cookies and a question

My friend Helene recently shared a wonderful gluten-free cookie recipe with me. She said it was so fabulous that she was going to have to freeze the cookies, otherwise she was afraid she might eat them all. Frozen cookies have never stopped me, sometimes they are even better that way.

Helene's Coconut Almond Cookies:

1 c. coconut Flour
1 1/2 c. Almond Meal
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 c. butter
1/4 c. honey
1 Tbsp Almond Extract

Mix the dough together in a cuisinart until a ball forms
Freeze dough for approximately 30 mins
Preheat oven to 350 deg F
Roll dough between two sheets of was paper
Cut cookies using a cookie or biscuit cutter
Bake for 7 mins, remove to wire rack to cool

While we were talking Helene also asked if there were any eggs in shortbread.
The answer is no. Shortbread is a particular type of cookie that has a 1-2-3 recipe. One part sweetener (usually sugar), two parts butter (or other shortening), three parts flour (although old-fashioned shortbread was and is made with oats) and then enhanced with flavorings and or spices. The "short" refers to the crumbly dough. Fat retards gluten so even if you used wheat flour, the high amount of fat would prevent the dough from forming long gluten strands.

Shortbread cookies are typically baked low and slow so they will be very light in color. They can be formed in long rectangles, also called fingers, large circles which are cut into triangles as soon as they are removed from the oven, or small round biscuits. Although most people think of them as Christmas cookies, shortbread can also be made savory (such as this Parmesan Shortbread from Epicurious).

picture courtesy of commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Shortbread_fingers.jpg