This time of year, I just want to bake! The holidays are far behind us, but that doesn’t mean we can’t indulge ourselves in the occasional treat to finish out the season. The weather is still a little chilly, and nothing feels more comforting than a slightly warmer home because the oven is on, baking yummy treats and helping to combat those winter blues.

Almond Meal makes baked goods better.  I can tell you with great confidence that every baking experiment I have conducted (cookies, muffins, pies, brownies) irrefutably supports this statement. The taste and texture of Almond Meal really adds to the appeal of baked goods. The flour is easy to use, low in net carbs, creates a perfectly moist crumb and is especially tasty as an addition to chocolate desserts.  You can replace up to 20% of the flour in any recipe with Almond Meal, or try one of our fabulous recipes yourself and keep the holiday cheer going for the duration of the winter.

Strawberry Thumbprints

Blueberry Almond Muffins

Almond Brownies (Gluten Free)

Magically Moist Almond Cake (Gluten Free)

Since January is National Oatmeal Month, I decided we should make a treat of it!  We all have our favorite ways of making oatmeal in the morning (fruit, nuts, sweetening) and favorite variety of oats we eat (rolled, steel cut, Scottish), but everyone loves a great oatmeal cookie.  Here are some delightful oatmeal cookie recipes you are sure to enjoy! 

Coconut Almond Oatmeal Cookies

Coconut Almond Oatmeal Cookies  

1/2 cup Margarine, non-hydrogenated  

3/4 cup Evaporated Cane Juice  

3 Tb Milk (Cow, Soy, Rice)  

1 tsp Vanilla  

1/2 cup Sorghum Flour  

1/4 cup Tapioca Flour  

1/4 cup Potato Starch  

1/2 tsp Xanthan Gum  

1 1/2 cups Gluten Free Quick Rolled Oats  

1/2 tsp Baking Powder  

1/2 tsp Baking Soda  

1/4 tsp Sea Salt  

1/2 cup Shredded Coconut  

1/2 cup Sliced Almonds  

Cream together the sugar and margarine until smooth. Add the milk and vanilla and blend. In a separate bowl, whisk together the oats, sorghum flour, tapioca flour, potato starch, xanthan gum, salt baking powder and baking soda. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix until just combined. Add the coconut and almonds and blend until incorporated throughout the dough.

Place by the rounded tablespoon on a greased cookie sheet and bake at 350°F for 15 minutes. Makes 2 dozen cookies.

Oatmeal Cookies with Whole Wheat

 Oatmeal Cookies with Whole Wheat

1 cup Vegetable Shortening 

1 cup Brown Sugar, packed 

2 large Eggs 

2 cups sifted Whole Wheat Flour 

1 tsp Baking Soda 

1/2 tsp Sea Salt 

1/2 tsp ground Allspice

1 tsp ground Cinnamon

1 tsp ground Nutmeg 

10 Tb Milk 

2 cups Oats, Rolled, Quick Cooking 

1 cup Raisins (Unsulfured) 

1 cup chopped Walnut Halves 

Preheat oven to 350°F. Lightly grease a cookie sheet, set aside.

In a large bowl of an electric mixer, beat shortening and brown sugar until creamy. Beat in eggs until well blended. In another bowl sift together flour, salt, soda, and spices three times. Add flour and milk alternately to shortening mixture; fold in the quick oats, raisins and chopped nuts.

Drop dough by rounded tablespoons onto prepared cookie sheet, spacing about 2″ apart. Bake until cookies are golden, but center are still soft (10-12 minutes). If using 1 oven, switch position of pans halfway through cooking. Transfer cookies to racks to cool. Serve, or store airtight up to 3 days. Makes 48 cookies.

What better way to celebrate the holidays than baking up cookies by the dozen? There are so many varieties of cookies; both traditional for the holidays and more basic cookies for every day munching. They make great gifts and are a tasty offering at holiday gatherings. I try to come up with at least one new recipe every year and I love searching the archives for old favorites. Here are some of our favorite basic cookie recipes that’ll be perfect for everyday snacks and for your upcoming holiday party. Click on the recipe title for a link to the recipe on our website.  We hope you enjoy! 

