Christmas automatically goes with baking cookies for Santa. Does your family make a tradition of
baking cookies together? I just started baking with my oldest son last year when he was 4. He loved spending “special Mommy” time together and we made some great cookies to share with Santa. This time of year, I feel it’s OK to get the apron out and make some holiday baking traditions with the family.
These cookies are one of the more traditional cookies out there. There are many different names but I’ve only known them as Pecan Crescent Cookies. The original recipe calls for just butter, sugar, nuts and powdered sugar for coating. But NOT these…No. These are free of the top 8 food allergens! I’m so excited! A classic holiday nut cookie with NO NUTS but has the same taste and texture! The cookies are made with food processed allergy safe pumpkin seeds.
I gave some to a friend and didn’t tell her what they were. She ate one and loved it! She thought it was regular nuts. She didn’t know the difference. She couldn’t even tell they were gluten free.
I hope you enjoy these as much as I did! I think I probably “tested” close to eight cookies just to make sure they tasted great. ;-D
A couple of notes:
I ended up using a regular hand mixer and mixed the dough with the pumpkin seed flour right away. This made the dough slightly green in color. The powdered sugar helped to mask this but you may want to try and fold the pumpkin seeds in by hand. These cookies are butter like in flavor and crunchy in texture. You might also notice I did not use xanthan gum. The egg replacer worked well enough to keep things together. I will warn you though, they are a bit fragile. Adding 1/2 tsp xanthan gum plus an extra 1-2T water would probably provide more stability. Less is always more in my opinion though. Also, I tried to keep the portions small with only 1/2 T of dough for each. Trust me. You’ll have more than plenty and the option of not eating them all, not that it stopped me. 🙂
Ingredients preheat oven to 350 degree
- 1 cup pumpkin seed flour (food processed seeds)
- 2 cups gluten free all purpose flour
- 1 cup palm shortening
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1 T egg replacer
- 2-3T water
- powdered sugar for coating
- Beat shortening, egg replacer and water for 2-3 minutes. Add in sugar and beat for another 2 minutes.
- Slowly add in gluten free flour until incorporated. Dough will appear dry and may even be very crumbly. If the dough is extremely dry and won’t form into a ball if pressed, add in 1-2 T water. *Don’t add too much water or else the texture will be compromised and won’t end up crunchy melt in your mouth. Trust.
- Add pumpkin flour, fold in by hand or else dough will get a green tint.
- Scoop and shape into crescent shape and place on parchment lined baking sheet. These won’t spread so pack them in. 🙂
- Bake for 13-15 minutes or until just turning golden brown. Allow to cool before coating in sugar.
- Gently coat in powdered sugar. Store in an airtight container or freeze.
Hello, I’m Laura! Thanks for stopping by… I hope this blog will help you or someone you know and love. 
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