Diabetic-Friendly and Gluten-Free Chinese Almond Cookies

 I am thankfully, neither diabetic nor gluten-intolerant but it just so happened that the recipe that caught my attention as I was browsing some of my recipe books was for these Chinese Almond Cookies made purely with brown rice flour, thus becoming gluten-free, and sweetened with only diabetic-friendly coconut sugar replacing all the sucanat/brown sugar originally called for in the recipe.  Since I eat Calrose brown rice on a daily basis, I had a lot on hand and milled my own flour using my hand-cranked grain mill which, by the way, took me what seemed like HOURS to finish.  I thought that milling only 2 cups of brown rice would be an easy task but I underestimated how hard the grains were and was only able to turn the crank close to 5 seconds each time.  The good thing about that snafu though was that I was able to get a good arm workout from it! :-)  If you're also milling your own brown rice flour for this recipe 3/4 - 1 cup of grains would suffice.

The cookies were really delicious with a nice sandy texture from the brown rice and just the right sweetness from the coco sugar.  This was so easy to make too -- well only if you don't count the milling part LOL -- and because of the lack of gluten in the brown rice flour, it's not sensitive to over-mixing as well.

Diabetic-Friendly and Gluten-Free Chinese Almond Cookies

(Adapted from the book "The Splendid Grain" by Rebecca Wood)

Yield: 16 to 18 cookies

3/4 stick unsalted butter

1/2 cup lightly packed coconut sugar*

1 large egg

1/2 teaspoon almond extract

1 1/2 cups brown rice flour (aerated in the container before measuring and leveling off)

1/4 teaspoon sea salt

16 - 18 blanched almonds

*You can also use either 1/2 cup Sucanat or 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar

Preheat the oven to 350 F.  Grease a cookie sheet and set aside.  Cream the butter and Sucanat in the mixing bowl until well mixed. The dough may be baked immediately or refrigerated, tightly covered, for up to 5 days.

Roll the dough into walnut-size balls (I used a small ice cream scoop to measure the dough).  Place 2 inches apart on the cookie sheet. Flatten with your fingertips.  Press an almond half into the venter of each cookie sheet.  Flatten with your fingertips.  Press an almond half into the center of each cookie.  Bake for about 12 - 15 minutes or until lightly golden.  Cool on wire racks.  May be stored in an airtight container for up to 1 week.