Sunday, November 18, 2012

Gluten-Free Mexican Wedding Cookies

I'm in trouble...big trouble. Because the holiday season, as far as I'm concerned, has kicked off. That means lots of baking for me. I love to experiment and see what I can convert to gluten-free. Some times I am successful and some times not. But when I am, I need to get these treats out of the house! My neighbors really like me.

I've said this before, if I see a picture of a certain food, I get a little obsessed; in a good way. I must have seen some of these delectable treats some where and decided I needed a good gluten-free version. I tried them last year but they fell apart so I was feeling a bit deflated. I had some time today to play thus, I started looking through recipes.

I found this one from the Gluten-Free Canteen. I loved the ingredients but wanted to use my blend and change the directions a bit. I also wanted to try to make it dairy-free (which I did successfully). However, use butter if you can. When I'm making them for friends and not my daughter, I will make them with butter. That could be bad. I might start sampling more!

Happy holidays! I hope you enjoy them. Remember, you can buy "Your Gluten-Free Holiday Meal" from my website. I pride myself in writing good recipes which explain how to do things. I hope it helps.


Gluten Free Mexican Wedding Cookies
Makes about 40 cookies


2 cups +1 tablespoon Amy’s Gluten Free Flour Blend
¼ cup almond flour or meal
½ teaspoon xanthan gum


1/2 heaping cup powdered sugar + about 1 cup for dusting cookies later
1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature, or vegetable shortening
1 large egg

¾ cup finely chopped pecans or walnuts


  1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Prepare 2-3 cookie sheets by placing parchment paper or silicone baking mats on top.
  2. In a small bowl, mix the flour, almond flour and xanthan gum. Set aside.
  3. Sift 1/2 heaping cup of powdered sugar into the bowl which you will use to cream the sugar and butter or shortening, either a large bowl or the bowl of a stand up mixer. Sifting is an important step so don't skip it. You can use a mesh strainer to sift the sugar. Add the butter or shortening to the bowl.
  4. With a stand up or handheld mixer, blend the sugar and butter or shortening until creamy. Add egg and mix until well blended.
  5. Add the flour mixture. With a rubber spatula or wooden spoon, mix until combined. Add the chopped nuts and mix. If the dough is very sticky, add a little more flour but not too much.
  6. Roll into approximately 1” balls.  Place on the cookie sheets about 1” apart (I used 2 pans and then reused one of the pans; 3 in total).
  7. Bake 10 minutes in the center of the oven, rotating the pan 180 degrees once after 5 minutes. Bake until fragrant and the bottoms are light brown. Remove from oven and set aside for a few minutes.
  8. Place ½ cup of powdered sugar in a bowl. After the cookies have cooled about 3-4 minutes or until they are cool enough to handle, roll in the powdered sugar. Place on a wire rack and cool another 5-10 minutes. Roll each cookie a second time in the powdered sugar. TIP: I baked the cookies one tray at a time. While 1 batch of cookies were baking, I was rolling another batch in the sugar. It took longer but it was easier to remember which had been rolled once or twice.
  9. Cool completely and then keep in a covered container.

2 comments:

  1. Made these for a friend this morning for Mother's Day. The cookie turned out looking just like the picture, very pretty. Not much flavor, could use something else, maybe vanilla or a pinch of salt? Also, very dry (and the cookies were not overbaked).

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  2. Hi Pam,
    These are a very mild cookie. Yes salt and some vanilla would add flavor. I'm not sure why there were dry (do you mean crumbly). Were the nuts fresh? That's where the moisture comes from. If I were to make them again, I would probably increase the gum to 3/4 tsp. Hope this helps.
    -Amy

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