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Recipe: Chocolate Mint Sandwich Cookies

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Sometimes when I can’t fall asleep at night, I brainstorm about baking. What fun new treat can I bake? The other night I thought about making chocolate mint cookies and then as I was preparing to bake them, it dawned on me to make them into sandwich cookies!

When I was trying to figure out an easy base cookie, I wanted something that would be soft & chewy, so I settled on using a recipe for cake mix cookies and modifying it.

Chocolate Mint Sandwich Cookies

IMG_00631 Betty Croker gluten-free Devil’s Food Cake Mix

1/2 (8 ounces) container Cool Whip Lite, thawed

1 large egg, lightly beaten

1/2 tsp peppermint flavor/mint extract (I used Simply Organic)

1/2 cup powdered sugar (sifted)

Betty Crocker Triple Chocolate Fudge Chip Frosting

Instructions

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Mix 1st 4 ingredients, mixing well (dough will be sticky).

3. Dust hands with powdered sugar and shape dough into 3/4 inch balls.

4. Coat balls with powdered sugar and place 2 inches apart on parchment lined baking sheets

5. Bake for 10 – 12 minutes or until done.  I found that they needed a little longer than 12 minutes the bigger they are.

6. Let cool/set up and then remove to wire racks to cool

7. Once cool, spread with frosting & make into sandwich cookies

*Amount of cookies depends on how big you make the cookies.  Jon prefers larger cookies, so we got about 10-12 sandwiches

**Dough will be sticky – just work quickly with it.  Chill for a short period of time if it gets too sticky.

These cookies were phenomenal!  They were well worth the sticky dough!!  They brought back memories of the Girl Scouts Thin Mints!  They didn’t have the same texture, but the flavor was spot on!

Recipe: Gluten-Free Gingersnap Cookies

Last Updated on by the Celiac-Disease.com Staff 4 Comments

When I was just a teenager, a long, long time ago, I fell in love with baking. I would start to bake when I got home from school and by the time my mom came home, a treat would be fresh out of the oven, just waiting to be served for dessert.  I often depended on her Betty Crocker cookbook for my creations. The book was falling apart at the time, as it had obviously been put to good use.  My favorite section of that cook book was the cookie section.  Many of my favorite childhood cookie recipes originated from this book, so it only made sense that I would try to create a gluten-free version after I started the diet.

Gingersnaps are a unique cookie. They have a crisp outer shell and tender, chewy center.  The aroma & flavor are reminiscent of the season, quickly transporting me back to my childhood.

Gingersnaps
**Originally from The Betty Crocker Cookbook, modified to be GF by me

  • 3/4 cup shortening*
  • 1 cup packed brown sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 1/4 cup molasses
  • 2 1/4 cups GF flour mix
  • 2 tsps. xanthan gum
  • 2 tsps. soda
  • 1 tsp. cinnamon
  • 1 tsp. ginger
  • 1/2 tsp. cloves
  • 1/4 tsp. salt
  • Granulated Sugar (for rolling cookies in before baking)

Directions:

  1. Mix thoroughly shortening, brown sugar, egg and molasses. Blend in remaining ingredients except granulated sugar. Cover; chill at least 1 hour.
  2. Heat oven to 375. Shape dough by rounded teaspoonfuls into balls. Dip tops in granulated sugar. Place balls, sugar side up on lightly greased baking sheet (I covered mine with parchment paper, but you don’t have to). Bake 10 – 12 minutes (I baked 10) or just until set. Immediately remove from baking sheet. Makes approx. 4 dozen. Mine made less, but I think they were a little bigger.

*It is very important to use shortening here – it plays an important part in the form & texture of the cookie.  Butter or margarine will not produce the same results.  I have not tried this recipe with Earth Balance shortening, but would be interested from hearing from anyone who does.

Recipe: Quick Gluten-Free Playdough

Last Updated on by the Celiac-Disease.com Staff 4 Comments

With my daughter now in school, I have to really worry about food in her classroom that is not safe for her to eat. For the first time in her life, she will be surrounded by lunches filled with gluten and will be on her own to make the right choice not to do the trade-your-lunch-with-friends thing many kids do. It’s not only the food I have to worry about but also the products in their classroom – like traditional, store-bought playdough.

There really is no way that you can walk into a kindergarten classroom and not find playdough – it’s a traditional play and education tool for that age group. There are a few gluten-free brands of playdough that you can purchase but seeing how much kids go through it can become quite costly. I recently tested out my own recipe for gluten-free playdough that took under 10 minutes and being able to make multiple batches in different colors was a selling factor for me.

Gluten-Free Playdough Recipe

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup of water
  • 1/2 cup of corn OR potato starch
  • 1/2 cup white rice flour
  • 1/2 cup of table salt
  • 2 teaspoons cream of tartar
  • 1 teaspoon vegetable oil

Directions:

In a large mixing bowl mix together all ingredients. Add to pot over medium heat and stir together until the mix turns into a well-formed ball. Remove from heat (optional separate into sections and add different food colors to each ball). Store in air-tight containers when completely cooled.

