Today, these wedding cookies remain a nostalgic taste of tradition. For gluten-free baking, this recipe keeps the flavor but loses the gluten by using brown rice flour and tapioca flour to make them a delicious and inclusive treat for everyone to enjoy, regardless of dietary restrictions.

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Mexican Wedding Cookies

Flaky, light, and buttery, these tea cookies by the great Heather Hardcastle of Flour Craft Bakery are the perfect combination of salty and sweet, which, in our option is the difference between good polvorones and great polvorones. Take note: the dough needs to rest at least 2 hours before you shape and bake it. Also, you can easily make these vegan by swapping regular butter for vegan butter.

Prep Time 20 minutes minutes

Cook Time 18 minutes minutes

Resting time 2 hours hours 10 minutes minutes

Total Time 2 hours hours 48 minutes minutes

Servings 30 cookies

Calories 161kcal

Ingredients

• 2 cups pecan pieces
• 1 1/2 cups brown rice flour
• 1/2 cup tapioca starch
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon xanthan gum
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 14 tablespoons 1 3/4 sticks unsalted butter, cubed
• 1 cup powdered sugar

Instructions

• Combine the pecans, flour, tapioca starch, sugar, salt, xanthan gum, and cinnamon in a food processor. Process until the mixture resembles coarse meal and no large chunks of pecans remain. Add the butter all at once and pulse until the mixture forms into a dough.
• Divide dough in half and shape into disks. Wrap in plastic and chill until firm, at least 2 hours, and preferably overnight.
• Preheat the oven to 350°F. Pinch off 1-tablespoon pieces of chilled dough and roll between your hands to form balls. Space the cookies 1 inch apart on parchment paper–lined baking sheets. Chill the balls until firm, about 10 minutes.
• Bake until cookies are set in the middle and just golden brown around the edges, 15 to 18 minutes. Cool completely, then roll cookies in powdered sugar until fully coated.

Nutrition

Calories: 161kcal | Carbohydrates: 16g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 11g | Saturated Fat: 4g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 2g | Monounsaturated Fat: 4g | Trans Fat: 0.2g | Cholesterol: 14mg | Sodium: 82mg | Potassium: 55mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 8g | Vitamin A: 168IU | Vitamin C: 0.1mg | Calcium: 8mg | Iron: 0.4mg

Photo Maren Caruso

WHERE TO BUY: amazon.com

INGREDIENTS: Sugar, vegetable shortening [soybean oil, monoglycerides, tocopherols (antioxidant), ascorbic palmitate (antioxidant), gluten free oat flour, rice flour, cornstarch, rainbow sprinkles (sugar, palm kernel and palm oil, cornstarch, vegetable juice, sunflower lecithin, annatto extract, spiraling extract, turmeric, beta-carotene, paprika oleoresin, maltodextrin, carnauba wax, cellulose gum), tapioca starch, invert syrup, contains 2% or less of: potato starch, soy lecithin, sodium bicorbonate, natural flavor, maltodextrin, gum arabic, xxanthan gum, salt nonfat milk, ammonium bicarbonate

CONTAINS STATEMENT: Milk, Soy.

CERTIFIED GLUTEN FREE: Yes

OTHER HELPFUL INFORMATION: Kosher dairy. No peanuts. Contain no artificial flavors or ingredients. Produced in a facility that uses tree nuts.

REVIEW DATE: May 2019

NOTE: We only recommend products that we truly LOVE, use, and are confident to recommend. Thanks to affiliate partnership opportunities, we sometimes earn a small commission if you make a purchase through a product link on our site at no cost to you. But this has no influence on what we recommend. When we do score a few shekels, know that your purchase helps support our work to bring you trustworthy, unbiased information on an amazing gluten-free food and lifestyle.

The mix-ins make the cookie particularly exciting, but another interesting difference is the ingredients list; this mix doesn’t lean on flour, glutenous or gluten-free, for its body and texture. It’s based on a family recipe that the company calls “accidentally gluten free.” (See the ingredients list below to learn more about what’s inside.)

To make the 16-cookie mix, you need to add to the mix 1/4 cup of peanut butter, 1/4 cup of softened butter (use salted butter or add a pinch of salt to unsalted butter), and 1 egg.  The directions on the box recommend baking for 7 to 9 minutes at 350°F, but we found that we needed to add at least 5 to 7 extra minutes to achieve even the soft cookie phase. Also, we used a size #40 cookie scoop which helped form equal-size cookies with the sticky batter. 

The cookies are softest when warm right out of the oven, but also tasty when they firm up a bit as they cool. And did we mention the batter? Put it this way–it’s ALL good! 

