Gluten Free?
The OB-GYN that I'm making all the baby cookies for has to eat a gluten free diet. I wanted to make something special for her for Easter since she's been so generous to me. It didn't seem quite fair that she purchase tons and tons of cookies (even some Easter cookies for her staff) and she can't partake in any of it. :(
So my mission was to make her some gluten free cookies and decorate them.
I looked for pre-made gluten free cookies.....but they were all small and hard surfaces to decorate on. Plus, they didn't look very appetizing. Then I started looking at gluten free cookie mixes. Here's what I finally settled on. (It wouldn't have been my first choice, but I couldn't find anything like a plain sugar cookie or shortbread cookie.)
Needless to say....the dough was very hard to work with. And when it was too sticky.....my first thought was to add flour. (DUH! lol) I added additional dry cookie mix to get the dough in more workable form. It still didn't work very well. I cut out the cookies and put them in the pan.....but when they baked.....they were one big blob cookie. They all ran together. :( I was so sad.
Then my daughter, Jill, gave me a brilliant idea. She told me to cut them out with the cutter after they were baked. So I did.....and it worked! Now mind you..... the cookies were very flimsy and had a very bumpy surface.....but I had the shapes I desired. :)))))))
Decorating them wasn't too difficult. (By the way, the glaze icing has no gluten in it. I don't know about Royal icing.) It had it's moments......but I managed to get them covered and looking something like lambs. ;)
And here's the box of goodies I sent to the doctor. :)
She loved them and said they were yummy. So I think my mission was accomplished.
I will continue to look for the "perfect" cookie mix to make a more suitable, decorate-able cookie next time. (I'd even like to learn how to make my own home-made gluten free sugar cookies.) Until I find something, I'll continue to use this mix and just make one big cookie (kind of like my cookie "cake" a few weeks ago) and then cut out the shapes after it is baked.
I'm excited that I can offer an alternative to someone who needs gluten free cookies. Yeah!
P.S. This project gave me a TREMENDOUS appreciation for my regular sugar cookie recipe and those smooth beautiful cookies that are so easy to decorate. =)
P.S.S. I was told it was important to keep the gluten free set completely away from the regular cookies.....so everything was done individually. I cleaned everything in between the one set and the other. I even stored them far away from each other.