Peppermint Ammonia cookies

I have had good success substituting a one-to-one gluten-free flour mix for the wheat flour.

This recipe is recorded in honour of my Aunt Holdina Voth who faithfully made these for us every Christmas.

The Mennonites that I grew up with called these Gruznikje (which is unpronounceable unless you speak Plautdietsch--Mennonite low german) or Pfefferminzküake. These are really tasty and not too difficult.

There are a few things to watch out for when you make these:

• The dough is really soft and sticky (if you make it correctly) so use quite a bit of flour when rolling it out and cutting the shapes.
• Also, do not over work the dough. The more you work it the tougher the cookies will be. You can try this for yourself, the best cookies are those worked minimally.
• Finally, I use flavouring labelled Pure Mint and Peppermint Extract. There is another kind called Pure Peppermint Extract which is yellower in colour. The latter is much stronger and I don't advise using it.

2 3/4  cups  flour
1            egg
1      tbslp butter
1      cup   cream
1      cup   white sugar
1      tblsp baking ammonia 
       (baking powder nowadays)
1      tblsp peppermint extract 
       (may be too much for some)

1) Cream the butter and sugar, add the egg 
   and flavouring then cream.
2) add the dry ingredients -- the dough should be soft.
   Do not overwork it.
3) Roll out (1 cm thick) and cut with cookie cutters

Bake carefully at a low temperature (165 °C)
for about 10 minutes. They should just have a hint 
of brown on the bottom.  These cookies get quite tough 
if they are overcooked.  Ice with a thin sugar icing,
dyed green of course!

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