WHERE TO BUY: Target; meliscookies.com for store locator

INGREDIENTS: Certified Gluten-Free Oats, Sugar, Brown Sugar, Chocolate Chips (Sugar, Chocolate Liquor, Cocoa Butter, Soy Lecithin, Vanilla Extract), M&M Milk Chocolate (Milk Chocolate–Sugar, Chocolate, Skim Milk, Cocoa Butter, Lactose, Milkfat, Soy Lecithin, Salt, Artificial Flavor–Sugar, Cornstarch, Less than 1%: Corn Syrup, Dextrin, Coloring including Blue 1 Lake, Yellow 6, Red 40, Yellow 5, Blue 1, Red 40 Lake, Blue 2 Lake, Yellow 6 Lake, Blue 2, Gum Acacia), M&M Peanut Butter (Milk Chocolate–Sugar, Cocoa Butter, Chocolate, Skim Milk, Milkfat, lactose, Peanuts, Soy Lecithin, Salt, Artificial Flavors–Peanut Butter–from Partially Defatted Peanuts–Sugar, Partially Hydrogenated Palm Kernel Oil, Less than 2%: Cornstarch, Dextrose, Corn Syrup, Natural Flavor, Salt, Gum Acacia, Coloring that includes Blue 1 Lake, Red 40, Yellow 6, Yellow 5, Blue 1, Blue 2, Red 40 Lake, Yellow 5 Lake, Blue 2 Lake, Yellow 6 Lake), Dextrin, Propyl Gallate (to maintain freshness), Baking Soda, Vanilla Flavor (Dextrose, Natural Flavor), Salt.

CONTAINS STATEMENT: Milk, Peanut, Soy.

CERTIFIED GLUTEN FREE: Yes

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Gluten-Free Polenta Cookies

Baking time will vary depending on the thickness of the cookies. The shaped dough needs to be frozen for at least four hours before baking and can be stored in the freezer up to four weeks. Enjoy the cookies fresh or store in an airtight container for up to three days.

Servings 24 (1-inch) cookies

Ingredients

• 1⁄3 cup (55 grams) fine brown rice flour
• 1⁄3 cup (40 grams) sorghum flour
• 1⁄4 cup (45g) potato starch
• 1⁄2 teaspoon (3 grams) baking soda
• 1⁄2 teaspoon (1 1⁄2 grams) xanthan gum
• 1⁄4 teaspoon (2 grams) sea salt
• 1⁄4 cup (28 grams) almond flour
• 1⁄3 cup (41 grams) cornmeal
• 1⁄2 cup sugar
• 1⁄2 cup cold unsalted butter cut into small cubes
• 1⁄2 cup finely chopped mixed dried fruit such as apricots, cranberries, and figs
• Zest of 1 small lime
• 1 extra-large egg
• 1⁄2 teaspoon gluten-free pure vanilla extract
• 1⁄2 teaspoon almond extract

Instructions

• Combine and sift into a mixing bowl the flours, potato starch, baking soda, xanthan gum, and salt. Add the almond flour, cornmeal, and sugar and mix to combine. Cut in the butter and mix until crumbs form, but do not overmix; you do not want a paste consistency.
• Stir in the dried fruit and lime zest in three batches. Add the egg, vanilla extract, and almond extract and mix well to incorporate.
• Divide dough into three equal portions. Form each portion into a log about 8 inches long and 1 inch wide. Wrap them individually in plastic wrap and freeze for at least four hours or overnight.
• Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper. Cut each frozen dough log into rounds 1⁄4 to 1⁄2 inch thick. Place the rounds 1 inch apart on the sheet pan. Bake until golden brown, 10 to 12 minutes. Let the cookies rest in the pan for 3 minutes, then transfer to wire racks to finish cooling.

Recipe Laverne Matias
Photography and Styling Erin Ng

WHERE TO BUY: amazon.com

INGREDIENTS: Sugar, rice flour, vegetable shortening, ascorbyl palmitate, cornstarch, tapioca starch, cocoa powder, gluten free oat flour, contains 2% or less of: potato starch, nonfat milk, xanthan gum, molasses, soy lecithin, sodium bicarbonate, salt, natural vanilla flavor, ammonium bicarbonate

CONTAINS STATEMENT: Soy, milk, egg, produced in a facility that uses tree nuts and oats.

CERTIFIED GLUTEN FREE: Yes

OTHER HELPFUL INFORMATION: Peanut- and egg-free, kosher

REVIEW DATE: July 2018

NOTE: We only recommend products that we truly LOVE, use, and are confident to recommend. Thanks to affiliate partnership opportunities, we sometimes earn a small commission if you make a purchase through a product link on our site at no cost to you. But this has no influence on what we recommend. When we do score a few shekels, know that your purchase helps support our work to bring you trustworthy, unbiased information on an amazing gluten-free food and lifestyle.

WHERE TO BUY: amazon.com

INGREDIENTS: Organic chocolate chunks* (organic evaporated cane sugar, organic cocoa paste, organic cocoa butter, non-GMO soy lecithin/emulsifier, organic gluten-free vanilla flavor. *Chunks may contain traces of milk protein due to manufacturing equipment.), brown sugar, organic white rice flour, organic evaporated cane sugar, organic non-GMO butter, organic eggs, organic tiger nut flour, guar gum, sea salt, organic gluten-free vanilla flavor, baking soda.

CONTAINS STATEMENT: Milk, soy and eggs. Produced on equipment that also makes products containing peanuts, almonds, walnuts, pecans, coconut, eggs, soy and milk.

CERTIFIED GLUTEN FREE: Yes

OTHER HELPFUL INFO: Non-GMO; 70% certified organic ingredients; free of artificial additives, hydrogenated oils and trans fats.

Reviewed July 2018

NOTE: We only recommend products that we truly LOVE, use, and are confident to recommend. Thanks to affiliate partnership opportunities, we sometimes earn a small commission if you make a purchase through a product link on our site at no cost to you. But this has no influence on what we recommend. When we do score a few shekels, know that your purchase helps support our work to bring you trustworthy, unbiased information on an amazing gluten-free food and lifestyle.