Soft Sugar Cookies

     I was definitely on a mission when I went into the kitchen to make these basic sugar cookies last week. After eleven batches I was beginning to feel more like a mad scientist. It all began when my daughter was looking at the upcoming holidays and trying to evaluate what her and her kids new 'safe treats' would be. Over the last eight years we have successfully navigated the food allergies, the gluten free baking and now once again we will successfully adapt recipes to meet their need for eating low histamine foods. As always, the beginning period for making any diet adjustments is time consuming and requires diligence to read labels or rework recipes. My daughter went on a search to find safe Halloween candies or treats last week. The options were very few and quickly she realized she was going to have to make something in order to keep her boys safe this Halloween. As a working mom she doesn't have a lot of extra hours to spend on recipe revamping or making a lot of things from scratch. Since I have time, I was up for the task of creating a basic sugar cookie recipe for them. Her only request was for a puffy soft sugar cookie. In addition, I wanted to make sure it was a simple recipe to make with few ingredients.

     Every time I take on a baking recipe, I have to really think about what the purpose of each ingredient is doing in the recipe. My mission with this recipe was to omit eggs, dairy, and baking powder. Since wheat is not an issue for them, I decided to start with using an unbleached all purpose wheat flour. Think I'll save the gluten free version for another time. After achieving the desired soft cookie I was nagged by the fact that I had a cookie that was made of low histamine ingredients but wanted to see if I could push the ingredients a bit healthier. So I experimented with adjusting the type of sugar and flour used. I chose coconut flour to increase fiber and coconut sugar because it is a low glycemic sugar. Coconut flour adds a nice fluffy texture to baked items but requires a lot more liquid. I went by the general guide of adding an equal amount of liquid as flour used. I also only substituted about 1/4 of the all purpose flour with coconut flour. That is a safe guide when not baking with eggs. Baking soda and Cream of Tartar (or an acid) are a good substitute for baking powder. For the egg I used a product called EnerG Egg Replacer and for butter I used melted coconut oil. I generally prefer using a flaxseed egg replacer but my grandson has histamine reactions to flaxseed. If you don't care that there are specks in your cookies then 1 T. ground flaxseed mixed with 3 T. warm water (let sit for 5 minutes to gel) would also work as an egg substitute. Why did it take eleven batches to make the perfect soft sugar cookie? I'm sure my husband would agree that I became a bit obsessed in the kitchen trying to find the perfect ratio of ingredients to get a fluffy soft sugar cookie with a consistent baking result. I had to figure out what the right measurements where for each ingredient. For example, several batches had a weird taste that I eventually realized was the baking soda. After reducing the amount of baking soda and cream of tartar I had resolved the weird taste problem. I did try using applesauce as an oil replacer but that really resulted in a "way too healthy" tasting cookie. Another element I find necessary is to weigh my flour. This allows for a recipe that will consistently produce the same baked item. Ever wonder why packaged cake mixes always turn out the same? Everything has been carefully measured.

     In the end, I was satisfied with these two versions of a sugar cookie. One recipe, reworked with two different results. Both doughs work as a soft dropped cookie or could be rolled out to use with cookie cutters. The significant difference is in taste and color. The one using white flour and white sugar tastes and looks like what you would expect in a traditional sugar cookie. The one using coconut flour and coconut sugar has a very pleasant slight caramel taste and golden brown color.

   So which one will you try first? Happy Baking!!

Soft Sugar Cookie

Makes 22-24 cookies

Vegan, dairy-egg-soy free, low histamine

printable recipe

Ingredient #1 option: (this makes a traditional soft sugar cookie)

1 ½ c. + 2 T. unbleached all purpose flour (Gold Medal = 195 g.)

¼ t. salt

¼ t. baking soda

½ t. cream of tartar

¾ cup organic granulated sugar

¼ cup melted coconut oil (see oil note below for other options)

3 T. non dairy milk

1 EnerG egg replacer

½ t. vanilla powder (or 1 t. liquid vanilla)

Ingredient #2 option: (this makes a nice sugar cookie with a mild caramel flavor)

1 ¼ cup unbleached all purpose flour (Gold Medal = 150 g.)

¼ cup organic coconut flour (Bob’s Red Mill = 28 g.)

