Gluten Free Casually: Angel Puffs

Angel Puffs! Traditionally they are rolled in powdered sugar to give them a "heavenly" look but I like to dress them up for the holidays. Since July 4th is just around the corner, I am making these with red, white & blue sprinkles for the kids. (I personally don't care for the taste of sprinkles...I know! I know! I must be the only person in the world that doesn't like sprinkles! I love the way they look but I don't like the flavor or texture of sprinkles!)

It is a very basic dough that you can use for a lot of different things. You can do it the traditional way and roll them into powdered sugar or you can roll them into colored sugar, cinnamon sugar, sprinkles, sweetened chocolate milk powder, poppy seeds, chia seeds, crushed nuts or even roll them out into cut out cookies. You can also add other items to the dough like mini chocolate chips, dried cranberries or add flavors. They even make great flavor packets for frosting that you can add to the dough or you can add a dry Jello packet or Crystal Light packet to the basic dough to change the flavor. It is very flexible. I like recipes like this because you can use a recipe that YOU KNOW WILL WORK and customize it! These cookies also work great for weddings, showers and holiday cookie plates because they don't contain nuts for those that may have a nut allergy and are simple to make. These are a softer texture rather than a crunchy shortbread type cookie.

I also like this recipe because it doesn't call for a lot of ingredients. I tweaked it to gluten free by substituting gluten free flour blend & adding an additional egg and a little more cream cheese than the original recipe. If you don't have a gluten allergy...you can follow this recipe except use regular flour in place of gluten free flour. If you have a dairy allergy then you can substitute a non-dairy cream cheese substitute & Crisco.


Ingredients I used to make the cookies

Angel Puffs Recipe:

1/2 cup butter, softened (you can substitute margarine but make sure it is 65% or more fat or it will contain too much water and texture won't be right)
4 oz. cream cheese, softened (I have used regular & light but not fat free!)
1 tsp. baking powder (I used Clabber girl brand which is labeled gluten free)
1/4 tsp. salt
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar (also called confectioner's sugar)
1 3/4 cup flour (I used Betty Crocker Gluten Free flour blend since I got it on sale. If your gluten free flour doesn't contain either guar gum or xanthan gum then you will need to add 1/2 tsp. If you are using regular flour then just omit it).

Beat the cream cheese and butter until creamy and smooth. Beat in eggs and powdered sugar. Add baking powder, salt & gluten free flour. Mix until smooth and well combined. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour. I used a cookie scoop to scoop out cookies so they would be evenly sized. Rolled them in sprinkles and then placed on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet. (I found that parchment paper is so much easier for clean up and is easier to get cookies off the sheet without breaking them!) Bake in pre-heated 350 degree oven for about 8-11 minutes. Don't over bake. They will come out soft but continue to set up as they cool. They aren't suppose to be crunchy cookies. Store cooled cookies in an airtight container to keep them fresh.