Grandma's Recipe Box: Pecan Cookies - Gluten Free

These cookies are not made with wheat flour instead using nut meal, so they should be gluten free but not okay for those with nut-allergies.    If you can not find pecan meal or do not wish to make your own, you might want to try another nut meal to see how the recipe turns out.

My grandma's recipe calls for pecan meal since she had plenty  with more than one pecan tree on her property.  When the pecans were ready to pick up off the ground, my grandfather would be the one to pick them up.  Grandma and great-grandma would help if none of their grandchildren or children were around at the time.   Any grandchild, on hand, got the fun of going under the shade and helping grandpa find perfect looking pecans while he told us stories and jokes.  If kids grew tired of the pecan hunt and they were under the tree by the creek (that was not near the street), we could climb the tree or play on the swing hanging from it until grandpa was ready to move on.

Sugar-free Version:  I made this recipe substituting granulated for baking - zero calorie sweetener with sucralose for the regular sugar, using sugar-free strawberry preserves instead of jam, and skipping the cherry on top.  They were delicious!  Each cookie is about 350 calories, 4 grams carbs/sugars.  If you make plain cookie (without preserves) calories go down to 120 and carbs/sugar to .5 (1/2).  I will definitely do this again!

Pecan Cookies

(makes approximately 2-3 dozen "bitesize" cookies)

Ingredients:

2 cups ground pecans (or pecan meal)
2/3 cup sugar
2 unbeaten egg whites
1/3 cup strawberry preserves
18 candied or maraschino cherries, cut in half

Steps:

1. Combine pecans and sugar.
2. Add egg whites and mix until mixture is completely damp.
3. Form into small balls (mixture will be moist),
4. Place balls on ungreased cookie sheet.
5. Press a small hole (not all the way through) in center of each ball with fingertip.
6. Fill hole with strawberry preserves.
7. Top preserves with cherry halves (out-side down).
8. Bake in moderate oven (350 degrees) about 15 minutes.
9. Remove from cookie sheet at once to prevent sticking.