Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Sugar- and Gluten-Free Maple-Pistachio Sandies


I've gone too far.

I have this bag of rice flour just calling to be experimented with... so yesterday was my first try. And you can't win 'em all, can you?

The dough came together nicely, and tasted okay in dough form, though a little 'floury.' When cooked they're even MORE floury. They actually suck all the moisture from your mouth as you chew.

Not good.

Okay, they're not completely horrible, but they are just too... sandy. They explode into a million crumbs as soon as they go into your mouth. And I don't think stevia was the right sweetener for this cookie--there was definitely a slightly bitter taste going on there.

That said, this dough would make an excellent SF/GF pie crust.

I made these for one of the sugar-free treats at my upcoming holiday open house... and I need to figure out how to resurrect them. Coat them in chocolate, perhaps? Any ideas?

And if anyone reading this is a gluten-free guru, can you tell me where I went wrong here?


Sugar- and Gluten-Free Maple-Pistachio Sandies
makes 3 dozen

2 cups rice flour
1 cup salted butter
3/4 teaspoon powdered stevia (or any sweetener to equal 3/4 cup sugar)
2 tablespoons sugar-free maple syrup
salted pistachios

Preheat oven to 350*F. Combine all ingredients in a large bowl and beat with an electric mixer until blended. Roll dough into 1-inch balls and place on an ungreased cookie sheet. Top with a pistachio and press down to flatten lightly. (These cookies do not spread, but puff up slightly while baking.)

Bake for 15 minutes. Cool on wire racks.


The idea was a buttery cookie with a nice salty-sweet balance. I just ate another one with a squeeze of SF maple syrup on it. That was a little better, but I still needed a bottle of water with it.


And here's a sleepy pic of Thundercat... isn't that just adorable?

4 comments:

Rebecca Mecomber said...

Hmm. Sorry, I have no advice about the recipe.

Just wanted to say your cat is ADORABLE! I love cats!

Amanda said...

Well thank you, Mrs.M. I think she's pretty, too. But I'm biased.

How are you faring now that the snow has hit? I already have 4" at least!

Carrie said...

lol... it was a good try! You needed to add a product called "xanthan gum" to help add the "gumminess" of wheat flour. Rice flour doesn't contain any protein, and of course no gluten, so there isn't anything in the recipe to help "hold" the cookies together, other than the egg. You could probably make these better by adding another egg and 1 teaspoon of xanthan gum (which you should be able to buy at a health foods store).

Most gluten free recipes are also better though if you use more than one type of flour. Usually a combination of gluten free flours will give you a better texture that is more similar to wheat.

For example: you could use half rice flour and half cornstarch and the combination of those two may turn out a better cookie! Hope this helps! If you'd like more gluten free recipes and tips, feel free to visit my website! ;-)

Amanda said...

Carrie, thank you so much for your useful comments. I have avoided experimenting with xanthan gum thus far... I can't say why, exactly, just that it somehow has me intimidated. You make it sound easy, though--just mix up the flour, add another egg and 1 tsp xanthan gum, eh? I wonder if rice flour + teff flour would work... I have those handy!

And sorry for the delayed reply--I've been recovering from a little surgery I had last week.

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