Gluten-Free Vegan Raspberry Jam Heart Cookies

Love is always in season! Originally conceptualized for Valentine’s Day, these little raspberry jam hearts are perfect for any time of year!

Slightly crunchy with just the right amount of sweet, the only special tools you need for these are two heart shaped cookie cutters that fit inside one another. The big heart shaped cookie cutter will be used for the cookies themselves, and the tiny heart shaped cookie cutter will be used to cut out the “windows” that let the raspberry jam shine through.

Let’s talk about the ingredients for a minute. Years ago, I originally formulated this with the Trader Joe’s gluten-free flour blend…and then, they completely changed their formula, which broke a bunch of my recipes!  So, I’ve been going through and reworking many of my gluten-free cookies to use my own custom yet simple flour combinations.  In the gluten-free flour world, substitution is difficult…so we definitely recommend using exactly what the recipe lists!

When making cookies, I nearly always use coconut oil.  It creates the mouth-feel that anyone who’s grown up eating traditional cookies is used to.  Definitely be sure your coconut oil is somewhat liquid before making this recipe, or it won’t blend well!

Xanthan gum is a white powder that serves as a binder for your gluten-free cookies.  Do not skip this!!! It’s one of those ingredients which is generally advisable to buy online instead of in-store. Why? It’s SO much cheaper. Plus, you can buy a wider variety of package sizes, so if you just want a tiny bit, you have that option. When buying online, though, be sure to double check that it’s FOOD-GRADE xanthan gum. This check is important, because manufacturers do also put out xanthan gum which ISN’T food grade, for use in cosmetics and the like.

Ingredients

• 3/4 c white sugar
• 1/2 c coconut oil
• 3/4 c brown rice flour
• 3/4 c potato starch
• 2/3 c chickpea flour
• 1/4 c applesauce
• 2 tbs arrowroot starch
• 1 tbs psyllium husk (not the powder, the husk)
• 1 tsp xanthan gum
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 4 oz raspberry jam (I used Trader Joe’s no sugar added organic raspberry jam)

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 375 degrees
• Combine ingredients in the order of appearance, starting with the buttery and sugary ingredients, and then folding in the flours and other ingredients, EXCEPT raspberry jam. Raspberry jam is for later!
• Roll out cookie dough using a rolling pin (or wine bottle) on a surface dusted with gluten-free flour. Roll to desired thickness. Mine were probably about 1/2 cm thick, maybe a tiny bit thicker.
• Use a large heart shaped cookie cutter to cut as many hearts as possible in the dough. Place on a baking sheet lightly greased with coconut oil or vegan margarine.
• In HALF of the cookies, (only half!) use the tiny heart shaped cutter to cut out the center. The result when all of this is done will be that half of your cookies are solid, half of them look like little heart shaped donuts, and also present are a bunch of tiny little heart shaped “donut holes”.
• Place the “donut holes” on a greased cookie sheet as well.
• Optional on this recipe, but helps with shape: Once each baking sheet is arranged, place it in the freezer for about 10-15 minutes.
• Remove the baking sheet full of cookies from the freezer and immediately bake in the preheated oven for about 7-8 minutes. Cookies are done *right* as you start to see the first signs of brown.
• Once cookies are done baking and have cooled, it’s time to start assembling. Take a solid cookie, place about 1 tsp raspberry jam in the center, and place a window cookie on top. Do this until all cookies are assembled. The baby heart “donut holes” are leftover; do what you wish with them 😛