Kitchen Wisdom Gluten Free Sardinian Honey Cookies are light pastry like cookies.  A roll out sugar cookie, sweetened only with honey, they have a subtle flavor which balances the gentility of the cookie.  Gluten free baking requires one pay closer attention to how much protein is in the flour mixture and which gluten free flours should be combined.  As many of you know, I have used beans as base for a few previous Kitchen Wisdom Gluten Free dough and dessert recipes.  I have recently been experimenting with legumes and I am excited to present this recipe containing a green lentil base! I pre-cook green lentils and season them with just a bit of honey, once mashed and cooled they are ready to use. Legumes and beans in gluten free sweet baking impart protein and additional moisture, both of which are extremely necessary in successful gluten free baking. This recipe is originally a small gluten rich pastry cookie (biscottini) which incorporates an odd method to ignite and maximize the rising power of leaven.  Baking powder is added directly to the milk, immediately before use in the recipe. Instantly, the milk begins to froth and rise! This oddity is why I chose to transform this recipe to gluten free. 

      I find a major key to successful gluten free roll out cookies is the use of parchment paper.  Using parchment as the base to roll upon and over, as well as using it to line the baking surface; each practice keeps the gluten free rolled form from breaking. I use a simple white icing with a bit of honey to outline the cookie and some melted dark chocolate to create the spiral in the center.  I chose to make triangular shapes, but this honey cookie roll out dough can be used with any cookie cutter shape. 

Yields approximately 2 ½ dozen

1 1/3 cup Sweet White Rice Flour

1/3 cup + 1 tablespoon Potato Starch

½ cup Tapioca Starch

½ cup cooked Green Lentils, mashed & cooled

¾ teaspoon Guar Gum

2 teaspoons Baking Powder

Pinch Salt

2 tablespoons melted Butter

5 tablespoons + ½ teaspoon Honey

2 tablespoons cold cubed Butter

2 Egg Yolks

2 tablespoons Milk (Dairy or Soy)

Parchment Paper

Prepare the ingredients:  Boil 1 ¼ cup of water, add ¼ cup green lentils and cook for 30 minutes on low.  When lentils are cooked and falling apart, spoon in ½ teaspoon of honey, mash and set aside to cool.  Combine the sweet white rice flour, potato starch, tapioca starch guar gum and salt into a bowl and set aside. Beat the egg yolk with a pinch of salt and set aside. Cube cold butter and return to refrigerator for later use. In the top of a double boiler, gently melt 2 tablespoons of butter with 5 tablespoons of honey, stir to completely combine, and leave in double boiler until ready to use.

Place the flour in the bowl of a food processor, pulse a few times to aerate.  Add the lentil mash, pulse to combine. Then add the cubed butter and pulse for a few seconds until the flour has crumbly texture.  Gently pour in the melted honey and butter mixture, and process to combine.  Then add the egg mixture.  Combine the milk in a small bowl and whisk in the baking powder, allow it to sit for a moment.  The milk will instantly begin to froth up, once the action begins, pour it into the batter and process until completely combined into smooth dough.  The dough should be manageable in your hands and not gooey;  if it is too tacky to be handled and rolled, add additional sweet white rice flour, then pulse to combine. (Add a tablespoon at a time, pulsing in between additions to combine, if any additional flour will be needed is dependent upon the moisture level of the lentils and therefore varies.)

Remove the dough and place it in a warm bowl, place wax paper on top and cover with a towel.  Keep the bowl in a warm spot in the kitchen.  Pre-heat the oven to 375 degrees.  Fit a cookie sheet with parchment paper.  Cut two pieces of parchment large enough to accommodate rolling dough into the size which works for your application.

I used a 7.5” picture as my guide (pictured below), I therefore chose to pull 3 inch clump of dough and roll it flat between two pieces of parchment.  Keep the dough which is not being rolled covered and warm.  Before cutting the cookies, gently pull the parchment back one side and place it back on, followed by pulling the other side off and place it back on.  This loosens the dough bonds off the parchment, which will make taking each cookie off the paper quite easy.

I used this picture as my guide and printed it to a full size of 7.5″ x 7.5″

    Cutting the Cookies:  I printed out the hexagonal picture and placed it atop the top parchment.  Outline the picture over the printed page and the parchment with a pizza cutter.  Then remove the paper and cut the triangle shapes over the indentation in the dough.

Mold the extra dough into the next clump and place the cut cookies on the parchment lined cookie sheet evenly spaced apart and bake in the center of the pre-heated oven for 9 minutes.  Remove to wire racks to cool and ice when cookies are completely cooled.

Honey White Cookie Icing:

6 tablespoons gluten free Confectioner’s Sugar

1 teaspoon honey

3 teaspoons Milk (Dairy or Soy)

Combine and whisk all ingredients together in a small bowl.  When the icing has a thickish texture, place in a pastry bag and gently cut the tip about ¼”.  Gently squeeze and pipe the icing around the outline of the cookie.

 
Dark Chocolate Cookie Icing:

3 ounces gluten free Dark Chocolate

1 teaspoon butter

Melt the chocolate and butter in the top of a double boiler.  Spoon the chocolate into a pastry bag and gently cut the tip about ¼”.  Gently squeeze and pipe the chocolate into a spiral in the center of the cookie.

Sardinian Honey Cookies Gluten Free – Forget What You Know About Wheat©2016

Green Lentil Nutritional Information

Related Kitchen Wisdom Gluten Free Articles:

“What is Gluten” 

“Some Basics in Learning to Bake Gluten Free” 

“Cross Contact in Shared Kitchens with Gluten Free and Gluten Rich Ingredients”

“What Does Gluten Free Really Mean?” 

“Condiments – Beware of Hidden Gluten”   

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