Spread some cheer with the gift of baking! These Gluten Free Peppermint Cookies are the perfect way to share small acts of kindness to brighten someone’s day. Made with Love, Baked with Bob’s
Did you know that baking for others provides psychological benefits? Not only does it help the receiver of the goodies (of course!), but it helps the baker, too. Making food for others can increase a person’s sense of wellbeing, reduce stress, and aid mindfulness if it’s done with a full and willing heart.
Baking for others is a way to help communicate that you care for people. Sometimes baking helps people to express their feelings in a way that they can’t express through words. One of my favorite things is baking and cooking for my family and friends, especially if I can bake something that fits into their food allergy diet!
Bob’s Red Mill believes in making our world a better place through small acts of kindness, and so do we! There is nothing more amazing than seeing how small, positive things we do can lift others up and make the world a brighter place. A card, a smile, a compliment, paying for someone’s coffee…those things don’t cost a lot (or anything at all) but can make a huge difference in someone’s day.
To celebrate the holidays and spread some baking cheer, I made these amazing Gluten Free Chocolate Peppermint Cookies and we took these to the police dispatchers at my husband’s work. My husband is a police officer and one of our favorite things to do is cook for the other police officers and dispatchers as a thank you for all their hard work. For us, cooking is a way to help express our appreciation for what they do and their support as police officer families.
One of the dispatchers has celiac disease, so she can’t have a lot of the treats that coworkers share, so I made these gluten free cookies that she could enjoy, too, but they were so yummy that everyone loved them! These cookies are soft inside and are perfect with the drizzle of icing on top of the cookies. They were a hit!
These delicious Gluten Free Chocolate Peppermint Cookies are made with the Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free 1-to-1 Baking Flour. I’ve used this baking flour before in several recipes here at The Fit Cookie and their high quality ingredients in the flour makes great cookies! The Gluten Free 1-to-1 Baking Flour can be used in place of wheat flour in your favorite cookies with great results.
I decided to make these cookies with peppermint oil instead of peppermint extract since I think they taste better that way. I use food-grade peppermint oil specifically made for flavoring (not essential oils), so it only takes a few drops to flavor an entire batch of cookies. But if you don’t want to use peppermint oil, you can use 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract instead.
Share these cookies with friends, family, or someone who needs a helping hand this season!
This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Bob’s Red Mill.
Gluten Free Chocolate Peppermint Cookies (Vegan)
Ingredients
Cookies:
- 5 Tablespoons palm oil shortening
- ½ cup unbleached cane sugar
- ¼ cup rice milk or your favorite non-dairy milk
- 3 Tablespoons cocoa powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 4 to 5 drops peppermint oil for baking (or 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract)
- 1 cup Bob's Red Mill 1-to-1 Gluten Free Flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
Icing:
- ½ cup powdered sugar
- 1 to 2 teaspoons rice milk
- 1 to 2 drops peppermint oil (or 1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract)
- Natural green food coloring, optional (I used a pinch of natural blue color powder and a pinch of natural yellow color powder to make a green color)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare a baking sheet by lining it with parchment paper or use a baking stone.
- In a medium bowl, beat together the palm oil and sugar with a hand blender.
- Add the rice milk, cocoa powder, salt, vanilla, and peppermint oil, and beat again until incorporated.
- Add the gluten free flour and baking powder to the palm oil mixture and beat until a dough forms.
- Cover the dough with plastic wrap or cover the bowl with a lid and let rest for 5 minutes. This allows the thickeners in the flour to firm up the dough a bit.
- After the dough has firmed up a bit, pinch off about 1 Tablespoon of dough and roll into a ball. Set onto your prepared baking pan and press to flatten slightly.
- Bake for 11 to 12 minutes in the oven. Allow the cookies to cool for 5 minutes on the baking sheet before removing to a cooling rack to cool completely.
- Once the cookies are completely cooled, whisk together the powdered sugar, rice milk, and the natural green food color to make the green icing.
- Drizzle the icing on the completely cooled cookies.
- Enjoy!
Notes
Nutrition
Sarah Jane Parker is the founder, recipe creator, and photographer behind The Fit Cookie. She’s a food allergy mom and allergy friendly food blogger of 12 years based in Wyoming. Sarah is also an ACSM Certified Personal Trainer, ACE Certified Health Coach, Revolution Running certified running coach, and an ACE Certified Fitness Nutrition Specialist
Can the palm oil shortening be substituted for vegan butter?
Hi Clary, I think dairy free butter would work ok in this recipe in place of the palm oil, as long as it’s DF butter that’s fairly firm at room temp (such as Country Crock plant butter sticks or Violife butter), vs a really thin dairy free butter like Earth Balance. I want to revisit this recipe eventually and try it with dairy free butter to see how it works out.
These cookies look perfect!! And just in time for Christmas 🙂
Thanks Neta, they are delicious!