santa

So, for Santa this year, I decided to branch out from my usual Place-and-Bake-Sugar-Cookies-With-Holiday-Shapes for Santa and make something different. I figured Santa would probably appreciate a little variation.

After some searching online, I found a nifty looking recipe for a spicy chocolate cookie, which I used as a starting place to creating my own recipe. Since my mother has a self-diagnosed gluten allergy, I tried to keep the cookies gluten-free, but also still delicious. I think I succeeded, but I guess we’ll have to wait and see how much Santa enjoyed them before I make a final judgement.

Ingredients:

• 1 heaping 2/3 cup chocolate, coarsely chopped (I recommend dark chocolate, but if you only have milk chocolate on hand, that will work, too, just cut the sugar down by 1/4).
• 1/2 cup almond flour
• 1/4 cup coconut flour
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon ground red pepper
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup dark brown sugar
• 1/4 cup butter, softened
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• non-stick aluminum foil

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°.
2. Place chocolate in a microwave safe bowl; microwave at HIGH 1 minute or until almost melted, stirring until smooth. Cool to room temperature.
3. Combine almond and coconut flour, cinnamon, baking powder, salt, black pepper and red pepper in a small bowl and whisk together.
4. Combine sugar and butter in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed until well blended (about 3 minutes).
5. Add egg to the sugar mixture and beat well.
6. Add cooled chocolate and vanilla; beat just until blended.
7. Add flour mixture; beat just until blended.
8. Drop dough by level tablespoons 2 inches apart on baking sheets lined with non-stick foil (if you don’t like non-stick foil, you can just spray the bottom of the pan with a non-stick spray).
9. Bake at 350° for 10 minutes or until almost set. Remove from oven. Cool on pans 2 minutes and then transfer to a wire rack to finish cooking.
10. Sprinkle the cookies with cinnamon sugar. I dusted them with a bit of red pepper, just to accentuate the spiciness.

Hoping everyone has a safe and satisfactory Christmas tomorrow! And to my non-Christmas-celebrating-friends, enjoy your regular, non-special Sunday!