Gluten Free Spumoni Cookies

These Gluten Free Spumoni Cookies are unlike any you’ve ever tried before. Loaded with chocolate, dried cherries, and pistachios, it’s a chewy and crunchy taste sensation! So good, they won a baking contest!

What Exactly is Spumoni?

Spumoni is a funny name for an interesting combination of flavors. DeLuca’s Restaurant in Lansing was the only place I knew that offered this ice cream made of three unique flavors. I always wanted to try this blend of chocolate, cherry and pistachio ice cream. Somehow, I never got around to ordering it.

I had a collection of pistachios, dried cherries and bittersweet chocolate chips in my kitchen. Since it’s cold here in Michigan, I wasn’t up to making my own spumoni ice cream. However, I imagined these ingredients would make for an amazing cookie. The blend of saltiness of the pistachios along with the sweetness of the chocolate makes for a blend of flavors that won’t soon be forgotten.

Therefore, Gluten Free Spumoni Cookies were born!

Which Gluten Free Flour Should I Use?

Please remember that different flour blends absorb moisture differently. When I first wrote this recipe, I used a Ryze gluten free flour. This company is no longer in business. Now I use King Arthur Measure for Measure. You can use a different blend, just remember that your results may vary.

Why I Recommend Chopping Your Pistachios

So, I followed a basic chocolate chip cookie recipe and added chopped pistachios and chopped dried cherries. I suppose you could leave them whole, but I like cookies that have a bit of each taste in every bite. When it comes to pistachios, I prefer to use Wonderful Pistachios, because they are specifically marked gluten free.

Why We Refrigerate Cookie Dough

When making a cookie dough, it’s always best to refrigerate your dough prior to baking. It helps the gluten free cookie dough hold its shape. It also allows the flavors of the ingredients to meld together.

I found that this Gluten Free Spumoni cookie dough, when refrigerated, doesn’t spread as much as others. Therefore, after scooping out dough, pat the cookie into a round shape to get the well rounded cookie. Otherwise the cookie stays in a round heap.

The Perfect After School Treat

These spumoni cookies are loaded with fruit and nuts, so that makes them healthy, right? They’d definitely be great for an after school snack, with a cool glass of milk. These cookies, which are a blend of sweet and tart, remind me of one of my favorite children’s books, The Watson’s Go To Birmingham.

Written by a Flint native (whose sister-in-law lives in my neighborhood), this Newberry award winning book combines memorable moments of laughter with poignant stories of a distressing time in our country’s history. The book is intended to teach children about the events that happened at 16th street Baptist Church in Birmingham.

Other Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipes

These Gluten Free Spumoni Cookies are just one of many gluten free chocolate chip cookies on my website. Want them without nuts? I recommend my Gluten Free Cherry Chocolate Chunk Cookies. Need them to be egg and dairy free? Try my Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies. Short on time and can’t take time for all those individual cookies? Make my easy Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Blondies. One pan, two mixes, and you’re practically done!

Need a grain free chocolate chip cookie? Try these Almond Flour Gluten Free Cookies from A Saucy Kitchen. Or these Coconut Flour cookies from Texanerin. Want a cookie tried with various kinds of gluten free flour blends? Try this well researched recipe for Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Cookies from There is Life After Wheat.

Gluten Free Spumoni Cookies

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Prep Time 15 minutes mins

Cook Time 12 minutes mins

Chill Time 2 hours hrs

Total Time 2 hours hrs 27 minutes mins

Ingredients

  

• 6 tbsp butter, unsalted room temperature
• 1/3 c sugar
• 1/2 c brown sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1 egg
• 3 tbsp milk
• 2 cups King Arthur Measure for Measure Flour
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2/3 c. chopped pistachios
• 2/3 c. chopped dried cherries
• 1 c. chocolate chips

Instructions

 

• In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter with salt and vanilla. Add in sugars and beat well until mixture is smooth. Add eggs & milk and mix well.
• Add baking soda and half of the flour. Beat batter after each addition.
• Fold in chocolate chips, chopped pistachios and chopped dried cherries. Mix with spoon until distributed throughout.
• Scoop dough into balls and place on parchment lined cookie sheet. Refrigerate dough for 1-2 hours until well chilled.
• Preheat oven to 375. Bake cookies for 11 minutes.
• Remove cookies from oven and let cool, on cookie sheet, for 10 minutes. Remove to rack to cool completely.

Notes

King Arthur recommends using only 2 tbsp of milk, as well as adding 3 tbsp of honey and 1 tbsp of cider vinegar. They also suggest using 3/4 tsp salt instead of 1/2 tsp, but with the addition of the pistachios, I think that would make these cookies too salty. 

Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

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Originally Published February 2017