Gluten Free Sugar Cookies
IT’S COOKIE SEASON! Woo! ‘Tis the season to bake perfectly sweet, gluten free sugar cookies. A bit of inspiration came our way from Two Sisters, who have a fabulous crafting and food blog. We adapted their “The Best Sugar Cookie Recipe” to be delicious and gluten free. And this truly is our favorite cut out sugar cookie recipe, gluten free or not.
How did we create perfectly sweet sugar cookies?
We started with the perfect foundation – Flour Farm Organic Gluten Free Flour blend and added organic salted butter. The butter should be cold, yet not just out of the fridge cold. Take the butter out of the refrigerator about an hour or two before you start baking. We also use a whole tablespoon of vanilla and a bit of xanthan gum, which is necessary to roll the dough out. The Two Sisters do not refrigerate their dough, but I found that the dough is too sticky to roll right away. Instead of adding more flour, we allow the dough to set in the fridge. This gives the xanthan gum time to activate and makes it very easy to roll the dough out. The result is a delicate tasting sugar cookie, yet sturdy enough to handle frosting.
This recipe yields about 40 cookies that weigh about 20 grams each. Your yield will depend on the size and weight of your cookies. We roll our cookies to either 1/8″ (.3cm) or 1/4″ (.6cm) thick; however, you can cut your cookies to whatever thickness you desire. Our daughter loves cookies that are on the thinner side and naked! We actually think our cookies taste best naked too, but frosting is so much fun.
Decorating Your Cut Out Sugar Cookies
As much as we love our cookies naked, decorating them makes them taste all the sweeter! Our usual go-to frosting is cream cheese with all natural, food based dyes; however, we recently discovered the fun of painting our cookies. My friend MaryAnn invited my daughter and I to a cookie painting party. We took our sugar cookies coated with royal icing. Our cookies turned out fabulous, of course! Sally’s Baking Addiction has the easiest royal icing recipe we have yet to try, and it tastes delicious. Click on the link to find Sally’s recipe.
Share
Please let us know how this recipe for cut out, gluten free Sugar Cookies worked for you. Rate this recipe and leave us a message at the bottom of this post and send pictures! We love to hear from you.
The whole point is to enjoy baking and creating with the anticipation of eating and sharing a delightful treat.
An important note: this recipe successfully uses Flour Farm Organic Gluten Free Flour Blend. Click on this link to blend a batch yourself. If you choose to make this with another GF flour blend, please know that your results may differ.
Peace & LOVE – Teri
Photos by DuPree Productions; Recipe update 4.20 for clarity
Cookie Season Begins at Flour Farm
Gluten Free Sugar Cookies – Cut Out
- Total Time: 1 hour 20 minutes
- Yield: 60 cookies 1x
- Diet: Gluten Free
Description
Gluten free, cut out Sugar Cookies that are light and crispy, yet sturdy enough to frost. We absolutely love the buttery, perfectly sweet taste of these cookies!
Ingredients
Choose Gluten Free, Non-GMO, & Organic Ingredients.
Substitutions: Do you need suggestions to swap out an ingredient? Click here.
Note: If clicking the 2X or 3X scale boxes to the right, please know that weights listed in parentheses below may or may not change. Please take care to check amounts if increasing the recipe.
Dry
- 360g (12.7 oz) Flour Farm Organic Gluten Free Flour Blend (3 1/3 C spoon & level)
- 2 1/4 tsp Xanthan Gum (7.2g)
- 2 tsp Double Acting, Aluminum Free Baking Powder (8.5g)
Wet
- 227g (8 oz) Salted Butter, just under room temp – (1 C or 2 sticks)
- 200g (7 oz) Cane Sugar (1 C)
- 1 Large Pasture Raised Egg (50g)
- 1 T Pure Vanilla Extract (15 ml)
For Rolling out Dough
- Powdered Sugar or Vanilla Powder
Instructions
Equipment: Digital Scale (preferred), Rimless Cookie Sheets, Medium/Large Mixing Bowls, Measuring Cups and Spoons, Whisk, Spatula, Cooling Rack, Unbleached Parchment, Stand Up Mixer with Paddle Attachment or Electric Mixer
Before You Dive In – Prep: Please read!
- Bring butter to just under room temperature
- Bring egg to room temperature (preferred)
- Move oven rack to center slot
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit (177 degrees Celsius)
Make cookies!
Step 1: Whisk together the flour and xanthan gum in a medium sized bowl. Do not add baking powder until step 4. Set aside.
Step 2: Add butter and sugar to the bowl attached to a stand-up mixer (use the paddle attachment,) or a large mixing bowl. Cream together until thoroughly combined. Do not over mix or you will add too much air to the cookie dough.
Step 3: Add the egg and vanilla to the butter mix. Beat just until combined.
Step 4: Add the baking powder to the mix and beat until combined.
Step 5: With the mixer on low, spoon in the flour mixture. When fully incorporated, turn the mixer off and scrape down the sides of the bowl to form a ball.
Step 6: Cover the bowl and refrigerate for 30 minutes. No need to chill longer than that. If chilling for more than 30 minutes, form the dough into several disk shapes that are easy to roll out and wrap in cling or parchment. This will make rolling the dough out an easy chore.
Step 7: Use a pie crust bag (my favorite way to roll out cookies!) or lay out a sheet of unbleached parchment and sprinkle vanilla powder over the surface. Grab a handful of dough and place on top of the prepared parchment. Turn the dough over and spread the powder evenly over the surface. Place another sheet of parchment over the top of the ball of dough and roll out to your desired thickness.
Step 8: Press the cutters into the dough and place cookies on the cookie sheet 2″ (5cm) apart. If using a silicone coated cookie sheet, no need to put parchment down first. If not using a silicone coated cookie sheet, place cookies on unbleached parchment to bake.
Step 9: Bake in the center of a preheated oven at 350 F/177 C for about 7 minutes if 1/8″ thick or 9 minutes if 1/4″ thick. The key here is NOT TO OVERCOOK. If you see the edges start to brown, pull the cookies right away. Truly, the amount of time your cookies bake depends on their size and thickness.
Step 10: Allow the cookies to cool on the pan for a few minutes before transferring to a cooling rack. If you move them too early, they will fall apart or crack. These cookies become more firm as they cool. Frost after completely cool.
Eat the cookies within two days or freeze for up to a month. Do not store in a tight fitting container, or cookies will lose their crispness.
Enjoy!
Notes
Variations: A member of our family adds almond extract to their sugar cookies and another uses lemon zest. Feel free to add your family’s favorite extract or add-in. The rest time will absorb any extra liquid that you add to the recipe.
The nutrition information provided below is for the recipe as written making a cookie weighing an average of 20g (.5 oz).
- Prep Time: 40 minutes
- Cook Time: 40 minutes
- Category: cookies
- Method: baking
- Cuisine: American
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 cookie
- Calories: 70
- Sugar: 4g
- Sodium: 40mg
- Fat: 3.5g
- Saturated Fat: 2g
- Unsaturated Fat: 1.5g
- Trans Fat: 0g
- Carbohydrates: 8g
- Fiber: 1g
- Protein: 1g
- Cholesterol: 10mg
Keywords: Gluten Free Sugar Cookies Cut Out
For more sweet, gluten free recipes follow this Flour Farm link!
Excellent sugar cookie recipe. My son and I made them as scary jack o lanterns for his school party. A total hit!
★★★★★
Sounds like fun! Thank you for sharing. – Teri