Catch the Buzz!

This past weekend was an awesome flurry of pixie-ish behavior, as I attended Mythic Faire in Hunt Valley. Holding true to my personal vendetta against hunger in my fellow miscreants with food allergies, my husband and I baked a huge double batch of gingerbread and a huge batch of honey cookies, and during panels I sent my husband around the marketplace with the containers to offer yummy awesomeness to whoever was hungry. Except for the one guy who insisted that he was going low-carb all the way, I think everybody was happy with the deal. (Low-carb folks, your recipes are coming, I promise!)

The story behind the Addictive Honey Cookies of Doom is actually a nice one, which ties in well with the mental image of Winnie the Pooh and his honey pot that I always get when talking about honey. So... Last year, a friend of mine emailed me a list of upcoming local events, and I was thrilled to see a Honey Harvest Festival in our area. Since I was working up a class schedule for the year (we home school), I plugged that in as one of our field trips. After all, any opportunity to learn about our food and where it comes from is a good one! Combine that with the fact that my son is a pint-size foodie, and there was going to be a Honey Tasting, and we were GOLDEN. In a flurry of inspiration, I themed that entire school week around honey and bees, and my kids still talk about it. This recipe is what we did for Art class that week. If you think making food isn't "real art", try saying that to a chef! Especially try saying that once you've seen a plate full of sparkling golden honey cookies, and most particularly if you're eating one at the time, because I dare *anyone* to be surly while eating one of these.

It is probably worth warning you all now, I have never seen anyone eat JUST ONE of these cookies. The batch (it really is not a doubled recipe) is enormous, but you will actually end up defending your house against Cookie Zombies once they run out. I bring them to parties just for the fun of watching them get decimated by people who would normally avoid anything wheat-free like The Plague. It has been the opinion of many that I secretly lace these things with narcotics. I don't. REALLY. They're just that awesome.

Addictive Honey Cookies of Doom
1 1/3 cups oil - I use soybean, but you can substitute anything with a light flavor
2 cups evaporated cane juice
2 eggs OR egg replacer equivalent
1/2 cup honey - you can experiment with different kinds, but standard cheap stuff works fine
4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 tsp REAL vanilla extract*

4 cups Pixie Dust (aka: 2 cups white rice flour, 1 cup garbanzo bean flour, 1 cup tapioca starch)
sparkly sugar for rolling - I use Sugar In the Raw



* I only use real vanilla in my cooking. The difference between real and fake vanilla flavoring is STAGGERING, and frankly not worth the couple-bucks-per-bottle price difference. Alcohol-free varieties work just fine in this recipe, if that's a concern, but I tend to stick with the bourbon-based ones, because alcohol-free will cost you about double the price of regular vanilla.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper. I could write a love song about parchment paper and baking, but I won't. Just trust me.

In a medium bowl, if you haven't pre-mixed it, mix the flours together for your pixie dust.

In a large mixing bowl, stir together the oil, evaporated cane juice, eggs (or magic "eggs"), honey, baking soda, salt and vanilla. Mix it all together well. Make sure to scrape the extra honey out of the measuring cup with a spoon, so you've got enough in the recipe.

Once those ingredients are well mixed, add in the Pixie Dust, and stir until it is just mixed in. It will be a very sticky mixture, and the oil will leach out as it sits, so keep your mixing spoon handy.

Pour a LOT of sparkly sugar into a shallow bowl or deep plate.

Shape the cookie dough into balls about 1" thick or smaller (they spread as they cook), and then roll the dough balls in sparkly sugar. Add more sparkly sugar to the bowl as needed. As you work, if you notice a pool of oil appearing around the cookie dough in the mixing bowl, grab your mixing spoon and stir it together again to keep the dough from getting dry. It is probably worth mentioning that, if you're not used to rolling dough balls in sugar, the first time you make these it will take a REALLY LONG TIME. I promise the time involved gets much shorter the second time, and shrinks a bit more after that.

Place the cookie dough balls on the cookie sheet fairly well apart - remember, these little guys like to spread out as they bake! Bake them for 10-12 minutes, or until they're nicely golden, a little dark around the edges, and have a crackly-looking surface. Mine tend to take 15 minutes, because my oven gets huffy about three full racks at the same time.

This recipe makes AT LEAST 7 dozen cookies. If you share, they will be gone in 3 days.

Safe for the following allergies: dairy, egg, gluten, wheat, corn, oats, barley, tree nuts, peanuts, shellfish, soy (if you use a different oil), nightshades (if you use eggs - every brand of egg replacer uses potato starch!)

You all may have noticed that I specify evaporated cane juice in my recipes, instead of just saying "sugar". That is because most brands of white sugar in the United States are made with beet sugar, which leaves me feeling jittery and weird, and tends to make kids crazier when the sugar high hits. You can use it if you want, I just really don't like to use it if I can help it. No one else seems to notice a particular taste difference.

Bonus Mod: If you are a big fan of teacake-style cookies, my husband discovered an equally-tasty variant of the Addictive Honey Cookies of Doom. One day, that wonderful man made a batch of cookies for me...and FORGOT to add the egg replacer! Those little balls of honey goodness baked up just fine, but they didn't spread out like they usually do, so they ended up basically the same shape and consistency as Mexican Wedding Cookies. No lie. So if you like your cookies dense and rounded, just leave out the eggs.

Yeah, we're the Original Outlaw Recipe Modders. Fear our mad baking skillz.