This post is part of the Gluten-Free Ratio Rally, a group of gluten-free bloggers inspired and empowered by Ruhlman‘s Ratio and started by Shauna at Gluten-Free Girl. We get together each month and post many different takes on the same theme. This month that theme is Gluten-Free Shortbread and the rally is being hosted by Meaghan from Wicked Good Vegan.
Come along, Pond.
It has been a while since my last contribution to the Ratio Rally, and I can’t be happier to be back. With a pot of coffee, twelve jammie dodgers and a fez.
I might be excited because I am letting my nerd flag fly just a little bit. I can’t begin to tell you how long I have been planning to make these – it has been since I found out that the rally this month was for shortbread. Because shortbread meant an excuse to make a gluten-free “jammie dodger”. A british sandwich cookie that has a jam filling. They are buttery, just the right about of crumbly and crunchy.
A cookie for a grown up who likes the charm of a sandwich cookie but with the simple sophistication of a shortbread. Ok, and a cookie for your next gluten-free Doctor Who marathon.
For those of you who are not as awesomely nerdy as I am, the BBC sci-fi series Doctor Who has featured these cookies as the current incarnation of the Doctor’s favorite cookie, they even stood in for a self destruct button for the Tardis, his time machine/space ship, in one episode.
So clearly, I, as a proud nerd, had to make some. Having never had the real ones, and not being to able to ever have them, all I know is that these cookies seem to fit the descriptions of Jammie Dodgers that I could find. A shortbread cookie with a jam filling.
Done.
Shortbread is easy: 1 part sugar, 2 parts butter, 3 parts flour. And you can experiment from there. My ratio is a little different, but only because I bumped up or down amounts to get them to be even with the way butter is sold and to have an even cup of sugar (just in case you are still using your old fashioned measuring cups…shame on you!)
You can find the full list of this month’s participants at Wicked Good Vegan.
- 460 grams (4 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 200 grams (1 cup) sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons vanilla bean paste
- 680 grams (5 cups) gluten-free all purpose flour blend*
- 2 1/2 teapsoons xantham gum**
- Strawberry or rasperry jam
- Cream together the butter, sugar, salt and vanilla bean paste until it is just blended.
- Add the flour in 2 batches, scraping down the sides of your mixer after each addition.
- Stir in the vanilla bean paste.
- Refrigerate the dough for about 30 minutes. About halfway through this time, preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
- Lightly flour a surface and roll the dough out and cut into 2.5″ circles. On half of them, cut out a small circle or heart.
- Pop the cut out cookies on cookie sheets into the freezer for 5 minutes before baking.
- Arrange about a half inch apart on a cookie sheet lined with parchment and bake for 12-15 minutes.
- Cool on a wire rack.
- Spread the half the cookies with a scant teaspoon of jam and then top with a cookie with a hole cut out of it to make a sandwich.