December 2011
This is one of the recipes for Christmas Cookies that is gluten free. I’m not necessarily a GF baker, but the recipe is purely almond meal, so no wheat flour. That said, I personally don’t have a GF kitchen … I make sure that everything is cleaned and such before I bake the GF ones, but if one is a celiac or has some other massive adverse reaction to gluten, then I can’t ever promise stuff *from my kitchen* is 100% GF. If you do have a gluten free kitchen and lifestyle, the recipe itself is a great one for those who can’t have wheat products.
This type of Christmas Cookie is called “Heidesand” — Heide is the word for heather (as in the plant) and Sand is … well, sand. I am not sure why they are called this and even after doing some research, I haven’t come up with a good story. In English, I’ve been calling them “Almond Sandies”. They are a lovely combination of almond and marzipan flavor. The effect of having a sugar ring that almost creates a “flower” around the outer rim is done by rolling the dough into a snake, then brushing liberally with egg yolk and rolling in sugar.