Audrey Litner's gluten-free Transition Cookies

If you, like a lot of people these days, are making the switch to a gluten-free diet, you’ve probably made two discoveries already.

First, it can be quite … undelicious.

Second, baking with gluten-free flours is not the most straightforward process.

Have no fear! With these Transition Cookies, you can wean yourself off of wheat in a tasty way while getting a feel for working with less-traditional flours.

Semi-Gluten-Free Transition Cookies

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups unsalted butter, softened

1/2 cup margarine

3/4 cup sugar

1 large egg

1 tbsp. vanilla extract

1/4 tsp. almond extract

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup white sorghum flour

1/4 cup rice flour

1/4 cup quinoa flour

1/4 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. cornstarch

Directions:

Onward, brave bakers! Whirl the butter, margarine and sugar around until reasonably fluffy. Why the margarine? It adds the oil needed to work with the hard grain flours without getting too sloppy.

Add the egg and extracts (I was only going to use a few drops of almond, but I had the hiccups and it spilled) and blend thoroughly.

Dump the dry ingredients into the bowl and blend everything together until just combined. It should look pretty much like any other cookie dough. At this point, it’s time to get creative.

If you want drop cookies, heat your oven to 350 degrees and add your favorite mix-ins to the dough. Dried fruit, chocolate chips and chopped nuts are all good choices. Heck, those are good choices even without the cookies!

Drop your dressed-up dough onto a parchment-lined baking sheet by heaping spoonful, and bake for 12 to 14 minutes. The edges should be a nice golden brown.

To make thumbprint cookies, wrap the dough in plastic and chill it in the freezer for half an hour. Roll pieces into 1-inch balls, place them on your parchment, and poke your thumb into each one. Fill the dents with your jam of choice and bake as directed above.

Wanna go the slice-and-bake route? Scrape your dough onto a sheet of plastic and form it into a log. Chill it in the freezer for at least half an hour before cutting into half-inch slices. Sprinkle with colored sugar or other deco bits and bake just like the other versions.

Once the cookies are ready to come out of the oven, let them cool on the pan for a couple of minutes before transferring them to a rack to finish cooling. At the very least, wait until you know you’re not going to fry your tongue with a boiling-hot chunk of dried cranberry.

Well, that wasn’t so tough, was it? You worked with gluten-free flour and didn’t even break a sweat. And you got some yummy cookies out of it. While I love working with (and eating) wheat products, some folks have to skip it. If you’ve discovered that you’re one of them, I hope this recipe proves that cutting gluten doesn’t have to mean skimping on taste or fun in the kitchen.

Or chocolate.

— Have a question or suggestion for Bite Sighs? Email Audrey Lintner at bitesighs@hotmail.com.