Gluten-free Blueberry Almond Cookies

Before I leave for two weeks on a vacation to visit friends, I wanted to share another fun recipe. Still taking advantage of summer fruit while it's here - I really was in the mood for a new kind of cookie. Blueberries in a cookie? A cookie full of anti-oxidants? Sounds like a great idea.....but I haven't figured out if this is a cookie or a muffin :-) I adapted this recipe to make it gluten-free from a recipe by Giada De Laurentis at the Food Network.

It's looks like a cookie and bakes like a cookie, but it has the texture of a muffin. Kind of like a muffin top. Yeah! Who doesn't love a muffin top!



The original recipe called for 1 cup of sugar. I used 1/2 cup of the Splenda Blend product. I think next time I will cut it back to 1/3 cup. They are plenty sweet. You could probably use all Splenda as well - but baked goods generally don't brown with all Splenda. You could also use part Splenda and part sugar. But I would definitely keep it under a cup.

Gluten-free Blueberry Almond Cookies

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups Gluten-free flour
• 1/2 cup almond meal or finely ground almonds
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp Xanthan Gum
• 1 stick unsalted butter
• 1/3 - 1/2 cup Splenda-blend
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp almond extract
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1 - 2 tsp lemon or orange zest
• 1/2 cup chopped almonds (or any nuts, really)
• 1 cup fresh blueberries

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (175 degrees C). Parchment paper on your cookie sheet is recommended, or you can grease your cookie sheet.

1. Combine the flour, almond meal, baking powder, salt, and Xanthan Gum and blend with a whisk.
2. With an electric mixer, cream butter and sugar well (note that Splenda doesn't "blend" with butter as well - it will be fine once the other ingredients are added).
3. Add the egg and continue beating.
4. Add the milk, almond extract, and zest.
5. Mix in the dry ingredients.
6. Remove from mixer and mix in the nuts.
7. Gently fold in the blueberries (try not to break them)
8. Refrigerate the dough for about 30-40 minutes.
9. User a spoon or cookie scoop and place on cookie sheets. Flatten each cookie slightly (they won't spread much).
10. Bake for about 15 minutes. Remove the cookies to a wire rack to cool.

I used a medium-size cookie scoop and got about two dozen cookies. You could get more if you make a smaller cookie. Enjoy those blueberries while they're here!

See you in a couple of weeks!

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