Gluten-Free Christmas Cookies

Instructions

Step 1: Cream the butter and sugar. In the bowl of a stand mixer, add the softened butter and granulated sugar. Beat on medium-high speed until creamy, fluffy, and white.

Step 2: Beat in the egg, honey, and extracts. Scrape the bowl, add the egg, and beat it again until fully combined. Scrape the bowl again, add the honey, vanilla extract, and peppermint flavor, and beat again.

Step 3: Mix the dry ingredients. In a separate bowl, add the gluten-free flour blend, salt, baking soda, and baking powder, and mix together.

Step 4: Mix the wet and dry ingredients. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and beat it at medium speed. Scrape the bowl to make sure all the flour has been incorporated, and mix again.

Step 5: Chill the dough. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and put it in the fridge for at least 2 hours or up to overnight.

Recipe Pro-Tips

• Make sure all your ingredients are at room temperature. You want all ingredients to be at room temperature so you can get a smooth cookie dough, which will lead you to delicious baked cookies.
• Cream the butter and sugar well. Creaming butter and sugar adds air to the cookie dough. Without creaming the butter properly, you'll end up with dense and heavy cookies.
• Chill the dough. Gluten-free cookie dough needs to rest so the flour can properly hydrate and avoid a gritty texture. Chilling it also prevents them from spreading too much in the oven.
• Bake a test batch. Because all ovens are different, your oven may run hotter or cooler than mine. I recommend baking just one or two cookies to see if the cookies bake up perfectly before baking the rest of the batch, to see if you need to adjust the baking temperature or baking times.
• Use a large round cookie cutter for perfectly circular cookies. Immediately after the cookies come out of the oven, take a large round cookie cutter and place it on the parchment paper so that the baked cookie fits inside the cookie cutter. Swirl the cookie cutter around until your soft-baked cookie is a perfect circle.

Storage Directions

You can store these gluten-free sugar cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days. If you're storing them for longer, I highly recommend you freeze the cookies.

Freezing Cookies: To freeze baked cookies, tightly wrap each cookie with plastic wrap and put them in a freezer bag for up to 3 months. You can defrost them in the fridge overnight or on the countertop for an hour at room temperature.

Freezing Cookie Dough: Scoop out the dough onto a piece of parchment paper and put it in the freezer. Once it's frozen, put them in a freezer bag, label the bag, and freeze for up to 3 months.

When you're ready to bake, take out the balls of frozen cookie dough and space out on a parchment-lined baking sheet while you preheat the oven. Bake as directed, adding an extra minute or two, as needed.