gathering of (non-GF) people where there was also plenty of other (non-GF) food to snack on, I'm not too concerned about it! They are pretty tasty, and stay soft for several days.

Now, on to the Sugar Cookies, and the subject of "cup-for-cup" or "1-for-1" flour blends...

For a blend to be considered a direct substitute for all-purpose flour in a range of recipes, it should usually have three major attributes:

1. Neutral flavor
2. Neutral texture (i.e. not gritty, not noticeably gummy or pasty)
3. Absorption of water and fat similar to that of wheat flour, and consistent across a wide range of formula types and hydration ratios

This last point is probably where we run into the most problems, and in fact, I believe there is no flour blend that is truly an all-purpose direct substitute in this respect. It would be more accurate to call these blends multi-purpose - - using them in place of the same amount of wheat flour may work in a variety of batters and doughs, but sheerly because of the differences in chemistry and structure, there is no GF blend that will provide all of the properties of wheat. Some of these blends may work well in a variety of recipes for stiff doughs (cookies, etc.) but not perform so nicely when substituted in batter recipes like muffins or pancakes; for others, the opposite may be true. Some may be an approximate substitute - you can eventually get it to work in a wide range of recipes, but you'll almost always need to tweak each recipe in one way or another. And even if a mix works great in batters and doughs alike, yeast breads will always require another approach entirely. 

Because of all these complications, I haven't really focused on 1-to-1 blends in several years - I find it's actually easier and makes more sense to me overall to just completely rebuild a recipe/formula. But again, this kind of holiday baking is a case where it may be important to stay as true to your particular traditional recipe as possible, and so a 1-to-1 blend may be useful.     

I happened to have in my pantry one such blend, which was given to me by someone who had used it for a different project. A sugar cookie recipe seemed like the perfect test, because it brings the flour's flavor and texture to the forefront and also plainly shows whether the dough is easy to work with. I chose a recipe that used a fairly ordinary formula and appeared to give consistently good results for bakers using wheat flour. 

This Bob's Red Mill flour is labeled as a "1-to-1" blend. But wait - is it 1-for-1 by weight, or by cup? Or both? According to the side of the package of the BRM flour, ¼ cup weighs 37 g. That seemed a good bit heavier than AP flour. Not surprising, considering the density of sweet rice flour, which is the first ingredient in the BRM blend - but still an important question. Sure enough, the internet told me a cup of AP flour weighs about 125 g. In a recipe that calls for 3 cups of flour, substituting by weight would mean using 375 g, compared to a whopping 444 g if I went according to volume. That’s a huge difference in the consistency of the dough! Hmm…

A bit of googling indicated that most people were using it cup-for-cup, not weight. Still, I decided to start with scant measurements to be safe - you can always add more flour, but you can’t take it out! A very scant 3 cups, by my measurement, turned out to be ~400 g. If I were going to make this recipe again, I think that I would be still more conservative (perhaps 380-390 g) - the cookies turned out a little dry, with a slightly powdery/floury mouthfeel. This is not uncommon in blends combining xanthan gum and a high proportion of starches. That said, there is no grittiness nor any off-flavors, and the dough was very easy to work with after chilling overnight. So, while it might not be a true cup-for-cup substitute, I do think this flour blend could be useful in a wide variety of “regular” cookie recipes if you just remember to go easy on the amount of flour used.

Coming up soon: Part 2, in which I will show you how to make some traditional Christmas cookies from scratch, using simple ingredients, with no gum or other additives!

We wish you a GF Christmas...

I found out I was gluten-intolerant the day after Christmas. My mother and I had baked so many cookies - as we did every year, to give as gifts. Of course, I'd planned on taking some for myself as well when I went back to my dormitory after Christmas. Instead, I added them to the treats I had already planned to give to all my friends. My stomach was no longer miserable, at least. However, I felt horribly deprived. And after tasting some packaged sponges Tapioca Bread, I remember wondering whether I'd ever be able to eat anything good again. (I guess I was a little melodramatic...)

That was three years ago. Oh, how things have changed!

If this is your first Christmas without gluten, be assured that you don't have to go without delicious holiday treats. And even if you have been gluten-free for years, it can still be helpful to keep some things in mind as you spend the holidays with family and friends who may or may not understand your dietary needs. These are some things I've learned - I hope you'll find them useful too.

1: Baking. There are an amazing number of recipes on the internet - not to mention in cookbooks - for pies, cookies, and so on. Some gluten-free bloggers have even put together collections of holiday recipes (here and here are two great places to start). You can also find flour blends that can be substituted cup-for-cup to convert favourite recipes. If someone else in your family usually bakes the traditional treats, ask if they would try using one of these blends in a recipe or two! My mother converted all our traditional recipes - quite successfully - using a blend of sorghum flour, potato starch, and tapioca starch.

