Chocolate Pretzel Snack Treats

I have sunk to new lows in making “cookies” but I have to admit, they are cute. So we will just call them chocolate pretzel snack TREATS, and it will all be fine.

• Melted Enjoy Life Chocolate Chips (gluten free, dairy free, soy free)
• Glutino Pretzel Twists (gluten free) – (but not corn or soy free by any stretch of the imagination.)
• Sprinkles (gluten free sprinkles found at Whole Foods)

Melt the chocolate chips. Dip the pretzels in the chocolate and remove with a fork to a waxed paper lined plate. Put some sprinkles across the top of each one.

Place the “cookies” in the freezer to harden.

Sadly, it’s that easy. And I can’t have any because of the soy … but the kids like them. : )

<<<insert picture here>>>

I scream – You scream

I scream.  You scream. We all scream for ice cream.

Well.. when you can’t have ice cream cones for fun anymore, then what’s the fun of ice cream at all then?Oh sure. You can have it in a dish, or on a plate. But portable food is way more fun. For anybody.

So, then, how to make a gluten free ice cream cone? Pizzelles. Make pizzelles and roll them up while they are still warm. *poof* fun food!

Pizzelles are a wafer cookie, sort of like a really flat waffle. Part cookie, part waffle. Just delicious. If you grew up with the anise flavored cookie, well good for you, but I really like the chocolate version. Especially for ice cream cones. Try one.

The ice cream at our house is “Purely Decadent”- dairy free, soy free, gluten free, egg-free, coconut milk ice cream.

Gluten-Free Ice Cream cones

• 1/4 C Spectrum brand palm oil shortening/melted
• 2/3 C sugar
• 3 eggs (substituted with a combination of flax gel, unflavored gelatin, and pear sauce)
• 1 3/4 C GF flour mixture (brown rice – potato starch- tapioca starch- sweet rice)
• 1/4 C cocoa powder
• 1 tsp xanthan gum
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 C hemp milk (or more)

Scoop some dough onto the plates of the pizzelle press (yes, you need a new appliance to make these).

Close the cover and lock it. Bake until done. Then quickly roll the cookie into a cone shape and let cool. Chocolate waffle “tacos” are fun too.

These were a huge hit with the people who hadn’t had an ice cream cone in 8 months. : )

Chocolate-Coffee Brownies

You will never go back….. mmmmm brownies.

This recipe is vegan. Can you stand the excitement? I am surrounded by people that insist that being vegan subjects you to boring food. Not.

These are better than anything I have ever had with eggs in them. And since eggs are out forever here… these will do just fine. Thank you very much. They are good just out of the oven.. but EVEN BETTER the next day. They are moist, and cakey and fab.

Warning: the coffee ingredient may be too much for little kids. Exchange water for the coffee in the recipe- so they won’t zoom around the house after having dessert.
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Choc.-Choc.-Coffee brownies.

• 1/2 C oil
• 1/2  C coffee
• 1/2 C pear sauce (this is two gerber baby foods) 
   
• 1/2 C potato starch
• 1/2 C brown rice flour
• 1/2 C cocoa powder
• 2 T arrowroot starch
• 1 C sugar
• 2 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp soda
• 1/2 tsp xanthan gum
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 T vanilla
• mini choc chips (Enjoy life brand is gluten free) 
   

Bake in mini muffin tins for 12 minutes at 325
I also tried it in a 9 x 7 baking pan – about 1/2 the recipe… turned out just like brownies.. mmmmmm

The kids like the mini muffin ones better.

Snowball’s chance

These cookies have a snowball’s chance of lasting more than four minutes in a hot tub. Or, else they are just that good.

They are so good actually, that the first batch didn’t last two hours in the cookie box.

Yum. The good news is that even gluten-free christmas cookies are not only POSSIBLE, but they are delicious. Who knew?

