These tender, flippantly candy gluten free sugar cookies are tender however not fragile, in order that they’ll maintain any form you may think about—with a thick layer of candy buttercream frosting.
This tender cut-out sugar cookie has turn out to be a staple on the vacation celebrations, child showers, and birthdays of lots of of readers for years. And so they style similar to Lofthouse!
my take
Nicole’s Recipe Notes
- Traditional style and texture: tender, tender cookies which can be flippantly candy with a number of vanilla taste.
- Good for all events: they will maintain any form, from rounds and primary Christmas stars to Valentine Hearts, spring flowers, Easter bunnies, and so forth.
- Fast and simple: the dough is made in a single bowl, with no chilling wanted, they usually’re able to eat in simply half-hour, begin to end.
- Delicate however not fragile: they melt-in-your-mouth, however they’re thick sufficient that they will not break. I’ve even shipped these cookies throughout the U.S. (with icing, not frosting), they usually arrived trying excellent!
Cookie substances
- Gluten free flour: Strive your favourite gluten free flour mix, even when it is not one in every of my favourite blends, so long as the rice flour is not gritty. If it is a bit of too starchy, you will have so as to add a couple of drops of water to deliver the dough collectively. Bob’s Pink Mill 1-to-1 works properly, although!
- Baking powder – helps the cookies puff out and unfold a bit so they don’t seem to be dense
- Sugars – 1/2 cup granulated sugar sweetens and tenderizes the cookies and and three tablespoons of powdered or confectioners’ sugar assist them maintain their form
- Butter – provides tenderness, taste, and moisture
- Egg – binds the cookie dough collectively, and provides richness
- Vanilla extract – provides depth of taste
- Salt – additionally a taste enhancer, and helps steadiness the sweetness
How you can make gluten free sugar cookies
Whisk the dry substances collectively (gluten free flour mix with xanthan gum, baking powder, salt, granulated sugar, and confectioners’ or powdered sugar). Add the softened butter and press it into the dry substances with the again of a spoon till it appears like coarse sand.
Add a crushed egg and vanilla extract, and moisten the entire dry substances. Maintain working till all the pieces appears uniform, then knead along with clear, dry fingers till easy.
Sprinkle the cookie dough very flippantly with extra gluten free flour, and roll out about 1/3-inch thick. Use cookie cutters to chop out shapes. Draw back the remainder of the dough, collect it into one other disk, reroll and minimize out extra shapes.
Place the uncooked minimize out shapes on a lined baking sheet, and bake at 350°F for lower than 10 minutes, simply till set, with little to no browning. Allow them to cool on the baking sheet for a couple of minutes, then place on a wire rack to chill fully.
Frost with the meringue buttercream frosting or royal icing, or depart plain. Retailer in a sealed glass container at room temperature, and they’ll maintain their texture for about 1 week.
My Professional Tip
Skilled Suggestions
Measure your substances by weight
For the reason that cookie recipe has so few substances, it is actually necessary that they are all in excellent steadiness. You’ll discover that the dough resembles moist crumbs and clumps, and also you may be tempted so as to add extra moisture.
Ensure you’re measuring your substances (particularly the gluten free flour) by weight, not quantity, for exact outcomes.
Use tender room temperature butter
The time period “room temperature” for butter, eggs, and different baking substances often means about 68°F. Right here, if the butter is under about 70°F, it might be troublesome to work into the dry substances evenly.
To hurry its softening, chop chilly butter into small items and let it sit on the counter for about 20 minutes. Float chilly eggs in very heat water throughout that point, too, or they will make the butter clump.
Knead the dough till easy
When you attain a uniform combination that resembles moist crumbs and clusters, knead the dough with clear fingers to deliver it collectively earlier than rolling it out. You can too use a stand mixer with a paddle attachment to make easy dough simply, however keep away from a handheld mixer with beater attachments or your cookies could have an excessive amount of air.
