Gluten Free Christmas Cookies Part Deux

Merry Christmas! I hope everyone is enjoying the holiday with loved ones and eating lots of the gluten free goodies that have (hopefully) been whipped up. I really loved reading all of the blog posts inspired by the holidays these past several weeks. From ornaments to cookies, that little glimpse into your family holiday traditions has been sweet.

Speaking of sweet, I was baking my little heart out yesterday trying to crank out some gluten free Christmas cookies. This year the holiday season was incredibly busy and while I made cookies, they were all for work events and none for my family and me! I couldn't let this year be the year without homemade cookies on Christmas!

Instead of our traditional cut-out cookies (I did make several batches sans photos), I decided to adventure out a bit. I know, I know...I said I was going to make all of the cookies in my mom's holiday favorites book, but that just didn't happen. Here's what DID happen:

I love that little miss Recipegirl.com. She had a totally mouthwatering cookie that popped up in one of my random browsing excursions one day, Red Velvet Shortbread Cookies. I know, right? Aren't they gorgeous?! I had to have them. And obviously I had to have them gluten free. No problem. I got this....

With the help of Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free Shortbread Cookie Mix, some cocoa powder, and a little red food coloring, I made it happen. I married the recipe from the back of the cookie mix bag with Recipe Girl's and it turned out marvelous. Mind you, following two recipes at once can be a little confusing and I forgot to add the food coloring while I was doing the melted butter and egg yolk bit. Whoops. I added it at the end when the mix was at the crumbly part, so my cookies turned out pink instead of the beautiful deep red. I chose to use semi-sweet chocolate to dip them in, instead of white chocolate. Whaddya think?

Obviously I needed choices, so I couldn't stop at just one cookie. A couple weekends ago, I went to a holiday festival in my neighborhood and bought some Holiday Jam at one of the stores. Orange liqueur, pears, cranberries, and raspberries went into this little jar of gourmet goodness. I thought a good old school kolacky would be delightful! I remember eating them at my grandma's when I was younger. Why not recreate those cozy memories?

I found a recipe in an old church ladies group cookbook. I substituted in Jules Gluten Free flour. It was ridiculously easy, and the kolackys (kolackies?) turned out ridiculously delicious. Light and buttery. (I seriously ate about 7 of them for breakfast this morning! Diet starts tomorrow, right?)

"Must Eat" Gluten Free Kolacky Recipe

Ingredients

• 6 oz Cream Cheese
• 2 sticks of buttah or margarine (I used margarine to bring that 1960s grandma vibe back)
• 2 cups all purpose gluten free flour (I used Jules, but pick your favorite!)
• jam, jelly, nutella, nuts (however you like your kolacky)
• powdered sugar

Directions

• Cream the butter and cream cheese together in a large bowl.
• Add flour and mix well.
• Refrigerate for a bit (about an hour or two).
• Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
• On floured (gf of course or cornstarch) wax paper, roll out dough (I put a sheet of wax paper on top too, much easier this way)
• Use a round cookie cutter and cut out thin circles of dough.
• Plop 'em on a foil lined (or parchment paper lined) cookie sheets.
• Spread a layer of filling in the center of dough and roll the corners in to make them like a bow-tie. (Make sure you smoosh them together well or they will "unroll" in the oven like 99% of mine did.)
  
• Bake for 15 minutes.
• Once cool, sprinkle with powdered sugar.
• Enjoy!