Cooking with Chef Jo: Nut/Gluten/Sugar Free Mexican Wedding Cookies

I've been testing out some nutless recipes this week gearing up for Christmas baking. I now have a grandson who is allergic to peanuts so just to be proactive, my daughter has banned all nuts in the house. When a three-year old kid starts wheezing, you don't play around. Poor kid!Besides, Mel doesn't like nuts in her food. She loves nuts, but not mixed with anything else. I thought while I'm at it, I'll make them gluten-free as well. I have a few friends on a gluten free diet as well. Since diabetes run in my family, I'll just tick ALL the boxes and make them sugar-free as well. I can't help it. I just love playing with food and recipes.

My old cardiologist's radiology tech loves my Mexican Wedding cookies.  They're made with ground pecans and loaded with all the good bad stuff though.

The ingredients for Mexican wedding cookies are pretty simple, but they are all so good. This may sound like I've taken all the good tasting stuff out of it and basically I have, but there's one thing I don't scrimp on and that's my butter and eggs. I won't substitute 'em no matter how high my cholesterol is. Besides,current studies have shown that there is bad and cholesterol in eggs so it balances out. The butter is a taste thing with me, especially in cookies. When cooking with vegetable shortening or the fake shortening on the market, cookies come out crisp and without the added flavor that butter gives. There's something so satisfying about having you teeth sink into a cookie made with real butter.

For the gluten-free flour, I mix up a five-pound batch at a time. Otherwise I'd be making this mixture multiple times during a baking session like Christmas baking season. I've tried several recipes for gluten-free flour, nut this one wins for baking and mouth feel. I don't remember where I found it, but I'll share it with you anyhow. Prep work in advance is the key to converting recipes to specialty diet requirements so I prepare everything in advance. I also set my scale to grams.

Gluten-Free Flour (GF flour)

600 g sorghum flour
600 g millet flour
700 g potato starch
700 g rice flour

Mix well and store in air tight container.

Splenda Confectioner's Sugar (SF Sugar)

3/4 c Splenda
2 TBS Corn starch, I use Rumford Non-GMO corn starch

Place in a blender. Whiz on high until Splenda is a fine powder. Sift it to make sure everything is finrly grounf.Store in an air tight container.

Now that the prep work is out of the way, it's on to the recipe.

Jo's NF-GF-SF Mexican Wedding Cookies
Makes 4 dozen cookies

What you'll need

1 cup butter, softened
1 cup Splenda*
2 1/2 c GF flour, plus 1/4 c reserved*
2 tsp vanilla


* Notes- You can use any GF flour mixture. You don't have to use mine.
I use Splenda, but you can use any sugar substitute  except for liquid for this recipe.

 Putting it all together

• Cream butter, Splenda, vanilla, and egg together until well mixed. The mixture will not feel grainy when rubbed between index finger and thumb.
• Sift in the flour. Mix until all the flour is incorporated.
• The dough will be sticky and soft, but hold together. 
• Sprinkle surface with 1/4 cup of flour and dump dough onto it.
• Form a ball using all the flour. The dough will be soft and less sticky.
• Wrap dough in cling wrap and refrigerate for thirty minutes to 1 hour.preheat oven to 325 degrees and cut parchment paper to line baking sheets
• Make 1 TBS balls with the dough and place onto a parchment lined baking sheet.
• The cookies will spread slightly, but will not rise. Bake 15-20 minutes. The cookies will be a light tan color, but not browned.
• Immediately, while hot, roll the cookies in Splenda confectioner's sugar to coat well. Place on a rack to cool.
• Store in air tight container.

For service- place cookies on a tray.
For gift giving- place cookies in pint or quart jar. Wrap jar with a ribbon and add a tag.

Y'all have a blessed day!

Jo