2 Cookies, 1 Dough

My cousin called me up the other day to formally place an order for a gluten-free, dairy-free cookie basket.  Disclaimer for any IRS auditors:  This was not an "I'll pay you for cookies" order, more of a "My new boss makes boat loads of money and can buy himself anything he wants, but I want to give him something at the Christmas party so since he's gluten-free, dairy-free and his girlfriend doesn't bake, could you please, please, please make my gift for me" order.

I love to bake.  You don't have to ask me twice.  I think a home that doesn't smell like cookies during the month of December is unnatural (all you non-bakers, need to light some cookie scented candles.)  Still these cookies were going to have to be a bit of an experiment, because I do plenty of gluten-free baking, but I do love me some butter and chocolate(did I forget to mention that her boss is not a chocolate eater?)  I like to make cookies ahead of time and freeze them til I'm ready to wrap them up.

Today I made Mixed Fruit Triangles and Orange Ginger Biscotti.  I start by making the main dough that would go into both cookies, then dividing the dough and adding in the different flavors.

For the dough, I finely chopped 3/4 cups blanched almonds in my mini chopper.

I whisked together the almonds, 1/2 cup garbanzo & fava bean flour, 1/2 cup amaranth flour, 1/2 cup brown rice flour, 1/4 cup white rice flour, 1/2 cup arrowroot starch, 1/2 cup tapioca flour, 1/2 tsp xantham gum, 2 tsps baking powder, and 1/2 tsp salt.  The almonds, garbanzo beans, and brown rice are great for adding fiber as well as vitamin E(almonds) to this recipe.  I love the nutty flavor of amaranth and the arrowroot and tapioca help to lighten the flour mix so that the end product isn't too dense.

In my mixer I creamed 3/4 cups of vegetable shortening and 1 1/2cups of sugar.  I added 4 eggs and 2tbsps of orange zest, scraping down the sides of the bowl occasionally.  Then slowly added the flour mix.

I divided the dough in half and added 1/4 cup chopped dried cranberries, 1/4 cup chopped raisins, 1/4 cup chopped dates to one half to make the Dried Fruit Triangles.  I patted the dough into a 9x9 square on a parchment lined cookie sheet.

For the other half of the dough, I added 1/3 cup chopped crystallized ginger and segments from 1 clementine.

I peeled and sectioned the clementine by hand, but it's a messy affair.  Feel free to use half of a small can of mandarin oranges.

A quick whir in the machine so as not to pulverize the segments and you can shape this into a log on a parchment lined cookie sheet.

Bake these at 325 for 35-40 minutes.  Pull them out of the oven and let cool.  Slice the fruity square into triangles and the log into 3/4 inch thick slices.  Place them back into the oven to crisp up.  I put the outside edges of the square toward the middle of the cookie sheet, so that the inside sections of the square get a little more heat.

Feel free to eat the ends of the biscotti loaf for quality control purposes, and of course broken ones can be eaten, but be careful because these are addicting and you may not have enough to gift.  Computer Genius snagged one for triple checked quality assurance and gave his aproval too.

Thanks for popping in and checking out my start to the holiday baking season.  I'm linking this up to Gluten-Free Homemaker's Gluten Free Wednesdays, Lisa's Gluten Free's Health Food Carnival, FrouFrou Decor's Fabulous Friday Finds, Joyful Housewife's Mouthwatering Monday, and Remodelaholic's Recipe Swap Party.