Rumpledoodles With Honey Glaze (Gluten free, refined sugar free, dairy free and oat free options)

Lumpy the Heffalump copyright Walt Disney World Corp.

Lumpy the Heffalump:  "Do you have any Rumpledoodles?"
Roo:  "What are those?"
Lumpy:  "They're like biscuits.  They go very well with honey."  (quoted from "The Haffalump Movie)

One of the benefits (and detriments) of not having cable or satellite in the house is that what is old is new again to my kids all the time.  So, when my daughter found "The Heffalump Movie" at the used store and begged to get it, I agreed to do so knowing full well that the children would want to put it on constant repeat for weeks and it'd slowly eat into my brain until I would hear the voices in my sleep.

And hey, I was right!

But, as any parent of a Winnie the Pooh fan can attest, kids LOVE anything to do with the Hundred Acre Wood and this movie, for my daughter, was no different.

So, a couple of days ago, out of the blue, while mom was trying to get the songs of Carly Simon out of her head from the movie (mainly by singing, "You're So Vain" to herself over and over again), the daughter unit looked over and asked, "Mom, could you make Rumpledoodles?"

I, never one to shirk from a challenge (this is not always a character strength, mind you), I quickly found that the movie we got came with a recipe for the aforementioned cookie/biscuit.

Unfortunately, I swear, the people who WROTE said original recipe were on some type of mind altering drugs.

The original recipe is shown above.  As soon as I saw things like no binders really to speak of in said recipe (unless you counted the molasses) and the TABLESPOON of baking soda called for, I knew that the recipe would be dry, crumbly, burn super fast and would taste salty as all get out because of all the baking soda and salt in the recipe.  And hey, I must be getting better at recipes because when I went online and checked it out, loe and behold all the online reviews agreed with what the outcome I had foreseen.

 So, I knew that the first thing I'd have to do is just scrap the original recipe completely (instead of figuring out tweaks to make it gluten free and so forth), figure out the flavor components and rebuild it (great...now I have "The Million Dollar Man" opening theme in my head).

A couple of warnings.  One:  These things are addicting.  They are just the right type of crunchy cookie.  Not hard enough that they are bricks, but not super soft like a lot of gluten free baked cookies tend to be.

Two:  Be sure to put the honey glaze on when you are serving them as it IS sticky (I wanted to go for refined sugar free so I avoided putting confectioners sugar in the glaze) .  Also, I made this recipe twice, once with cow dairy in the form of butter and once with Earth Balance butter alternative (I also switched out the oats for quinoa flakes in the second batch, just to see how it would go).  Both, for ME, came out good.  I did not try this with coconut oil though as I don't cook with it much (son reacts to pure coconut oil, so I tend to save it for skin creams and such for friends and family members) and I didn't omit the coconut from the recipe completely as it is a BIG part of the original recipe (although, honestly, I bet you could omit it if you wanted and just add some more dried fruit or something instead).

So, here you go folks.  Pull up a seat at the table with your favorite Heffalump fan and enjoy some gluten free Rumpledoodles today!

 Rumpledoodles With Honey Glaze (Gluten free, refined sugar free, dairy free and oat free option)

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup Gluten Free Oats (I used quick oats for this as that's what I had in the house), Or Quinoa Flakes
• 1/4 cup palm sugar
• 1/4 cup almond meal (I use Honeyville)
• 1/4 cup sorghum flour
• 1/4 cup brown rice flour
• 1/4 cup tapioca starch
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. xanthum gum or guar gum
• 1/2 tsp. salt (I used sea salt)
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/4 cup raisins
• 1/4 cup coconut (I used a finely grated coconut for this)
• 1 TBS molasses
• 1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened (or butter alternative)
• 1 egg 
• 1 Recipe Honey Glaze (recipe follows)

Procedure:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Prepare two baking sheets with parchment paper.

Mix oats, palm sugar, almond meal, sorghum flour, brown rice flour, tapioca starch, baking soda, xanthum gum, salt, cinnamon, raisins and  coconut in a mixing bowl and using a large whisk (or your clean hands), mix well until all items are combined well.

Meanwhile, in the bowl of your stand mixer, combine egg, butter and molasses and beat until well combined.

Dump dry ingredients into wet ingredients and mix until well combined and a dough forms (it will be sticky).  Drop by rounded teaspoons onto parchment lined baking sheets and then press cookies down slightly with your hand to make a flat top (you want a cookie, not a ball is a good way to think about it). 

Bake at 350 degrees (Fahrenheit) for 12 minutes, rotating pans halfway through baking (if you need to with your oven...I most definitely need to).

Let cool completely on baking sheets.  Makes about 1 1/2 dozen cookies.

While your cookies are cooling prepare your honey glaze (or wait until you are going to eat said cookies to make your honey glaze).

Honey Glaze for Rumpledoodles (refined sugar free)

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup honey (great use for dark, older and strong flavored honey!)
  
• 1 TBS. palm sugar
• 1/2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
• 2 TBS butter or butter alternative

Procedure:

1.  Combine all ingredients in a small saucepan set over low heat and heat until sugar is dissolved and butter is melted completely.  Let cool to room temperature (mixture will thicken a bit as it stands)

2.  Take cookies still on parchment paper and drizzle honey glaze over the top of the cookies with a spoon (this is great fun for kids to do as the parchment paper will help you from making a big sticky mess).

3.  Once cookies are coated, let sit for a few minutes and either consume in copious amounts or place carefully on a plate and store in the fridge until ready to consume (it'll help the cookies keep for one and it'll also help to set the glaze further).

Note on the glaze.  You are probably going to have extra, so don't stress about trying to get all the glaze on the cookies.  Now you COULD double it and it makes an awesome syrup for pancakes once your finished.  My husband's idea *laugh*.

Best eaten.  Period ;).

Enjoy!


This post is linked to Gluten Free and DIY Tuesdays, and Gluten Free Wednesdays

NOTE:  Lumpy the Heffalump, Roo, Winnie the Pooh (and all associated characters, environments, etc) and Rumpledoodles are owned lock, stock and proverbial barrel by Walt Disney World Corp.  I in NO WAY own those things and make no claim to them, at all.  Thank you!