These sugar cookies are SO delicious, no one will ever guess they’re gluten-free! Perfectly soft, sweet, and surprisingly easy to make. Cut these gluten-free sugar cookies into your favorite festive shapes, then decorate them any way you’d like!
What You’ll Need To Make Gluten-Free Sugar Cookies
Butter – I used non-dairy butter, to keep these sugar cookies both gluten-free and dairy-free. However, you can use regular butter instead if you’d like. Remember to remove your butter from the fridge at least 30 minutes before baking. The key to perfectly soft and light cookies is working with room temperature butter. Also, whip the butter and sugar together in the first step until super light and fluffy.
Sugar – Cane, white, or even coconut sugar will work in this gluten-free dessert recipe. Cane sugar and white sugar will blend best into the dough, resulting in a colorless cookies. Meanwhile, coconut sugar (or brown sugar, which I don’t recommend here) will turn these cookies light brown once baked. They’ll still taste good, though they’ll be a bit more grainy and won’t look the same!
Gluten-Free Flour – I used Nature’s Promise Gluten-Free Flour Blend in my sugar cookies and had amazing results! I also highly recommend the Bob’s Red Mill Gluten-Free Baking Flour for any and all gluten-free recipes. While those are the only two gluten-free flours I can personally vouch for, I’m sure there are plenty out there that will work just as well. Though the one recommendation I have when it comes to any gluten-free flour is to make sure that it contains xanthan gum. Xanthan gum is a stabilizer, and super important to keeping your baked goods together. Without it, these sugar cookies would quite literally fall apart. Therefore, if your gluten-free flour blend does not already contain xanthan gum, add 1/2 teaspoon to your dough for this recipe.
Tips and Tricks
- You don’t have to cut these cookies out if you don’t want to! Instead of rolling, then cutting the dough, simply remove your chilled cookie dough from the fridge and use a cookie scoop to shape them. Drop tablespoon-sized scoops of sugar cookie dough straight onto your baking sheet, then flatten each cookie out slightly with the palm of your hand. Last, but definitely not least, bake off those delicious little circular cookies just as you would a cut-out cookie!
- Decorate these babies any way you’d like! A simple powdered sugar plus milk icing with a dash of food coloring is always a solid option. Or, melt some chocolate and drizzle that on top of each cooled cookie for a fun and delicious twist.
- Prep this sugar cookie recipe days, or even months ahead of time if you’d like! Chilled sugar cookies dough will stay good in the fridge for up to 3 days and in the freezer for up to 4 months. If frozen, let it defrost at room temperature for a bit before attempting to roll or scoop the dough.
Adjust This Recipe To Your Dietary Needs
Make it Vegan: To make these vegan sugar cookies, be sure to use vegan butter and milk as well as your favorite egg substitute in place of the one egg in this recipe. I recommend the Bob’s Red Mill Egg Replacer, it’s both vegan and gluten-free, and works impressively well in most baking recipes.
Use Regular Flour: Feel free to replace the gluten-free flour with regular ole’ all purpose flour if you’d like!
Perfect Gluten-Free Sugar Cookies
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup butter, softened (I used non-dairy butter)
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 egg, at room temperature
- 1 tablespoon milk (I used non-dairy)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 cups gluten-free flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Add butter and sugar to a bowl, beat together with either a hand or stand mixer until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add in the egg, milk, and vanilla extract, beat to combine.
- In a separate small bowl, mix together the gluten-free flour, baking powder, and salt.
- Add the flour mixture into the butter mixture and mix until a dough forms. Cover dough with plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for at least 1 hour and up to overnight.
- When ready to bake, preheat your oven to 375° Fahrenheit and remove dough from fridge. Roll the dough on a lightly floured surface to about ¼-inch thick, then use a cookie cutter to cut the dough into shapes.
- Place cookies on a baking sheet and bake for 7-10 minutes. Remove from oven and transfer to a wire cooling rack to cool completely before decorating.
