Gluten-free Raspberry and Orange Christmas Cookies

Ah, right … there’s nothing like coming up empty just at the time I’m meant to be posting a new recipe. And this week I’ve got nothing, nada, zilch.

There was meant to be something – a great savoury recipe, in fact. A little something for the lunchbox that I think will go down a treat with the kids. But it’s not quite right yet, so I’ll carry on working it out in the hope that I can post it soon.

I’ve actually been really busy of late. In addition to all the usual end of school and Christmas stuff,  there’s some big changes on the horizon with this blog, and things started happening this past week. You may have noticed that my Facebook page is now called Gluten-free Lunchboxes. My Instagram account is now also called @glutenfreelunchboxes and soon this blog will carry the same name. There are further changes in the works, too, and I’ll be sharing those with you in a few weeks’ time, just as soon as I have all of my ducks lined up, so to speak.

In the meantime, it’s that time of year when we are trying to work out what to give our kids’ teachers for Christmas. If you want a food gift that is a healthier, low-fructose option and full of wholesome goodness, try this recipe for Raspberry and Orange Christmas Cookies. I developed it for the December 2014 issue of Nourish Magazine. Involve the kids by getting them to cut out the cookie dough and tie the end product with ribbon. They can even put them into gift boxes, wrapped up in cellophane and tied with ribbon. Or just send them in the lunchbox for recess-time snacks. Whatever works!

Enjoy!

 Ingredients

150 g fresh or frozen raspberries

150 g rice malt syrup

Finely grated zest of 1 large orange

100 ml freshly squeezed orange juice

90 g tapioca flour

110 g sorghum flour

110 g brown rice flour

1 tsp ground cinnamon

50 g coconut oil, melted

1 tsp vanilla essence (optional)

2 eggs, lightly beaten

Tapioca or brown rice flour, extra, for dusting

Method

Preheat oven to 180° Celsius (conventional oven) or 160° Celsius (fan-forced oven). Grease and line two large cookie sheets.

Into a small saucepan, put raspberries, 100 g of rice malt syrup, orange zest and orange juice. Bring to the boil over high heat. Reduce heat to medium and simmer for 10 minutes or until fruit is broken down and mixture has a jam-like consistency. Allow to cool a little.

In the meantime, sift into a large bowl tapioca flour, sorghum flour, brown rice flour and cinnamon. Add coconut oil, remaining 50 g of rice malt syrup, vanilla essence, eggs and raspberry mixture. Stir to combine. The mixture should come together into a firm dough.

Using extra tapioca flour or brown rice flour, lightly dust a clean and dry bench surface. Shape dough into a ball on the bench. Using a rolling pin, roll out the dough, regularly loosening it from the surface and turning it to prevent sticking.

Roll out the dough to a thickness of approximately 4 millimetres. Using a star-shaped cookie cutter (or a Christmas-themed cookie cutter), cut star shapes out of the dough and place on cookie sheets.

Bring the leftover dough back together into a ball and roll out to a thickness of 4 millimetres, dusting the surface with more flour if necessary. Cut out more shapes and repeat the process until all the dough is used.

Using a wooden or metal skewer, gently make a hole of approximately 5 millimetres near the top of each cookie.

Bake for 18 minutes. Remove from oven and transfer to a wire rack to cool.

When completely cooled, thread coloured ribbon through cookies and tie in a loop.

Makes approximately 30 cookies.