Gluten-Free Shortbread Cookies

This gluten-free recipe is a little less sweet than a typical shortbread cookie (which gets some natural sweetness from the wheat flour) but lends itself to some wonderful variations. The key to a great shortbread is to knead it very well…with lots and lots of love!

Classic Shortbread

Ingredients:

  • ½ cup rice flour
  • 1 cup fruit sugar
  • 1 pinch salt
  • 1 lb unsalted butter
  • 4 cups quinoa flour

Directions:

  1. Mix rice flour, sugar and salt together
  2. Beat 1 lb unsalted butter well and add in rice flour blend
  3. Slowly add the quinoa flour to other mixture and knead well (this is where you add the love).
  4. You can also place in food processor to blend initially and then knead after.
  5. Place in fridge for 20 mins to firm up if mixture becomes too soft.
  6. Roll out and cut into shape desired with cookie cutter
  7. Bake in 300 degree oven for 20 mins for smaller cookies and up to 30+ minutes for larger ones. Cookies should be light golden brown.

Variations:

Savory Lemon Thyme

This one would go wonderfully with blue cheese or a cheese platter

2 tbsp finely grated lemon

2 tbsp fresh thyme chopped finely

Chocolate-Dipped

Melt dark or milk chocolate according to your taste and dip half the cookie in the melted chocolate or add a thumb print into the cookie before baking and drop a piece of chocolate in when it comes out of the oven

Salted Chocolate

Simply sprinkle coarse sea salt over warm chocolate dipped cookies

Cinnamon

1 tsp cinnamon – add to dough mixture and blend well. Can add more or less based on your preferences.

Recipes courtesy of Dr. Angela Warburton at http://www.angelawarburton.com/