My younger sister, Nicole, has been working out in the sunny and warm state of Cali following her time at culinary school.  She was able to come home to the Midwest for the holidays and I knew her gift to the children would have something to do with the art she herself is perfecting with each new meal she prepares and pastry she bakes.

We weren’t disappointed.  She gave each of the kiddos a hearty twill apron and a tube of fabric paint to make it their very own.  Along with the aprons, of course, was a promise to have a baking day with the kids.   It was so fun to listen to them in the kitchen as she taught them different chef-y type words and such.

Anyway,  baking day was a wonderful time had by all and the kids devoured each and every one of the cookies that were formed by their little hands with the help of their lovely aunt.

The only frustration was the recipe.  It was a traditional molasses spice cookie and my sister was trying one of her very first conversions from “traditional” to “gluten free”.  She is a perfectionist and I know the little mounds of what looked like sand were getting on her nerves.  The flavor was great, it was just the texture that was a puzzlement.  Like I said above, the children scarfed up every single one and, believe me, adored every bite.  But I also know that Chef Nicole would have loved to see a slightly more tender and moist product.

A couple days later I was hankering for one of those cookies, which were now all gone, and realized nothing was stopping me from blazing a bit of a trail for myself and for Nicole.  I have never, ever tried to create a gluten free baked anything.  Unless it’s the Gluten Free Girl’s peanut butter cookies.  Those don’t count.  They don’t even have flour in ‘em.

Ok, so I took what I remembered of the recipe I saw on the table when they were working, looked up a couple different recipes on allrecipes.com and took a few pointers from the Gluten Free Girl on weighing flours instead of using traditional measurement techniques.   It seems as if she is going to start doing that.   And so, I will too.

Josh got out his white board and pen and took dictation as I weighed, measured, combined, and tweeked.  We ended up baking three different combinations and this is the one that resonated the most with our tastebuds.  Even though we probably just consumed 10,000 calories, it was so much fun watching him watch me and pitching in ideas.

Aunt Nicole,  we are going to have to do another baking day!

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Molasses Spice Cookies (adapted from a recipe on ‘all recipes’ and the one my sister brought over, don’t know who by…I will check)

3/4 C. softened, room temperature butter, sliced into chunks

1/2 C. dark brown sugar

1/2 C. granulated sugar

2 eggs

1/2 C. honey

1/4 C. molasses

5 oz. sweet sorghum flour

2 1/2 oz. brown rice flour

2 1/2 oz. white rice flour

1 t. xanthan gum

2 t. baking powder

1/2 t. salt

1 t. ground cinnamon

1/2 t. ground cloves

1/2 t. ground ginger

Combine the butter, sugars, eggs, molasses, and honey in a bowl and lightly beat with mixer.  Chunks of butter left in the batter are just fine.  Leave them be.  They’ll be fine without being creamed to death.

And, yes, I just told you to dump everything in a bowl together.  All at once.  Shoot me.

Also, yes, it says baking ‘powder’ instead of the more traditional baking ’soda’.  I tend to not like the soda-ish bite to the original cookie.  Thus, I changed it.  ‘Cause I felt like it.  Shoot me again.

Ok, moving on.

Weigh your flours into a separate bowl.

I am sincerely sorry if you don’t have a kitchen scale.  (If you don’t, you can measure out a mix of flours that, sifted, is approximately 2 C.)  Just be careful and reserve a bit back so you have the luxury of fine-tuning the dough later, if needed.

Add the xanthan gum, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, cloves, and ginger to the flour and sift lightly with a whisk, a fork, or your finger.  I don’t think it matters, just get it mixed.

Carefully fold dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until just combined.

Cover with parchment paper and chill in refrigerator for about an hour.

Heat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Form 1 inch balls from the chilled dough and, if desired, roll in granulated sugar.  Place on ungreased cookie sheet, slightly press them down with the bottom of a glass, and bake for approx. 12 mins.

Let them cool on the cookie sheet for 5 mins. before placing them on a cooling rack.

Yields approx 2 1/2 dozen small cookies.

They are great straight out of the oven, but the next day….????  Holy Captain America!  They rock!

If you try this recipe, please let me know what you think.  I would love to have some feedback.

We are making, making, making fun things for each other and cousins and sisters and brothers, etc.   Today it is going to be some “pretties” for a certain little cousin’s gorgeous mane *wink*, and those linen napkins I was planning on printing for Christmas dinner.  And tomorrow it will be something else,  maybe I will finally finish that little skirt for a tiny friend.

Yesterday was our first annual Schrock Cookie Extravaganza.  We had two other families over and there were eight adults and seven kiddos making all manner of Christmas fabulousness.   And purple, lime green, pink, and yellow frosting.  I would have taken pictures, but I was having too much fun and forgot.  Sorry.

Anyway, it was a blast…thanks friends.

And a very important note for my gluten free friends:  I tried Gluten Free Girl’s Sugar Cookie recipe and it was absolutely great. Very easy to make, bake, and frost.  Highly, highly recommend it.  I might post some pictures of the kids pastry artistry later.  You would have never known they were gluten free except for their slightly dense texture. Just remember to sift your gluten free flours before measuring.  I found it was easy to have too much flour.  I have read on Shauna’s blog that she is going to start writing her recipes more with weight than with cups, etc. because it seems to be more accurate.  I will fiddle with the recipe today and will pass on a slightly revised version with the flours weights to see if I can achieve a more consistent dough product.

Needless to say…I_was_in_heaven.  There is nothing like saying goodbye to something you think you will never see again, only to turn around and have it say “hello!”

Hope you are truly, not figuratively, having a wonderful season.

See you tomorrow.