Gluten Free: Mexican Wedding Cake Cookies

Gluten Free: Mexican Wedding Cake Cookies, originally uploaded by Kate Chan.

I don’t think my mom could ever make these cookies fast enough – nor often enough for me. There is something magical about a cookie that melts in your mouth, don’t you think?

I made a few dozen of these cookies to share with my colleagues at an after school meeting (do 4 hours still count as a meeting? Or at what point can I call it “involuntary confinement”?). Our meeting was “postponed” at about 8:00AM (we were to meet from 3 – 7:00PM) and there I sat with 4 dozen cookies in a cookie tin on my desk.

“Oh, he** no,” I thought. “These things are NOT coming home with me! It’s just too much temptation for one woman to handle!”

So I promptly dug about in the cupboards of my classroom and found a roll of paper towels. I wrapped up several cookies in little cookies paper towel-“gift baggies” and sent a few students on errands to deliver the goodies. I promptly sat down to send a note apologizing for interrupting their morning classes but that there was no way I was heading home with 4 dozen cookies! One of my colleagues wrote back and said this: “Notes and phone calls are interruptions. Cookies are divine messages from heaven that I should savor my morning coffee.”

Yeap. I love her.

And she’s right. These are dang good with a great cup of coffee.

I made these with pecans, but you can use any kind of nut (walnut, hazelnut, almond, etc) that you like. I have never tried them with peanuts….so maybe not. I’d skip the peanut option, but hey – I’m not you. Pick your nut and go wild, I say.

When I converted this recipe to be gluten free, I added a bit more fat to give the cookie the right kind of crumble. The first few times I made them without adding the additional fat, the cookies crumbled alright, but in all the wrong ways. They would even break apart when I tried to toss them with the powdered sugar or would be too hard to bite in to. Not fun, I tell you.

This recipe rectifies those early attempts and is now my stand by. Mind you, I don’t make it often. I *AM* trying to get healthier, not more round. LOL

I hope you enjoy these cookies like my colleagues did! I saved a few for my morning coffee this week. Who would have thought that I could savor my morning coffee at home while watching the snow fall? Wahoo! Winter Break came three days early this year. Too bad I have to make up the days in June… I won’t be singing the joy then! LOL OH! But wait! June is wedding month! Maybe I’ll have another excuse to make some cookies then too! 😉

Don’t wait that long to try these. They really are tasty!

Gluten Free Mexican Wedding Cake Cookies
(Otherwise called Russian Tea Cookies)
Recipe makes 4 dozen 1-inch cookies
Ingredients:
1 cup pecan halves
1 cup powdered sugar, sifted + 1 cup more for tossing
1 cup plus 2 Tablespoons butter, room temperature
1/3 cup whipped cream cheese
2 teaspoons GF vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups + 2 Tablespoons sorghum flour, sifted (with the tapioca)
1/2 cup + 2 Tablespoons tapioca flour, sifted (with the sorghum)
3/4 teaspoon xanthan gum

Directions:

1. Toast the pecan halves over low heat until fragrant.
2. Sift one cup of the powdered sugar.
3. Process the toasted pecans and the 1 cup of powdered sugar in the bowl of your food processor until even and fine.
4. Cream together the butter and cream cheese with the powdered sugar/pecan mixture.
5. Add vanilla.
6. Sift together the sorghum and tapioca flours.
7. Add the xanthan gum to the sifted flours.
8. Mix the dry ingredients in to the creamed/wet ingredients until it comes together as cookie dough (2-3 minutes on medium).
9. Roll into 1″ balls and place the balls on a large plate.
10. Refrigerate the 1″ balls for 30 minutes to 1 hour. (*NOTE: If you need to refrigerate them longer, please cover them with plastic wrap. You can freeze the balls at this point too, if desired.)
11. Preheat the oven to 350F.
12. Lay out the balls on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper or a silpat about 1 1/2″ apart.
13. Bake for 12 – 15 minutes (Mine bake for 13 minutes) and remove from the oven. Allow the cookies to cool 2-3 minutes before attempting to move them.
14. Dredge the warm cookies carefully in powdered sugar. (I usually put a cup of powdered sugar into a baggie and then toss 4 or so cookies about in the sugar until well coated.)
15. Allow the cookies to cool completely on a cookie rack. (See photo above.)
16. Toss in powdered sugar again, if desired, before serving or packing in an airtight container.

Happy Cookie Baking All!
-Kate

PS. Not in to cookies? Have you tried the pink oranges (Cara Cara Oranges) that are in the markets now? OH MY! They are so good! You won’t miss cookies this season if you taste them. Promise!