One of the best things about Rebecca Reilly's wonderful book, Gluten-Free Baking, is that the recipes hail from Maine and share heritage with the recipes of Atlantic Canada that my family grew up with and that we continue to crave despite dietary limitations. Her soft molasses cookies taste like my grandmothers' kitchens used to smell and are every bit as good as the wheatier variety, especially fresh out of the oven. This recipe is adapted, but not by much, from her book. But buy the book. You need it.
3/4 cup amaranth flour
3/4 cup brown rice flour
1/2 cup potato starch
1/4 cup tapioca starch
1/4 cup soy flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 rounded tsp ginger
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cloves
1/2 tsp xanthan gum
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup molasses
1 large egg
1/2 cup buttermilk
Preheat the oven to 350F.
In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar; mix in sugar, molasses, and egg.
In a small bowl, whisk together flours and starches with ginger, cinnamon, cloves, and xanthan gum.
Add dry ingredients to molasses mixture alternately with the buttermilk, in three additions.
Refrigerate dough for an hour, if you have the time and patience. (I didn't, and no loss to the cookies' quality.)
Spoon rounded tablespoons of dough onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper or silicon baking sheet. Bake for approximately 12 minutes in the preheated oven. When done, the cookies will spring back blithley from a light touch.
Allow cookies to cool on pans for five minutes, then transfer to racks to complete cooling.
Makes about 32 cookies.
