Heart glass valentine cookies – gluten free

I’ve always been fascinated by “glass cookies” and I always wanted to try this recipe. I used a gluten free cookie dough already tested with A+ results and I just added the “glass” effect. Being S.Valentine around the corner the heart shape was a must.

Final result: me and Luca playing with the cookies in front of the window for almost one hour. He didn’t want to eat the cookie up until after sunset and he left one to play the following day again 🙂

I started with the cookie dough (gluten free!!) creating a smooth butter and sugar cream. I used a wooden spoon, but you’re more than welcome to use a kitchen mixer.

That’s a very important part when you are preparing any cookie dough. It really makes the final result taste different!!

I added the almond flour and the rice flour to the buttery cream and all the other ingredients (salt and vanilla) and mixed everything together for few minutes. I finished working dough with my hands for few minutes in order to obtain a compact but soft dough.

I wrapped the dough in some plastic paper and placed it in the refrigerator for 30min. Meanwhile I had fun smashing the hard candies with a kitchen millet. I placed them in a double plastic bag to avoid extra mess 🙂 I wanted to obtain a hard candy powder.

After 1/2 hour the cookie dough was hard enough to be rolled and cut in cookies. I used a special cookie cutter for this recipe with a heart-in-circle shape that my mom gave to me for Xmas (thanks mom!!). It is a faster way to prepare those cookies, but you can always use two separate cookie cutters: a big one and a small one for the center, it works too!!

Place the cookies on a parchment paper foil and cook them in the oven (already preheated!) at 400F. for 5 minutes.

Remove them from the oven and with a teaspoon delicately fill the central heart with the hard candy powder. Be careful not to place any powder on the cookie dough part or too much powder in the center…you might end up with not so perfect cookies 🙂

Place the cookies back in the oven for another 5 minutes, the candy will melt again forming a nice and uniform glass layer. When the cookies are cooked, remove them from the oven and let them cool down for 10 minutes, you want the candy layer to get dry and solid again.

If you want to use those cookies as a decoration, before cooking them you can make a hole on the top part with a straw and when they will be baked place a nice ribbon to play with them in front of the window like we did 🙂

Have fun and enjoy them!

ciao, b