cookie calendar - day 10: gluten-free gingerbread cookies

Christine is one of my favourite Twitter friends and I'm happy to share her cookie recipe today.

Christine and I originally connected because we're both Canadian Beef Ambassadors, but we definitely have more in common than just our love of good beef! Christine is married to a beef farmer and lives out in the countryside on a beef farm, which is as different from my life as a city girl as you can get. It's been amazing for me to read her blog and learn more about rural life. Plus, her little girl is SUPER adorable so it's been cool watching her grow up on the blog.  :)

Enjoy!

p.s. Christine also told me the reason she could only send me one photo of the cookies is because her Little One ate them all before they could take any more photos. Now that's a little Cookie Monster in training!

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Christine McNaughton is the Social Media/Twitter Community Manager for PTPA Media Inc. (Parent Tested Parent Approved) and is a Brand Ambassador for: Hallmark #HallmarkPressPause, LifeChoicesFoods #LCMamas, Fisher-Price #FisherPriceMoms, Mabel's Labels #Buzzmamas, Toshiba Canada #ToshibaBrandAmbassador, ShesConnected, Canadian Beef, and more.

Check her out on:

Blog: Life on Manitoulin
Twitter: @chancesmommy
Facebook: Life on Manitoulin

gluten-free gingerbread cookies
printer-friendly version

ingredients:

1 egg

1/2 cup molasses

1 cup sugar 1/2 cup solid vegetable shortening, melted (not butter or margarine)

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

2 1/2 cups gluten-free flour

1 tsp cinnamon

** We double the recipe to make a bigger batch and add nutmeg as well.

For gluten-free flour:

2/3 cups of EACH flour: Quinoa, Amaranth, Millet, and Brown Rice

Icing:

1 1/2 cups icing sugar

1 egg white

1/2 tsp lemon juice

directions:

In a large bowl mx together the egg, molasses, sugar, melted shortening, and baking soda. Beat well.

In a separate bowl, stir together the flour and spices.

Add flour mixture to wet mixture gradually, and make sure to blend well.

Chill dough overnight (or for several hours).

Cut dough into 4 pieces and squish each portion into a ball. Flour well so it's not too sticky. 

Roll between parchment or wax paper. Cool after rolling OR after cutting so not too soft. They are pretty much impossible to move!

Roll to 1/8 in thickness. 

You don't have to make gingerbread people. You can make stars, trees, snowflakes, or whatever festive cookie cutter shapes you have. Make sure to cut big ones far apart and little ones between. Very hard to move them without messing them up!

Carefully transfer cookies to lightly greased cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees for 5 to 7 minutes until  lightly browned around edges. Make sure not to let them burn!

Let cool for two minutes before moving them to cooling rack.

In a bowl, beat together icing ingredients until fluffy. The more you beat, the better the icing for this recipe. Divide icing into several bowls if you want to make different colour icing. Otherwise, leave white and use coloured sugar crystals, sprinkles, candies, and other embellishments. You can use a pastry bag and pipe the icing or just let your kids go nuts and decorate their cookies free-hand and as crazy, wacky, and zany as they like. Cooking with kids is all about fun!

Place gluten-free gingerbread cookie creations on tray until the icing has hardened. You can store the cookies in an air-tight container, cookie jar, plastic Ziploc bag, etc. They make cute gifts to hand out during the holidays!

You can tell my four year old went a little overboard with the sprinkles! Can you tell we don't let her have much sugar often?! :) These gluten-free cookies are about the only cookies she'll eat. She isn't a fussy kid. She just doesn't really like overly sweet things. She likes the idea of desserts, but without the sweetness! Funny kid, eh?

The recipe and all photos used in this blog post belong to Christine McNaughton and should not be reprinted without her express permission.