Chocolate Dipped Sugar Cookies

This is the time of year where many of us blog about Valentine's day treats. I work at a flower shop during the holidays, so I had not intended to post a blog this year. However, I realized that I needed to whip something up for the kids to take to school for their Valentine's parties. I make these sugar cookies all the time for snacking on and the fact that they freeze so well makes it easy to have a batch in the freezer for those after school munchies. I normally don't top them with anything due to the fact that I've not found the perfect corn free frosting. However, my kids don't seem to mind and my oldest will request that I top them with peanut butter on the rare occasion that he wants something different.

I had seen a recipe on the Enjoy Life web sight that had just melted chocolate as a frosting recipe and since chocolate goes hand-in-hand with Valentine's, I decided to top my cookies and take this simple snack to the next decadent level. I apparently lost my heart shaped cookie cutter at some point, but these would be super cute cut into hear shapes instead of the simple circles pictured here. I admit, I've had a hard time keeping out of this batch of cookies and they will disappear quickly once the kids get their hands on them. May you have a hard time not eating them in one sitting like I have.


Ingredients:

1 1/2 cup Brown Rice-milled into flour using a coffee grinder
1 cup Potato Starch (not potato flour)
½ tsp Baking Soda
1 tsp Cream of Tartar
3 teaspoons Gaur Gum
1 teaspoon Fine Sea Salt
1 cup Golden Brown Cane Sugar
½ cup Unsweetened Apple Sauce
½ cup Kroger Vegetable oil
1 Tablespoon Flax Seed –milled in a coffee grinder and 3 Tablespoons hot water-set aside for 10 minutes
2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract
Extra Potato Starch, for kneading

Mix dry ingredients first, including brown sugar. Pulse in the food processor then move to a large mixing bowl. Mix oil and water and whip for 1-3 minutes in the food processor until it is well blended and has a creamy appearance. Add flour mixture back into the food processor, as well as flax mixture and vanilla. Blend until too thick for beaters then knead with hands.

Move to the table dusted with potato starch. Knead about 2 T to 1/2 cup of potato starch (depending on the moisture of the dough) into the ball of dough until it is workable and doesn’t stick. The texture should be similar to wheat flour based sugar cookies by the time you are finished kneading. With some potato starch on your hands, make the dough into a ball and roll out onto a potato starched surface. Roll to 1/4″ thickness. Cut into shapes using your favorite cookie cutters. Place on greased cookie sheet at bake at 350F for 15-20 minutes at high altitude (12-15 for lower altitude). Cool on rack. Decorate and enjoy! These freeze very nicely.

For the Dipping:

1/2 cup Enjoy Life Chocolate Chips

Melt the chocolate in a double boiler or a ceramic mixing bowl placed over top a sauce pan filled with water. Heat the water until hot enough to produce steam, but not boiling. Place your chocolate chips in the top bowl and stir slowly until they are all melted. Remove the bowl from the saucepan (or top portion of the double boiler). The bowl should remain warm enough for you to finish dipping all the cookies, but you can put it back on the saucepan if it gets too cool.

Hold the cookies so that you can dip the top portion of the cookie in the chocolate. Be careful, the chocolate is very hot. Make sure the entire top is coated then place it right side up on a cookie sheet lined with parchment or wax paper. Once all the cookies are coated, place them in the freezer to set the chocolate. You're done. The chocolate melts easily, so it is recommended that you store them in either the freezer or the refrigerator. I store these in a tin in the freezer and it only takes a few minutes sitting out before they are thawed enough to eat.