9 Days to Valentines day---- Let's get baking!

I've never been "lucky" when it comes to Valentine's Day, but my hopeless romantic side gets the best of me and I tend to over do this day. I've been blown off for a date, dumped and spent the next year with pink eye while my boyfriend and best friend were at a frat party... So not the best track record for Valentine's Days, and then I find out my beloved Brach's conversation Heart candy is no longer GF because it's made on shared equipment. UGH!!! Godiva has gluten in their candy, same with Lindt, and Twizzlers.. So I guess I have to bake my honey some goodies for Valentine's Day, and heck, it's snowing like crazy out AGAIN, so I might as well keep warm and busy inside and this guy is worth it!! 

So I made two types of cookies, it should have been 3, but for the life of me, I can't make meringue cookies!!

First was a mix from Gluten Free Cafe. Now these came close to looking like the box, they at least flattened out some when baking, though they look more like oatmeal cookies, than chocolate chip, (I swear they aren't oatmeal). I added some pink sprinkles to make them Valentine's like. They were good, not gritty, not sandy, nice texture, the box only made 2 dozen cookies, but there was enough for everyone to taste test, and approve with extra for the cookie plate. We'll be buying this mix again. They also didn't have a funny smell while mixing the ingredients. The Bob's Red Mill ones have a funny smell when mixing the ingredients, I'm thinking from the garbanzo bean flour. 

Though handling they were a very sticky dough, even with some time in the freezer (Covered in plastic out on our porch).

Second was a recipe I adapted from a website my co-worker found, and thought was a fun thing to try. This one took a little more intuition and thought, because the original recipe was not gluten free. Originally from The Baking Robot, I thought it thru and decided Bob's Red Mill flour did a great job making other cookies, and I do have Xantham Gum so I was able to make it work.

This one was fun to make once I got over the gummy bear genocide going on in my kitchen!! You can sub the gummy bears for jelly if you would like. They loosely remind me of Kolaczki cookies from my pre-gf days.They turned out VERY crumbly. I'm not sure if more xantham gum would have made them more solid... But none the less, tasty! 

Ingredients: 

1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup light brown sugar, packed
2 egg yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon xantham gum (if your mix doesn't have it already)
1/4 teaspoon salt
3-4 dozen gummy bears, (I used Haribo brand)

Directions:

1. In a large bowl, cream together softened butter and brown sugar. Add egg yolks, one at a time and stir in vanilla extract. Mix in flour, xantham gum and salt, stir until well combined. Set the bowl in the freezer (or in our case since it's 26 degrees outside... On the porch) for 30 minutes to make the dough firms up so it's easier to work with.
2. While the cookie dough is in the freezer, preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line a cookie sheet with an eco-mat or aluminum foil. 
3. Scoop soup spoon sized balls and roll into an egg shaped. Arrange cookies 1-1/2 inches apart on the cookie sheet. Using your index finger, press a deep hole in the middle of the cookie.
4. Bake cookies for 8 minutes, or until the cookies look almost done. 
5. Place a single gummy bear in each cookie where you made the hole. 
6. Return cookie sheet back to oven and bake 2 more minutes or until the bottoms are golden brown.
7. Let cookies cool on the cookie sheet for a few minutes, and then Enjoy!

I did want to have a 3rd cookie in the mix, but we'll have to see what the rest of the week brings, if I have time to make a 3rd one!