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These Gluten-Free Cut-Out Sugar Cookies are soft, delicious, fun to decorate, and perfect for holiday trays or cookie exchanges. The dough comes together easily, and a simple piped frosting gives each cookie a classic, festive finish in minutes. 

Prep: 15 mins Cook: 12 mins Total: 1 hr, 30 mins
Servings: 2 dozen cookies 1x
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Ingredients

For the Cookies:

  • ½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened*
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  • 1 cup cane sugar
  • 2 cups gluten-free flour blend (296g)**
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • ⅛ teaspoon fine salt

For the Frosting

  • 1 cup powdered sugar (120g)
  • ¼ cup (1/2 stick) butter, softened*
  • 1½ tablespoons heavy whipping cream*
  • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  • Coarse sugar or sanding sugar (optional)

Instructions

To Make the Cookies:

  1. Using a stand mixer with a paddle attachment (or a hand mixer), cream together the butter, egg, vanilla, and sugar. 
  2. Add the flour blend, baking powder, and salt. Mix slowly until a dough ball forms, scraping down sides of bowl as needed.
  3. Cover the dough with a towel or plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for 1-2 hours.
  4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
  5. Sprinkle your workspace and rolling pin with additional gluten-free flour (this prevents the dough from sticking). 
  6. Place the chilled ball of dough on the floured surface, and use your hands to press the dough down into a disc shape. Sprinkle dough with a little more gluten-free flour. Using a rolling pin, roll dough out to ¼-inch thickness.
  7. Use cookie cutters to cut the dough out into shapes. Carefully slide a metal spatula under the cookie shapes, lift up, and transfer onto the prepared baking sheets, at least 1 Inch apart.
  8.  Re-roll the dough into a ball, then flatten into a disc, sprinkle with flour, roll out, and cut out more cookie shapes. Continue this process until all dough is used up.
  9. Bake one or two baking sheets of cookies at a time until the cookies are light golden on the bottoms, 8-10 minutes. (Cooking time varies, so start checking at 8 minutes; may need to go as long as 12 minutes, depending on the thickness of the cookies).
  10. Let cookies cool directly on the baking sheets for 5 minutes before removing cookies to wire racks to cool completely. Store cookies in a covered container at room temperature for up to 5 days.

To Make the Frosting:

  1. In a medium bowl, combine the powdered sugar, softened butter, heavy cream, and vanilla.
  2. Using a stand or hand mixer on the lowest setting, gently begin to whip the frosting until creamy. (Pro Tip: If the frosting is too thin for piping, add more powdered sugar – 2 tablespoons at a time – until the right consistency is reached. If the frosting is too thick and difficult to pipe from the bag, add more cream – 1 teaspoon at a time – until the right consistency is reached.)
  3. Transfer the frosting to a frosting bag with a tip (or a plastic bag, then cut the corner tip off), and pipe frosting onto each cookie.
  4. If desired, sprinkle coarse/sanding sugar over the piping. Gently tip each cookie to remove excess sugar.

Notes

*For dairy-free cookies, use plant-based or vegan butter in place of regular unsalted butter. Additionally, use coconut cream (the thick white cream at the top of a can of full-fat coconut milk) in place of the heavy cream. 

**For gluten-free flours, I recommend Bob’s Red Mill One-to-One Gluten-Free Baking Flour or King Arthur Measure-for-Measure Gluten-Free Flour. If these cookies don’t need to be gluten-free, I can use the same amount of regular, unbleached all-purpose flour.

Nutrition Information

  • Serving Size: 1 cookie with frosting
  • Calories: 149
  • Fat: 6 g
  • (Sat Fat: 4 g)
  • Sodium: 79 mg
  • Carbohydrate: 22 g
  • (Fiber: 0 g
  • Sugar: 12 g)
  • Protein: 1 g
  • Cholesterol: 22 mg

Dietary

© The Real Food Dietitians
Recipe By: Ana Ankeny