Gluten Free Life - Gluten Free Cookie Recipes

Gluten Free Cookie Recipes

December 16th, 2008 | Author: admin

One of the most difficult times for folks with celiac or gluten intollerance is Christmas, a time of great baked treats, plates full of cookies that are so tempting. My sister, the cookie monster, found this especially distressing, so we went on a quest for treats that she not only could enjoy herself but were also special enough to share.

One of the first recipes we found was for Peppermint Meringues (see the recipe below). I’d only had meringue as topping for lemon pie, which leaves me underwhelmed, but we decided to give it a try. What a great treat they are! Since then we’ve tried lots of variations of baked meringue treats. Delicate and very pretty, they’re also delicious. Friends who wouldn’t know gluten if it bit them ask for these as part of their cookie trays.

The cookies are kind of fussy because the meringue is better done with a good beater and they need to be baked at a low temperature for quite a long time, but they are a bit of heaven with each bite.

Meringues work best when the egg whites are at room temperature. They’re prettiest if you have both green and red crushed candies. Crush the candy in plastic storage bags, using your kitchen mallet.

Be careful that no yolk gets into the whites. If it does, or a piece of shell drops in, use an egg shell half to scoop it out.

Whites of 2 eggs
pinch of salt
1/8 tsp cream of tartar
½ cup sugar
2 peppermint candy canes, crushed

Preheat oven to 225 F. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper or foil, shiny side down.

Beat egg whites until foamy. Add salt and cream of tartar and continue beating until soft peaks form when beaters are lifted. Beat in sugar 1 tbls at a time. Continue beating until meringue is very stiff and glossy.

Put meringue into a plastic storage bag; snip the corner of the bag to make a 1 inch opening. Squeeze 1 ½ inch mounded circles of meringue onto parchment spaced 1 inch apart. Sprinkle crushed peppermint candy over mounds.

Bake 1 ½ hours; meringues will look dry but not browned. Turn off oven and let meringues dry and cool with the oven door ajar. Loosen cookies from parchment.

Use this recipe as a starting point for your own variations. Meringues don’t have a heavy flavor of their own, so you can flavor and color your meringues and still have a delicate cookie.

Happy Baking!