Gluten Free Cookie Reicpes:

Vanilla Almond Sugar Cookies

Crispy Ginger Cookies

Chocolate Chip Cookies – Gluten Free

Almond Crispies

Teff Peanut Butter Cookies

Conventional Cookie Recipes:

Oatmeal Gingerbread Men

WOW Chocolate Chip Cookies

5 Grain Cookies

Oatmeal Cookies with Whole Wheat

Strawberry Thumbprints

Different flavors of jam create endless possibilities.

Every year at Christmas I break out this recipe. We shared it here a few years back, but I wanted to share it again. I have a tendency to bake a lot of cookies for the holidays and I always include this one. Not only is it easy and quick, but it offers something that my other cookies often don’t- a break from chocolate and decadence. These cookies certainly deliver on flavor, but the lightness of almond meal and the jam make them a pleasant diversion from the heavy holiday flavors.

These can easily be made dairy-free by substituting butter with soy margarine or shortening. I usually make these with whatever flavor of jam I have on hand and each one is delicious in its own way.

Strawberry Thumbprints

• ½ cup Butter*
• ½ cup Sugar
• 2 Tb Milk (Cow, Soy, Rice)
• 1 cup Unbleached White Flour
• ½ cup Almond Meal
• ¼ tsp Sea Salt
• ½ cup Strawberry Jam

Cream together the butter and sugar. Add the milk and combine thoroughly. Mix together the flour, salt and almond meal. Add dry ingredients to wet, mix to combine. Form into one-inch balls. Place ¼ cup of additional Almond Meal in a bowl. Roll dough balls in the almond meal, covering the entire ball. Place on cookie sheet, flatten slightly with palm of hand and press hole in middle with your thumb. Put in ½ tsp jam in each hole. Bake at 350°F for 15-18 minutes. Makes one dozen cookies.

Gluten Free Brownie Mix:
Triple Chocolate Brownie Cookies 

Gluten Free Pancake Mix:
Gluten Free Pancake Cookies 

Gluten Free Chocolate Cake Mix:
Choco-Peanut Butter Chip Cookies

Gluten Free Pizza Crust Mix:
Gluten Free Irish Soda Bread 

Gluten Free Cornbread Mix:
GF Cornbread Mix Pancakes

7 Grain Marionberry Coffee Cake

Organic 7 Grain Pancake Mix:
7 Grain Marionberry Coffee Cake
7-Grain Cranberry Spice Muffins 

Buttermilk Pancake Mix:
Whole Grain Buttermilk Crepes 

Buttermilk Biscuit Mix:
Potato Biscuits
Molasses Cookies

Oatbran & Nuts Muffin Mix:
Oat Bran, Date & Nut Muffin Mix Banana Cake 

Irish Soda Bread Mix:
Irish Soda Berry Scones
Irish Soda Crackers

Having cookies on hand makes entertaining a snap!

Yep, it’s officially cookie season! I don’t know about you, but we’ve already made a few batches of mint chocolate chip at our house, as well as some of these fun dog treats. Alas, the dog treats are not gluten free, but our pup doesn’t need to be gluten free.

During the holidays I like to have a few batches of cookies in the freezer for unexpected guests or unexpected invitations.  Nothing makes a potluck easier than grabbing a bag of cookies out of the freezer – especially if you need to be gluten free and don’t have time to let your host know. If you’ve got some cookies in the freezer to take with you, you know you’ll get something yummy no matter what everyone else brings.

Why spend a bunch of time and energy finding five different flours for each recipe when you can buy our all purpose mix and use it for all sorts of cookies? I’m not discounting the amazing variety of flavors you can get with teff flour and oat flour, but I like things to be handy and easy in the baking department.

