In search of good gluten-free cookies
- May 6, 2009 11:58 AM |
- By CBC Staff
By Leigh Felesky, CBCNews.ca
With recent food sensitivities showing up in my family, I'm on a mission to find some recipes for good gluten-free goodies, particularly cookies.
If you're not familiar with the term, gluten is a protein contained in wheat, barley, rye and oats. For some it can be harmful. People sensitive to gluten can have an ongoing immune reaction. Symptoms can include nausea, diarrhea, gaseousness and even joint pain.
In an effort to cut down on gluten and particularly white flour, I'm abandoning the traditional cookie and hoping to expand the options.
Last weekend I tried a gluten-free cookie recipe that used "xanthum gum." It took me most of the weekend to find this ingredient which was finally located at Bulk Barn. After all that, the cookies were hardly edible.
Continuing my search, I found a list of recipes on celiac.com .
Also, there are some gluten-free recipes on cookies-in-motion.
But given how much work it is to organize the ingredients (rice flour, xanthan gum, tapioca flour, etc.), I'm hesitant to go through all this work without knowing that I'm going to get something that tastes darn good.
Does anyone out there bake gluten-free cookies? If you have a suggestion for some gems, send them along.
About the Authors
- Elizabeth Bridge is a producer with CBC's Digital Archives project. She got her start in the kitchen baking brownies and making fudge but is still trying to get pastry right.
- Andrea Chiu
is an associate producer at CBC Radio Digital. Though she loves to eat, cook and discuss food,
don't ask her to bake. It never turns out well. She tweets as @TOfoodie on Twitter and organizes food and wine events in Toronto called FoodieMeet.
- Amber Hildebrandt
works for CBCNews.ca in Toronto. Growing up on a farm in Manitoba, she acquired an insatiable appetite, but it was during a stint in Japan that she developed her discerning tastebuds and foodie ways.
- Tara Kimura
is a multimedia producer for CBCNews.ca.
- Andree Lau
is a CBC web reporter in Calgary. Her journalism career includes seven years as a CBC-TV reporter. Her own blog called "are you gonna eat that?" chronicles her eating adventures (including sampling snake and camel hoof tendon).
- Jessica Wong
is a CBCNews.ca writer who loves to eat and cook, as well as discuss, read and watch programming about food, sometimes all at once.
- Kevin Yarr
, CBCNews.ca's writer in Prince Edward Island, wrote about food and beer for national and regional magazines before joining the CBC. He acquired a desire for new tastes on his first trip to Europe, and an appreciation of eating locally and in season when he finally settled down on P.E.I.
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Comments (44)
Best gluten free cookie ever is the Kraft recipe for Peanut Butter Cookies - 1 cup of peanut butter, 1/2 cup sugar and 1 egg, mix, roll into balls and press with a fork. Cook at 350 for 10 minutes - don't over cook. Best PB cookie ever!
Best gluten free cookie ever is the Kraft recipe for Peanut Butter Cookies - 1 cup of peanut butter, 1/2 cup sugar and 1 egg, mix, roll into balls and press with a fork. Cook at 350 for 10 minutes - don't over cook. Best PB cookie ever!
I made oatmeal cookies for a friend who can not eat gluten and replaced the cup of flour in the traditional recipe with a cup of oat flour. I made the oat flour by grinding the whole oats in my coffee grinder. It worked great and I did not have to hunt for any ingredients I did not already have for the regular oatmeal cookie recipe.
Here's a super simple cookie recipe:
1 cup of peanut butter
1/2 cup of sugar
1 egg
cream everything together, drop on cookie sheet about 2 inches apart, and cook in 325 degree oven for about 15 minutes (but keep an eye on them). It makes about 20 cookies, depending on the size.
Simple, cheap and tasty! (also, it's better to use a commercial peanut butter, than a natural peanut butter. The natural works, but the cooking times etc. vary. I stick to Kraft for these cookies) and it can be chunky or smooth, however you like it!
