Look no further for the best Gluten-Free Sugar Cookie Recipe! These cookies are tender, buttery, soft, and sweet all while not containing gluten. Grab your favorite cookie cutters and make these cookies for Christmas, Valentine's Day, Halloween, and more!
Ingredients
You can find everything you need to make these GF sugar cookies at most major grocery stores. Here's what you'll want to grab:
- Gluten-Free 1-to-1 Flour - Perfectly formulated for baking, gluten-free flour blends such as Bob's Red Mill 1-to-1 baking flour give you all of the flavor and texture of all-purpose flour without any of the allergens. No additional xanthan gum or other ingredients needed!
- Almond Flour - Adds the perfect nutty, buttery, and almond-notes to these cookies. You can also swap it out for some more gluten-free flour for nut-free cookies.
- Butter - Unsalted butter is best, though salted can also be used. Vegan butter sticks also work beautifully. Just be sure that your vegan butter contains 8g of fat for every 2 teaspoons of butter.
- Milk - Just 1 tablespoon of dairy or plant-based milk adds the perfect amount of moisture to make the cookies perfectly soft and tender.
- Vanilla Extract - Opt for pure vanilla extract or paste for the best flavor.
- Granulated Sugar - Gives these cookies their classic sweetness.
How to Make Gluten-Free Sugar Cookies
Thankfully, this GF cookie recipe comes together so easily! Here is how to make them:
Step 1: Whisk the gluten-free flour blend, almond flour, and salt together in a mixing bowl.
Step 2: In a separate bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream together the softened butter and granulated sugar until light and creamy, about 3 minutes. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl and add the tablespoon of milk and vanilla extract and beat in until combined.
Step 3: Scrape the bowl again and add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and mix in until no streaks of flour remain.
Step 4: Scrape the bowl one last time to make sure there aren't any hidden pockets of flour, cover the bowl with plastic and let it rest on the counter for 30 minutes.
Step 5: Turn the dough out onto a piece of parchment paper. Cover it with another sheet of parchment paper and roll it out to ¼ inch (½ cm) thickness. Put it in the refrigerator while you preheat the oven.
Step 6: Preheat the oven to 375°F (190°C) and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Step 7: Take the chilled rolled-out cookie dough out of the refrigerator and cut out shapes using shaped cookie cutters of your choice.
Step 8: Place the gluten-free cut out cookies onto the parchment-lined baking sheet and bake for 8-10 minutes, or until just starting to turn golden around the edges.
Step 9: Re-roll any leftover cookie dough and bake more cookies, until you have no more cookie dough left.
Step 10: Let the cookies cool completely on the baking sheet before moving them onto a wire rack to cool completely.
Although you can eat these cookies on their own, they're also delicious when decorated with royal icing or frosting. I've included my favorite buttercream frosting recipe in the recipe card below!
Recipe Tips
- Let the dough rest. Want to know the secret to perfect gluten-free sugar cookies? Let the dough rest for 30 minutes before rolling out. This allows the dough to hydrate and prevent the cookies from being dry and gritty.
- Adjust the baking time for the size of the cookie cutouts. You may need to add additional baking time for larger cookie cutouts and reduce the baking time for smaller cookies. Keep an eye on the cookies as they bake and adjust the baking time as needed.
- Line the baking sheets with parchment paper. Or, a silicone baking mat. This will allow the cookies to bake as evenly as possible and will help them to easily release from the baking pan.
- Decorating variations: Make this easy gluten-free sugar cookie recipe your own by using different decorations. Tint the icing with a drop or two of food coloring or add variety to your cookies by switching up the sprinkles, using sanding sugar, non-pareils, and more.
Storage Directions
Leftover gluten-free cut-out sugar cookies keep covered in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days. Keep them fresh longer by storing them in an airtight container in the refrigerator for 4-5 days.
If using a dairy-free frosting to decorate, keep these cookies in the refrigerator to prevent the frosting from melting at room temperature.
Can You Freeze These Cookies?
Yes! Once the icing has set, these gluten-free frosted sugar cookies can be frozen in a freezer-safe container for up to 3 months. Defrost them at room temperature for 10-15 minutes, or until thawed through.
You can also freeze the rolled out and cut out cookie dough shapes so they're ready to be baked straight out of the oven. You may need an extra minute in the oven.
