Cookies of Joy
From a baker, an “angel unawares”…music and a recipe for joy:
Today, I make Cookies of Joy to serve at tea time. Don’t you just love the name? The 12th-century recipe is attributed to Hildegard of Bingen and I play music written by her as I bake. What an amazing woman!
The original recipe calls for spelt flour and since it is a gluten-full flour I substitute gluten-free ingredients. It’s a good thing I downsize the recipe to just half because if I had made the full recipe I would joyfully have eaten my way through too many of them as they are very good.
May the making, eating, and sharing of all your bakes bring you joy.
Gluten-Free Cookies of Joy
Full recipe below makes about 32 cookies. Cut amounts in half to make about 16 cookies.
What I Use:
12 tablespoons butter, melted
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup local raw honey
4 egg yolks from large eggs
1 and 1/2 cup gluten free flour mix (I used Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free 1-to-1 Baking Flour Mix)
1/2 cup buckwheat flour
1/2 cup almond flour
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 tablespoon nutmeg, freshly ground
1 tablespoon Vietnamese cinnamon, ground
1 teaspoon cloves, ground
How I Make It:
While slowly melting the butter over a low flame, place all the ingredients in a large bowl. Add the butter and stir until everything is well and thoroughly mixed.
Cover the bowl with a beeswax wrap and set in fridge for an hour to chill and firm up a bit…although I cheated and pulled it out after 50 minutes.
Place dough on a floured surface and cut in half. Form each half into a log approximately 2” in diameter.
Slice in 1/4-1/3” rounds and place on a parchment lined baking sheet. You can also roll the dough out on the floured surface and cut into small circles with a glass or cookie cutter, re-rolling the trimmings and cutting out more circles.
Bake at 375F for 10 minutes. Cool for 5 minutes before moving cookies to a cooling rack to cool completely.
Eat joyfully!
Kate McDermott writes about hearth and home, baking and cooking, walks and biking, her garden and chickens, and a simple life in the Pacific Northwest. She has written three best selling and critically acclaimed cookbooks with personal narrative essays: James Beard Nominated Art of the Pie: A Practical Guide to Crusts, Fillings and Life (2016), Home Cooking with Kate McDermott (2018), and Pie Camp: The Skills You Need to Make Any Pie You Want (2020). She is also a gifted culinary teacher and speaker. Check out her newsletter, Kate McDermott’s Newsletter.