We've had a lot of luck following 'normal' cookie recipies, and just substituting a pre-packaged 'GF all purpose flour' for the wheat flour. I think we're using one of the Glutino mixes. We've done a couple of different chocolate chip cookie recipes (including the standard 'toll house' recipe), and peanut butter cookies, and the results were quite good. The cookies spread out a little more when baked, but were very tasty.
In Montreal pretty much all big grocery stores now have a GF section with lots of gluten free flours, and a bunch of pre-packaged baking mixes, most of which seem pretty palatable.
BTW, http://glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.com/ is a great GF recipe blog - it has a few cookie recipes, and dozens of other yummy recipes.
My mother and I both have celiac disease, although she does not have near as bad a sweet tooth as I do, so we don't bake much. However, there is a Peanut Butter Cookie recipes that consists solely of peanut butter, sugar, and eggs.
My mother and I both have celiac disease, although she does not have near as bad a sweet tooth as I do, so we don't bake much. However, there is a Peanut Butter Cookie recipe that consists solely of peanut butter, sugar, and eggs.
My mother and I both have celiac disease, although she does not have near as bad a sweet tooth as I do, so we don't bake much. However, there is a Peanut Butter Cookie recipe that consists solely of peanut butter, sugar, and eggs.
Gluten free baking is an extremely tricky and arduous process, do yourself a favor and buy storebought. Stores like Natural Food Pantry generally have a good selection. You can even find a decent selection in Loblaws now.
I love using almond flour, especially since it doesn't taste like something trying to pretend to be flour.
I've used it myself a couple of times in baking:
http://bruleeblog.wordpress.com/2009/01/20/a-tale-of-two-apricot-cookies/
http://bruleeblog.wordpress.com/2008/08/31/chocolate-and-almond-financiers/
Also, I haven't had a chance to try this one yet but they sound really tasty: http://glutenfreegirl.blogspot.com/2009/04/david-leites-chocolate-chip-cookies.html
Try the Pamelas Cookies or the Pamela's Pancake and Baking mix, with the baking mix all you need to do is mix it with the kind of cookie you would like, walnuts,raisend, chocolate chips, dried fruit piueces, broken ginger candies with ginger etc.,. You can find it at whole foods, choices, natures fare, depending in where you live.
Use the choc. chip drop recipie from the Joy Of Cooking and substitute corn flour.
It is hard to make gluten free cookies that are comparable to traditional cookies. Also some Celiacs can't tolerate oats. Packaged brands are hit and miss. I got this recipe off a website, I'm sorry I can't give proper credit but I also may have changed a little from the orgiona, I have made this using brown sugar and butterscotch pudding adding chopped walnuts rather than chipits and they were very goo as well.
chipit Cookies (Gluten-Free)
Ingredients:
1 cup butter, softened
1 ½ cups white sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons gluten-free vanilla extract
¼ teaspoon salt (½ if you use unsalted butter)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 rounded teaspoon xanthan gum
1 small box Jello vanilla instant pudding mix
2 ¾ cups gluten-free flour (I used 1+3/4 c rice flour and 1 cup corn starch; from Bulk Barn)
1 cup chocolate chips
Directions:
Mix all ingredients together in order shown. Dough should be very thick & gooey. If needed stir in more "flour". Chill 1 or more hours. Drop by rounded teaspoons onto un-greased cooked sheet. Bake 10 to 12 minutes at 375F.
My whole family is celiac, with the exception of myself, but I can still bake cookies we all enjoy. Check out the blog called Gluten-Free Girl - she does her own experimenting and has some wonderful recipes. If you like the simplicity of a mix, Pamela's makes a gluten-free chocolate chunk cookie mix that makes cookies just as good as or better than their gluten-filled counterparts. Pamela's brownie mix is also great, by the way.
