Gluten Free Chocolate dipped peanut butter balls

This recipe for these Chocolage peanut butter balls has been in our family for ages. It's a nonbake cookie. Very good.

Mix together & form into balls

• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 1 cup chopped dates
• 1 cup chopped walnuts
• 1 cup peanut butter

Melt in microwave (about 30 second increments & mixing after each till chocolate is melted)

• abou 1.5 cups chocolate chips*

Dip peanut butter balls into chocolate then let harden

*This time I also added a 14 oz can of Fat Free Sweetened Condensed Milk to the chocolate chips.

Gluten Free Nut Butter Thumbprints filled with Jam

This nut butter cookie tastes great and a lot like those hershey kisses cookies except that it is filled with jam. I didn't have regular white rice flour so used sweet rice flour and they turned out very good. Basically my goal is to have gluten free food that tastes so good that non celiacs want to eat it too. Another great recipe from p. 176 of Bette Hagman's "The GF Gourmet makes Dessert"

10-15 minutes, 350F, 2 ungreased cookie sheets

Preblend the dry ingredients then set aside

• 1/2 cup sweet rice or regular white rice flour
• 1/2 cup tapioca flour
• 1/2 cup cornstarch
• 1.5 tsp. potato flour
• 1/4 tsp. xanthan gum
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt

Cream together

• 1/2 cup margarine
• 3/4 cup nut butter (I used cashew & it tastes great)
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar

Then add

• 2 eggs

Then add dry ingredients and mix just till smooth.

Put in the fridge for a little while or dust your hands with potato or cornstarch to make the dough easier to handle. Make about 1" balls and put on cookie sheet. Make a depression in each with your thumb. Fill the depression with jam & bake.

Easy Gluten Free Microwave Fudge

I got this recipe from a can of Borden's Eagle Brand Fat Free Sweetened Condensed Milk. I took out the 1.5 tsp. vanilla extract and added 1 Tbs. of Hershey's Special Dark Cocoa Powder because it seemed too sweet to me. Also cooked it in the microwave. Also added some pecans. Much easier to melt chips that way. Just remember Chocolate chips are formulated to hold their shape even when melted, so mix to break down the shape.

Combine & microwave about 2 minutes to melt chips

• 14 oz can fat free sweetened condensed milk
• 3 cups chocolate chips
• 1 Tbs. Hershey's Special Dark Cocoa Powder

Mix by hand to blend melted chips with rest of ingredients, then microwave 1-2 minutes more and add

• 1 cup pecans (optional)

Pour into wax paper lined 8" pan and put in fridge 2+ hours. Turn fudge out onto cutting board, peel off wax paper & cut into squares.

Orange Shortbread

This could be baked in an 8" pan as per the directions on p.289 of Bette Hagman's "The GF Gourmet Makes Dessert" but I made a log in plastic wrap and made cookies from the slices. Only made 1 cookie sheet of cookies.

10-15" 350F, 1 ungreased cookie sheet.

Blend until ball forms

• 1/2 cup margarine
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup cornstarch
• 1/2 cup sweet rice flour
• 1 tsp. fresh grated orange zest
• 1-2 Tbs. orange juice

Make a log in plastic wrap, Fridge for 1-2 hours, cut off slices and bake.

Lemon Melts, a shortbread type cookie

This is fairly easy to make. I didn't bother with the frosting. I think it would be a good cookie, like most shortbread cookies, to dip into milk or coffee while eating Nice lemon flavor. If you want the frosting recipe, look on p.290 of Bette Hagman's "The GF Gourmet Makes Dessert" I accidently added double the margarine so had to double the recipe.

10-15minutes, 350F, 2 ungreased cookie sheets.

Blend on low while scraping sides of bowl until firm ball forms

• 3/4 cup margarine
• 1/3 cup confectioners sugar
• 1 envelope (2 tsp) plain gelatin
• 1.5 cups cornstarch
• 1 tsp. lemon zest
• 1 Tbs. lemon juice

Make a log in plastic wrap and put in fridge for about 1-2 hours. Cut 1/4" slices and bake.

Gluten Free Date-Nut Kisses, a semi-fragile meringue type cookies

This cookie is more like a traditional meringue cookie that powders in your mouth, while the previous caramel-pecan cookie is more chewy. I had to hand chop the dates because they were too sticky for my processor. I changed the cooking method from the one on p.293 of Bette Hagman's "The GF Gourmet Makes Dessert"

10-15", 300F, 2 oiled cookie sheets.

Beat on high to make stiff peaks

• 2 Tbs. Just Whites
• 6 Tbs. water
• 1/8 tsp. salt

Slowly add while beating

• 1 cup sugar

Fold in

• 1/2 cup chopped dates
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans

Drop by spoonfuls onto cookie sheets & bake. Then let sit several hours before removing from sheets.

