Gluten-Free Springerle

Adapted from House on the Hill’s Nini’s Perfection Springerle Recipe. By Cindy Kunzler.

What you’ll need:

• 1/2 tsp. baker’s ammonia (hartshorn)

• 2 Tbsp. milk

• 6 large eggs, room temperature

• 6 c. confectioner’s sugar (1 1/2#)

• 1/2 c. unsalted butter, softened (not melted)

• 1/2 tsp. salt

• 1/2 tsp. oil of anise or almond (OR 2 tsp. lemon or orange oil)

• Approximately 7 cups Flour Blend*

• Approximately 3 tsp. Xanthan gum

• Zest of 1 orange and 1 lemon, if using lemon/orange oil in lieu of anise or almond oil (Microplane)

• More Flour Blend, if needed

• Parchment paper

• Waxed paper

• Semi-sweet baker’s chocolate (optional)

Dissolve hartshorn in milk and set aside for 30-60 minutes.

Beat eggs until thick and lemon-colored (10-20 minutes).

Slowly beat in the confectioner’s sugar, then the softened butter.

Add the hartshorn and milk, salt, preferred flavoring (and zest if using), and Xanthan gum.

Gradually beat in as much of the Flour Blend as you can with the mixer (switch to a dough hook if using a Kitchenaid), then stir in the remainder of the 7 cups Flour Blend. You’ll need to eyeball this part; depending on which types of gluten-free flours you use in your Blend, it may take more or less. Nevertheless, the dough will need to be fairly stiff — although not dry — in order to “take” the print of the cookie mould(s).

With a pastry brush, lightly dust the Springerle mould with Flour Blend. It is recommended to dust the mould each time.

Take about 1/2 c. of dough (more or less, depends upon the diameter of your Springerle mould) and roll into a ball (you will want to dust your hands first). Press the ball into the center of the dusted mould and lightly press outwards to the edge of the mould. Take a small piece of waxed paper, place it over the dough and gently roll your rolling pin over the waxed paper to make the cookie’s depth even. Very gently, begin to peel the cookie away from the mould and place 1 1/2” apart on parchment-paper-lined cookie sheets. If using the large Paschal Lamb mould (5” diameter), you might fit 3 cookies per sheet. My experiment proved that rolling this dough is nearly impossible due to its incredible stickiness! (Perhaps use more Flour Blend?)

Dry the cookies on the sheet overnight or for several hours. My experiment also proved that, as with wheat-based flour, the cookies do need to dry several hours or else the image will distort, rise too much and crack.

Bake for about 15 minutes at 275°, or until very lightly golden on the bottoms. This is a ballpark time and temperature, depends on the size of the cookies! Yet if under baked, the cookies will fall apart while transferring them to the cooling rack. Test-bake ONE cookie first!!!

Store in an airtight container as with wheat-based springerle.

Optional: melt semi-sweet baker’s chocolate in a double-boiler, and slather melted chocolate on the backs of the cookies. Place them on waxed paper, and when dry, store cookies in between layers of waxed paper.

Cindy’s Flour Blend (courtesy of Carol Fenster, PhD.):

• 4 cups white or sweet rice flour

• 2 cups brown rice flour

• 2 cups potato starch (not potato flour!)

• 1 cup tapioca starch