I order their almond flour and it comes in the mail
http://www.jkgourmet.ca/index.htm
I have been living gluten free for about 2 and 1/2 years and it is a tough transition. These cookies require no special ingrediants and are absolutely delicious. Enjoy!
Almond Cookies
2 1/4 cups blanched whole almonds (about 12 ounces)
2/3 cup sugar
2 large egg whites, at room temperature
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pure almond extract
1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Directions
Arrange racks in upper and lower thirds of oven and preheat to 350°F. Lightly oil 2 large baking sheets, then line with parchment paper.
In food processor, combine 2 1/4 cups almonds and 1/3 cup sugar. Process until finely ground, scraping down sides once or twice. Set aside.
In electric mixer fitted with whisk attachment, beat egg whites and salt at high speed until soft peaks form. Reduce speed to medium and gradually sprinkle in remaining 1/3 cup sugar. Return speed to high and beat mixture until stiff, shiny peaks form. Gently fold in ground almond mixture and almond and vanilla extracts.
Roll mixture into 1-inch balls, place 2 inches apart on baking sheets, and flatten slightly. Bake until cookies are golden, switching positions of pans halfway through, about 25 minutes. Cool on sheets 5 minutes, then transfer to racks to cool completely.
Hi Leigh
There are a number of wonderful products out there to help you in your search for a GF cookie. I have tried many of them.
By far the best GF baking product I have found is Pamela's Pancake mix. I actually order this stuff in bulk from Amazon.com, as it is a bit cheaper. It makes fantastic pancakes! It also makes great biscuits, banana bread and cookies. It has the gums already in it so you don't have to add that stuff or fuss with the quantities.
if you have any nut allergies you may have to look for something else as it has almond meal in it. If I want a finer flour I sift the almond meal out.
Gluten Free Pantry has the best bread mix for easy tasty bread.
If you are in Vancouver Panna Rizo on Cornwall has great pre made cookie, as does Quejos on Main St.
I advise against Bob's Red Mill GF all purpose flour. It is thick and grainy.
Here is a super easy cookie recipe that is a hit every time:
1 stick butter
4 tblsp sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cup GF flour (or pamela's pancake mix)
or you can try
1 cup rice flour and 1/2 cup pamela's
Beat the sugar, butter and vanilla until creamed. sift flour into mix and use a spoon to hand mix. finish mixing with your hands to warm the mixture together.
Form into balls and use a fork to flatten them.
bake for 12-15 min at 350.
They will be crumbly while they are hot. Let them cool slightly before transfering to wire rack to cool completely.
If the doe is too soft and sticky to work with refrigerate it for 30min to and hour and try again.
Once you get a hang of this recipe you can try adding choc chips and nuts, or rolling in sugar and cinnemon.
Good luck!!
Not sure if you can eat peanut butter but Kraft has an excellent cookie recipe right on the jar with no flour at all. Sounds strange but they're really good and simple too
I find that rice krispie squares are excellent gluten-free sweets. I also make fudge ocassionally but that's not something you want to get little ones hooked on.
I would also suggest 101cookbooks.com. One example: http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/coco-choco-clusters-recipe.html
Although the author's ingredients tend to be high-end/hard to find, substitutions aren't difficult.
My family is all gluten intolerant. Cookies are the hardest to replicate nicely. Cake is easier. Oh, and *always* substitute guar gum for xanthan gum. It's 1:1, and *way* cheaper.
Here are my favourite successes (I've been gluten-free baking for 10 years now):
GF-Oreos
Dough
3/4 cup rice flour
3/4 cup tapioca flour
3/4 cup cornstarch (or potato starch)
1 teaspoon xanthan gum
2 teaspoons egg substitute
2/3 cup cocoa
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup butter
1 cup white sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1-2 teaspoon milk
Filling
2 cups confectioners' sugar
3 tablespoons shortening
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
2 tablespoons hot water
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour mix, xanthan gum, egg replacer, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
3. In the bowl of the mixer, cream the margarine and sugar until light. Add the egg and vanilla and beat well. (Note: I don't have a heavy duty mixer, so I used a hand held one and I did have alittle trouble with the dough sticking to the beaters. So don't be discouraged if you have to keep pushing the dough off the beaters with a spatula, you aren't doing anything wrong. And don't worry I promise these cookies are well worth the trouble!).
