I need a favor. You up for it?
Yesterday, I learned from someone I trust that the phrase “good, for gluten-free,” and the attitude it represents, just isn't going to budge any time soon. I heard that it was uttered by some of the most important food writers in the U.S. They said it because that's what they still think. They weren't trying to be elitist or unfair or unkind. They weren't trying to hurt anyone's feelings, and they weren't trying to dumb us down. It's just that that's what they think it is supposed to be like. Their standards are very low, which means that the food media doesn't want to cover gluten-free food much at all. Gluten-free is still the ugly stepchild of the food world. And it's driving me up the WALL.
That media and cultural bias is part of the reason that I love making gluten-free clone recipes. Like gluten-free Milano cookies. And gluten-free Chips Ahoy! cookies. And gluten-free Ritz crackers. And gluten-free Thin Mints.
And like these Nutter Butter-style cookies. So here comes the favor: I need you to bake, and I need you to share. I need you talk about it with everyone and anyone. Know anyone in the media? Get them to write about it. My books sell (thank you I love you thank you keep buying them please!!), but they really don't get a lot of press. Not because you don't want to hear about them, but because the media doesn't really want to talk about gluten-free food. And so the gluten-free marketplace is still crowded with products that aren't nearly good enough, for tons and tons of money. Nobody knows!! We know. But no one else knows. I really need you to spread the word. For real. I'm impatient for a better gluten-free marketplace, and now I'm really kinda mad. Not at you! But at the establishment. Now I'm a rebel! I know. A rebel with clone cookies. Not too scary.
Oh, and unless I sound like I think I'm all noble and stuff, I have to confess that it took me a truly embarrassingly long time to figure out that, to make a peanut shape out of these dead-ringer-for-the-real thing clone cookies, all I had to do was to use an oval cookie cutter (Ateco makes a whole set of them and I love sets of cookie cutters I really do) and just … pinch in the center. Duh, right?
And also I didn't make up how to make the criss-cross pattern on the tops of the cookies, so they even look just like the real thing. I read that someplace on the Internet, but I can't for the life of me remember where since I've been planning these cookies for a long time but was still hung up on the peanut shape. Don't ask.
So after all that, even if you're too tired or too busy or really really too tired to become a Gluten-Free Evangelist, you should totally make these cookies. Don't like/can't have peanut butter? Make them with no-stir almond butter instead. They'd be maybe even, dare I say it, better??
I couldn't show you a big photo of the inside of the cookies, because, well, the filling just doesn't look very pretty until it's covered. You know how some people just look amazing in clothes, but then you see them naked and you're like … meh? It's like that. Don't judge. Just bake. And spread the word!! Ugly stepchild no more. (If I came on too strong, I'm sorry and it's only out of l-o-v-e really it is).