A shortbread cookie classic, perfect for holiday time. These are adorned with sugar sprinkles, but if you find those objectionable, use any preferred frosting or icing, raisins, grated dark chocolate, or cinnamon. For a sugar free frosting, click here.
Favorite Gluten Free Christmas Cookies - with Paleo Option
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Easy and less sugary than most cookies. Coconut sugar is used here, but brown sugar is excellent too, if your family can tolerate it. Makes a couple dozen cookies, more or less depending on how thick you like them. See notes below for organic and dye free sprinkle ideas. For a Paleo version, see substitutions below.
Favorite Gluten Free Christmas Cookies - with Paleo Option
Print Recipe
Easy and less sugary than most cookies. Coconut sugar is used here, but brown sugar is excellent too, if your family can tolerate it. Makes a couple dozen cookies, more or less depending on how thick you like them. See notes below for organic and dye free sprinkle ideas. For a Paleo version, see substitutions below.
Preheat oven to 350. Lightly grease two cookie sheets with coconut oil, and line with parchment paper.
Place butter or ghee (at room temperature, not melted) in a stand mixer and cream until white. This may take a few minutes. Meanwhile, blend the flours, xanthan gum, and salt in a separate bowl and set aside.
When butter is soft and white, add sugar, and continue beating til fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add vanilla, and stir in the dry ingredients. Keep mixing til you have a soft cookie dough.
Lightly dust a counter top with GF (white rice flour will work better than brown rice) or Paleo flour (tapioca or manioc will work better than almond flour). Roll the dough out into a round that is 1/3 to 1/2 inch thick. If you like a golden glaze finish, brush with egg yolk and coconut milk (or heavy cream). Use cookie cutter rounds or holiday shaped cutters to cut cookies, and place on baking sheet. Dust with your choice of sprinkles, grated chocolate, or cinnamon.
Roll leftover pieces out again, and repeat the process of cutting cookies, placing on sheet, and sprinkling with whatever you like. After cookies are on sheets, you can set raisins in each cookie if preferred.
Bake for 9-18 minutes, depending on thickness. Don't over bake. Edges will be light golden brown. Transfer to cooling rack. Once cooled, you may frost the cookies if you like.
Recipe Notes
Sprinkles are available dye free, organic, or plain old artificial everything - use what works in your house. If kids can tolerate these, an occasional exposure is something to let them enjoy and celebrate with friends and family!
Soothing, easy to digest, helpful for kids who need to gain weight, or a low sugar treat for any occasion. Cook this longer to make it even more digestible and nourishing. In Chinese medical tradition, congee is a slow-cooked, white rice porridge used as a base for many ailments, and for weak digestion in particular. Medicinal herbs are often added to congee. This recipe emulates that tradition with ginger (anti-inflammatory), cinnamon (modulates blood sugar), cardamom (eases nausea and constipation), and adds easy-to-assimilate coconut fats. Raisins, though a higher FODMAPs food, become more digestible here also, with long slow cooking. For further sweetening, this recipe calls for maple syrup and coconut sugar in small amounts. Coconut sugar has a lower glycemic index than cane sugar. It also adds inulin, a pre-biotic for healthy bacteria strains in the gut, along with some zinc, iron, and short chain fatty acids that benefit the large intestine. Organic stevia is always an option, for those unable to tolerate any sugars. In that case, use 2-5 drops for the entire recipe, or to your taste. Lastly: Brown rice is a suitable option here for those with no digestive issues; cook it even longer, up to 2 hours, and increase the liquid in the recipe. Otherwise, use a good quality organic white rice.
“But it’s not Paleo! It’s not GAPS! It’s not SCD!” True, it isn’t. But if there is one thing I’ve learned in my decades working with babies and kids, it’s that there is no dogma. Every child is different, every gut is different. Individualizing care for each child, each gut, each circumstance is what works best. Don’t forget to bend the rules, to find what works for your child.
Dairy Free Creamy Coconut Rice Pudding
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A slow cooked soother for tender digestion. Ready to eat after 45 minutes of cooking, but cooking longer is fine also, as long as you continue to add liquid to keep the porridge from drying or burning.
A slow cooked soother for tender digestion. Ready to eat after 45 minutes of cooking, but cooking longer is fine also, as long as you continue to add liquid to keep the porridge from drying or burning.
Place a medium sized pot on stove. If you are using fresh minced rather than powdered ginger, soften this in the pot first, with a teaspoon of ghee or coconut oil, for 5 minutes, on low-medium heat. Then add coconut milk, almond milk, cinnamon, cardamom, maple syrup, coconut sugar, and vanilla. Stir and heat together on low-medium heat until well blended. Do not boil.
If you are using powdered ginger, heat the milks gently. Blend in powdered spices, maple syrup, coconut sugar, and vanilla. Stir and heat to steaming but not boiling.
Add the cooked rice and mix til evenly blended. Turn up heat to medium high until just boiling, then reduce heat to low simmer. Liquid should just cover rice. Add more coconut milk if needed to cover rice. Add raisins.
Whisk the egg with a small amount of almond or coconut milk. Add to the pot, mix well.
Cook on low heat for 45 minutes to an hour, stirring occasionally. Add more liquid if needed, or if you would like a softer porridge: Use additional almond milk, coconut milk, plain coconut water, or water as needed. Serve warm.
I’d like to show you a picture of this cake, but it was eaten before I could get that. I’ll have to be quicker next time. It went fast, with two teens in the house. It’s gluten free, and even with the benefit of reduced sugar, it vanished: Coconut sugar has a lower glycemic index than white sugar, but works well here with the natural sweet of the pumpkin and pineapple. Pecans and walnuts work well too, but those are allergenic in my house. Organic raw nuts in the filling are a healthful addition for minerals and clean fats. You can add a glaze or icing once this is out of the oven, but we deferred that and everyone thought it was plenty sweet.
Pumpkin Pineapple Bundt Cake - Gluten Free, With Benefits
Preheat oven to 350. Lightly grease a nine inch bundt pan.
Mix together all ingredients for the filling and set aside.
To prepare the batter, cream butter with sugar until pale and fluffy. Add egg, beat until smooth, then add vanilla. Stir in gluten free baking mix (Bob's Red Mill or Pamela's Baking & Pancake Mix work well), then add canned pumpkin and mix til incorporated.
Spoon half the batter into the greased Bundt pan. Then spread the filling mixture evenly over the batter. Then, add the remaining batter to cover the filling. Use a knife to make an up and down zig zag pattern into the cake batter. Don't smooth out the batter.
Bake for 45-50 minutes. When cool enough, flip pan upside down onto a cake plate and enjoy with or without a glaze.
Sprinkles are available dye free, organic, or plain old artificial everything - use what works in your house. If kids can tolerate these, an occasional exposure is something to let them enjoy and celebrate with friends and family!