4. Add the dry ingredients in 3 additions. If the dough becomes too stiff, add the milk as needed.
5. Shape the dough into two 10"x1-1/2" rolls. Wrap in foil and chill.Chill for about 15-20 minutes.
6. Cut into 1/8" slices, if you have a cookie stamp, you can at this point press in onto the sliced cookies before baking. Bake these cookies on an UNGREASED cookie sheet for 10 minutes.
7. Let cool for only a few minutes before removing from the cookie sheet. Cool thoroughly on a rack.
8. For the filling, combine confectioners' sugar, shortening, vanilla and hot water ( use enough to create a good spreading texture.).
Sugar Cookies
1 cup rice flour
3/4 cup tapioca flour
3/4 cup cornstarch
2 1/2 tsp guar gum
1 tsp salt
1 cup sugar
1 cup shortening
1 egg
2 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup potato starch (for kneading)
Preheat oven to 350
In small bowl, whisk together the flours, cornstarch, guar gum and salt. Set aside
In a mixing bowl, cream the sugar and shortening. Beat in the egg and vanilla. Add the dry ingredients, mixing enough to combine. The dough should form a soft ball. With your hands, knead in enough of the potato starch flour to make the dough easy to handle and roll out. Working with half at a time, place a piece of plastic wrap over the ball and roll out to about 1/2 cm thickness. Cut into desired shapes and place on an ungreased cookie sheet. You can use all the scraps of this dough. It will not get tough. Just scrape together and roll out again.
Bake for 13 minutes. Cool very slightly before removing from cookie sheet.
Should you want to try an old favourite out, use this:
Cookie flour blend.
For each cup of regular flour in the recipe substitute:
1/2 cup rice flour (white or brown)
1/4 cup sorghum flour
2 T potato flour (NOT POTATO STARCH!!!)
2 T tapioca flour
1/2 tsp Xanthan gum
Good luck!
Having been diagnosed with celiac disease about 5 years ago, though suffering for many years before being diagnosed. I gave up looking for 'sweets' and found that my diet was better for doing so. The huge problem that I find incomprehensible is that NO food company, 'special diet' cooks, etc. have developed a bread that can be used to make sandwiches for carrying to work! The mass produced 'white bread' tastes like cardboard and has the consistency of dry sawdust. My wife makes a moist dark bread that will last for nearly a week unfrozen, why can't they?
Best place for gluten free recipes:
http://glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.com/
Best advice - join the local Celiac Association so you don't have to reinvent the wheel - they'll save you tons of time tracking down stuff.
Myself, I make any cookie recipe as it stands but substitute Celimax White Rice Bread Machine Mix for flour. Instant success, no mixing or messing around. I find it at the local Super-Valu or at some other supermarkets. The exotic nature of some of the ingredients can make this challenging so generally I cheat and use the premix. Also works for Pizza...mmm...Good luck.
A few years ago, my mother read a recipe for Thomas Haas' Chocolate Sparkle Cookies in the paper. We tried making it, and we got hooked. It is now our hands-down favourite cookie recipe (and not just among my friends with gluten allergies)!
Imagine: take the decadence of flourless chocolate cake and condense it down into rich, soft, bite-sized, dark chocolate morsels. Hey, who needs floury filler when you can have chocolate instead? Add a touch of fragrant honey, bake a cracked sugary crust over top, and these sophisticated 2 cm wide chocolate buttons can charm even people who don't normally eat much chocolate!