FAQs
My go-to is the 1-to-1 baking flour by Bob's Red Mill, but I've also used and loved measure for measure flour blends by King Arthur and Cup4Cup.
Yes! You can take the almond flour out and replace it with ½ cup (74g) of gluten-free 1-to-1 flour to make these cookies nut-free.
While you can technically make the cookies with different sugars like brown sugar and coconut sugar, but would change the flavor, texture, and color of the cookies. If you're out of granulated sugar, organic cane sugar would be the closest substitute.
The two secrets to buttery, tender, and moist gluten-free cookies is to use a high-quality 1-to-1 gluten-free flour and to let the dough rest before rolling out. Resting the dough at room temperature will allow the flour to hydrate, making the cookie dough tender and moist.
Absolutely. Feel free to skip the almond extract, and follow the recipe as it, or add a little extra vanilla extract.
I love using the liquid food coloring by Watkins, the Suncore powders for dye-free food coloring. For dye-free sprinkles, I recommend Supernatural and Watkins.
This recipe makes roughly 24 cookies, but it depends on how large your cookie cutters are. Large cookie cutters will make less cookies, and small cookie cutters will make more.
No, you cannot replace the butter with applesauce. It will drastically change the texture of the cookies, and they won't be crisp.
The most accurate way to measure flour is to weight it using a kitchen scale. If you don't have a scale and you don't want to purchase on, you can spoon the flour into a measuring cup and level it with something that has a straight edge like a knife.
More Gluten-Free Cookie Recipes
- If you love a jam cookie, try my gluten free thumbprint cookies! These are both gluten-free and vegan.
- These gluten-free dairy-free chocolate chip cookies are my all time favorite, with crisp edges and fudgy and chewy centers.
- Lemon curd cookies have a buttery sugar cookie base with the centers filled with silky homemade lemon curd.
- Are you a fellow chocoholic? Try these gluten-free double chocolate chip cookies!
Thanks so much for stopping by! I hope you loved this gluten-free sugar cookie recipe as much as I do. For more mouth-watering dairy-free, gluten-free, and/or vegan dessert inspiration, make sure to follow me on Pinterest, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also get all of my newest content delivered straight to your inbox by signing up for my email newsletter — I promise not to spam you!
Gluten-Free Sugar Cookie Recipe
Ingredients
Sugar Cookies
- 2 cups gluten-free 1-to-1 flour
- ½ cup almond flour
- ½ teaspoon fine salt
- 1 cup butter regular or dairy-free
- ⅔ cup granulated sugar
- 1 tablespoon milk regular or dairy-free
- 1½ teaspoons vanilla extract
Cookie Frosting (Optional)
- ½ cup butter regular or dairy-free
- 1⅔ cups powdered sugar
- ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon almond extract
- 1 tablespoon milk regular or dairy-free
- sprinkles optional
Instructions
Sugar Cookies
- Whisk the gluten-free flour blend, almond flour, and salt together in a mixing bowl.
- In a separate bowl with a hand mixer or in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream the softened butter and granulated sugar together until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the milk and vanilla extract and beat again until combined.
- Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and mix until no streaks of flour remain. Cover the dough and let it rest on the counter for 30 minutes.
- Turn the dough out onto a piece of parchment paper. Cover it with another sheet of parchment paper and roll it out to ¼ inch (½ cm) thickness. Put the sheet of rolled out dough into the refrigerator while you preheat the oven.
- Preheat the oven to 375°F (190°C) and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Take the chilled rolled-out cookie dough out of the refrigerator and cut out shapes using cookie cutters. Put the cutouts on the parchment-lined baking sheet and bake for 8-10 minutes.
- Re-roll any leftover cookie dough and bake more cookies, until you have no more cookie dough left.
- Cool the cookies completely on the baking sheet before moving them onto a wire rack.
Cookie Frosting
- In a bowl, beat the butter until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
- Add half of the powdered sugar and beat until the mixture is creamy. Scrape the bowl with a spatula and beat in the remainder of the powdered sugar.
- Beat in the vanilla and almond extract, and milk. Scrape the bowl again to make sure there aren't any hidden pockets of powdered sugar.
- Put as much or little frosting as you like on each cooled cookie, and top with sprinkles.
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