Snowballs

Mix together:

• 2/3 cup palm shortening

• 1/2 cup Powdered sugar

• 2 tsp vanilla

• 2 1/4 cups GF flour mix

• 2 tsp xanthan gum

• 1/4 teaspoon salt

• 1/4 cups mini chocolate chips

• 2 T Hot water as needed

Mix the sugar and shortening, add the vanilla and cream all together. Add the xanthan gum, and salt to the potato starch and then mix into the batter. Continue to mix in the flour a little a time with some of the water until you get a good “playdough” consistancy.

Make 1 inch balls of dough. Put them on parchment paper lined cookie sheets and bake them for 15 minutes at 350. Bake them until they are set, but not browned. Immediately after removing them from the oven, roll them in powdered sugar. Let them cool on cooling racks. Then roll them again in the powdered sugar for a nice final coating. So delicious.

Cookie Extravanganza

I refuse to have Christmas!, without christmas cookies I can eat. Most specifically they can’t have EGG or WHEAT of any kind even near them. It’s just not worth eating something that makes you sick. Seriously.

So. In my quest for suitable cookies… I have had to substitute other things for “egg” in recipes. Sometimes this works… sometimes it doesn’t. Substituing eggs will be another post all by itself.

This cookie dough is versatile, I was able to roll it out with NO trouble and so cut out cookies are completely possible on a gluten free diet. THANK YOU VERY MUCH. Honestly, the other recipes I tried were just too sticky, to gummy or just weird. This one is a keeper.

Sugar Cookie Dough

1 1/4 C baker’s sugar

1/2 C Spectrum shortening

4 tsp Flax meal + 3T hot water = 1 egg

3/4 tsp salt

1 T vanilla

1/4 C millet flour

1/2 C potato starch (or arrowroot starch)

1/2 C sweet rice flour

1 C brown rice flour

1 1/2 tsp xanthan gum

2 1/4 tsp baking powder

Mix well.

Roll small balls of dough in granulated sugar. Press them flat on parchment paper covered baking sheets.

Bake at 325 for about 10 minutes.

Variation: take 1/2 the dough and mix in 1/2 C cocoa powder. Make two color slice cookies, or twirl the dough and make spirals.

Second and Third round cookie notes

Okay… stick with the plan.         …..    …..    Seriously.

The second day of baking, I decided to ramp up the brown rice flour content, and while I was at it I added some sorghum in the mix too.  This turned out to be a bad Idea. The cookies were awful. Oh, they tasted fine, but they were NOT normal. Sort of spread out in a weird fashion and all I could tasted was overbaked brown sugar.

Third attempt- I used egg replacement powder mixed with hot water instead of the flax gel. The cookies were “sturdier”, and tasted great, and they look like the Keebler elves made them. So cool.

My advice? Stay with the recipe.

12 – 4 = 8…wait.. What happened to the dozen?

Wait. Wasn’t there a dozen cookies on the tray a second ago? Yes, there were… but they have been eaten by the resident cookie monster, who declares them “….SO!!!!…. GOOD!!!!…”

They are actually the first gluten free chocolate chip cookies that have ever turned out like actual cookies. So we are on the right track at least. Finally, a chocolate chip cookie dough that doesn’t spread out all over the pan. Finally. YAY!

Chocolate chip cookies

• 1/4 C  Spectrum brand organic palm shortening (or 1/2 C butter if you must)
• 1/2 C brown sugar
• 1 egg (replaced with 1 T golden flax meal and 3T hot water-left to sit and gel)
• 1 1/4 tsp xanthan gum
• 1/4 tsp sea salt
• 1 tsp soda
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp Gluten free vanilla extract (Costco has it in the baking section)
• 1 C potato starch (second batch was even better with 1/4 C brown rice flour + 3/4 C potato)
• 2/3 C Enjoy life Chocolate chips (no wheat, no dairy, no soy)

Mix until creamy and thickened. Drop by teaspoons onto parchment paper lined cookie sheet. Flatten slighty if you want to.

Bake at 375 for 8 minutes or until slightly browned.

ChocoKrispee bars

I love Rice Krispie bars with their marshmallow-buttery goodness. But those are out now. I need a replacement. These are good. Certainly not sugar free.. but better than nothing, and they are: Egg-Free, gluten-free, casein-free, soy-free, treenut-free, and corn-free yay!