Ornament suggestions
- Spoon a beneficiant quantity of frosting on the highest of a cookie in a mound. Moisten a small spoon, insert it into the middle of the frosting at an angle and swirl flippantly in a circle.
- For traditional Lofthouse-style frosting, use a small moistened offset spatula or a easy large butter knife to flatten a mound of frosting right into a disk.
- At all times let the frosting to set at room temperature till it turns into semi-hard so it is not so fragile.
- For a very arduous floor, use royal icing instead of frosting. To enhance sugar cookies, I take advantage of a #4 piping tip to stipulate after which “flood” the middle, sprinkling decorations instantly earlier than the icing has dried.
Ingredient substitutions
Dairy free
I’ve efficiently changed the butter within the cookie dough with Soften model vegan butter. The sides of the gf sugar cookies aren’t fairly as clear as they’re once you use butter, however the recipe tastes and appears nice general.
Strive changing the butter within the frosting recipe with Spectrum model butter-flavored nonhydrogenated vegetable shortening. For the milk within the frosting, use any unsweetened unflavored nondairy milk (I like almond milk).
Egg free
There is just one egg within the cookie recipe, so it is best to be capable of change it with a “chia egg” or a “flax egg” egg substitute (1 tablespoon floor white chia seeds + 1 tablespoon lukewarm water, blended and allowed to gel). Some readers have reported success with Bob’s Pink Mill egg replacer, too. I additionally suppose that “Simply Egg” liquid refrigerated plant egg ought to work.
Meringue powder
Meringue powder is fabricated from egg white powder, sugar, a starch, and a few stabilizers. If you happen to can’t have eggs, I’d simply get rid of meringue powder as an ingredient altogether. The frosting will simply be a bit softer.
Stop your display from going darkish
Make the cookies
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Preheat your oven to 350°F. Line rimmed baking sheets with unbleached parchment paper and set them apart.
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In a big bowl, place the flour, xanthan gum, baking powder, salt, granulated sugar and confectioners’ sugar and whisk to mix properly.
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Add the butter, and blend to moisten the dry substances with the butter, till the combination appears sandy, urgent down on the butter with the again of the blending spoon.
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Add the egg and vanilla, and blend to mix, till the dry substances are all moistened with the moist.
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With clear, dry fingers, knead the combination collectively to kind a cohesive dough. It will likely be thick and comparatively stiff, however not dry.
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Place the dough on a clear, flat floor, and roll it right into a spherical a bit lower than 1/3-inch thick, sprinkling very flippantly with flour to forestall the rolling pin from sticking.
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Utilizing a 2 1/2-inch spherical cookie cutter (or no matter form you want), minimize out shapes from the dough and place them about 1-inch aside on the ready baking sheets.
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It may be useful to take away the encompassing dough from the cutouts, after which peel the shapes off. Collect and reroll the scraps and repeat the method till you’ve used all of the dough.
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Place the baking sheet within the heart of the preheated oven and bake till the cookies are simply set on prime, about 8 minutes, relying upon dimension and form. The sides of some cookies might brown barely.
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Take away them from the oven earlier than there may be any important browning, and permit them to chill on the baking sheet till set earlier than transferring them to a wire rack to chill fully.
Make the frosting
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Within the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or a big bowl with a handheld mixer, place the butter, milk and vanilla, and blend on medium pace till mixed. Enhance the mixer pace to excessive and blend till creamy (about 5 minutes).
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Add the salt, meringue powder and about 3 1/2 cups of confectioners’ sugar. Combine slowly till the sugar is integrated. Flip the mixer as much as excessive and beat till it turns into uniformly thick.
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Add the optionally available vanilla seeds and as a lot of the remainder of the confectioners’ sugar as essential to thicken the frosting, and beat to mix properly.
Frost the cookies
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As soon as the cookies are fully cool, pipe or spoon a beneficiant quantity of frosting onto the highest of every, and unfold into an excellent layer with a large knife or offset spatula. Scatter sprinkles, if desired.
