Cinnamon-Sugar Gluten-Free Cookies

For my first intentional foray into the world of gluten-free baking I decided to start off with this simple cookie recipe! I guess it would be a gluten-free version of Snickerdoodles. I didn't want to go too crazy and start off with a bunch of fancy (and expensive) ingredients that lots of gluten-free recipes have, so this recipe is pretty accessible! The only non-traditional ingredient in it is coconut flour in the place of regular flour, which you should be able to find in specialty food stores, the gluten-free and/or natural baking section of your grocery store (if it has one), health food stores, Bulk Barn, and oddly enough at Winners (where I got mine). Coconut flour is just the dried, finely ground pulp of coconuts and it only gives a minor coconut flavour to baked goods - nothing too overpowering. These cookies actually turned out to be pretty delicious! They had a slightly different texture than cookies made with regular flour - more dense and cake-like rather than chewy or crispy - but it wasn't bad at all! I found them to be better the day after I baked them rather than fresh out of the oven, so if you can wait to enjoy them then I would recommend doing so. The cinnamon-sugar flavour is great, but this recipe could also be used as a base for gluten-free chocolate chip cookies if you wanted to add some into the dough.

Ingredients:

4 eggs, gently whisked

3/4 cup plus 2 Tbsp. white sugar, divided use

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1/4 tsp. salt

1/2 cup butter, melted and cooled to room temp.

3/4 cup coconut flour

2 tsp. ground cinnamon

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F and line two cookie sheets with parchment paper. 

In a large bowl, combine the eggs, all but 1 Tbsp. of the sugar, vanilla, salt, and butter. Add in the coconut flour and mix well. Cover and allow the dough to rest for 5 minutes to allow it to thicken. Do not skip this step!

In a small, shallow bowl or plate, combine the cinnamon with the 1 Tbsp. reserved sugar. Form the dough into 1-1/2" balls and roll in the cinnamon-sugar mixture, coating the outside evenly. The dough will be a lot stickier than normal cookie dough so don't be worried and just moisten your hands with water to make rolling easier.

Place the balls of cookie dough onto the prepared baking sheets about 1" apart, and gently flatten the balls with the heel of your hand to a diameter of about 2". This is important because the cookies will not flatten on their own during baking. Bake for 15 minutes, then remove from the oven and allow the cookies to cook on the cookie sheets for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack. Store in an airtight container.

*Recipe adapted from Bulk Barn