Here is a link to the article in the L.A. Times:
http://articles.latimes.com/2002/dec/04/food/fo-cookie4
The recipe is on page 2 of the article:
http://articles.latimes.com/2002/dec/04/food/fo-cookie4?pg=1
I usually forgo the dusting of powdered sugar- I think they are still beautiful served plain.
Happy baking!
I too suggest Glutino All-Purpose Rice mix for cookies, pancakes, and some cakes.
Other than that, some comments: oats are NOT gluten free, (there is a lot of debate about that now, the jury is still largely out) Peanut Butter must be GF itself (some brands are, others are not - read the ingredients).
Baking GF using a variety of flours is *not* all that complicated, and can yield great results. Try a recipe from Bette Hagman's books: the Gluten Free Gourmet, the GF Free Cooks Fast and Healthy, etc etc. Even Bob's Red Mill (who produce a lot of GF flours) have recipes on their website. The blog "Gluten free Goddess" has also provided me with a lot of ideas and hints.
A GF life is *not* a sentence for a boring treat-free life. Ive been celiac for about 10 years and bake cakes, breads, muffins, cookies, tortes, you name it. Sure, it takes a bit of knack, but so does baking in general.
Good luck! xo
I find Betty Hagman's Gluten free cookbooks to have good recipes that work. However, here is a recipe I adapted from a regular cookbook.
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies
1 cup sugar, 1 cup cooked or canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie mix), 1/2 cup shortening (I use butter), 1 Tablespoon grated orange peel, 2 cups gluten-free flour mix (I use Betty Hagman's suggested mix of rice flour, tapioca flour and potato starch flour), 1 teaspoon baking powder, 1 teaspoon baking soda, 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon, 1/4 teaspoon salt (optional), 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (or to taste).
Mix sugar, pumpkin, shortening and orange peel. Add dry ingredients and mix well. Add chocolate chips. Drop by teaspoonfuls (I think I roll them into 1 inch balls) and bake in preheated 375 degree oven for about 10 minutes, or a bit longer. You do need to let them cool for a while before removing from the pan. They can be a bit crumbly, but mainly melt in your mouth!
Here is one recipe my non-gf friends liked too: Buckwheat chocolate chip cookies: http://glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.com/2008/03/buckwheat-chocolate-chip-cookies.html
For a good (Canadian!) cookbook, check out The Complete Gluten-Free Cookbook, and the others by those authors. Great, interesting bread recipes such as honey walnut, potato and roasted garlic, and sourdough: http://www.amazon.ca/Complete-Gluten-Free-Cookbook-Lactose-Free-Variations/dp/0778801586
One recipe my mom used to make was what we called Dutch Chocolate Chip Cookies--because they came out of The Dutch Cookbook--which I can't remember the proper name of or even whether it really was a Dutch cookbook or Pennsylvania Dutch.
These cookies were like nothing I've had in years. They had approximately twice the fat and twice the sugar of any normal chocolate chip cookie (I seem to remember a cup of butter AND a cup of shortening); one cookie on a paper napkin would leave a grease splotch as big as if you'd put a piece of just-fried bacon there instead. The other notable thing about them was their fragility--you needed the paper napkin, because these cookies would break in half without warning and leave a trail of greasy crumbs everywhere. We kids thought they were wonderful.
Flash-forward to spring 2008, when I got an unquenchable chocolate-sugar craving and decided to adapt (gluten-free, egg-free) another chocolate-chip recipe. Results: a pale, slightly fragile chocolate chip cookie with a tiny bit of sandy texture from the rice flour, but otherwise quite an acceptable taste. It was when I was eating a second, or maybe a third, that I realized what was tugging at the back of my mind: even made with gluten-free flours, they were about as close to Those Cookies as I'd had in about thirty years. Well, without the greasy splotches.
So here's the recipe. The only complicated thing about it (if you have the gluten-free flours) is that I cut down a flour mix from a post on the Going Gluten-Free blog. I didn't have enough of everything to make a big batch of flour mix, so I made a third-size batch, which was enough for the cookies and left a cupful of mix to use for something else.