Here are some of our favorite gluten free cookie recipes using our Gluten Free All Purpose Baking Flour. It’s on sale on our website for the month of December at 25% off! Check it out here.

• Sugar Cookies
• Peanut Butter Cookies
• Chocolate Chip Cookies
• Oatmeal Toffee Cookies
• Raspberry Cookie Sandwiches

When we began development with Carol Fenster on our Gluten Free Shortbread Cookie Mix, one of our goals was to create a mix that could be used for more than one application. Carol not only delivered a great mix for shortbread cookies, but she gave us a wide variety of adaptations. Here is one of our favorites and a perfect addition to your holiday spread, Gluten Free Snickerdoodles. You can find more recipes using this simple mix here. This mix and others will be on sale during the month of December. Be sure to stock up for the holidays.

Snickerdoodles (from shortbread cookie mix)

Ingredients

• 1 whole pkg GF Shortbread Cookie Mix
• 1 1/2 sticks (3/4 cups) unsalted Butter, cut into 8 pieces
• 1 large Egg Yolk
• 2 Tb Water
• 3 Tb Granulated Sugar
• 1/4 tsp ground Cinnamon

Directions

Preheat oven to 375°F. Line 15×10-inch baking sheet (not nonstick) with parchment paper.

In a clean, empty spice jar with a plastic perforated top, shake together sugar and cinnamon until well blended.

Prepare cookie dough as directed, cut into 2-inch shapes, and place on prepared baking sheet. Lightly sprinkle tops of cookies with cinnamon-sugar mixture.

Bake on middle rack of oven for 12 – 15 minutes, or until cookies just start to brown around edges. Cool cookies on wire rack for 10 minutes, then remove from baking sheet to cool completely. Repeat with remaining half of dough, bringing baking sheet to room temperature first.  Makes 36 cookies.

NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION

Serving Size: 1 Cookie

Calories 100, Calories from Fat 35, Total Fat 4g, Saturated Fat 2.5g, Cholesterol 15mg, Sodium 35mg, Total Carbohydrate 15g, Dietary Fiber 0g, Sugars 5g, Protein 1g.

These gluten free Oatmeal Pancakes use both oat flour and quick oats.

Earlier this year, we introduced Gluten Free Quick Rolled Oats and Gluten Free Oat Flour to our gluten free product line. At that time, many of our recipes were labeled as wheat free, because they called for conventional oat flour (which is in contact with gluten and other allergens). Now that we have a gluten free option, these recipes have switched to the gluten free category of our recipe database.

We are so proud to offer a wide assortment of gluten free oat products and recipes using these products for your convenience. Here are some of our favorites, which we hope you will enjoy! Check out the recipes section of our website for even more!

Coconut Almond Oatmeal Cookies uses various flours and oats to make a real treat.

Coconut Almond Oatmeal Cookies

Oatmeal Pancakes

Wheat Free Oatmeal Cake

Whole Grain Waffles

Almond Cookies

100 Best Gluten-Free Recipes

October is Celiac Disease Awareness Month, and we’ve decided that the best way to celebrate all the delicious ways to eat gluten free is to partner with Carol Fenster to bring you another amazing giveaway!

As many of you already know, Carol is a huge advocate for healthy gluten-free baking at home and author of several amazing cookbooks. We’re delighted to be giving away 3 copies of Carol’s brand new book, 100 Best Gluten-Free Recipes. This book uses beautiful photography to highlight the top requested recipes from her earlier impressive encyclopedia of gluten free cooking, 1,000 Gluten-Free Recipes.

If you’re looking for a great way to get started cooking and baking gluten free, 100 Best Gluten-Free Recipes is a comprehensive, yet condensed guide to label reading, shopping guidelines, and cooking advice. One of the great things about Carol’s new book is how it seamlessly blends classics and trendy recipes alike with handy icons that denote quick, vegetarian, and kids’ favorites.