¼ t. salt

¼ t. baking soda

½ t. cream of tartar (or replace baking soda & cream of tartar with ¾ t. baking powder)

¼ c. organic granulated sugar and ½ cup granulated coconut sugar

6 T. melted coconut oil (1/4 c. plus 2 T.) (see oil note below for other options)

¼ c. non-dairy milk

1- EnerG egg replacer

½ t. vanilla powder (or 1 t. liquid vanilla)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

1. In a medium bowl, sift together flour, salt, baking soda and cream of tartar. Set aside.

2. In a small bowl, whisk 1 ½ t. of EnerG egg replacer with 2 T. warm water. Set aside.

3. In a large bowl, add the sugar, oil, non-dairy milk, prepared EnerG egg replacer and vanilla powder. Whisk wet ingredients together and combine well.  Working in 3 batches, fold in the flour with a spatula just until combined.

4. Scoop level tablespoons onto a baking sheet about 2 inches apart. Roll each cookie gently in hands to form a ball then use fingers or the bottom of a glass to lightly flatten. If desired, sprinkle organic granulated sugar on tops. Bake for 9 - 10 minutes. Allow to cool in pan for 1 minute, then transfer to a cooling rack.

     Here are some photo's showing the mixing steps and how each dough will look. The photo's on the left uses ingredient #1 option and the photo's on the right use ingredient #2 option.

Since no butter or eggs are used, the sugar and wet ingredients 

can be whisked or stirred together. You can see here how the 

sugar used will effect the color of the cookie.

Fold in the flour mix in three small batches. Here you can

really see the different liquid amounts in each ingredient option. 

The dough on the left will be crumbly. Use your hands to 

gently press it together into a ball. The dough on the right will

be wetter but not to sticky. If you are making a rolled cookie place 

the coconut flour dough in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes. It should be firm 

enough to roll on a lightly floured surface. You don't want to add too

much flour since the coconut flour continues to absorb liquid, 

especially during the baking time. 

 For both doughs, spoon level tablespoons onto the baking

sheet, then lightly roll into balls. Use the bottom of a glass to press

them down a little. After I pressed the cookies down I sprinkled 

the tops with natural cane sugar. I like the larger sugar crystals 

for decorating but find this sugar not as satisfactory for baking with. 

The final resulting cookies. Store these cookies in a sealed container or 

place in Ziplock bags for freezing. They will actually get softer 

after sitting in the container for even an hour and they will thaw

pretty quick when set on the counter at room temperature.

Notes:

1. Coconut oil, grapeseed oil and olive oil (for baking use extra virgin) are low histamine oils. I used coconut oil melted (mine is liquid at room temperature). 

2. If you are not weighing the flour then stir flour with a fork and lightly scoop it to measure. I gave the weight measurement for the brands that I used.

3. Vanilla, vanilla bean or vanilla powder is a histamine food which may or may not affect some people. Artificial vanilla is said to be okay. I certainly am not in favor of using artificial vanilla so opted to try vanilla powder. Vanilla powder is simply ground vanilla bean. This was my first recipe using it and I think it worked very well. If you do not like the liquid vanilla with alcohol then this is a nice alternative. Make sure to read the label ingredients to see that you aren’t getting any other ingredient mixed in.

4. Below, the photo on the right, is one batch I made that resulted in a great cookie but wasn't the exact one my daughter was desiring. This recipe used a little more oil and sugar which gave a nice spread. I just dropped level tablespoons onto the baking sheet, no additional rolling or flattening was needed. Now I am going back through my notes trying to find what those measurements where because I like this cookie! Since they weren't exactly what my daughter had in mind I continued to rework the recipe a few more times until I got that perfect puffy, soft sugar cookie.

Cookies on right have more spread, are soft, chewy and get a crispier exterior when cooled. Cookies on left were final batch which were puffier and stay soft after cooled. Once you understand what each ingredient is doing in a cookie recipe it gets easier to tweak a recipe to get your perfect desired cookie!  

Nice short article on using olive oil as a butter replacement- http://thepassionateolive.com/wp/baking-with-olive-oil-instead-of-butter/

If you made it to the bottom of this post then congratulations and thank you for reading it! Right now I am feeling like a satisfied baker and blogger that is very DONE with making sugar cookies!!! At least for this week ;-)