Gluten Free Caramel-Pecan Kisses, a meringue type cookie

These are very good. When making meringues make sure that your equipment is clean & dry without any grease in order to form nice peaks with the egg whites. I like to use "just whites", a powdered egg white, so recipe is slightly different than the one on p. 294 of Bette Hagman's "The GF Gourmet Makes Dessert"

10-15 minutes, 325F, 2 greased cookie sheets

Grind medium fine in food processor

• 1.5 cups pecans
• 1 tbs sugar

Make meringue portion by beating on high until stiff peaks form

• 4 tsp just whites
• 1/4 cup water

Then slowly add and continue beating until thick, about 2 minutes

• 1.25 cups brown sugar

Fold in ground pecans

Drop in heaping teaspoons onto cookies sheets. Bake till cookies are slightly cracked. Leave on cookie sheets for several hours before removing.

Gluten Free Pinwheel cookies

I took the sugar cookie recipe and divided into 2. In one half I added 1 tbs. of Hersey's special dark cocoa powder. I wrapped both halves in plastic and put in the fridge after kneading some more potato starch into them so they were less sticky.

After 2+ hours, I rolled out each half on plastic wrap to about 1/8" trying to make them both the same size. Then placed the chocolate portion onto the white portion and rolled them up like a jelly roll to make a spirol. Then I put this roll in the fridge.

After about 1-2 hours, I took it out & cut about 1/4" thick slices and baked them about 10-15' at 350F.

The chocolate really makes a good flavor & texture. Similiar to oreos. Probably could take this recipe, make it all chocolate with thinner slices, bake and frost with vanilla frosting to make oreo cookies.

Gluten Free Coconut Haystacks

This is a very easy cookie made with commonly found ingredients. I didn't bother chopping the coconut in the food processor per directions on p. 297 of Bette Hagman's "GF Gourmet makes Dessert." (She's one of my favorite authors. If you're doing a lot of gluten free cooking you need to buy her books.)

10-15 minutes, 350F, 2 greased cookie sheets

Blend together (I used my hands) in medium large mixing bowl

• One 14 oz pkg (4 cups) lightly packed coconut
• 1/2 cup sugar

In small bowl beat till frothy

• 2 eggs

Then combine eggs with coconut and mix thoroughly. Spoon out in 1" mounds on cookie sheets.

These cookies are very sticky. They wanted to stick to the pans. My bottoms browned more than my tops, but the cookies still tasted good.

Gluten Free Sugar Cookies

These are great gluten free sugar cookies. The kids can play & roll out the dough without it getting tough. This is a recipe modified from p. 175 Bette Hagman's "The Gluten-Free Gourmet Makes Dessert. Last year I substituted different flours (sorghum, millet & garfava/sorghum blend) for the rice flour and we all felt the sorghum flour was the best followed by the millet flour. The addition of garfava made it chewy.

abt 10-15 minutes at 350F

Blend together the dry ingredients & set aside:

• 2/3 cup sorghum flour
• 2/3 cup tapioca flour
• 2/3 cup cornstarch
• 2 tsp. potato flour
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 2.5 tsp. xanthan gum
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla powder

Cream together:

• 1/2 cup margarine
• 1/2 cup crisco
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 egg

Add dry ingredients & mix to combine into a soft ball.

Knead in enough potato starch to make dough easy to handle and roll out.

• about 1/4 cup or so* of potato starch

Roll out dough between 2 sheets of plastic wrap** to about 1/8 inch*** thickness and cut into desired shapes. Place on pan, decorate if desired & bake.

Notes:
* I generally mix in the 1/4 cup of potato starch right in the bowl, then take out about 1/3 of the dough and put it on the counter generously covered with potato starch to knead into a workable dough. So I have no idea how much potato starch goes in, could be anywhere from 1/2 cup to 1 cup.
**I don't have the patience to roll out the dough between plastic sheets so since my kitchen is mostly gluten free and I don't have to worry about cross contamination, I just do it on my counter.
***My dough is probably closer 1/4 inch thickness.

I wonder if I cut back on the tapioca flour if I would get a cookie more like polvorones (dust cookies).

Gluten Free Parmesan Chicken

This is an easy version of baked Parmesan and Tomato Chicken. It's based on a recipe from page 27 of Leanne Ely's Saving Dinner book. Also see her website at http://www.savingdinner.com . Except of course I can never follow a recipe as it's written so substituted tomato sauce for the butter/oil mixture for dipping the chicken and I used strips of chicken breast instead of drum sticks.

1) Preheat oven to 375F. Foil then oil two shallow baking pans.

2) Grate two 5oz pkgs of Parmesan cheese*

3) Prepare tomato dipping sauce:

• About 1/2 can tomato paste
• About 1-2 cans of water till it makes a sauce consistency
• 1 garlic clove, pressed
• 1 capful oregano
• 1 capful paprika
• salt
• pepper
• splash of red wine vinegar

4) Cut 4-6 chicken breasts into 3 strips each breast

5) Dip chicken strips into tomato sauce, roll in parmesan cheese, then place on foil lined pan.

6) Bake 45 minutes at 375F.

*I usually grate the cheese in the food processor attachment for my blender. Many times store bought grated cheese is contaminated with gluten, even if it's not listed on the package.

*This tastes very good reheated in microwave, not as good eaten semi-frozen from your car cooler.