Just to make this gluten free giveaway a little more fabulous we will also add in a gift pack of some of Carol’s favorite gluten free products. Many of Carol’s recipes call for a special blend of Sorghum Flour and other gluten free ingredients that you can make ahead of time and store for use up to 3 months. You’ll be ready to dive right into making everything from Chicken Noodle Soup with Dumplings to Devil’s Food Layer Cake with Fudge Frosting if you’re one of our lucky winners.

Each of the three winners will receive a package containing The autographed book, and one package each of Sorghum Flour, Potato Starch, and Tapioca Flour so they will be ready to get started using Carol’s special sorghum blend for baking.

Gluten Free Sorghum Flour

How to enter:

Please read this carefully or you may not be counted in the giveaway. You must complete number one to be entered, but you have more chances to win by completing the additional entry tasks.

1. To be entered you MUST do this: Leave a comment on this blog post and tell us what your favorite gluten free Bob’s Red Mill Product is. This must be done at www.bobsredmill.com/blog.

Additional Entries:

1 Entry: Visit Carol Fenster’s site, Savory Palate, and locate Carol’s Culinary Cues and sign up for her newsletter. THEN, report back to the blog and tell us that you subscribed.

1 Entry: Become a friend of Carol Fenster on Facebook. THEN, report back to the blog and tell us that you did.

1 Entry: Become a friend of Bob’s Red Mill on Facebook. THEN, report back to the blog and tell us that you did.

If you have already done any of these things for any of our previous giveaways, simply post about each in a separate comment here to be counted as an individual entry.

1 Entry: As a friend of Bob’s Red Mill on Facebook, post a message on our wall and tell us why you want to win.

1 Entry: Follow us on Twitter (@bobs_red_mill). THEN report back to the blog and tell us that you did.

1 Entry: If you have a blog or website, post about this contest and link back to our blog. THEN report back to our blog and tell us that you did.

Again, since so many of you are already friends of ours on Facebook or following us on Twitter, just leave a comment that you’re already doing this and we’ll still count it as an entry.

Don’t forget to return to the blog to tell us what you did to earn extra entries. The contest ends on 11/01/10 at midnight. Winners will be announced on 11/05/10.

100 Best Gluten-Free Recipes

Today we are spotlighting a neat little gluten free cookbook that Quest Center for Integrative Health has created to raise money for their ongoing work here in Portland Oregon. This local non profit healthcare clinic has created “Gluten Free? Eat Good and Feel Great!” as a fundraiser to continue their work providing multidisciplinary and integrative health care in a community based setting to all people regardless of income. The sale of each of these cookbooks will help provide healthcare and nutrition advice to their patients, 75% of which are low-income, and under- or uninsured.

This cookbook features lots of healthy gluten free options, as well as a number of pages devoted to helpful hints and popular substitutions. We are definitely going to enjoy testing out their recipe for “Ultimate Oatmeal Cookies” on one of these rainy fall days

If you are interested in picking up this neat little cookbook, and supporting a great cause you can call 503-238-5203 or email them at info@quest-center.org .

Ultimate Oatmeal Cookies

3 Large Eggs
¾ cup canola oil
¾ cup warmed honey
4 ½ cups Gluten Free Quick Rolled Oats
1 ¼ Gluten Free Oat Flour
¾ cup Flaxseed Meal
¾ cup Unsweetened Coconut Flakes
2/3 cup nuts of your choice
2/3 cup raisins (or dried fruit of your choice)

Preheat the oven to 325 F
In a large mixing bowl, beat the eggs with an electric mixer.
Add the oil and honey and continue to beat for 1 minute.
In separate extra large bowl, combine all the dry ingredients thoroughly.
Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and knead well with clean hands until evenly mixed.
Let rest for 20 minutes.
Spoon the dough onto greased cookie sheets.
Press and shape to be ¼ inch thick and about 2” in diameter.
Bake for 15 minutes until golden browned.

A fundraiser for the Quest Center