molasses crinkles

Today was one of those in between days. One of those days where I was accompanied by a mug of tea wherever I went, where I felt too ill to do much of anything but too healthy to stay in bed all day, where I set school mostly aside and worked on Christmas surprises. Speaking of which, preparations for Christmas are in full swing around here, decorations are every where and cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg leak out of the kitchen. One of our favorites are molasses crinkles. And these ones were better because they were gluten-free!

molasses crinkles
slightly adapted from Easy Gluten Free Baking

dry ingredients
1 1/2 cups white rice flour (thanks to white rice flour being difficult to find here, I used mostly brown rice flour (ground very finely with our grain grinder) and some gluten-free flour mix that we had. they were delicious. I'm an experimenter when it comes to substituting flours.)
1/2 cup cornstarch
1 tablespoon ground ginger
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum
1/2 teaspoon salt

wet ingredients
1 cup sugar, plus more for rolling
3/4 cup vegetable shortening
1/4 cup unsulphured molasses
1 large egg

Whisk together dry ingredients. In a separate bowl, cream sugar & shortening. Add the molasses and egg; mix. Add the dry ingredients. Blend everything together.

Place some sugar in a shallow dish, dust your hands with flour (gluten free of course!) and roll dough into tablespoon size balls (I typically roll them a bit smaller). Roll the balls into the sugar and place on prepared cookies sheets. Bake the cookies in a preheated oven at 350° for about 12 minutes. When they're done take 'em out and enjoy!

makes about three dozen cookies

Happy Baking! 

p.s. here's a happy Christmas song to get you in the mood. do you have any favorites?