It is almost Christmas. A delightful time full of delicious treats and excitement. Christmas tree is decorated and presents are wrapped. Now It is time for holiday cooking, in my case, mostly baking.
We usually spend Christmas Eve and Christmas day with our big family, so I do not need to cook at all…but I still do :). Baking around holiday time is more a tradition for me. It is something I truly enjoy.
For a few years, before I left Russia, I baked gingerbread cookies around every new year’s eve. I decorated and presented them to all my friends. Back then, I baked cookies with my father, who is an excellent cook and the best helper. We always had so much fun together in the kitchen and beyond. After I moved to the US, I am trying to keep my little tradition of baking gingerbread cookies. The only change is I do it before Christmas, not new year’s eve, and well, my best helper now is my husband Marty. Many of our American and not very American friends here receive our Christmas cookies as presents a few years in a row.
Now it is time to put all cards on the table. These cookies taste amazing. The recipe is delightful, but it includes white flour, sugar, and butter — ingredients we are not eating very often.
This year I experimented and created a gluten-free version of the cookies.
These cookies are still delicious, delightfully fragrant, and a bit healthier. I substituted the white flour for a mix of almond, quinoa and oat flours. Additionally, instead of using regular white sugar and butter, I used coconut sugar and grass-fed butter.
I want to highlight that life is not about restrictions, it is about finding a balance and happiness. If the process of baking cookies makes me happy I am going to do that…and yes, I am going to bake with butter. I simply know that I enjoy green juice as well as my cookies. This is my personal recipe for balance ;).
Christmas Gingerbread Cookies!
Ingredients
- Dry ingredients
- 2 cup oat flour plus a little more
- 1 ½ cup almond flour
- 1 quinoa flour millet, amaranth
- 2 tbsp arrowroot starch any other starch
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 4 tsp powdered ginger
- 1½ tsp cinnamon
- Pinch of cayenne pepper
- ½ cup of coconut sugar or sugar of your choice
- ***
- Wet ingredients
- 100 g grass-fed butter soft
- 4 tbsp of honey
- 2 eggs
- ***
- For the glaze
- 30 g. Grass-fed butter
- 3 tbsp powdered sugar
- 1 ½ tbsp lemon juice
Instructions
- In a big bowl mix together all dry ingredients without sugar. Stir everything well.
- Add soft butter (to make the butter soft, before cooking leave it out of the fridge for about an hour), sugar and stir everything well again until the consistency of sand.
- In a separate bowl beat eggs and mix them with honey. Pour this syrup into the big bowl with dry ingredients.
- Stir very well until the dough is thick and smooth. It should not be too sticky. Add more oat flour if needed.
- Wrap the dough into plastic wrap and put in the fridge for 30 min.
- Preheat the oven to 400 ℉
- Divide the dough into 5-6 small parts, and work with one at a time. Keep the rest in the fridge.
- Roll out each dough piece about 3 mm (0.15’’) thick.
- Make cookies using your favorite cookie cutters.
- Place on a baking sheet covered with baking paper or cut them on the baking paper.
- Bake for 9 min
- Let them cool on a rack meanwhile make a glaze.
- Mix butter, powdered sugar and lemon juice in a bowl and place it in the water bath until butter melts. Butter should have a consistency of drinkable yogurt.
- Pour the glaze on each cookie using a spoon. Decorate each one with sprinkles and let the glaze get firm.
- Store it in a tightly closed container in the fridge.
Notes
***
The dough has a lot of butter in it, so it is the best to keep the dough in the fridge while working with small amounts of it.
***
The large Gingerman cookie cutter is not the best for this gluten-free dough. You are better to use smaller and simpler cutters. Sometimes it makes sense to cut cookies on the parchment paper.
If you do not care about the gluten in your cookies, you can use my original recipe.
Regular Gingerbread Cookies
(25 large size cookies)
Dry ingredients
- 900 g. unbleached flour (about 7 cups)
- 4 baking powder
- 8 powdered ginger
- 3 tsp cinnamon
- ¼ tsp of cayenne pepper
- 1 1/2 cup of coconut sugar (or sugar of your choice)
Wet ingredients
- 400 g. grass-fed butter (soft)
- 9 tbsp of honey
- 3 eggs
For the glaze
- 100 g. Grass-fed butter
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 3 tbsp lemon juice
Instructions
- In a big bowl mix together all dry ingredients without sugar. Stir everything well.
- Add soft butter, sugar and stir well again until the consistency will remind sand.
- In a separate bowl crack and beat the eggs. Then add the honey. Then pour the egg syrup into the big bowl with dry ingredients.
- Stir very well until the dough is thick and smooth. Add more flour if needed.
- Wrap the dough into plastic wrap and put in the fridge for 40 min.
- Preheat the oven to 400 ℉
- Roll out each dough 3 mm (0.15’’) thick.
- Make cookies using your favorite cookie cutters (Mine are gingerbread man forms)
- Place cookies on a baking sheet covered with baking paper
- Bake for 10-11 min.
- Let them cool on a rack, meanwhile, make a glaze.
- Mix butter, powdered sugar and lemon juice in a bowl and place it in the water bath until butter melts. Butter should have a consistency of drinkable yogurt.
- Pour the glaze on each cookie using a spoon. Decorate each cookie with sprinkles and let the glaze get firm.
- Store cookies in a tightly closed container in the fridge for about a week.
I hope your Christmas will be delightful. Be present and savor every moment.
Much love,
Zhenya
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