A while back I came across a recipe for gluten free cookies that used only five ingredients: hazelnuts, sugar, egg whites, salt and vanilla. The pictures looked beautiful but the simplicity and complete lack of wheat or wheat substitutes was what really won me over. I love hazelnuts but I didn’t have any handy. What I did have was a big bag of roasted unsalted macadamia nuts burning a hole in my pantry. Macadamia nuts are so oily, they tend to go bad rather quickly. With salted roasted  mac nuts, this is no problem for me as I will generally eat the entire package before it makes it’s way into the pantry but I bought some unsalted nuts to make macadamia crusted halibut (oh. my. yummy.) and I hadn’t found a good use for the leftover nuts. Enter this recipe.

It’s super, super simple, as Sandra Lee would say and it’s also buttery, rich and deeeeelicious. They look like they’d be crunchy but mine were chewy and moist, that might be due to the high fat content of the nuts I used. I barely got these cookies on a plate, we scarfed them so fast! I did add an ingredient bringing the grand total of ingredients to six but you can leave out the white chocolate if you’re a minimalist like that. Feel free to try this recipe out with the nut of your choice! Go nuts! (HA HA! I crack me up.) I plan on making the original recipe with the hazelnuts then making little sandwiches using Nutella as filling. Yum.

Adapted from: Purplefoodie.com

Ingredients:
- 1 1/4 cup macadamia nuts, lightly toasted, unsalted (reserve 1/4 cup to sprinkle on top of the cookies before baking)
- ½ cup sugar
- 2 large egg whites
- a pinch of salt
- ½ tsp vanilla extract
- shaved white chocolate for topping

Directions:

Preheat to 325 F. Line two baking sheets with Silpats or parchment.

Pulse nuts and sugar together in a food processor until finely ground.

Beat egg whites and salt in another large bowl with an electric mixer on medium-high speed until stiff peaks form.

Using a silicone spatula, fold the egg whites into the nut mixture. Add vanilla and stir gently until thoroughly combined.

Pour the batter to a plastic zipper bag and snip off the tip. Pipe the batter on the Silpat into one inch rounds, maintaining a finger’s distance between cookies.

Tap the baking sheet a few times on the counter to spread the batter and get rid of air bubbles.

Sprinkle the top of each cookie with the chopped nuts and white chocolate

Bake until golden brown, 7-12 minutes. Keep an eye on it; it goes from golden brown to brown very quickly.

Let cool on the baking sheets for 5 minutes. Gently transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.

I’m a blabbermouth. In school, without fail, my report cards came home with notes from teachers about how I was very bright but talkative to the point of being disruptive. My parents were mostly concerned with my grades and since those were always top notch, they never felt much need to squelch my social nature. I still talk. A lot. About everything. I have strong opinions and when I find something I like or something I dislike, people are going to hear about it.
I found something I like. I like it a lot. I think I might even LOVE it.

I found Glow Gluten Free cookies. They are not bland, or sandy or dry or earthy, or stick-in-your-teethy or off in any way whatsoever. I have tried a lot of gluten free cookies and I have not reviewed them here because one thing my parents did attempt to impart to me through my years of disruptive babbling was that if you don’t have anything nice to say, you shouldn’t say anything at all. So there. Even the very best gluten-free cookies were still good GLUTEN-FREE cookies. These are just good cookies. I would even venture so far as to say these are some of the best packaged cookies I have EVER had. I have to hide them from my non-G-Free Sous Chef and he is a cookie aficionado.

Glow cookies come in four flavors: Snickerdoodle, Chocolate Chip, Double Chocolate Chip and Gingersnap. I have never been a fan of gingersnap cookies but I love Glow cookies so much that I was determined to eat every last morsel of every flavor. I decided that I needed something creamy and flavorful to balance out the spiciness of the ginger. I came up with the idea of making ice cream sandwiches using the gingersnaps and homemade mango curry ice cream. The result was catastrophically delicious. I must urge ALL of you out there to not only GET THEE TO LOCALI (or go online) AND BUY SOME GLOW COOKIES but also to MAKE THIS RECIPE ASAP!

