Sugar Cookies with icing

Did you ever wish you could roll out some delicious gluten free cookie dough, use cookie cutters, and have the cookies hold their shape? Now you can.

Preheat Oven to 350º

SUGAR COOKIES 
1 1/4 cups Arnel's Originals All Purpose Flour Blend
1/2 cup tapioca starch
1/2 cup potato starch
1 teaspoon xanthan gum
1 teaspoon sea salt
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1 cup Spectrum Naturals organic shortening, coconut oil, unsalted butter or Earth Balance Margarine and decrease sea salt to 1/2 teaspoon
1 cup sugar
1 egg 
1 tea. vanilla extract
1 tea. lemon or cinnamon extract

Combine 1st five ingredients and set aside.
In a mixer, mix sugar and shortening, and then add egg and extracts.
Add dry ingredients until dough forms and refrigerate for 30 min.
Roll half the dough at a time between waxed paper 1/4 inch thick. 
Cut into shapes and place on parchment paper or greased cookie sheets.

Bake for 15 min. until slightly brown. Cool before handling or icing.

ICING

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar (I blend sugar and tapioca starch to make my own)
1 large egg white

1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon lemon extract
Natural food coloring, if you'd like

Beat sugar and egg white. Add lemon juice and extract. Separate into separate bowls and add natural food coloring.

OR, easy easy easy ICING
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon milk
tiny bit of food coloring if desired

Baking Without Eggs

As we all know, cooking and baking without standard ingredients can be a challenge. Although there is no connection between a gluten allergy and an egg allergy, I will sometimes get asked what can be substituted for eggs. I came across four different things one can try when baking without eggs. Here they are:

1) 3 tablespoons of applesauce + 1 teaspoon of baking powder

2) FLAX GEL - 1 tablespoon of flax meal + 3 tablespoons of hot water. Let it stand for 10 min. and use without straining

3) Use EnerG egg replacer according to directions

4) 4 tablespoons of pureed tofu + 1 teaspoon baking powder

5) When your recipes includes baking soda and/or baking powder, one Tablespoon of apple-cider-vinegar per egg does wonders to give it a lift, just like an egg. There is an airy chemical reaction between the acid (apple cider vinegar) and the base (baking soda). Add the flax gel too, to hold it all together. Our Make - a Cake Mix is ideal to use with this method.

6) Bean water, aqua-faba, (the thick liquid that cooked beans win in) does wonders as an egg substitute for certain type of baked goods, like our Buckwheat Bread Mix. It didn't work well with our cake mix.

Did you know that baking powder contains corn starch? You can make your own "corn starch free" baking powder by starting with baking soda and adding a small amount of Cream of Tartar?