ChocoKrispee Bars

• 1/2 C tapioca syrup
• 1/2 C brown sugar
• 1/2 C Enjoy Life Chocolate chips (dairy free, gluten-free, egg-free soy-free)
• 1/2 C MaraNatha Organic Peanut butter (soy free!)
• 1 tsp GF vanilla
• 2 1/2 – 3 C Koala Krisp cereal (chocolate GF rice Krispie)

Combine the syrup and brown sugar and heat until it boils. Add everything else. Stir well and spread in a pan. Easy. Peasy. Yummy.

The perfect cookie

There may be no such thing as a perfect cookie… but these come pretty close. Gluten free baking is difficult at best, and making them look like the orginals?? really not that easy.

I reduced the sugar in the recipe.. mostly because I forgot to put it in, the original recipe called for another 1/2 C of granulated sugar…but they turned out great! Less sugar is a good thing. The chocolate part is really good. Makes them *fancy*. Actually I like this version even better than the “full of gluten” ones. Go figure. AND they look just like the ones at Grandma’s house. Perfect.

Peanut Butter Cookies

• 1 C creamy peanut butter (I used MaraNatha organic)
• 1/2 C Spectrum shortening (palm oil)
• 1 C brown sugar
• 2 eggs (replaced with 2 T flax meal and 4 T HOT water-let sit and then blended the daylights out of it with the stick blender to make it fluffy/frothy/more egg like.)
• 1/4 tsp sea salt
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp xanthan gum 
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 1/2 C gluten free flour ( I used a mixture of mostly potato starch with some sorghum, rice flour and tapioca starch in there too)

Mix dough, roll one inch balls and place them on the baking sheet. Smoosh them slightly with a fork and criss-cross the design on the top. Bake at 375 for 10 minutes or until they start to brown. Let cool on the baking sheet of a couple of minutes before removing them to the cooling racks. This allows the cookie to stay together and not crumble when you touch them later.

To make them really *fancy*, melt some Enjoy Life chocolate chips and drizzle chocolate over the baked cookies.  I put a blob of melted chocolate in the middle of each cookie and just smooshed it across the top like frosting. Yum.

Ridiculously delish

Chocolate? please. Who doesn’t love chocolate. These were delicious. I may be just saying that because I have no good cookie options now for over a year… but.. then again.. they were good.

When my favorite cookies of all time became off limits due to the oatmeal contained in them as the main ingredient…. I was lost. I made the original recipe at least twice a month. Ate them for breakfast even.

But now I have concocted a new and improved version that takes into account all that I can’t have and and tastes just like the other ones. Who knew that baked sunflower seeds and coconut flakes taste just like oatmeal. Huh? who? I want to see a show of hands!

What I did:

Boiled 1/2 cup brown sugar with 1/2 cup coconut milk in a saucepan until it was bubbling nicely, then added 1 tsp of vanilla and 1/2 cup of peanut butter (Organic, MaraNatha brand).

poured that over a mix of:

• 1 1/2 cups of cocoa krispies(GF Koala Krisps)
• 1/2 cup non-dairy choc chips (Enjoy life)
• 1/2 cup raw , unsalted sunflower seeds
• 1/2 cup unsweetened coconut flakes

Stir it until just mixed and pour into a parchment paper lined 8 x 8 pan. Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes.

Let cool slightly. Here’s where the madness/genius starts. Makes them look like the old ones. hee hee.

Take a cookie scoop. (Mine is red) And scoop scooperfuls of the baked dough, which translates into about 1 1/2 tablespoon, onto either a parchment lined tray, or I just just used a clean dinner plate.

Let the “haystacks” sit there cooling for a bit, then cover and refrigerate them overnight- if you can wait that long. They are a cross between fudge and brownie and just plain yummy.

I am serious. These were way too good. Something must be wrong with them. Low(er) sugar than the original and no gluten? or dairy? I’ll take two, thank you.