Gluten Free Thumbprint Cookies

I am totally down with thumbprint cookies. They are both appealing to the eye and to the taste buds. I attempted to make a gluten free thumbprint this evening. I think it was a good shot. I have not had many gluten free cookies, so it's hard for me to tell what is good or meh. I'm going to need some taste testers.

I was perusing the bulk bins at Good Earth in Broadripple and found some awesome gluten free ingredients. I picked up some brown rice flour and some buckwheat flour. Got them home and the experiment began.

I substituted the buckwheat and rice flour for the all purpose wheat flour that I ususally use in our Thumbelinas. I found that the dough was too loose. It needed more flour. I was worried that it would be too floury, so I threw in some powdered sugar, too.

The touch test never fails.

My guess work paid off. This is what the consistency should look like.

I would have prefered using blueberry jam, but there was none to be found in my pantry. Regular, boring, ol' grape had to do.

Here are these earthy looking, gluten free bites. My roommies said that they looked like stone. Yes, slightly. They held up well - no crumbling. The taste - grainy... (Can this be avoided with gluten free cookies?) but not bad. More feedback after some taste testing. Overall, not a bad attempt.

etsy love!!!

Even though The Hot Cookie etsy shop has only been open one week we are getting lots of love from the community there. Pattie from Structured Chaos featured us in her blog. You can read the post right here. Be sure to check out the rest of her blog for more amazing tips and finds.

Our Raspberry Thumbelinas were also featured in an etsy storque article about eco-friendly wedding favors. Christine did an amazing job of putting together a collection of unique and adorable items that anyone would love to receive.

Keep checking our shop as we are constantly updating our flavor offerings and will soon be listing assorted packages and wedding favor packages.

Open Shop!

Hey everyone, Sarah here. I was just too excited about this, I had to blog. The wonderful Karli has been working diligently at getting an online store for The Hot Cookie. We now have an online shop!

Check it out at www.thehotcookie.etsy.com.

The coolest part is that the first day the shop was up, we had a customer! The shop is barely two days old and we've had two customers! Whoop! More flavors will be added tomorrow.

Gotta love the internet!

Also, a side note, a fella tasted one of our Peanut Butter Uglies today and he said, "I mean this as a high complement, your cookies make me homesick."
Que the "Awwws".

Return to the hazelnut cookie.

Our hazelnut cookie is a fickle, unpredictable dough. So I tried to totally revamp it. I threw in some cream cheese and messed with the flour to hazelnut spread ratio. I thought I had a winner, but it only came in fourth place. No good!

I was really skeptical at this stage. The dough was really runny. I didn't want to put any more flour in the batter in fear of making the dough tough and altering the taste drastically.

So I chilled the dough for awhile. These dough balls look like they have some potential. Misleading dough balls.

Out of the oven, they were initially nice and puffy, but that lasted only a minute or two.

They shrank into their firmiliar waffer thin thickness. The taste - delicious. The texture - border line too chewy. Appearance - TOO THIN!
Hazelnut cookies, still a work in progress.

Vegan Cookie Success!

This lovely recipe was given to me by fellow SI member, Larua Frank. We have had so many requests for vegan cookies. The public asked, and they will receive. I give you the Oatmeal Peanut Butter cookie, which happens to be vegan friendly. Ta-da!

Star player - soy milk. No butter or eggs here. I was a bit skeptical at first, but after tasting the end result, all is good; very, very good.

Yum yum dough. Oats and peanut butter. I would have never thought to put them together.

I divided the dough in half; put chocolate in one half and left the other half plain.

Testing flavors at home gives me relief from scooping out hundreds after hundreds of miniature dough balls. Only regular sized dough balls for my taste testers.

Look at it. Crunchy outside, chewy inside, perfect.

These are just like the vegan cookies in my dreams. They are delicious as cookies, just plain cookies, let alone vegan friendly cookies. I am pleased. I still want to have another variety of vegan cookie. More on that later. We will eventually have gluten free cookies. (Those are even harder to hone.... meh.) More cookie blogs and testing soon!

Retail Packaging

The Hot Cookie is very excited to be entering our first retailer this afternoon. You will now be able to purchase boxes of a dozen assorted cookies at Good Earth in Broad Ripple. Our assortments come in Nut Lovers (peanut butter uglies, honey almond drops and the antioxidant) Chocolate Lovers (double fudge drops, double chocolate chunk, toffee shortbread bites with chocolate drizzle and peanut butter cups) and the Classic Assortment (St. Louis specials, oatmeal raisin, Thumbelinas and white chocolate & cranberry). Stop by Good Earth at 6350 Guilford Ave for a box of your own. They come packaged in a recycled paperboard boxed, tied with a red ribbon and stamped with The Hot Cookie logo.


Here are the boxes awaiting delivery to Good Earth.

Woo Hoo Publicity!

Karli and I have been really lucky this month with gaining publicity for The Hot Cookie. We had the fortune to have been asked by three, count 'em three, different media venues.

-Oseye Boyd interviewed us on Friday for an article that will run in the Muncie Star Press newspaper. If you get that paper, look for the article later this month. -Fellow SI member, Jennifer Litz asked us to do a video blog for Nuvo. It will air on Wednesday. Please ignore how camera shy we are. :)-We will also be mentioned on AroundCarmel, an online publication that shares info about what's going on in Carmel. Freelance writer, Jeremy Glowacki, interviewed us and his article will air on Wednesday as well.

We are so excited and thankful for being recognized. Thanks go out to Jennifer Litz, Jeremy Glowacki, Oseye Boyde, Debra Dragoo, and everyone else who has helped propel our little business forward. Thanks so much!

Whoopie Pies

I read an article in The New York Times about how whoopie pies were the new "it" dessert. Apparently they originated from the Amish and were named because when the men saw one in their lunch they would yell "Whoopie!" I decided to try out making my own whoopie pie to see if it was something The Hot Cookie could sell as a special or seasonal item. I also wanted to try out my new Kitchen Aid mixer. Teehee!Whoopie pies are composed of two parts - the chocolate tops and bottoms and the cream filling. You start out making the tops and bottoms. First cream butter and brown sugar.

Then add the egg and vanilla.
Next mix together the dry ingredients in a separate bowl including the flour, baking soda, salt and cocoa.Then add in the dry ingredients in 3 parts alternating with the buttermilk and make sure it is incorporated before adding more.
Once the batter is fully mixed use an ice cream scoop to lay out the batter on parchment lined baking sheet. Note: the recipe I used made 12 HUGE tops and bottoms or a total of six pies. If you have a smaller scoop you could use that to get more appropriately sized pies.

Bake the tops and bottoms for 12-14 minutes. When the are finished the should look like this:

While the chocolate parts are baking you can begin mixing together the buttercream filling. In a double boiler mix together egg whites and sugar just until the sugar is dissolved.

Once the sugar is dissolved transfer the liquid to your mixer bowl and use the whisk attachment. You want to whisk the liquid on high until it doubles in size and is white and shiny.

Then add the vanilla and butter about 1/2 a tablespoon at a time until fully blended and smooth.


Once the cream is mixed use an ice cream scoop to place cream on top of a chocolate bottom and use a knife to spread the cream to the edges.

Finally place another chocolate cookie on top and you have a whoopie pie.

Here is my husband, Travis, enjoying one!