Baking with gluten-free flour is no different to using ordinary flour when it comes to making cookies. Gluten is the protein in flour that provides stretch and elasticity, crucial for making bread but for crisp cookies that don’t need to rise it’s not a problem. Gluten-free flour is available from most major supermarkets (Doves Farm is a brand to look out for) and health food shops. Most baking powder is gluten-free but check the label to make sure. Small pieces of fudge are a delicious addition to these cookies, reduce the chopped pecans to 50g and add 50g finely chopped fudge. These biscuits will keep for several days in an airtight container.
Ingredients
- 100g butter, softened
- 75g light muscovado sugar
- 1 egg
- 1tsp vanilla extract
- 200g gluten-free flour
- 1tsp gluten-free baking powder
- Pinch of salt
- 75g pecan nuts, finely chopped plus 16 pecan halves
Method
Preheat the oven to 190C/375F/Fan 170C/Gas Mark 5 and line 2 baking sheets with baking paper. Using an electric mixer or wooden spoon, beat the butter and sugar together until soft and creamy.
Beat in the egg and vanilla extract. Sift in the flour, baking powder and salt. Add the chopped pecans and mix to form a firm dough.
Roll the dough into 16 even-sized balls and place on the baking sheets allowing space between each one for them to spread. Flatten slightly with the back of a fork and place a pecan half on the top of each one. Bake for 15 mins until golden.
Leave on the baking sheets for 5 mins before transferring to a wire rack to cool. As they cool the cookies will become firm and crisp. Store in an airtight container.
Top tip for making Gluten-free pecan cookies
Gluten-free flour sometimes absorbs more liquid than ordinary flour, so if the mixture is too crumbly to form a dough add a little milk or water and mix until the dough comes together in a ball.
