VegFest was a couple weeks ago and I had the pleasure of helping Laurie Sadowski set up her demo and 200+ samples each for two gluten free baking demos. Today, I thought I'd look through her cookbook I picked up at Vegfest "The Allergy Free Cook Bakes Cakes & Cookies". I found a recipe for Orange Spice Cookies that looked nice and I had most of the ingredients. As usual, I scanned the ingredients and decided what I was going to use for the ingredients I didn't have on hand. It's Sunday and very cold. I went for a nice long walk today, but I'm not going to the grocery store. I'm sure I have what it takes to make these cookies with ingredients I already have in the kitchen. That's one of the purposes of this blog, to help myself and others get through some of these recipe hurdles. I always suggest to my cooking students to use recipes as a template and change the components to suit their tastes or availability of ingredients. Then I need to remember to write down what I did so I can to repeat the recipe again. It's been very helpfull to have my recipes stored here.
This is Laurie's recipe as it's printed in her book, "Orange Spice Cookies". It's a good recipe, free of most allergens, but I need to make some changes since I don't have the specific flours suggested and I want to avoid the oil.
1/4 cup unrefined cane sugar
1/2 cup coconut oil, softened
1/4 cup pure maple syrup
2 TB freshly squeezed orange juice (zest orange before squeezing)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups sorghum flour
1/4 cup quinoa flour
1/4 cup tapioca flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon xanthan gum
1/4 teaspoons fine sea salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 TB finely grated orange zest
One of the first ingredients I noticed I would have to substitute was unrefined cane sugar. I have some coconut sugar, but no cane sugar available. Then I noticed 1/2 cup coconut oil, softened. Although this is a pretty healthy recipe, as is, I still want to avoid processed oils as much as possible, that includes coconut oil. I decided I had a nice ripe avocado, but didn't want to overpower the flavor so I replaced half the suggested amount coconut oil with ripe mashed avocado and used fresh applesauce to make up the rest of the coconut oil. I have quite a bit of Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free Baking Mix in the kitchen, so I used that instead of sorghum flour and tapioca flour. Bob's Red Mill's blend is a combination of sorghum flour, tapioca flour, potato, garbanzo bean, and fava bean. I probably could have substituted all the flour with the BRM blend, but I thought I'd like to use the quinoa flour as suggested in Laurie's recipe. It should add a richer flavor as well as a bit of protein. Quinoa flour pretty easy to make a small amount. Just wipe out your coffee grinder and grind some whole quinoa.
This is what happened to the same recipe in my kitchen:
1/4 cup coconut sugar
1/4 cup mashed ripe avocado (not too ripe)
1/4 cup applesauce (just core and apple and throw in the blender)
1/4 cup pure maple syrup
2 TB freshly squeezed orange juice
seeds from one half vanilla bean
1 1/2 cups Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free Baking Flour
1/4 cup quinoa flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon xanthan gum
1/2 teaspoon pink Himalaya sea salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 tablespoon finely grated orange zest
Preheat the oven to 350ยบ F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking sheet.
Put the sugar, avocado, applesauce, maple syrup, orange juice, and vanilla in the bowl of a stand mixer. Using the paddle attachment, or a large bowl and hand mixer, beat on medium=high speed until smooth and creamy, about 2 minutes.
Mix the flours, baking soda, xanthan gum, salt, and spices in a medium bowl. I like to sift my flours and spices together in a sifter or mesh strainer. Add the orange zest and mix together.
With mixer on low speed, gradually add dry ingredients to the wet until combined and a soft dough forms.
Scoop out a rounded tablespoon of dough and place on lined baking sheet, leaving 2 inches between cookies.
I topped half of my cookies with a few pecan pieces then baked for 10 - 12 minutes.
These cookies are delightful! Light and full of flavor. They are the perfect light snack that might also be good served with a little jam.
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