The Holiday Spirit with Gingerbread Cookies

I do not follow a specific cycle of baking or cookie-decorating, but I do appreciate when December 1st rolls around, and suddenly everywhere I look (that is, baking blogs and cooking magazines and the Food Network), I'm surrounded by Christmas Cookies. There are recipes and decoration how-to's and lists of the best and tastiest and most unique and most festive holiday desserts...and I read through each and every one, my Christmas giddiness swelling along with the Christmas carols playing non-stop on my computer. So even though baking for me is not a seasonal affair, I do adore this particular yearly celebration of sugar.

I have three favorite December cookies, and this year, I plan on baking them all with a wholesome twist. The first up were gingerbread cookies, and although I had a short stack of gingerbread recipes to try, many that I had been saving for months in order to break out during this month, I chose a recipe that was fairly new to me. I went again to the cookbook Baking with Agave Nectar and baked these gluten-free treats for a group of friends which included a couple of gluten-sensitive people.

I, and my friends, thought the cookies turned out well, though I'm not sure I can say that this is my all-time favorite gingerbread recipe. They are soft and chewy cookies with just the right amount of spice to them, but they are very fragile. I learned the difficult way that it is best to wait until they are fully cooled to try and remove them from the pan; otherwise, you will find yourself with a jumble of misshapen gingerbread pieces. And as for decorating, they are a wonderful template for icings and sprinkles and other various methods of design. That is the part I enjoyed most of all, although I'm thinking that I should jot down “Martha Stewart-worthy cookie decorating skills” on my Christmas list this year.

Gluten -Free Gingerbread Cookies
From Baking with Agave Nectar

Ingredients:
2 ½ cups brown rice flour
1 ½ cups amaranth flour
1 ½ cups tapioca flour
2 Tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. baking soda
1 Tbsp. ground cinnamon
½ tsp. ground nutmeg
½ tsp. ground cloves
1 tsp. salt
1 cup agave nectar
¼ cup molasses
¼ cup unsweetened applesauce
1/3 cup canola oil
2 Tbsp. vanilla extract

Directions:
1. In a large bow, whisk together the flours, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, and salt.
2. In a separate bowl, mix together the agave nectar, molasses, applesauce, canola oil, and vanilla extract. Pour over the dry ingredients and stir until the two mixtures are thoroughly combined.
Cover and chill the dough for 2 hours or more.
3. Preheat the oven to 350° F. Sprinkle a work surface with flour. Divide the chilled dough into 4 portions. Take one portion and roll out on the work surface until the dough is ¼ inch thick. Cut out gingerbread with cookie cutters and place them on baking sheets. Bake for 6-8 minutes and cool for 5-10 minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.