The story of these Gluten Free Orange Spice Christmas Cookies starts with an evergreen. We started our weekend by wrestling with an 8 foot tall tree until it sat atop our car.  Such a strange tradition isn’t it?  The husband and I bickered and argued as we do every year during this task.  “That’s too much rope.” “No, it’s not enough rope.” And while he might have been right about the rope, he got out of the way when it was time to tie the knots – he wasn’t the girl scout after all.  I was finally satisfied that we would be able to haul it home, up the highway where the speed limit is 80 km/hr, without it coming loose and hurtling through the window of the vehicle behind us so away we went.  We did make it home, the tree barely moved from it’s original placement on the roof and after all that work securing the thing, we cut it free.  It spent the night in our garage because that was all the time we had for tree shenanigans that day.

Waking up the next morning the kids were eager to bring it in and set it up.  More tree fun.  Will there ever come a day where all the engineers in the world assemble together for a common purpose?  The purpose of designing a tree stand that isn’t complete and utter crap?  I couldn’t face the task until I’d had some caffeine and maybe a cookie too.  I needed something to put me squarely in the Christmas Spirit before I tackled the tree stand.

These Orange Spice cookies were just the thing.  They are festive and bright and comforting and they are the perfect Christmas Cookie to whip up in the case of a Holiday Spirit emergency.  This makes a small batch and while I made them in a biscotti shape, I don’t see why you couldn’t pinch chunks of the dough and form into balls for a traditional round cookie.  The texture on these is somewhere between a shortbread cookie and a sugar cookie.  They held up well to a thick glaze of icing sugar and orange zest and even held together when dipped in hot tea.

Gluten Free Orange Spice Christmas Cookies

Yield: 12

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 35 minutes

These festive cookies are sure to please

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Ingredients

• 1 1/4 cup oat flour
• 1 1/2 cup icing sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 3/4 cup potato starch
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp cloves
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 egg
• 1 tbsp melted coconut oil (or vegetable oil)
• Zest and juice of one navel orange (about 2-3 tbsp of each)
• Glaze
• 1 cup icing sugar
• 2 tbsp orange juice (or water)
• 2 tbsp orange zest for decoration (optional)

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper

In a large bowl, mix dry ingredients

In a small bowl, whisk egg together with other wet ingredients.

Add wet into dry and stir well until dough comes together. I used my hands to knead it a little - dough should be tacky but not too sticky to work on with your hands. If it's too sticky, add a little more oat flour 1 tbsp at a time until dough can be worked with your hands.

To make biscotti - shape dough into an oval shape and pat it down until about 1/2 inch thick.

Bake for 20 min then remove and cut into fingers. Return to the oven to crisp up about 5-10 more minutes until edges are slightly browned.

Allow to cool completely before glazing.

For the glaze, mix sugar and juice with a fork until smooth. Drizzle over each cookie, dropping zest into the glaze before it has dried. Allow to glaze to set before serving.

Nutrition Information:

Yield: 12 Serving Size: 1
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 236

I made, iced and devoured one or two (three?) of these Gluten Free Orange Spice Christmas Cookies and then stuffed that tree into it’s stand like a boss.  We decorated.  We laughed.  We even teared up with emotion (Ok, I did) watching the kids and their excitement as they hung bits and bobs on the tree.  As a kid, decorating the tree was one of the most special times of the season for me and as an adult, it’s become a bit of a chore.  I’m glad I had the perfect cookie to get me through it all!

Next – chocolate cookies to make with your kids!