OK, I wasn’t thrilled when the Little Man and I were sick all but 3 days in the last two months, but we got better. And, it’s small potatoes. I have had several friends going through some very rough times lately. Some are online friends. Some are real-life friends. Some are both. To all of you, I send love and hugs and happy, happy thoughts.
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| gluten-free ginger cake cookies |
And, somehow, this actually leads to the post I was going to write today. One of the many, many things that I am grateful for is my family. All of them. And, this recipe is an adaptation from a recipe of my step-MIL. If you can call it an adaptation. She freely admits that she doesn’t write down recipes or measure. She just throws stuff together, and most of the time, it works out. Well, this is one that worked out well. Very well.
About a month and a half ago, my FIL and step-MIL stayed the night at our house. Step-MIL brought these fabulous ginger cookies. I call them ginger cake cookies. They are cakey, and gingery, and yummy goodness. I asked her for the recipe, and she sent me an approximate idea of what she threw together. So, I did some work and came up with this recipe. It tastes pretty much like what she brought.
I also adapted this recipe to make a gingerbread “house” for a contest that my friend, Kim, is holding on her blog, Cook It Allergy Free. So, this brings me to the picture at the top of this post. I loved the picture this made when we were walking on my in-law's property. It’s not theirs. It belongs to their neighbor’s son, but they share the beautiful walking property. And, I felt good about my photographer’s eye, when I heard my step-MIL say it was such a great picture as I was bringing out my camera. (She used to be a professional photographer.) So, I was inspired to make this for the contest.
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| gluten-free gingerbread house trailer |
So far, it’s not getting many votes. Like any. But that’s ok. It was my first attempt at anything like this. The Little Man helped me a lot. That boy has patience. He helped form an hour before he got bored and tried to put kidney and black beans on it. (He thinks the m’n'm’s are beans. And he will continue to think that as long as I can make it happen.)
So, if you feel inclined, you can vote for my trailer at Kim’s Gingerbread House contest. It’s #16. You can vote once per day. That would be cool.
Or, you can make the Gluten-Free Ginger Cake Cookies. That would also be cool. Let me know if you do. I would love to know how you like them.
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Gluten-Free Ginger Cake Cookies
Ingredients:
1 cup sweet rice flour
1 cup almond flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
pinch salt
1/4 cup palm sugar
2 tablespoons fresh grated ginger
1/2 cup molasses
1 egg
Directions:
Mix flours, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt.
Add palm sugar.
Add ginger, molasses, and egg.
Pile into little mounds on a cookie sheet. We might want to use parchment paper, but it isn’t absolutely necessary.
Bake at 350 degrees for 8 – 10 minutes.
Test at 8 minutes for doneness.
Gluten-Free Ginger Cake Cookies
Notes: If you don’t have fresh ginger, or the gumption to grate it, you can sub 2 teaspoons of ginger powder. I used McCormick Roasted Ground Ginger I got at BlogHer Food. It worked very nicely.
Also, I adapted this recipe for the gingerbread house by doubling the recipe, using a total of 3/4 cup molasses and 3 eggs. I let it sit in the fridge overnight before rolling. It made it cakier (not a word, but you know what I mean), and we are still eating it days later. It still tastes good. (Oh, yeah, I so destroyed it as soon as I took the picture. Not really impressed with how it turned out, but it was my first attempt.)
Lessons learned when making a gingerbread house:
Roll the dough thin. Mine was much too thick to work with. The walls were heavy.
Mix the royal icing for a very long time. I didn’t mix mine long enough, and it took forever to harden. Seriously, the reason the windows look so you-know-what-ed up it because after 3-4 hours of laying down, I tried to put the walls up, and everything came running down. Not pretty. But, it’s still tasty.
If you use this recipe, you can take cookie cutters to it after. The Little Man has lots of his gingerbread “stars” to eat for a while.
Until later, here’s to…Living better, easily!™
PS – If you like this post and want to receive notices whenever a new recipe/review/rambling, etc. goes up, sign up for email updates in the upper right-hand corner of this page.
PPS – I am linking this recipe to Calling All Cookies – Gluten-Free cookie round-up, being held by Nancy at The Sensitive Pantry. Another dear friend.
PPPS – If you haven’t already, go vote for my trailer at Kim’s Gingerbread House contest. It’s #16.
PPPPS – I am linking this post to Gluten-Free Wednesdays at The Gluten-Free Homemaker. Linda is collecting cookie recipes this December as well as other great gluten-free recipes.
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