Gluten-free sugar cookies that you can roll, cut out, and decorate! Crispy, flavorful, buttery, and not overly sweet. See the notes for substitutions and paleo/vegan options. Decorate these with powdered sugar icing (recipe below) or coconut butter icing.
Prep Time: 40 minutesminutes
Cook Time: 30 minutesminutes
Chilling time:: 1 hourhour
Total: 2 hourshours10 minutesminutes
Servings: 402-inch diameter cookies
Ingredients
Wet ingredients
12tablespoons(170 g) unsalted butter, at room temperature*
In the bowl of stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or in a large bowl), combine the butter, sugar, and salt. Beat (or stir with a wooden spoon or electric egg beater) on medium speed until combined, about 1 minute. We don’t want to aerate the dough in this case as that will make the cookies spread more.
Scrape down the sides of the bowl and add the egg and vanilla. Beat on medium speed or stir to combine. The mixture will look curdled at this point, but it will come together once the flours are added.
Sift in the almond, sweet rice, and oat flours with the tapioca starch and baking powder. Beat on low speed until just combined, scraping down the sides of the bowl once or twice.
Divide the dough in half and shape each half into a ball. Flatten the balls into disks (the thinner you make them, the easier it will be to roll them out), wrap in beeswax wrap or plastic wrap, and chill until firm, at least 30-60 minutes and up to several days. Or freeze for longer storage.
Roll out the dough
Unwrap one of the dough rounds and place it on a piece of parchment paper dusted lightly with oat flour. If the dough has been chilled for a while, you may need to let it soften for 5-10 minutes to make it easier to roll.
Dust the top of the dough with oat flour, using a dry pastry brush to sweep away excess flour. Roll the dough into a large oval that’s 1/8-inch thick or a little thicker.
When the dough starts to stick to the bottom, dust the top with a little oat flour, place a piece of parchment on top of the dough, and flip the whole thing over, parchment and all. Carefully peel away the now top piece of parchment, dust the dough with more flour, and continue rolling, sweeping away excess flour with a dry pastry brush.
Shape
Cut the dough into shapes using cookie cutters, biscuit cutters, or an inverted glass. Place the cuts as close together as you can to maximize the dough. Or just cut it into squares with a knife or pastry wheel.
Gather up the dough scraps and save them to combine with the dough scraps from the next dough round. You can gently smush these together, chill them for 20 minutes, and roll this dough to make more cookies.
Transfer the cut-outs to a cookie sheet lined with parchment and chill while the oven preheats, 20-30 minutes.
Bake
Position a rack in the upper third of the oven and preheat to 350ºF.
Repeat the rolling/cutting process with the other dough round.
Bake the cookies one at a time in the upper third of the oven until set and slightly golden around the edges, 12-16 minutes. Rotate the cookie sheet halfway through for even baking. I like my cookies crispy and baked longer, but if you prefer softer cookies, go with the shorter time.
Let the cookies cool on the cookie sheets or transfer to a cooling rack. Once cool, ice and decorate.
Store
The cookies keep well, airtight at room temperature, for up to a week or two. Cookies iced with coconut butter icing will soften if stored, covered, overnight.
Notes
*or plant butter such as Miyoko’s unsalted cultured butter**or ½ cup + 3 tablespoons (100 g) coconut sugar or maple sugar***or 1 flax egg: 1 tablespoon flaxseed + 3 tablespoons hot water, let sit until thick, 10-20 minutes.****or almond or hazelnut meal. Sub tiger nut flour for nut-free.*****sub by weight cassava flour or 1 to 1 GF all-purpose flour****** sub by weight sorghum, millet, teff, buckwheat, or corn flour (not cornmeal or cornstarch)*******or try cornstarch or arrowroot powderMake-Ahead:
The cookie dough can be mixed, flattened into discs, wrapped tightly and refrigerated for up to 3 days or frozen for up to several months.
The baked cookies can be stored airtight at room temperature for up to 1-2 weeks, layered between parchment paper to help them stay crisp. If they lose their crispness, "refresh" them in a 300ºF oven for 5-10 minutes to crisp them back up.
Cookies iced with coconut butter icing will soften if stored, covered, overnight, while cookies iced with powdered sugar icing will stay crisp longer.
Paleo sugar cookies: Use maple sugar or coconut sugar instead of granulated sugar. For the flours, omit the rice and oat flours and use 1 ½ cups almond flour (180g) and 1 ¼ cups (190 g) cassava flour, plus the tapioca starch.Nutrition facts are for 1 of 40 cookies.