Hermit Thursday Cookies

Actually, today I cooked a gross broccoli dish with too much raw garlic that I'm not going to tell you about. How about these Hermit Thursday cookies instead? These are adapted--ok, completely changed--from the hermit cookie recipe on 101 cookbooks, and I made them on Thursday. On Thursday, I am alone all day, and bake to combat my growing anxiety over school. Not to combat my never ending desire for sweet treats. Right. :D

Gluten free cookies were elusive for a long time, and I have finally developed a gut instinct about what their batter should be like. Normally, it involves using about 1/2 cup of coconut flour and adding applesauce at the end until things get sticky.

Mix the dry ingredients:

1 cup brown rice flour
1/2 cup coconut flour
1/2 teaspoon xantham gum
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon fine grain salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground allspice

Mix the wet ingredients. Start by creaming butter and sugar and then adding egg & vanilla.

1/2 cup unsalted butter
1 cup natural cane sugar--I rarely follow Heidi's suggestions about sugar, but I did this time and the flaky-ness was definitely value-added
1 large egg
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/4 cup milk

Mix wet & dry ingredients together. Add in the following, or some variation upon the following (Heidi uses currants and walnuts).

1/2 cup dried cranberries, diced
1/2 cup uncrystallized dried ginger, diced
1/2 cup almonds, chopped & crushed (I use the handle end of my knife sharpener to crush almonds. It works!)

If your dough is dry (mine was) add, applesauce until sticky (about 2/3 cup for me this time). Refrigerate dough.

In the meantime, make your frosting. Here's Heidi's version, I actually had to make a bit more:

1 cup organic powdered sugar, sifted
4 - 5 tablespoons heavy cream
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

After 30 minutes of cookie-chillin', preheat your oven to 350. I cooked these on a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Don't smoosh gluten free cookies down; they have a hard time stayin' plump as it is. Bake until they are ready to be taken out -- err on the side of golden, because coconut flour tends to absorb moisture more than you would like once out. Frost when cooled. Or immediately.