We were supposed to rework recipes this month, but nothing I want to work with is actually lending itself to rehabilitation. I was stuck. Then my friends at Treehouse Bakery in Phoenix posted this amazing photo of stacks of sprinkle cookies (see July 28th) and I was obsessed. The bakery is vegan, but I don’t think this recipe was gluten-free, so I started digging. And baking. And running out of sprinkles.* ALL THE SPRINKLES. Which is kind of the whole point of this whole recipe.
I modified this not allergy-safe/friendly recipe to make it gluten-free, dairy-free, and egg-free. To make this easier, I’ve used a commercial baking mix from Bob’s Red Mill (the 1-to-1 rather than their original bean-based recipe, and this one contains xanthan), psyllium as the egg replacer, and Earth Balance margarine.
This results in a thick crispy cookie that is also light and airy. I’m not sure that’s the traditional texture (I’m not sure I ever had a sprinkle cookie?), but I quite liked it. If you make a lot of cookies, I can highly recommend getting a 1 tablespoon serving scooper — it makes the fussy part of making cookies much less finicky. Any restaurant supply store has every possible size serving scoop you could ever want.
- 3/4 cup Earth Balance soy-free margarine
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup confectioners sugar
- 1/4 cup oil
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 2 cups gluten-free flour mix (I used Bob's 1-to-1 Mix, which contains xanthan gum)
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 Tablespoon psyllium husk ground
- rainbow sprinkles check that they are safe for you!
- cup About 1rainbow sprinkles
- Pre-heat oven to 350°F.
- Mix together the margarine and sugars until well-blended. Don't soften the margarine -- it is soft enough!
- Add oil and vanilla and mix well.
- In a separate bowl, mix together the dry ingredients EXCEPT sprinkles. Add to the margarine/sugar mix in two batches, mixing well. You should have a relatively stiff dough, but very malleable.
- In 1 Tablespoon lumps, make round balls and roll in sprinkles. Flatten slightly and space evenly on a cookie sheet lined with parchment or silicone mats.
- Bake at 350F for 25-30 minutes. Cookies *will not* brown. Do not overbake -- they will look slightly dry on top, but still be soft.
*I did not use up all the sprinkles, but dinosaur sprinkles weren’t what I was going for.