2: Parties. If you are going to a party where you know the hosts personally, make sure to talk to them ahead of time. This way, you can find out if they will be able to accommodate you - and your hosts will be spared the awkwardness of not knowing about your restrictions until you show up, and finding they have nothing you can eat. If you are going to a larger party or potluck, stick to things that are almost certainly safe: fruit & veg trays and things in packages with the label on it are good places to start. Nut mixes and cold-cuts of meat can be iffy. In any case, offer to bring something to the party; this way you know there will be something safe. (Few things are worse than being hungry and surrounded by food you cannot eat!)

3: Alcohol. This is something you may frequently encounter at parties and other gatherings. With eggnog, ask to see the ingredients list - be wary of unidentified "modified food starch" and flavourings. If you are at a bar, stick to fruit-based things (sherry, wine, vermouth, cider) and distilled things (gin, vodka, etc.). Neat fact: distilled liquor, like distilled vinegar, is free of gluten even if it is grain-based. Beware anything with added colours or flavours, though: caramel colour and French vanilla flavouring are just two examples that may be grain-based, and alcohol is not required to show an ingredients list.

4: Travel. It may seem obvious, but bring food with you when you are travelling! Airport restaurants operate with a very small food prep area, so cross-contamination is likely. In-flight snacks usually consist of pretzels or crackers, and even when peanuts are available I have found that the seasoning often includes wheat flour. (True story: on a flight last year, I asked the flight attendant if any of the available snacks were gluten free. She looked puzzled, then responded, "Gluten? Is that, like,...fat-free?" Needless to say, I stuck to my own food!)

Some good, compact GF travel foods: crackers or cookies (homemade or packaged); cereal bars like Enviro-Kids, or energy bars (make sure the label says GF); dried fruit; nuts; cheese; corn tortillas; dry GF cereal/granola. I recently took a whole loaf of homemade bread through airport security with no problem. Also, if you want to bake, make sure to bring some flours with you if you will be staying with relatives.

5: Family. This is probably the hardest one.  I really think the holidays are the most difficult time for many gluten-intolerant people, with everyone sharing baked things that are a part of family traditions. I know it will be hard to explain to your grandmothers that you cannot try their Christmas cookies, not even "just a bite."

Many people have still never heard of celiac disease, and those that have may not understand cross-contamination or even what "gluten-free diet" really means. (Someone once asked me if I could eat things made with white flour, because it wasn't "whole" wheat!)

Explain to your friends and family, if you haven't already, why you must stick to a GF diet. Though a number of people do eat gluten-free by choice, for most of us it is non-negotiable. And lastly: please, please do not "cheat" by eating gluten if you know it makes you sick. Your long-term health is more important than a cookie.

Speaking of...

Here is the recipe! Measurements are given in volume rather than weight, because the original wheat recipe gives volume measurements.

Buttery Almond Biscuits


Makes 30 pressed biscuits


1 1/4 C unsalted butter, softened (2 1/2 sticks)
scant 3/4 C granulated sugar

1 cage-free egg

scant 1 C almond flour (or grind almonds in food processor)
5/8 C (1/2 C + 2 T) tapioca starch
3/8 C (6 T) sweet rice flour
2 1/2 T Expandex modified tapioca starch
1/2 C potato starch
1/4 C millet flour
3/4 tsp fruit pectin
1/4 tsp fine sea salt
raw sugar, reserved for decoration (optional)

Method:

Combine all dry ingredients (except sugar) in a bowl. In another bowl, cream together the butter and sugar, then stir in the egg. Gradually add the flour blend, making sure there are no lumps of butter or almond in the dough. The mixture will now be very soft and sticky - it is half butter, after all - so it will work best if you chill it for at least 20 minutes before pressing it into pan.

Heat the oven to 175º C / 350º F. There is no need to grease the pans; the butter in the dough is enough to keep them from sticking. When dough is chilled, dip your fingers in tapioca starch and press it into pans, allowing about 1/2 cm for rising. You may use decorative ones, as above, or simply use round or square tins for sliced shortbread. (The results of the latter actually taste more like shortbread in my opinion...though they're not as pretty.) Prick the tops with a skewer and, if making sliced shortbread, score the dough with a knife.

Bake until edges have turned golden: 13 mins. if using dark pan with individual wells, large tins may take 20 mins. or more. Turn shaped biscuits out whilst warm and sprinkle tops with reserved sugar, or if slicing, sprinkle with sugar and carefully cut slices immediately after removing from oven (do not remove biscuits from tin until cool).

**Note: for best taste and texture - wait several hours before eating.**