Honey Ginger Cookies with Candied Lemon

Cookies!

These are the perfect January cookies, when everyone's a bit under the weather. They include all the things you would grab, or ask your kind friend to get for you, and they're all combined into one soft and chewy cookie. Honey, ginger, and bright and bitter candied lemons.

If you haven't made candied lemons before, you can follow my lead and try them, or they are also available in the store near the lemon curd and other jam-like jars.

I love the consistency of these cookies - they are truly a chewy cookie with a soft texture. They even held up decently well in my lunch in a hard-sided container (few cookies could handle the beating if they were only in a baggie or something). The technique of this recipe lends itself well to the soft and chewy texture, with 3 cups of flour to 1/2 cup fat, and the flour is only barely moistened when the dough finally comes together. These would actually be perfect for shaping and freezing as dough balls for another day when you need a cookie and only want to bake a few.

When seeking the perfect gluten free cookie dough, you can often find yourself with less than stellar results. This is often due to the low protein content of cookies (depending on which flours you use), the temperature of the dough and baking sheet before, during and after the baking process. It can also be a problem if you add ingredients during the mixing process because you feel like the texture of the dough is wrong. Hopefully you can avoid each of these pitfalls.

• Flours with a good protein content are beneficial for cookies, and they taste good too (sorghum, millet, brown rice and quinoa, buckwheat, teff in smaller amounts)
• Don't let your cookie dough get too warm before baking it. If needed throw it in the fridge for 30 minutes to chill again. Use a cold cookie sheet. After the first batch, pop your cookie sheet (no cookies on it) in the freezer for 10 minutes to cool down.
• Follow the directions carefully of the gluten free recipe the first time through, until you're more comfortable modify regular recipes into gluten free recipes.

Hopefully, these will lead you to better cookie success. Everyone deserves a good cookie, and there's no reason you can't make them at home!

Last Year: Roasted Delicata Squash with Garlic

Two Years Ago: Coconut Cupcakes

Three Years Ago: Peanut Butter Cookies with Chocolate Centers

Honey Ginger Cookies with Candied Lemon

adapted from the recipe for Ginger Cookies in The Ultimate Cookie Book by Catherine Atkinson

[Printer Friendly]

1 cup sorghum flour

1 cup millet flour or brown rice flour

1 cup tapioca starch

1 teaspoon xanthan gum

1 teaspoon salt*

3/4 cup white granulated sugar

1 tablespoon ground ginger

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 cup Spectrum organic shortening

1/4 to 1/3 cup honey (more if the dough doesn't come together)

2 eggs, lightly beaten

1 cup candied lemon slices, drained and coarsely chopped (the measurement is after they have been drained and chopped)

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. Prepare a baking sheet with a silicon baking mat, parchment paper, or lightly sprayed with non-stick cooking spray.

Combine the sorghum flour, millet flour, and tapioca starch in a large bowl with the salt and xantham gum. Add the sugar, ground ginger, and baking soda, and whisk to combine.

Add the room temperature shortening and honey to the flour mixture, and stir until the shortening is distributed and coarse crumbs form in the mixture. Add the eggs and two thirds of the candied lemon slices, and mix thoroughly. The dough is really dry, and it will seem like you don't have enough wet ingredients. Use your hands to bring the dough together, forming a very dry, stiff dough. (It will be similar to a shortbread dough made with gluten). If the dough doesn't combine into a large ball, add a small amount of additional honey, and work into a ball.

Shape the dough into 20 large or 30 small balls, depending on your preference. Mine were just larger than one inch in diameter. Place them on the baking sheet, leaving space between the cookies and gently flatten the balls.

Press a few pieces of the remaining candied lemons into the top of each cookie.

Bake for 12-15 minutes, depending on the size of your cookies, until light golden on top. Remove from the oven and leave to cool for 5 minutes before removing from the sheet with a metal spatula to a cooling rack.

Notes:
*Salting cookie dough: the amount of salt needed varies depending on the fat you choose. Less to none with salted butter, some with unsalted butter, and slightly more than that if you are using a non-dairy organic shortening, like Spectrum.