Gluten Free Christmas Cookie Recipes | Food Faith Fitness (2024)

FAQs

Do gluten-free cookies take longer to bake? ›

These recipes often call for longer baking times at a lower temperature compared to traditional recipes.

Remember: Xanthan Gum is Your Friend

It might sound scary, but xanthan gum is key for successful gluten-free baking. It helps bind together the ingredients, preventing your cookies from falling to pieces. Be careful to not use too much; no one likes gummy baked goods.

Add more fat or liquid: It might just be that you need a bit more moisture in your recipe, especially if you're converting a regular “gluten-ful” recipe to gluten-free. Try adding anywhere from ¼ to ½ cup of liquid or fat to the recipe and see if that helps.

There are many types of cookies that can be made gluten-free. Here are a few examples: Chocolate chip cookies: Classic chocolate chip cookies can be made gluten-free by using a gluten-free all-purpose flour blend instead of regular flour.

Your results may vary if using a different GF flour blend. The longer you let the dough sit in the fridge before baking, the better these cookies will be!

Using xanthan gum helps provide some of the stickiness that gluten free goods lack, replacing some elasticity. Xanthan gum mimics some of gluten's most essential properties by sticking to flour and its moisture. This helps create moist goods that hold their shape after being baked.

Gluten-free flours often contain fine starches, so they absorb more liquid than conventional flour. To address this, gluten-free recipes usually call for more liquid and produce looser batters. They may also call for a larger quantity of leavening, like baking powder, to help add volume and lighten the texture.

Since there is no gluten there needs to be another way to level the cookies and keep them from falling apart. If you make home made GF cookies you would need to add an extra egg or two and more baking soda. That's how I get my home made cookies to work.

Moisture – for some reason gluten-free cakes tend to get a little dry. Any gluten-free cake will dry out super-fast and get hard on the outside if it's not properly refrigerated and covered. I swear by always using buttermilk and adding a little more fat into the batter to compensate for the dryness.

How do you make gluten-free cookies less dry and crumbly? ›

Add extra liquid: Gluten-free flours tend to absorb more liquid than regular flour, so you may need to add more liquid to your recipes to compensate. This can help to keep your baked goods moist and prevent them from becoming dry and crumbly.

Trying to use only one type of gluten-free flour in your recipe will lead to a dry, crumbly texture. You need to use a blend of flours and starches to replicate the flavor, texture and density of gluten flours. You can buy a gluten-free flour blend or you can make your own.

Oat Flour. With its creamy, earthy flavor and delicate texture, gluten-free oat flour is a staple of my gluten-free baking recipes. It bakes up soft and smooth, adding necessary starch to many GF baked goods and keeping them moist and tender due to its high fat content and stable protein structure.

Almond flour is a grain-free, protein-rich flour that lends well to cookies, cakes, and more! Almond flour is made from blanched almonds, meaning without skins (as opposed to almond meal, which is made from raw almonds with skins). This is why it has a fluffy, light texture and pale golden color.

Gluten-free baked goods often benefit from extra liquid to hydrate the flour blends, eliminate grittiness, and achieve a less dense or dry texture. However, it's very important to drive off this extra moisture during baking, or you'll wind up with a gummy texture. The best way to do this? Longer baking times.

Adjust baking times and temperatures: Gluten-free baked goods may require different baking times and temperatures than their gluten-containing counterparts. Set your timer for 5 minutes less than you would for a gluten-containing item or recipe from legacy cookbooks.

Taste is subjective. Gluten free cookies tend to be more crumbly, so there's a bit of a texture difference, they tend to also be sweeter (not just sugar, but the binding agents used are polysaccharides).

If you wanted to make smaller half-sized cookies then the baking time will be reduced, however it is unlikely to be half of the time.