Gluten free snowball cookies are the sure way to jump start your holiday baking season. And if you are like me and live in unpredictable St. Louis, these warmer temperatures make me crave a little bit of snow fun for the kids.
If you have followed me a while, you will probably know 2 things. One, is this is my second Christmas since starting stayglutenfree.com and two, I tend to focus more on baked goods here on the blog.
What about breakfast, lunch and dinner? Well Over this past year, I have been able to grow a community of over 1000 people on Facebook. This is where I and so many others have shared so much about what we eat on a daily basis. Don’t feel left out, it’s Free to Join click here now.
But on my blog I focus mainly on baked goods (for now) because it’s harder to find really good, and good for you baked goods at the store. You know, the ones that taste homemade just like we remember before the gluten free days. These are the things that often times get missed the most. But don’t worry, in 2018 I am hoping to expand more into the daily meals on the blog as well.
So to jump start our December cookie recipe exchange happening soon (click here to join the fun), I made these cute and delicious, seriously full of flavor snowball cookies. I am thrilled with how they turned out.
In fact I will say again that I got the idea from Sally’s baking addiction because gluten eaters should not be able to have all the fun… but I tested a lot of things before I came up with just the right cookie.
My Ingredients
I tried granulated sugar vs confectioners sugar to see what kind of difference it would yield me. The granulated sugar resulted in too soft of a cookie and the snowball did not have the firmness I desired. Next I played around with the flavor a little. I wanted it to be a much more flavorful cookie. So I added two things. I added a touch of all spice because I think it really goes well paired with cinnamon and I referred back to my Italian roots and added a bit of Anise exctract.
Have you ever had Anise? Let me tell you a little bit about it. Anise has a strong, but sweet licorice flavor. Oh wait, I hope I didn’t just lose you when I said licorice. You just have to try it.
This cookie has no baking soda or baking powder and here is why. I wanted the cookies to keep their shape. The shape and size of when I rolled them. I didn’t want them to have a flat bottom and I didn’t want them to rise. So it was necessary to omit the baking powder and baking soda.
And lastly, as usual I used the Authentic Foods brand brown rice flour and potato starch. In addition, I also used the Expandex tapioca starch.
My Method
When I put this cookie dough together I mixed the flour, starches, xanthan gum, salt, cinnamon, and all spice together in a bowl. In my stand mixer bowl with paddle attachment, I mixed the coconut oil (not melted), the powdered sugar, vanilla and anise extract until smooth.
I then added my dry flour mix to the wet bowl and mixed it using my mixer until the dough became crumbly. Next I removed the bowl from the mixer, slowly added 1/2 cup of cold water and formed my dough by hand.
Lastly, I formed about 21 tablespoon size balls and placed them on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet and baked them at 350 for 15 minutes. If you notice the cookies grabbing slight color sooner, watch them closely as all ovens are slightly different and you may want to remove them sooner.
After I removed them from the oven, I let them cool on the cookie sheet for about 5-7 minutes. As they were cooling I mixed up my topping mix of powdered sugar and cinnamon. After the “quick” cool I gave these cookies their first dip in the powdered sugar mixture covering them completely.
I placed my wire rack on another cookie sheet to catch any falling sugar, and placed the cookies on it to let them cool completely. Once they were cooled I gave them their final dip in the powdered sugar and voila! All done and ready to enjoy.
I hope you love these cookies so much and that they bring you a little holiday cheer. And don’t forget to join in the fun at Annual Gluten Free Cookie Recipe Exchange. The winning recipe will receive a $100 Visa gift card along with my top 10 favorite gluten free products. We are going to have so much fun! See you there!
The post Gluten Free Snowball Cookies appeared first on Stayglutenfree.com.
Don’t forget to let me know what you think of these cookies, leave a comment below.
Gluten Free Snowball Cookies
Ingredients
Cookie
- 1 Cup Brown rice flour
- 1 Cup Tapioca starch
- 2 Tbsp Potato starch
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp Xanthan gum
- 1/4 tsp All spice
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 Cup Coconut oil not melted
- 3/4 Cup Powdered Sugar
- 2 tsp Vanilla extract
- 1/4 tsp Anise extract
Topping
- 1 Cup Powdered Sugar
- 1 tsp cinnamon
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line one large cookie sheet with parchment paper.
- In a medium bowl combine flour, starches, cinnamon, xanthan, all spice, and salt and whisk together.
- In stand mixer bowl and with paddle attachment mix coconut oil, powdered sugar, vanilla and anise until you get a smooth consistency.
- Add the dry ingredients 1/2 cup at a time into the wet ingredients and continue to mix with paddle attachment. The mixture will become crumbly.
- Remove the bowl from mixer and add 1/2 cup cold water slowly with one hand as you form the dough with the other hand.
- Once dough is formed roll 1 tbsp size balls and place them on the cookie sheet.
- Bake for 15 minutes
- Remove from the oven and let sit on the cookie sheet for 5-7 minutes to cool.
- While the cookies are cooling in a small bowl mix the remaining 1 cup of powdered sugar with 1 tsp of cinnamon.
- Once the 5-7 minutes has passed roll each cookie so that it is completely covered in the cinnamon sugar mixture and place them on a wire rack. You may want to put the wire rack on top of another cookie sheet so that the excess sugar can fall on to the tray. Do not disgard the topping mix.
- Once cookies have cooled completely re roll each cookie in the cinnamon sugar topping mix.
- Serve and enjoy!