Mango Curry Ice Cream Sandwiches

- 6 egg yolks
- 2 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream
- 1/2 cup sugar
- juice of one small lemon
- 2 tsp sweet yellow curry powder
- 2 1/2 cups mango puree (I used 10 very ripe Ataulfo Mexican mangoes)

Peel the mangoes then cut them into chunks and puree in blender or food processor until smooth.

Strain through mesh strainer if puree is lumpy or stringy. Set puree aside.

In a mixing bowl, cream together the yolks and sugar until smooth.

Heat the cream in a saucepan to just below boiling.

Temper the eggs by whisking a cup of the hot cream VERY slowly into the egg mixture. Once you’ve brought them up to temperature, add the tempered eggs to the cream mixture.

Gently heat the mixture over medium heat, stirring often. The mixture will begin to thicken. Continue heating until the mixture coats the back of a wooden spoon.

Remove from heat immediately and whisk the mixture for a minute to stop the custard from cooking. Whisk in the curry powder. Strain liquid through a fine mesh strainer into a metal bowl set over an ice bath.

Stir in the mango puree.

Place the liquid, still in the ice bath into the refrigerator. When it’s completely cold, pour it into ice cream maker and follow the manufacturers instructions.

When the ice cream is ready, scoop into a plastic container and freeze for at least a few hours to harden.

Scoop one large scoop of ice cream onto a gingersnap and place another gingersnap on top. Smoosh slightly then place in a zipper freezer bag and freeze overnight (this softens the cookie just slightly and keeps the sandwich together better when you eat it.) Enjoy with a glass of ice cold milk, soy milk or almond milk. Cry from happiness.

Gluten free cookies can be tricky. In general, gluten free baking is a horse of a different color; it takes some major adjustments and a whole lot of trial and error. Even if you follow the recipe to a T, you still don’t always end up with something that tastes good and you rarely come out with something that a person who CAN eat gluten would enjoy. This recipe is different.

When I first cut out gluten, my mom sent me a link to a King Arthur Flour recipe that she had tried and loved and that happened to be gluten free (ironic, right?) I tried it and loved it too but it was really rich and I felt like it was missing something. I made the cookies again and this time I made an oreo style filling and turned them into sandwich cookies. They were SOOOO good but still a tad rich so for round three I whipped up a marshmallowy filling more like what’s in a whoopie pie that was a little less sugary sweet. To. Die. For.

These cookies give you options. You can make the fudgy, chewy cookies and eat them on their own, or try one of my two filling options. You can add flavors like mint or peanut butter to the filling for totally different tastes. This recipe is practically foolproof and you don’t need to go out and buy a mess of gluten free flours like you do for most g free baking. Try these and let me know what you think!

COOKIES
- 2 1/4 cup powdered sugar
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 tsp espresso powder
- 1 cup cocoa powder (Dutch Process preferred)
- 3 lg. egg whites
- 2 tsp vanilla
   
Filling – WHOOPIE STYLE
- 1 cup butter, softened
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 1 jar (7 oz) marshmallow fluff
- 2 tsp vanilla extract or  1/2 vanilla bean

Filling – OREO STYLE
- 1/2 stick of butter, softened
- 1/4 cup shortening
- 1 1/2 cups confectioners sugar
- 2 tsp vanilla OR 1/2 vanilla bean

Pre-heat oven to 350 F.
Mix all cookie ingredients with a hand mixer (or a sexy pink Kitchenaid if you are lucky enough to have a sous chef who knows how to buy the perfect b-day present.)

Dollop in 1 tsp drops onto parchment lined cookie sheets.

Cook about 8 minutes until cookies spread and cracks start to form on top.
Let cookies cool. THIS IS IMPORTANT, if you try to take them off before they cool, they will break.

For filling, mix all ingredients with hand mixer. Put into a piping bag, if desired.

Flip one cookie upside down, pipe or spoon filling onto cookie and top with another cookie.
YUMMY