Gluten Free Casually: Sunshine Cookies

Sunshine Cookies! I love lemon flavored desserts. Since I had a refrigerator full of lemons I decided to try making a cookie similar to a chocolate chip cookie but made with some lemon rind & white chocolate chips. Rather than search the internet, I just grabbed one of my favorite chocolate chip cookie recipes and tweaked it some to make these. The result was yummy. (Since it was raining in Arizona today - a rare thing - I decided I needed a little sunshine of my own making. Hence the name...Sunshine cookies! :)

Sunshine Cookie Recipe:

2 1/2 cups flour (I used my gluten free flour blend - recipe below. If you don't have a gluten allergy then by all means just use regular flour)
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup (1 stick) real butter, softened but not melted
1/2 cup butter flavored Crisco
2 tbs. fresh lemon juice
grated lemon rind (I used about 3-4 tbs. from 3 medium lemons)
1 tsp. baking soda
1 1/2 tbs. custard powder (I use Hearth Club or Weikfield brand which you can usually find in either the baking isle or the pudding isle) but if you don't have it you can substitute dry vanilla pudding mix or just omit it. (I like to use it especially when using gluten free flour blends because it gives a little elasticity to the dough)
1/2 tsp. salt
2 cups white chocolate chips (I used Nestle mini white chocolate chips)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Beat the sugars, Crisco, butter and eggs until fluffy. Add the lemon juice and lemon rind. Then beat in the custard powder, flour, baking soda & salt. Beat until well combined, about 1-2 minutes. Stir in white chocolate chips. Drop onto non-greased cookie sheets about 2-3 inches apart. Bake 10-12 minutes or until lightly golden in color.

Note: If you prefer crispier cookies, substitute additional 1 stick of real butter in place of the Crisco. The Crisco will give the cookies a fluffier, softer texture (which my husband prefers) while the real butter will give the cookies a crispier flatter texture. If substituting margarine, make sure the fat content is at least 65% for the best baking. You can also substitute raw sugar in place of both the brown & the granulated sugars if you prefer.

Gluten Free Flour Blend Recipe:

1 1/2 cups brown rice flour
1 cup white rice flour (I used sweet rice flour for this batch)
1/2 cup glutinous rice flour (made from sticky rice, gluten free)
1 cup potato starch (not flour)
1/2 cup nonfat dry milk, make sure it is very fine in texture
1 cup corn starch or tapioca starch (I used corn starch for this batch)
3 tbs. xanthan gum

Combine all ingredients together well. I store mine in a glass container and use it in place of regular flour in all my recipes. This particular blend I really like for baked sweet goods.