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Enable the cookies to set at room temperature till the frosting hardens a bit earlier than stacking them. Retailer any leftovers in an hermetic glass container at room temperature. Freeze any plain cookies for longer storage.
My favourite gluten free flour blends are Higher Batter’s unique mix gluten free flour and Nicole’s Finest multipurpose mix (with added xanthan gum). Bob’s Pink Mill 1-to-1 Gluten Free Baking Flour must also work, however add an extra 1/4 teaspoon xanthan gum to the dry substances or the cookies might be crumbly.
Cup4Cup modified its system and does not appear to work in addition to it has previously, so I do not advocate it. To make your personal mix utilizing one in every of my “mock” recipes, please see the all objective gluten free flour blends web page.
Substitution ideas.
Dairy-free: Rather than butter, attempt vegan butter within the block. My favourite manufacturers are Soften and Miyoko’s Creamery. Keep away from Earth Stability buttery sticks or anything that may be very tender at room temperature, because it comprises much more moisture and the cookies will not actually maintain their form.
Egg-free: I like to recommend attempting a “chia egg,” Bob’s Pink Mill egg replacer, or “Simply Egg” liquid refrigerated plant egg.
Different to frosting: royal icing or this straightforward glaze. This can take 12 to 24 hours to set fully.
Observe about vitamin data
Dietary data is approximate, per cookie, and is for the cookies solely and does not embrace frosting or icing of any sort in any respect.
Serving: 1cookie | Energy: 92kcal | Carbohydrates: 14g | Protein: 0.5g | Fats: 4g | Saturated Fats: 2g | Polyunsaturated Fats: 0.1g | Monounsaturated Fats: 1g | Trans Fats: 0.2g | Ldl cholesterol: 10mg | Sodium: 48mg | Potassium: 2mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 4g | Vitamin A: 117IU | Calcium: 9mg | Iron: 0.02mg
Diet data is robotically calculated, so ought to solely be used as an approximation.
make forward/leftovers
Storage directions
As soon as these cookies are cooled, you may retailer them plain in a sealed glass container at room temperature. They’re going to keep contemporary that means for a minimum of 1 week. If you happen to’ve used royal icing and allowed it to set absolutely, they will last as long as 2 weeks that means.
With the buttercream meringue frosting, as soon as it is set, you may stack them and retailer them in a sealed glass container for as much as 2 days.
For longer storage, freeze them. If they have been frosting, freeze in a single layer on a rimmed baking sheet for two hours, then pile them right into a freezer-safe zip prime bag and freeze for as much as 3 months. Defrost at room temperature. Do not warmth cookies with icing or frosting or the topping will soften.
You can too freeze the uncooked cookie dough. Roll out the dough, minimize out shapes, and freeze the rounds in stacks with a light-weight dusting of gluten free flour between them. Wrap them tightly and freeze. Whenever you’re able to bake, place the rounds on ready baking sheets and allow them to defrost earlier than baking as typical.
FAQs
If you happen to’ve obtained the correct ratio of substances, you’ll discover that your dough resembles moist crumbs and clumps. Strive urgent it right into a disk. If it does not maintain collectively properly, you may attempt including water by the drop and kneading it in to the dough till you attain the correct consistency. Go slowly, although, since you do not need a drop extra water than completely important, or your cookies will not maintain their form within the oven.
You in all probability rolled out your sugar cookie dough a bit erratically. Which means some cookies got here out thinner, baking quicker and changing into crispier, whereas others stayed tender.
For greatest outcomes, attempt my gluten free drop sugar cookies recipe as a substitute. However in the event you change your thoughts mid-recipe, you need to use this recipe. Simply portion the cookie dough into equal-sized items, roll every in your palms right into a ball, place it on the baking sheet, and flatten it utilizing the palm of your hand. Bake at 350°F till the cookies seem set all the best way to the middle. Relying on how thick your cookies are, you will have to extend the baking time.
