Gluten Free Whole Grain Holiday Cookies

Pecan, buckwheat and sorghum thumbprint cookies

I read an interesting article about baking holiday cookies with whole grains in the New York Times a couple weeks ago and have been dying to try their thumbprint recipe.  

The author of the article used rye flour and toasted pecans in his recipe.  I decided to use buckwheat but worried that just buckwheat would have unexpected results, so instead of 1 1/2 cups of rye flour, I used 3/4 cup of buckwheat flour and 3/4 cup of sorghum flour and added a half teaspoon of xanthan gum for good measure.  They turned out looking like your typical vegan cookie (they are not!) but they are quite delicious.  Not as sweet as the usual thumbprint but the texture of the cookie is great and the flavor is complex and wonderful.  My only mistake was to be too pressed for time when I made them not to see that they needed to be chilled first before baking.  Mine turned out fine anyway, but next time I will chill them.

Here is what I did:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
1  1/2 cups of raw pecans spread on a cookie sheet; bake in preheated oven for 8 minutes
3/4 cup buckwheat flour
3/4 cup sorghum flour
1/2 tsp xanthan gum
1/4 tsp sea salt
2/3 cup coconut palm sugar
9 tablespoons unsalted butter (room temperature and cut into pieces)
2-3 Tablespoons cold water

Combine the pecans, flours, sugar, salt and xanthan gum in the bowl of a food processor and pulse until finely ground.  Turn mixture into a large bowl and add the butter and combine with a pastry knife (or your hands...or two knives).  My dough was too dry after this step so I added tablespoons of cold water one at a time until the dough held together.

Divide dough into two and mold each half into a log.  Cut each log into 12 pieces.  Take each piece and roll into a ball.  place each ball on a cookie sheet with parchment paper or silpat.  Make a depression in each ball, flattening it out some (see video at NYT site to see how they did it).  Bake in preheated oven 10 minutes or so, until the edges start to brown.  Remove from oven and cool on a rack.  When cool, you can fill the depression in the center with jam and serve immediately, or store unfilled in the freezer until ready to serve.

Enjoy!

Karen, herself

Teff Oatmeal Cookies

“What the heck is Teff?” I wondered when I first read about it in a gluten-free cookbook. It sounded strange and not very appealing. Well, let me tell you, one taste will make a Teff lover out of you. I have been searching for ways to bring whole grains back into my diet since going gluten-free. Being somewhat sensitive to brown rice made it difficult. Amaranth is ok, but to me it has a bit of a bitter taste. Not so with Teff. This African grain is gluten-free and smooth tasting, even caramel-like when you add brown sugar and vanilla to it. I made these oatmeal chocolate chip cookies with it yesterday and I think they may be the best tasting oatmeal chocolate chip cookies I have ever had. I modified a recipe from Annalise Roberts’ Gluten-Free Baking Classics to make them. I wanted to try Teff in a cookie and I wanted to use agave nectar for half the sugar. Then I realized I was out of potato starch, so I substituted sweet rice flour and used chocolate chips instead of raisins. (*Teff flour mix: 2 cups teff flour, 2/3 cup sweet rice flour, 1/3 cup tapioca starch)

Teff Oatmeal Cookies

1/4 cup unsalted butter
1/4 cup Crisco (sans trans fats version)
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/4 cup dark agave nectar
1 egg
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup Teff flour mix*
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. guar gum
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1 cup Rolled Oats (Gifts of Nature, Inc. is certified GF)
1/2 cup Dagoba Organic Chocolate Chocodrops (GF)

Preheat oven to 350ºF. Position rack in center of oven. You can grease a cookie sheet lightly or use silpat, as I did.

Beat butter and shortening and sugar and agave nectar in large bowl of electric mixer until creamy. Add eggs and vanilla and mix. Stir dry ingredients (except oats and chocolate) together with a whisk. Add to butter and sugar mixture. Mix. Stir oats and chocolate drops in by hand with a wooden spoon.

Drop teaspoonfuls onto cookie sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes. Cool slightly on pan, then remove to wire rack. Wrap in wax paper and put in freezer container. Freeze leftovers. Thaw on counter if you can wait that long. Otherwise use microwave!

Makes 20-30 cookies, depending on how large you like them.