Cornstarch Cookies

So this post is basically for a friend, who recently asked around for holiday cookie recipes that might also be gluten-free. I immediately thought of one of my favorite cookies, which come in many forms & by many names: melting moments, Mexican wedding cookies, Russian Tea Cakes, Suriname cookies... well the one thing these cookies all have in common is they rely on cornstarch more than flour for their powdery, melt in your mouth consistency. It took some googling but I finally came across a recipe that used ALL corn starch to make it's dough- Brazilian Biscoitos de Maizena

Kind of a side note: It's important to me when I am cooking/baking to be using ingredients that are easily accessible. Even with allergies, the only thing new we really have grown dependent on with Vinh's dairy allergy in our cooking and baking is Earth Balance (though it's a relief to have a good selection of other soy/almond/coconut dairy products, from milk to yogurt and ice cream, at all our basic local grocery stores and even Super Target). I really don't like specialty food store shopping or buying more than 1 thing I wouldn't normally keep in the pantry. We spend way too much on food already, ha. So basically, I don't have any cool ($$$) coconut/hazelnut/brown rice/gluten free flour laying around, but I do have corn starch!

I passed that recipe along to Erin without testing it and she reported back that although the dough was delicious, the cookies MELTED when she tried to bake them !! Yeeeesh, not good. So I had to try out a batch for myself to see what might have gone wrong, and as I was working the dough I started to suspect 2 cups was not enough cornstarch. Sure enough, the cookies spread into huge pools as they sat their 8 minutes in the oven... so I decided to make another batch, using the whole box of corn starch (16 oz box, maybe that's what they meant by 2 cups?). My mixer wouldn't quite allow the whole box, but close. At this point it wasn't really any one recipe though so I figured I should write up my own, hopefully more clear version of this tasty, versatile Christmas cookie recipe.



Brazilian Cornstarch Cookies

1 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cups unsalted butter at room temp (or earth balance)
1 egg
1 tsp pure vanilla extract (or almond, if you want them to taste more like spritz)
1/2 tsp salt (no salt if using salted butter or margarine)
pretty much a whole 16 oz box of corn starch


heat the oven to 375 and grease cookie sheet or line with parchment

cream butter and sugar well, add egg and vanilla until just blended.

add the corn starch slowly in small batches with mixer on low, keep adding in small batches until you begin to form a dough. when the dough is no longer sticky (but still soft enough that it can be worked by a mixer/pushed through a cookie press) pull it out, form it into a ball, and set it to rest for 15 minutes.

the dough can be rolled into small (smaller than golf ball) balls in the palms, or rolled out and cut with cookie cutters, or pushed through a cookie press, or spread out flat in a pan like a shortbread- like I said, versatile! use sprinkles before baking or dust with powdered sugar after they have baked and cooled.

space them well on your greased cookie sheets as I found they spread even with plenty of cornstarch (could have been the margarine some too!) and bake for about 7-9 minutes, depending on size, until they no longer look wet in the centers. cornstarch cookies do not need to brown like may traditional cookies :)



rolled into balls and spaced out on the cookie sheet


cooked, cooled, and dusted with powdered sugar


rolled out, cut with cookie cutters, sprinkled


the first batch, sad, melty, not enough corn starch, but still delicious enough to willingly burn one's tongue on...



Vinh ate about 5 of that messed up first batch without blinking an eye and is asking me for one again now, a few hours later, so there's your verdict! An easy Christmas cookie dough that can be used many ways and that is gluten/dairy free.