Sunday, December 23, 2012

Cookies and Cousins

Today we celebrated Christmas with Matt's siblings and all their kids. Gabriella was very excited to see all her "friends and cousins"!

On Saturday evening I baked two batches of cookies, shortbread cookies and gingerbread. The shortbread cookies were from a mix (Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free Shortbread Cookie Mix). They were TERRIBLE! They held up good but tasted horrible. This is the third time I have made them and I have yet to get them to turn out good. I will never buy them again!
The gingerbread ones however, were amazing!! I used the recipe that my friend Danielle made. You can get it here at Passions Collide. They are gluten free and egg free.

This morning we woke up and it was snowing again! Woo hoo!! Gabriella picked out some snow clothes (one of her gloves was an oven mitt because she couldn't find the other one) and headed out to the back deck. Such a cutie pie!!

I whipped up a batch of sugar cookies and soon it was time to party!
We exchanged family gifts (so much fun!!) and then tried to snag a picture of all the kiddos together. 

Blaizen looks like he is trying to give Joshua a kiss....

And a silly picture!!

Time for cookie decorating!! The kids all went around the island in our kitchen and had a blast with frosting, sprinkles and all kinds of decorations. 

More decorating. 

Gabriella giving her "little dude" a kiss
(she kept calling the gingerbread men "little dudes")

Some of Gabriella's cookies. She had a lot of fun helping me put frosting on and then putting all the candy and sprinkles on by herself. 

Lily decorating her gingerbread man

Jessie getting in on the fun!

It was a fun day. So nice to get all the family together and watch the kids enjoying each other. They get along pretty good for the most part. And it only took me 30 minutes to clean up my kitchen after all the frosting and sprinkles! Below is my Gluten Free and Dairy Free sugar cookie recipe. Feel free to use and re-post, but please reference this blog. 

Sugar Cookie Recipe:
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 cup Earth Balance vegan butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 large egg
2 1/2 cups rice flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 teaspoon xanthan gum

In a large bowl beat powdered sugar, Earth Balance, vanilla and egg with electric mixer on medium until well blended. Stir in the remaining dry ingredients. Cover tightly (I used saran wrap) and refrigerate at least two hours. 

Heat oven to 375 degrees F. Spray a cookie sheet with cooking spray (I used Olive Oil). 

Divide dough in half. Roll one half out to 1/4 inch thick on parchment paper. (place a sheet of saran wrap over top of dough before rolling out to prevent it from sticking to the rolling pin) Use cookie cutters to cut into desired shapes. Gather scraps into a ball, roll and cut again. Repeat with remaining scraps and second half of dough.  Place cookies on greased cookie sheet. 

Bake for 7-9 minutes or until edges are just turning golden brown. Remove from oven and transfer to a wire cooling rack. 

*my double batch made two cookie sheets worth of cookies. 



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