Russian Tea Cakes

[Roda]

I made these out of the BC gluten free bisquick mix from a recipe from their site.

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They taste great and my husband and I liked them a lot. The only thing is they crumble very easily. Would adding some extra xanthan gum help this? Or does anyone else have any ideas. These would make great gifts but don't want them to fall to pieces when you pick them up.

[MelindaLee]

I haven't tried to make these. I used to make a similar cookie before going gluten-free. I am wondering if you need to add a little less flour. When I made them pre-gluten-free, they were dry and a bit crumbly, so I am sure gluten-free only makes this worse. I am thinking a little more fat or less flour might help. Just a guess. I might have to try these!

[burdee]

I made these out of the BC gluten free bisquick mix from a recipe from their site.

Open Original Shared Link

They taste great and my husband and I liked them a lot. The only thing is they crumble very easily. Would adding some extra xanthan gum help this? Or does anyone else have any ideas. These would make great gifts but don't want them to fall to pieces when you pick them up.

I used to make Russian tea cakes from standard (gluten containing) recipes long before I was dx'd with celiac disease. More recently I just followed the standard recipe and substituted gluten free flour (probably Bob's Red Mill flour mix) and Spectrum Naturals palm oil shortening (for the butter), but also added 1/2 teaspoon of xanthum gum per 3-4 dozen cooky recipe. For larger batches I may add 3/4-1 tsp. of xanthum gum.

[Takala]

The "Bisquick" Gluten Free version is nothing more than rice flour, sugar, leavening, and a bit of potato starch and xanthan gum.

I compared the Bette Crocker recipe to the standard Mexican Wedding Cookie recipe available all over the internet (and probably in my old filebox as a "snowball" ) or here it's the Russian Tea Cookie, and it is word for word the same, they just subbed the Bette Crocker Bisquick for the regular flour, and added 1 egg. No wonder it's not working consistently. They are using only the one egg for the moisture, and eggs vary in size, and rice flour certainly doesn't behave like wheat flour. Dry, dry, dry !

Melinda Lee above had the right idea. Either decrease the amount of Bisquick used for the recipe, or add more fat such as the butter or shortening. If you don't want to do that, I would go ahead and even add some water to this, not much, but enough to make the dough stickier, a tablespoon at a time. You can also add a bit of apple cider vinegar to all gluten free recipe baking - it helps the flours to be stickier, and you won't taste it. For a recipe this size, a half teaspoon to a teaspoon should do. Bette Hagman refers to this as "dough conditioner."

The recipe definitely needs a bit more xanthan gum, too, but that is going to be a little trickier not to get too much, or they will get rubbery.

So, for a gluten-free Bisquick version, try adding:

1 tablespoon or more of water to the beaten egg and vanilla before you mix in the flour - it might take 2 tablespoons, depending on the humidity.

1/2 teaspoon to 1 teasp of apple cider vinegar

1/2 teaspoon to 1 teasp of xanthan gum

I noticed it didn't have salt, and you may want to add a pinch of that, also.

If you want to make this without the Bisquick, which is what I would do to get it to come out better, I would use any standard Gluten Free flour mixture for baking cakes and cookies, such as a combination of 1/3 each rice flour, cornstarch, and tapioca, or rice flour, potato starch, and tapioca, or rice, sorghum, and arrowroot, depending on what you have available and what your other food allergies are. To each cup of gluten free flour mixture, add 1 teaspoon of xanthan gum. This means it would take 2 teaspoons of xanthan gum. Continue to add a bit of water to the egg, and the vinegar, and a pinch of salt. If you are using another commercial gluten free mixture, which already has zanthan gum, you may need to use much less of it. For instance, because of what is in it already, if you used Pamela's all purpose gluten-free flour, instead of the gluten-free Bisquick, it might not even need extra added xanthan gum. This is because Pamela's has it already, plus almond meal and buttermilk powder and tapioca, which act to make the dough more like a gluten dough.

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Original Recipe

Mexican Wedding Cookies, aka Russian Tea Cakes, aka Penna. Dutch "Snowballs"

1 cup butter or 1 cup margarine, softened

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour *** (see above notes if using a rice flour only mixture such as the gluten-free Bisquick, or a gluten free homemade flour mix.)

1/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup finely chopped nuts

powdered sugar

{ For gluten free, add 1 beaten egg, 1 to 2 tablespoons water to the egg, and a 1/2 teasp gluten free pure apple cider vinegar, and extra zanthan gum.}

1. Heat oven to 400 degrees F.

2. Beat butter, 1/2 cup powdered sugar and the vanilla in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed, or mix with spoon. { gluten-free - Add the egg/water/vinegar to this part. }

3. Stir in flour and salt. (for gluten-free, add xanthan gum if needed, see above notes)

4. Stir in nuts.

5. Shape dough into 1-inch balls.

6. Place about 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheet.

7. Bake 8 to 9 minutes or until set but not brown.

8. Immediately remove from cookie sheet; roll in powdered sugar.

9. Cool completely on wire rack.

10. Roll in powdered sugar again.

[Roda]

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll give it a try.