Have you ever baked with freeze-dried fruit? My favourite is raspberry powder. It is tangy, flavourful, and adds the most beautiful colour to your baked goods! It’s also rich in nutrients since freeze drying does not involve high heat or additives. During the processes of freeze-drying, fruit is exposed to very cold air and the moisture instantly freezes and evaporates.
Inspired by the delicious freeze-dried raspberry powder I found a few days ago, I created this gluten free raspberry shortbread cookies recipe. To take it a step further and make it even more nutritious, I opted to use oat flour instead of regular wheat flour. Oat flour is a good source of nutrients such as protein, dietary fiber, iron, magnesium, and more! And in addition to that, oat flour doesn’t taste weird and funky, unlike other kinds of gluten free flours.
Note: Oats are naturally gluten free, however, sometimes they can get contaminated during processing or packaging. If you cannot tolerate gluten, I recommend you buy oats and oat flour that are certified gluten free.
Making the dough is similar to shortbread cookies made with wheat flour. However since oats lack gluten, this dough is a little bit more crumply. If you see cracks forming in the dough as you’re cutting shapes, it is normal. Try to smooth them with your fingers. Once the cookies bake and cool down, they will develop more structural integrity.
If you’re in a rush, you can make the cookie dough in advance, shape it and refrigerate overnight. The next day simply pop the pan from the fridge straight into the preheated oven.
Moreover, if you have extras and you wish to freeze the cookies, you can do so in self-sealing freezer bags.
See more cookie recipes here.
Here’s how to make the gluten free raspberry shortbread cookies:
Gluten Free Raspberry Shortbread Cookies
Ingredients
For the cookies
- 2 cups (200 g/ 7 oz.) oat flour
- 1 stick (115 g/ 4 oz.) unsalted butter, room temperature
- ½ cup (60 g/ 2 oz.) icing sugar
- 3 tbsp. freeze-dried raspberry powder
- 1 tbsp. vanilla sugar
- pinch of salt
- 2-3 tbsp. oat flour for dusting the work surface
For the glaze
- 100g (3 ½ oz.) semi-sweet chocolate
- 6 freeze-dried raspberries, crushed
Instructions
For the cookies
- Sift the oat flour and freeze dried raspberry powder in a bowl. Add salt and whisk them well together.
- In a large bowl, add the butter, icing sugar, and vanilla sugar. Using a stand mixer at low speed, or a wooden spoon, beat to a creamy and fluffy consistency.
- Slowly add the flour mix into the mixing bowl and continue mixing until well incorporated, and a soft dough forms. Gently flatten the dough to a disc of about 25 mm (1 inch) thickness. Then wrap it in plastic wrap and place it in the fridge for 30 minutes.
- On a lightly floured work surface, roll out the dough to 6 mm (¼ inch) thickness. Using a cookie cutter, cut out shapes, re-rolling the scraps until all the dough is used.
- Place the cookies 25 mm (1 inch) apart on a baking tray lined with parchment paper. Refrigerate them for 30 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 180 °C (350°F).
- Take the baking tray from the fridge and place it directly into the pre-heated oven. Bake for 12-14 minutes. Remove the tray from the oven and allow the cookies to cool on the tray for 10 minutes before transfer to a rack to cool completely.
- Note: Using a cookie cutter of 63 mm (2.5 inches) in size will result in 12 cookies. The number of cookies will vary with the size of the cookie cutter. The baking time will also differ with cookie size.
For the glaze
- Melt the chocolate in a bain-marie. Drizzle over cookies and sprinkle the crushed freeze-dried raspberries.
