Help! What Did I Do Wrong?

[wowzer]

I decided to try to bake these Gluten Free Melt-In-Your Mouth Shortbread cookies. I found the recipe on recipezaar.com. Well my first batch was one big cookie. I do know I measured something wrong, just not sure what. I decided to try again. At least I got a bunch of cookies instead of one. I was careful to meausre everything and follow directions. They ended up very thin, they don't look like the picture at all. One would think with only 4 ingredients, how could you go wrong!! I figure home made cookies have to be better than the ones you buy. If anyone knows of a great soft sugar cookie recipe, I'd love to try. I'm determined to get this right. Wendy

[Viola 1]

Hi Wendy;

I haven't had a problem with short bread cookies. Are you using butter or margarine? I always use butter as I think margarine had more water in it which tends to make it a bit thinner .

Perhaps try a little less moisture, spoon it in the pan and just shape them with your fingers and put a half a marashino cherry in the middle of each cookie

[wowzer]

I did use butter. It was unsalted butter, I'm not sure that would make a difference or not. They taste fine, which I guess is all that matters.

[RiceGuy]

Can you post the recipe, or a link to it please? Maybe others can provide additional suggestions once they see the recipe.

[chocolatelover]

Here's one from my friend--haven't tried to make them yet, but she's a great cook!

Gluten Free Sugar Cookies

1

[wowzer]

I got the recipe from www.recipezaar.com/146414

Gluten Free Melt In Your Mouth Shortbread

1/2 cup cornstarch

1/2 cup icing sugar (confectioner's)

1 cup rice flour

3/4 cup butter

1. Sift cornstarch, sugar, rice flour together

2. Add butter

3. Mix with hands until soft dough forms. Refigerate one hour

4. Shape douch into 1" balls

5. Place about 1-1/4 inches apart on greased cookie sheet, flatten with lightly floured fork

6. Bake at 300 F for 20-25 minutes or until edges are lightly browned.

I know the first time, I'm pretty sure I messed up on 1 of the measurements int the ingredients. The second time I was very careful.

Also thanks for the sugar cookie recipe.

[RiceGuy]

The recipe doesn't specify what kind of rice flour. There are at least three different ones that I know of: Brown, White, and Sweet White. I cannot tell which might be the best to yield the desired results, but I'd try them all anyway just to see what happens.

[wowzer]

I'll have to try the other 2. I used the white when I made them. I didn't think of that. Thank You

[larry mac]

....... Well my first batch was one big cookie...... They ended up very thin, they don't look like the picture at all.....

Wendy,

I'm no expert, but I quickly found that to avoid thin, overly spreading cookies, I needed to add more flour (or less water), and put the dough in the fridge before and between batches. I almost always have to make wet/dry adjustments to recipes. Gluten-free baking is much trickier than regular baking IMHO.

..... I figure home made cookies have to be better than the ones you buy.....

Ya got that right!

best regards, lm

[RiceGuy]

I almost always have to make wet/dry adjustments to recipes. Gluten-free baking is much trickier than regular baking IMHO.

That's the first thing I thought of as well, but figured it probably wasn't the reason since the recipe is already gluten-free, so adjustments shouldn't be necessary. However, there wouldn't be any harm in doing so in the absence of whatever the ideal flour happens to be, or just to suit a personal preference.

On the other hand, what about oven temp, and preheating? Might that make a difference here?

[zansu]

the temperature of the batter can make a big difference in the spreading of some of these. I learned that the hard way... if the recipe says anything about keeping the dough chilled, they mean it! I was supposed to end up with regular type cookies that had chopped pecan centers, and I ended up with very goof madeline-type cookies once I cut them apart-- paper thin, but yummy.

[larry mac]

.....That's the first thing I thought of as well, but figured it probably wasn't the reason since the recipe is already gluten-free, so adjustments shouldn't be necessary....

rg,

I may be way off base, and I apologize to anyone if I am, but in my brief experience with all things gluten-free, gluten-free recipes are, generally speaking, not rocket science. They quite often leave much to be desired. I think they tend to be hit & miss. Some don't make any sense at all. In my opinion, if a recipe say's 2 cups of (unspecified) gluten-free flour and then calls for any more flour and/or starch, then it's not really a real recipe. That not only doesn't list all the ingredients, but is contradicting (Sorry). This celiac baking is a relatively new development, at least to the extent it's getting to be . And to be fair, when you must substitute numerous ingredients (I use as many as 6 or 8) to replace just one, wheat flour, and the results are still a poor imitation, then your starting with an incredible handicap.

So, IMHO, one must always take a gluten-free recipe with a grain of sea salt. Be ready and able to use what you learn thru trial & error to make any adjustment neccessary to any recipe. If you (not you RiceGuy but the plural you), if one follows a recipe, at the end of the mixing process one must make an observation. Hey, this batter looks too thin. Or, this batter looks too thick. What do you do? Why add more flour, or more water/milk of course.

....

On the other hand, what about oven temp, and preheating? Might that make a difference here?

Well that's a good question worthy of discussion I believe. Firstly, being a long time real bread baker, having experience working in a food research laboratory (Frito Lay), and having a professional real estate inspector's license (home inspector - not currently), here's my take on electric home ovens (and to a somewhat lesser degree gas ovens). It takes as long as 30 minutes to properly pre-heat. If that is important, what you want to do is let it cycle thru the elements going on/off a few times. Then it will be really pre-heated. What happens is initially the elements glow and create a lot of direct radiant heat. That heats up the thermometer/ thermostat fairly quickly and it says "demand satisfied" and shuts off. But the oven walls are not really hot yet (much greater mass) and so the oven cools almost immediately and calls for more heat. This cycle will repeat a couple times and eventually settle down.

The problem with rushing this process is you get more direct radiant heat (with more potential for burning the bottom of the pan) instead of more even hot air baking. Ideally, all ovens would be convection and that would help even out the heating. So, glowing means burning, good if your making toast, or want a crisp bottom crust. Unless one wants the heat on the bottom, you want to keep the glowing to a minimum, as much as possible.

Now, having established all that, does it really make any difference? Who knows, maybe, maybe not. I pre-heat for about 15 minutes, my oven beeps at me after 6 minutes, alerting me that it's ready, it's not. The elements are still glowing, not nearly long enough. Some recipes call for putting the item in a cold oven. Apparently some believe that works for them. It didn't for me the one time I tried it but there may have been other issues (like I screwed up royally). I do know I used to make those self-rising frozen pizzas that way and they worked like a charm. So there are different scenarios.

That's all I know for now. Love to hear some more on this. Ideas anyone? best regards, lm