Grandma Walker's Gingerbread, Gluten Free

Grandma Walker was my aunt's husband's grandmother (or possibly great-grandmother).  My aunt started bringing this recipe to family Christmas gatherings.  I loved the recipe because it was very tolerant of re-rolling....and the gluten-free version is even more so.

After I made a second batch, I reduced the quantity of flour by 2 oz.  The cookies are a little moister and softer that way.

1 c. sugar

1 c. molasses

1 c. shortening

2 eggs

1 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp ground nutmeg

1/2 tsp ground allspice

1/4 tsp ground cloves

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp lemon extract

2/3 c. boiling water

1 tsp baking soda

16 oz teff flour

20 oz Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free 1-to-1 Flour

Cinnamon gems

Parchment paper for rolling & baking

Beat together the shortening, molasses, and sugar.  Scrape down the bowl and add the spices, extract, salt, and eggs, scraping down the bowl as needed to get everything uniformly combined.

Measure the water into a microwave safe measuring cup or bowl, and heat in the microwave until boiling.  Holding the hot water over the mixing bowl, stir the baking soda into the water and pour the foaming mixture into the bowl.  Beat in the water.  The batter will appear curdled, but that's OK.  The shortening melts, and cools into little particles, making for very tender cookies.

Mix in the flours until you have a uniform dough, which will be slightly sticky.

Divide the dough into quarters.  

Roll each piece of dough between two sheets of baking parchment to the desired thickness.  (The dough will puff with baking, so the final cookies will be thicker than the dough.)  The sheets are soft and floppy, so it works best to use the parchment to slide the first one off the counter onto a pizza pan or cookie sheet, and then stack the remaining sheets on top.  Refrigerate the dough for 4-24 hours, wrapped in plastic if you need to protect it from odors in your refrigerator.

Preheat the oven to 350F.

Remove the first sheet from the refrigerator.  Peel off the top sheet of parchment, and place it on a cookie sheet, sticky side up.  Using metal or plastic cookie cutters, cut out your shapes.  Peel away the extra dough and set it aside.  Transfer the shapes to the parchment paper lined cookie sheet, leaving at least 1/2 an inch between cookies, so they don't rise into each other.

Press cinnamon gems into the cookies if desired.

Bake each full sheet at 350 F for 6-10 minutes until puffed, dry on top and lightly browned on the bottom.  (Thinner dough, convection setting -- 6 minutes.  Really thick cookies without convection might take 10 or 12 minutes.)  Cool the cookies on the pan.  Cooled cookies can be stacked on a cookie sheet until you're ready to frost.

Decorate with glaze or frosting as desired.  I like the tub version of cream cheese frosting for this, because it will dry to a crisp surface (allowing the cookies to be stacked with layers of waxed paper between them), and can be stored in a sealed container at room temperature (so the cookies don't get soggy from condensation).  You can use any form of icing or glaze that you like.