December 2022 – Live the Crazy Life

I must confess I do like to bake. But somehow I like it even more in the winter and at Christmas. It’s just not fun to bake when it’s 100 degrees. But now its cool/cold-ish and I am baking away. It helps that I have a women’s Christmas event that I am baking for at my church too!

I avoid gluten but am not celiac so I can eat it. My mom however is and she doesn’t eat gluten at all. My daughter in law is dairy free and I wanted to make something for people whose allergies or health issues cause them to not eat certain foods. I found a recipe called Coffee Kisses. They were simple and cute as you piped the dough with a star tip and a piping bag into a beautiful swirl. The recipe was not gluten or dairy free, but I thought I would give the recipe a try and swap the butter for a vegan one and the flour for one that’s gluten free. Everything was working out. I got the dough piped out real nice and they looked perfect. I popped them in the oven and waited….

Here is what the first ones looked like after they baked. So flat!

What came out was super flat coffee crisps. My kids said they tasted great. I was disappointed. So I tweaked the recipe a bit more adding more gluten free flour to stiffen the dough and adding baking powder. The result was a dough that did hold its shape but wouldn’t go through the piping bag.

Since the recipe was called Coffee Kisses, I had the idea to shape the dough into the Hershey chocolate kiss shape and bake them. They turned out great. They for sure look homemade but that’s ok because they are. Once you drizzle a little chocolate on top they are perfect. The good news is now anyone can make these – no piping bag or star tips required. Just a mixing bowl a cookie sheet the ingredients and your own two hands.

For all my gluten free, dairy free friends out there I got you covered with this recipe that you WILL be able to make on your own!

Here’s the recipe:

2.5 cups gluten free flour (I used Cup 4 Cup multipurpose gluten free flour)

2 sticks and 2.5 tbsp vegan butter (I used Earth Balance)

1 cup powdered sugar

2 tsps instant coffee

2 tbsp hot water

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp vanilla

and a few shakes of the salt shaker.

Directions

Mix the instant coffee in the hot water and stir. Blend the butter and the sugar until creamy. Since it is dairy free butter it isn’t as hard as regular butter so you don’t have to bring it to room temp to mix it! Bonus!! Once that is blended add 1 cup of the flour mix until blended, then add the coffee and water mix, the vanilla, baking powder, salt and the rest of the flour. Mix until well blended. I have a Kitchen Aid mixer that I used but a handheld mixer would work just as well. I did end up mixing the last bit of flour in by hand.

Pre-heat your oven to 325. Spray a cookie sheet with cooking spray. Then take about 2tsp of dough and roll into a ball. Pinch the top to form the peak of a the kiss like a Hershey kiss has. Place cookies spaced out evenly on a cookie sheet and bake for 12 mins.