Clear as melted chocolate chips?
Gluten-Free Dutch Chocolate Chip Cookies
1 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup white sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar
2 eggs or equivalent replacer (powdered replacer mixed with liquid)
1 tsp. vanilla
2 1/4 cups of this flour mix: 2 cups white rice flour, 1/3 cup each tapioca flour, potato starch, and corn starch; and 1 tsp. Xanthan gum (see note above: you will have some mix left over)
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
2 cups chocolate chips or as desired (we only put in about a cupful)
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Cream butter, sugars, eggs (or replacer) and vanilla.
Combine dry ingredients and add.
Stir in chocolate chips last.
Drop by spoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.
Bake 10 to 12 minutes (watch them, don't let them get dark). Cool on pans several minutes, then on rack.
Makes about 60 cookies.
I gave up baking cookies. My celiac hubby loves the Enjoy Life Ginger cookies. You can buy so many GF things now, life is so much easier than 20 years ago. If I have to, I use my Betty Crocker book and sub in for flour 1/3 corn flour, 1/3 soya flour and 1/3 rice flour. That works well enough without messing with xanthan which I can never seem to get right. And yes, all the bread still sucks regardless of where you get it.
PS Amanda..You can buy Gluten Free oats, look around!!
Hi,
My name is Joni and I'm Vice President of the Canadian Celiac Ass. Toronto Chapter.
I'm not celiac but my daughter is and I have thrown out more than my share of disgusting gf cookies. I do however have an amazing recipe for reverse chocolate chip cookies that are amazing and absolutely do not taste like a gf cookie. They taste like the real thing. Go to www.torontoceliac.org and click on Joni's GF Recipes then click on the recipe for reverse chocolate chip cookies. You will love them!!!!!
I believe that quinoa flour is a great susbtitute for any regular flour in recipes. It can be found in the organic product section of most Metro grocery stores, in Montreal, and I assume from coast to coast. Quinoa is in fact Latin America's buckwheat, but contrary to our usual buckwheat, it is a yellowish white color,and tastes quite close to our white wheat flour. It is also great bought in beans, and can be used in a variety of recipes, like salads; when cooked, it is a good substitute for rice too. The Aztecs used it for their daily diet, and hold the tought that it provided long healthy life....Worth the try !
One of the best places for gluten-free recipes on the internet is Gluten Free Girl's blog (glutenfreegirl.blogspot.com).
I second the above commenter's recommendation for the 36-hour chocolate chip cookies - I made them a couple weeks ago and they are the best chocolate chip cookies I've ever had, gluten free or not (my non-GF friends agreed)
I would just like to take this opportunity to suggest that everyone concerned with celiac disease and/or gluten free diets go to the Canadian Celiac Association website at www.celiac.ca and look for a Chapter near you. They offer lots of support and have answers to almost every question as well as lots of recipes, sources of gluten free foods and much much more.I would suggest reading some of the Chapter Newsletters, they are crammed with helpful information.
The best gf cookies I've tried are from The Autism Bakery. Their bread rocks too! You can find them through Google. Good luck!
There are lots of recipes for very good cookies. Try gfkitchen.com; Lesleycooks.com. Also celica.com has lots of good recipes. There are lots of good cookbooks now with reliable recipes. One is by Darina Allen from Ballymaloe, Ireland. There are two books by Donna Washburn and Heather Butt, which are excellent when starting out. A good standard "allpurpose" flour mix for breads and cookies is: 1 bag of Bob's Red Mill Brown(about 4 cups) Rice flour, 1 1/2 cups of sweet rice flour and 1 cup tapioca starch. I make a double batch of this and keep it in a very large glass jar, with a large screw top. You do not need xanthan gum in cookie recipies, just in breads and cakes. Also when you include sweet rice flour in your mix, you do not need as much xanthan gum as most recipes call for. Xanthan is "glue" to hold together the flours and sweet rice flour (or sometimes called glutinous flour) provides that stickiness needed.
