Gluten Free Valentine’s Butter Cookies

• portioner: 30 servings
• aktiv tid: 30 minutes
• total tid: 45 minutes

Ingredienser

200 g (1¾ sticks) unsalted butter, softened

125 g (½ cup + 2 tbsp) caster/superfine or granulated sugar

1 tsp vanilla bean paste (or 2 tsp vanilla extract)

345 g (2¾ cups + 2 tbsp) plain gluten free flour blend

¾ tsp xanthan gum (Omit if your gluten free flour blend already contains xanthan gum.)

½ tsp salt

1¼ tsp beetroot powder (You can also use pink food colouring. Add it slowly to the cookie dough until you reach the desired colour.)

50 g (3½ tbsp) whole milk, room temperature

225 g (8 oz) dark chocolate (60-70% cocoa solids), melted (Ideally, use tempered chocolate. See the Notes section for more details.)

sprinkles of choice

Instruktioner

Making the cookie dough:

Adjust the oven rack to the middle position, pre-heat the oven to 350ºF (180ºC) and line two large baking sheets with parchment/baking paper.

You can prepare the cookie dough either by hand, using a wooden spoon, or using a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment on the lowest speed setting. I don't recommend using a hand mixer, as it tends to incorporate too much air into the cookie dough.

In a large bowl, mix together the softened butter, sugar and vanilla until well combined and smooth. Don't cream or aerate the mixture.Tip: Creaming the butter and sugar together would incorporate too much air into the cookie dough. This can make the cookies expand too much in the oven and lose their shape, as well as make them too crumbly – so it's best avoided (note the absence of any raising agents for the same reason).

In a separate bowl, whisk together the gluten free flour blend, xanthan gum, salt and beetroot powder.

Add half of the dry ingredients to the butter-sugar mixture, followed by the milk and then the remaining half of the dry ingredients, mixing well after each addition. The final cookie dough should be smooth and very soft, so it's easy to pipe.If your cookie dough feels too stiff to easily pipe (this can depend on your gluten free flour blend), you can add a few extra teaspoons of milk to loosen it up until you reach a pipeable consistency.

Piping the heart-shaped cookies:

Transfer the cookie dough into a piping bag fitted with an open star piping tip. Wilton 6B and 8B (and similar piping tips) work great for creating heart-shaped piped cookies.

Pipe heart-shaped cookies. You can either pipe a V-shape, with the two ends of the “V” wider than where they meet in the middle, or an actual heart shape, like you would draw it with a pencil (for this, I recommend using a slightly smaller piping tip, otherwise your cookies can end up too large). See blog post for photos.As you're piping them, space the cookies at least 1 inch (2.5cm) apart, as they will spread slightly during baking.You should get about 30 cookies, but the exact number will depend on how small or big you pipe them.

Bake at 350ºF (180ºC) for about 14-15 minutes or until they’re light golden around the edges. The exact baking time will depend on the size of your cookies, with smaller cookies requiring less time in the oven. (Note that you don't need to chill the cookies in the fridge before baking them.)

Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for about 10 minutes, then transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely.

Decorating the cookies:

Ideally, use tempered chocolate for decorating the cookies. See the Notes section of this recipe for tips on how to easily temper your chocolate.

Dip the cookies into the melted chocolate, gently shaking off any excess. Place the chocolate-dipped cookies onto a lined baking sheet and decorate with sprinkles of choice. Allow the chocolate to set completely before serving the cookies.

Storage:

The gluten free butter cookies keep well in a closed air-tight container in a cool, dry place (or at room temperature) for about 1 week.