Gluten Free Thin Mint Cookies

So, we've just been told that we are allergic to wheat.  Crap!  What am I going to do?  I'm a baker.  How do I bake without wheat?!?!?  Let's just say life is not fair and I'm not happy about it.  On the other hand now I get the chance to turn all my favorites into gluten free versions and see how they match up.  One favorite of mine are Girl Scout Thin Mint Cookies.  Really, I can and will, if given the chance, eat a whole container by myself.  So after learning about this horrible joke of nature and seeing a recipe on pinterest, I made these tonight and also for added bonus made them sugar free as well.  I know.  I'm an over achiever.  What can I say?

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1 Tbsp coconut oil, melted

1/4 cup sugar or Xylitol

1 cup brown rice flour

1/3 cup cocoa

1 egg

1/8 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp xanthan gum

1 tsp vanilla

Favorite Dipping Chocolate

Peppermint oil or extract - see below

In bowl mix the oils and sugar or sugar substitute.  Stir in the brown rice flour.  Scrape down the sides.  Stir in remaining ingredients.  When you look at the mixture you are going to think there is no way that these are going to hold together but trust me they will.  Take about 1/2 of the dough and press it into a slightly flattened ball.  For the next part I used a silpat sheet, but waxed paper or lightly floured work surface should be fine. 

Place dough on work area and start pressing it flat.  You are going to have to press it and push the crumbs in and squeeze the breaks together.  After you have it pressed out to about 1/8" you can use a rolling pin to even out the surface.  Just don't push too hard or you will crack the dough.  Now use a 1 1/2" cookie cutter and cut out your cookies.  As you can see I didn't have a circle but the heart one was perfect.  Plus my kids thought I put my love in the cookies because of the shape.  Place cut out cookies on greased cookie sheet and bake in preheated oven at 350*F for 8-9 min.  You want to make sure they are done all the way without burning.  Mine were a little under done and therefore not as crisp.

Cool completely and then prepare to dip them in chocolate.

For this part just melt your favorite dipping chocolate and flavor with mint oil or extract to taste.  If you use almond bark you can use extract, however if you use chocolate then you need oil otherwise you run the risk of having the chocolate seize up.  For the milk chocolate I just used almond bark because that is what I had.  However, the dark chocolate is a sugar free bar from chocoperfection.com.  They use chicory root to sweeten the chocolate so that you get no sugar and the sweetness that you taste is full of fiber.  One bar has 14 grams of prebiotic fiber!

So my dark chocolate cookies are 100% sugar and gluten free while the milk chocolate has sugar in the coating.  The taste is phenomenal and I had to hide them in the cookie jar so I would stop eating them.

Post note:  The second batch I made was wetter and I was able to roll them out with a rolling pin without issue.  It was raining all day so the humidity level could play a role in what your dough looks like.