People who really and truly love each other are the happiest people in the world~Mother Teresa
I really, really truly loved my Grandma~
She was a farmer’s wife from the Midwest~
She taught me how to make pretty things and how to file my nails~
She made an abandoned chicken coup into a playhouse for me~
She had a huge strawberry garden~
I can still taste the last meal she ever cooked for me. . . especially the homemade cherry pie.
If I had a photo of her I would post it, but she died before I had my first digital camera.
One of my greatest memories was sitting up on her kitchen counter and making her World Famous Sugar Cookies.
When I went away to college, she would make these cookies for me, individually wrap them in saran wrap, put them in a shoebox and mail them to me at college.
I sent the same care package to my Grandpa after my Grandma died.
So when I had my own kids, one of the most special recipes for me to pass down was my Grandma’s World Famous Sugar Cookies.
The fact that I believed I would no longer be able to make these with my daughter when we first started figuring out this celiac thing was one of my greatest disappointments.
I remember the last time I made them pre-diagnosis~the tears literally feel into the cookie dough (like a scene out of Like Water for Chocolate) as I prayed that somehow my tears mixed with the cookie dough would heal my daughter’s tummy.
It did not work and it was almost two years before I actually tried making them gluten free (as well as casein free for me).
And they were fabulous!! Really, really wonderful!! Almost better than before –it was as if my Grandma had prepared for me a recipe she knew I would need someday.
These are the cookies I make when my daughter comes home from school crying because she missed out on the treats at the surprise party.
And, of course, what other cookies would we make on Valentine’s Day.
These are sweet, soft, delicate cookies~ just like my Grandma was.
Worlds Greatest Gluten Free (easily made Casein Free) Sugar Cookies
· 1 cup butter at room temperature (Earth Balance for CF) ***the butter really needs to be at room temperature. If it is too melted, your cookies will turn out flat.
· 1 ½ cup sugar (I use fine baking sugar but I am sure regular would work )
· 2 eggs
· 1 t GF baking soda in 1 T milk (Almond Milk for CF)
· 1 t lemon juice
· 1 t vanilla
· 1 t salt
· 3 cups GF flour (we use Our GF Favorite Flour Mix)
· ¾ t xanthan gum
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Stir together the GF baking soda and milk and set aside.
Cream the butter. Add the sugar and beat until light and fluffy.
Add the eggs, baking soda mixture, lemon juice and vanilla, and beat well.
Combine the salt, GF flour and xanthan gum. Add to the creamed mixture and mix until just together.
Drop in walnut (you can tell this is an old recipe) shaped balls on a cookie sheet that has been lined with parchment paper.
Spray the bottom of a glass with Crisco (or dampen with water) and dip the bottom on the glass in sugar. Then press the balls into a disk shape (not too flat).
Bake at 350 degrees F for 8 minutes.
Top with Powdered Sugar Frosting.
Make these for someone you truly, truly love!! The reward will be better than anything you could buy.
As always, double check all ingredients and all of my recipes are indexed at Gluten Free Mom.com.
