Thursday, December 11, 2008

Peanut butter kisses (gluten free)

At www.Celiac.com Scott Adams has created a wonderful website full of informtion about gluten-free diets and recipes. it more geared for those with celiac disease but it works for us with Joseph being gluten free. I know you hear this all the time but we are very lucky these days for the internet and the ability to gain information to live more healthier lives by the wonderfully delicious dietary selections found online.

Peanut Butter Kisses (Gluten-Free)
This recipe comes to us from Jo Ann Boyd.
Ingredients:½ cup Butter Crisco1 cup fine rice flour1 ¼ cups light brown sugar½ cup potato starch¾ cup peanut butter¼ cup tapioca starch 1 egg1 teaspoon baking powder3 tablespoons milk¾ tsp baking soda1 tablespoon vanilla¼ teaspoon saltApprox. 60 Hershey Kisses, unwrappedSugar, optional
Directions:In large bowl combine first 6 ingredients and beat until well blended. In separate bowl combine all dry ingredients until well blended. Stir the rest of ingredients into Crisco mixture at Lo speed. Form into walnut size balls and roll in sugar, if desired. Place about 2 inches apart on un-greased cookie sheets. Bake at 375F degrees for approx. 8-10 minutes or until set, but not hard. Remove from oven and push Hershey Kiss into center of each cookie. Cool 5 min. before removing to racks. Cool until Kiss hardens again. Makes about 4 ½ dozen cookies.

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Chia Snickerdoodles

Cooking for our family, as you know is always interesting. I will attempt this recipe twice. Once l substituting sugar with splenda and the second time I will use rice flour so that our son can enjoy these yummy cookies.

I hope you will enjoy these as you relax sipping a mug of cupa, admiring all the packages wrapped and under the tree while a wonderful fire crackles nearby. :0)

Chia Snickerdoodles

Traditions are very well and good, as are traditional recipes. But every tradition can use a little spice now and again, if for no other reason than to cultivate a new appreciation for the original. This is evidenced to an extreme by the rise of the molecular gastronomy movement, which was accompanied by a hugely renewed interest in traditional comfort food. Here, we’re taking the “spice” literally and merely updating a classic cookie with a few new flavors.
Snickerdoodles, which I have mentioned before, are one of the great standards in American cookies. In spite of their plain appearance and total lack of chocolate (often a deal-breaker for some cookie eaters), the chewy vanilla cookie with the crunchy cinnamon sugar coating is pretty close to perfect in both texture and flavor. It is a unique and hugely satisfying balance that you won’t find in many other cookies. They’re the kind of cookie that absolutely everyone enjoys.
The standard recipe calls for you to roll the unbaked dough in cinnamon sugar before placing the cookies on a cookie sheet. For these, I updated the flavors from the old standbys to a somewhat trendier combination of chai spices, using cinnamon, ginger, cardamom and allspice both in the dough itself and for the coating.
These spiced up cookies cookies are wonderfully crunchy on the outside - thanks to their sugary coating - and chewy on the inside, just like the classic. The chai flavors come through enough to twist the traditionally basic flavor of the cookies, but aren’t strong enough to dissuade die-hard traditionalists from enjoying a classic.

Chai Snickerdoodles
2 cups sugar
2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1 cup butter, soft
2 large eggs
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp cream of tartar
1 tsp baking soda

Preheat the oven to 350F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.In a large bowl, combine sugar and spices; remove 1/2 cup of this mixture and place in a medium-sized, shallow dish or bowl (like a soup plate). Add butter to bowl and cream with sugar mixture until fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time, and vanilla extract.In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, salt, cream of tartar and baking soda. Add to sugar mixture and stir until fully incorporated.Shape dough into 1 inch balls and roll in reserved sugar-spice mixture. Place on baking sheet, leaving 2 inches between balls to allow for spreading.Bake for about 12 minutes, until edges are firm to the touch, but not quite browned. Cool for 3-5 minutes on the baking sheet, then transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.
Makes about 4 dozen.

Thank you http://www.bakingbites.com/

Thin Mint Cookies

Tonight at our girl scout meeting we talked about, glup, cookie sales!!! It is not even Christmas yet and we have been hearing about them for three months already at our leadership meetings. All this talk about cookies has me craving Thin Mints. Can you say yum!?

I was surfing recipes for new ideas for our Xmas cookie exchange and ran across this recipe and thought I would share. Please let me know if you try it and what you think.



http://bakingbites.com/2005/10/thin-minties/