My challenge is being gluten free when I am allergic to dairy, egg, corn and soy. It seems every recipe has at least one of these ingredients (an egg, margerine - which is soy, corn flour, butter,...). I get sick of trying to adapt every recipe and throwing out half of them. Does anyone else have this combination of allergens?
I make the most amazing "oatmeal" cookies. I also also celiac, so finding good cookie recipes has been hard, but now I make these amazing cookies, sell them to grocery stores and to the general public.
Judy
I am just in the throws of trying my own gluten free cookies from a recipe from my mother (although hers were not gluten free). I just finished making a batch of gluten free/sugar free wonderful banana/walnut muffins. Much of this is experimental i.e., upping the amount of baking soda and powder, and lessening the cooking time, due to the dryness of the rice flour. I am totally gluten intolerant and if you check out a list on the internet of what contains gluten and what does not - just start experimenting from there. Take a regular recipe and change out the glutens. You will be shocked that gluten is in SO MANY products not just the grass grains you mentioned. I also use a pure Stevia to replace sugar - it's wonderful. If my cookies work out I will post for you. Have fun with experimenting.
MYHUSBAND CAN'T TELL THE DIFFERENCE! FINALLY! Use domata living flour (gluten free-casein free) All Purpose Flour makes the best cookies they are soft an chewya day later even!
While in Ireland this year I bought a gluten @ wheat free white self-raising flour blend.
Ingredients: Flour Blend (Rice, Potato, Tapioca, Maize, Buckwheat). Raising Agents
(mono calcium phosphate, sodium bicarbonate).
Xanthan Gum.
I used my regular cake and scone recipes for my gluten intolerant grandaughter with great success with this flour. I haven't found this blend in my area. I hope this will be of interest. Brigid
Those of you recommending adding rice crispies to cookies, please remember that "normal commercial" rice crispies are NOT gluten free...remember the barley malt in them!...there ARE organic rice "crispies" that are gluten free (but 3x the price...just be careful and read the ingredients.
My favourite GF cookie is a delicious ginger cookie that I found somewhere on the internet; I can't find it again, but I fortunately printed it out the first time I made them and Lord help me if I loose my print out. My husband and kids who do not need gluten free ask me to make these because they are so good.
1 1/2 cups butter
2 cups white sugar + some for rolling
1/2 cup molasses
2 eggs
1/2 cup tapioca flour
1 cup potato starch (the recipes say NOT to use potato flour, but I do)
2 1/2 cups rice flour (I mix white and brown)
I add 1/2 cup more of one of the flour/starches or ground nuts
1 3/4 teaspoons xanthum gum (but I use guar gum)
4 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons cinnamon ( I use 4 and it could be more)
1 tsp ginger (I use 3 and it could be more)
1 teaspoon cloves
If I'm feeling rich, I will chop up candied ginger and add that too.
Cream butter, sugar, molasses and eggs
add dry ingredients and stir
Refrigerate..
roll into about 1" balls, roll in sugar and put on ungreased cookie sheet
bake 5-8 min at 325-350 degrees
cool on wire racks
This makes A LOT of cookies, you could half the recipe and still have quite a few. But I just keep it in the fridge and bake them up a few at a time over a few weeks.
By far the best gluten free baked stuff I've come across is made by Patsypie bakery in Montreal. Peanut butter cookies were always my favourite. My wife doesn't even bother making them any more since we found Patsypie's. Their cranberry biscotti, chocolate brownies and lemon cookies are also pretty awesome. My wife even likes the stuff and she usually hates anything that's gluten free. There's more about patsy pie at www.patsypie.com. Best bread so far,I think, is O'doughs. Kinnickinick bagels are also good. And they're all Canadian companies too!!!