Recipe: Gluten-Free Chocolate Oatmeal Pancakes

Last Updated on by the Celiac-Disease.com Staff Leave a Comment

Pancakes are such a great way to experiment with ingredients.  I love trying out new combinations.  Traditionally I make pancakes once during the weekend as I know this is one thing my daughter will absolutely eat.  I find that once I started eating gluten-free, I am in a constant state of experimenting with foods, especially what flours and flour blends make the tastiest combinations.  It takes a lot of trial and error.

I have tried some pancake mixes that I just couldn’t stomach and others than just melt in my mouth, and I think these pancakes are pretty tasty.  I have also tried combining my own flours, but the one I always come back to is Pamela’s Baking & Pancake Mix, this contains almond meal…and really, unless you have an allergy, you can’t go wrong with almond flour, it makes everything taste better, in my opinion. My other secret ingredient for pancakes is buttermilk.  It just gives them a nice, fluffy texture, and I refuse to make pancakes without it.

And for this particular pancake recipe I used a newly discovered product to me, Midnight Moo chocolate syrup at Trader Joe’s. I finally got around to trying it, and now it will become a staple in our house. My daughter loves making chocolate milk with this.  But really, who wouldn’t?  This recipe also includes oats, so it is important to be sure you are using gluten-free oats, I like to use Bob’s Red Mill’s gluten-free rolled oats.

This recipe takes a little bit of planning, because you need the oats to soak in the buttermilk for at least an hour.  I will sometimes do it the night before and let it sit in the fridge.  If you would like to leave out the oats, just use 2 cups of the gluten-free flour mix, and omit the soaking.

Chocolate oatmeal pancakes

1 cup gluten-free oats
1 1/2 cup buttermilk
—————————-
1 teaspoon vanilla
4 tablespoons vegetable oil (I use grapeseed oil)
2 eggs
1/4 cup chocolate sauce (I used Midnight Moo from Trader Joe’s)
2 T sugar
—————————-
1 cup gluten-free flour mix (I used Pamela’s Baking & Pancake Mix)
1 t. baking powder
1/2 t. baking soda
Combine the oats with the buttermilk and let sit for at least an hour, or do the night before and leave overnight.
After soaking, mix in the eggs, vanilla, oil, chocolate syrup and sugar into the soaked oats.
Add the flour, baking soda and baking powder. Blend until combined.Let batter sit for 15 minutes.

Heat a lightly oiled griddle or frying pan over medium high heat. Ladle the batter onto the griddle, using approximately 1/4 cup for each pancake. Lightly brown (or cook until you like it) on both sides and serve warm.

I am definitely adding this recipe into my pancake rotation – my daughter loved them, which also includes my regular oatmeal pancakes with fresh fruit, pumpkin pancakes with caramelized bananas, buckwheat blueberry pancakes, and my all-time favorite eggnog pancakes. What are your favorite pancakes?

Recipe: Gluten-Free Pumpkin Brownies

Last Updated on by the Celiac-Disease.com Staff 2 Comments

‘Tis the season for pumpkin baked goods. Pumpkin is one of my favorite ingredients to bake with, so it would only make sense that I make pumpkin brownies, right?  I couldn’t believe that I had never thought about making pumpkin brownies before.  I have made chocolate pumpkin loaf and pumpkin blondies, but never pumpkin brownies.  Once I discovered that I had neglected a very important part of the dessert spectrum, I began to brainstorm how to bring my plan to fruition.

As I was browsing through my pantry to take inventory of the ingredients I had on hand, I found that this recipe, if you want to call it that, was going to be much simpler than I thought.  I found a box of Betty Crocker’s gluten-free brownie mix, which I figured I could just add some canned pumpkin to.  The next question was how much pumpkin to add.  I remember subbing applesauce for the fat (butter or oil) in recipes previously, so why not sub pumpkin for the butter in the brownies?   That is just what I did.004

I followed the directions on the box, but instead of adding 1 stick of butter, I added 1/2 cup of 100% pure pumpkin.  I still added the 2 eggs.  The mix was a little thicker than normal, but was relatively easy to spread into an 8 x 8 pan.  I did end up baking these a little longer than the box said to for an 8 x 8 pan.  I began checking the brownies with a toothpick about 20 minutes into baking.  The toothpick wasn’t completely clean, but it  only had minimal crumbs on it.

These brownies turned out fantastic!  They were moist & fudgy, just the way I like them!  They didn’t have an overwhelming pumpkin flavor, it was very subtle.  If we could have waited a bit longer to eat them, I might have added a cinnamon icing to compliment the subtle pumpkin flavor.  Here is a recipe for the icing:

007Cinnamon Icing

  • 2 cups powdered sugar
  • 1 tbsp milk (may need more)
  • 1/2 tsp cinnamon
  • 1 tsp vanilla

Mix all ingredients together and drizzle or spread over the brownies.  This icing can be made to your desired consistency by adjusting the amount of milk added.