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Thank you so much for the overwhelming response for my request for
baking gluten-free Christmas cookies.  I apologize for the delay in
posting this summary but it took a little while to go over all the
suggestions I received. Below is some of the responses I received in the
hopes to help someone else with the same inquiry.  Your help is
tremendously appreciated.   I'm now looking forward to baking this
holiday season.  Thank you all!

 
Pamela's makes a great mix that I use to make banana bread.  It is her
bread and pancake mix.  It is amazing!  I use Bette's Feathlight mix to
substituate for all my holiday baking.  I add a pinch of Xanthum gum to
each mix.

_________

The blog  Ginger Lemon Girl <http://www.gingerlemongirl.blogspot.com/>
has an annual Christmas roundup of cookie recipes. Her cream cheese
meltaways makes a great sweet tart base. I made mince tarts and butter
tarts last year (photo of mine attached). Scroll down to the bottom of
the recipe page for reader's comments. 
http://gingerlemongirl.blogspot.com/2007/12/christmas-cookie-2-cream-che
ese.html
 
This recipe includes tips on making gf cookies -  
http://gingerlemongirl.blogspot.com/2009/08/gluten-free-chocolate-chip-c
ookies.html
 
Use www.allrecipes.com <http://www.allrecipes.com/>  or 
www.recipezaar.com <http://www.recipezaar.com/>  and enter gluten free.
You can then search within that category. I love these sites because
people have made them, make their comments and rated them and make
suggestions. 
__________
 
The first question comes down to flours... I buy a premix flour from a
vendor in New Jersey.  www.mrritts.com <http://www.mrritts.com/>   It's
a combination of rice, tapioca, potato flour and/or starch.  It has
proven to be a good all-purpose flour and I will sometimes just try
switching it in place of the called for flour of a regular recipe (it
worked for my grandmother's chocolate chip cookie recipe, but not for my
banana bread recipe).  I live not too far from him and attend a support
meeting where I buy the flour in person twice a year.
 
I have a book by Bette Hagman called The Gluten-Free Gourmet Makes
Dessert.  You might want to try tracking it down at a library and trying
out some of the recipes and see how they taste for you.  I'm not
comfortable giving them out (there has been much discussion on the list
lately about copyright infringement).  But there is a Dutch Sugar cookie
that tastes like my mom's and a spritz recipe as well.  The Dream Pastry
takes time (has to sit in the fridge for an hour), but it makes a nice
crust and I haven't found another way to pull that off yet.  It has
proven to be a useful book to me.
 
I experimented for awhile before finding things I liked.  Play with the
recipes as you go and see what works best for you.  As you find a flour
blend you like, it should get easier to work with it and adapt it to
suit your needs.
________
 
Try Authentic Foods Multi-grain GF blend.  It can be substituted cup for
cup for regular flour, and I've made my favorite Christmas cookies with
it.

Maybe add a touch more of xanthan gum (there is some already in the
blend) if you want to try that.

___________________

The following are good recipes. I had a good reputation as a Christmas
cookie baker before I had to switch to the gluten free cooking, and I
spent quite a lot of time working out the kinks on these things - I hope
you like the results:

Pie Crust - how to make a good GF one:

http://www.gfzing.com/?p=78 <http://www.gfzing.com/?p=78> 

And here is my collection of cookie recipes:

http://www.gfzing.com/?cat=26 <http://www.gfzing.com/?cat=26> 

________________

My daughters were diagnosed with celiac 3 years ago and last Christmas I
made my Christmas cookies using Better Batter flour mixture. Cup for cup
it replaces regular flour. You do not need to add any additional
products to the mixture. The cookies came out great and my girls loved
them.

The website for the flour is www.betterbatter.com and there are many
recopies listed as well.

Happy baking!

_______________________

oh Please tell your daughter that she will be able to have plenty of
Christmas cookies.
for banana bread, carrot cakes etc.  I use a combination of 1 part
Sorghum flour, 1/2 part potato flour, 1/2 part tapioca flour.  the
sorghum flour is great & it is very forgiving, you can also mix it with
sweet rice flour & change up the ratios, & I have used coconut flour &
almond meal.  I do not buy Bob's Red Mill products - I get a gluten
reaction from them...  Almost all the decorations & sprinkles are gluten
free.  You can also order these decorations from the Natural candy store
- or get them at walmart.
 
be sure to add about a teaspoon of Xanan Gum per cup or two of flour.  I
find that 1 teaspoon is good for up to 3 cups of flour...  which is less
than most recipes call for.
 
just google Gluten Free Sugar Cookies (or whatever cookie...) & you
should get tons of recipes.  Also goggle gluten free cooking blogs there
are some fabuolous people out there posting recipes.  Recipes are also
on a lot of the GF forums, which should come up when you google for a
recipe.
 
Lemon bars turn out fabulous GF, & almost all the GF baked goods take
very well to freezing, so you can always have a brownie to grab out of
the freezer!!
 
Then there is naturally GF stuff like fudge.  If your daughter is dairy
free you can use coconut milk in all baked goods & candy etc.  I use it
in my cornbread which I make using all corn meal, an extra egg dropped
in the coconut milk measurement...
Jeanne
_________________
 
Please visit our website at www.domatalivingflour.com
<http://www.domatalivingflour.com/>  We are a cup for cup exchange for
WBRO. Your daughter will never miss out on her favorite Christmas
cookies, we don't. Read our testimonials and recipes. Look at the
pictures, you will not be disappointed.
 
 

 

Linda J. Novak  
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