A recipe for Coconut Flour Sugar Cookies

I've been experimenting with gluten free baking for Elizabeth and Kevin and Patrick and just because it's fun to experiment with the science. I feel like this GF sugar cookie effort was really successful so I want to record the recipe. I should try again and do it by weight to make it more consistent. The cream cheese made all the different between a crisp (and somewhat dry) cookie and a nice soft one.

Coconut Flour Sugar Cookies
modified from a recipe on King Arthur Flour

4 T soft butter
2 T soft cream cheese
1/4 c sugar
1/4 t salt
1/2 t vanilla extract
1 large egg
3 T tapioca flour
4 T coconut flour

Cream butter, cream cheese, and sugar until fluffy. Add salt and vanilla. Add egg and beat it all until fluffy. Beat in the tapioca flour. Beat in the coconut flour. You can do all of this with the mixer, no need to worry about the cookies getting tough. Let the dough sit at least 20 minutes, or longer.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Drop heaping teaspoons of dough on the sheet, about 3 cm apart. Flatten each cookie with the bottom of a glass dipped in sugar. Bake 10 - 12 minutes until lightly browning around the edge. Let cool before removing from sheet. Made about a dozen although I ate several. These come out like a soft, moist sugar cookie but they have sufficient structural integrity that you don't have to worry about crumbling them. You could certainly experiment with almond or coconut or other flavors.

Here's the cookies. Aren't they classic?

And here's the coconut flour I'm using at the moment. Apparently different brands can have different textures and behavior since it is not a standardized product. I haven't noticed any issues, but I've only used this Coconut Secret and Bob's Red Mill brands so far. 

I got a tree for Christmas

Because Mom sent me one from Oregon in the mail! A small tree totally fits in a mailing tube (well, sorta, more on that below). It made it though and I decorated my tree tonight with a combination of my personal ornaments--sent by Mom my first year in DC--and found items around the house. I might add a few more found things too. Here it is my white fir tree, all 68 cm of it!

The chains are a couple of (costume) pearl necklaces. I used curls of shiny ribbon too.

You can see my leaf on top in this angle.

Of course here's what the tree looked like when it arrived.

Good thing it isn't breakable!

It perked right up after a day in a bucket of water.

Thanks Mom. It's really lovely to have a touch of Oregon in my living room for Christmas!