The perfect gluten free cut-out sugar cookie recipe! In my family, any holiday is a good excuse to make cut-out cookies. I literally have boxes of cookie cutters and a cabinet full of sprinkles! I admit we may go a bit overboard, but it’s such a fun tradition to make and to eat these yummy sugar cut-out cookies!
Gluten free, dairy free and even vegan (yay-we can all eat the scraps of dough!), this is truly one of my favorite do-anything recipes. And now I’ve found something new to do do with this dough: make a Cookie Tree! This set of star cutters make great cookies in their own right, but stack them on top of each other and you have a super-cute cookie tree for a centerpiece or edible treat!
For an even easier treat, grab a bag of my gfJules™ Gluten Free Cut-Out Cookie Mix!
Gluten Free Cut-Out Cookie Recipe
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup shortening (Earth Balance® Shortening Sticks)
- 1 cup granulated cane sugar
- 1 egg or egg substitute (see below*)
- 1/4 cup milk (dairy or non-dairy)
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- Food coloring (optional)
- 2 1/4 cups gfJules™ All Purpose Gluten Free Flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- Gluten-free sprinkles or colored sugar (optional)
Instructions
Cream shortening and sugar until very fluffy. Add egg (or egg replacer), vanilla extract, milk, and food coloring, beating until integrated. Add the dry ingredients last, mixing until evenly blended. Form the dough into a ball and wrap tightly with plastic wrap. Refrigerate or freeze until cold and no longer sticky, at least 2 hours.
Preheat oven to 375ºF (static) or 350ºF (convection).
Lightly flour the rolling surface, rolling pin and cookie cutters with gfJules™Gluten Free All Purpose Flour. Roll the dough to approximately 1/8-inch thickness and cut shapes, re-rolling dough scraps to utilize all the dough.
Place cut-out cookies onto a parchment-lined cookie sheet and decorate with colored sugar or sprinkles, if desired. Bake approximately 8–10 minutes, but remove before they begin to brown at the edges. When baked and cooled, frost with Easy Cookie Icing, if desired.
To make cookie tree, bake at least 3 of each size star. Once cooled, ice them and stack, using a dab of icing between star layers to help them stay in place. Set each star atop the one below by turning it so the points are not directly on top of the star points below, making the star points look like random branches. Ice one of the smallest stars with yellow icing or yellow sanding sugar and set atop the tree like a star tree-topper.
Yields: 2 dozen cookies, depending on size.
*This recipe and over 149 more, also available in my cookbook, Free for All Cooking: 150 Easy Gluten-Free, Allergy-Friendly Recipes the Whole Family Can Enjoy!
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I purchased the cut-out sugar cookie mix. the ingredients list 1 egg. the instructions do not mention the egg at all. I am assuming it is added at the onset. please advise.
Hi Tasha: Sorry for the omission of the egg in the instructions. Add the egg after you cream the butter and sugar. You’re going to LOVE these cookies! Please let us know how they turn out!
I made the cookies and they are yummy, but they just crumble when I take them off of the pan, any suggestions?
Hi Susan, yes! I have lots of suggestions!
(Cookie Baking Help Article) Check out tips #9 and 10, in particular for your situation. Let me know how it goes!!!
Better Thank you!
I am going to attempt to make these into thumbprint cookies. I made two batches of a non-gf recipe using your flour and they turned out flat! Do you think these will be okay to be cooked in small mounds?
Hi there – If they went flat, I’d say to put them back into the mixer and add some more flour, and/or perhaps some cream of tartar which is often used in sugar cookies, anyway. Can you do that at this point?
Just through making by second batch of these sugar cookies. The first batch didn’t last long. Should have doubled it! It is by far the BEST sugar cookie I have ever tasted… You nailed this recipe!
Phylis R
Can i use hemp milk instead of regular milk?
Hi Donna, you should be able to use hemp milk instead without problems. Enjoy!
Hi Jules, made this recipe a few times, however, my cookies bubbling up when they bake, so then when they cool they are bumpy on top so my icing then looks bumpy. Any ideas? They taste great, but don’t look great
Hi Jules,
I am using this recipe to make Valentine’s Day cut out cookies and I wanted to ask you what attachment on my Kitchenaid mixer I should use once I have added the dry ingredients. If I leave the flat beater attachment on (which the Kitchenaid manual says to use for cookies), it makes the mixer wobble around and really work to mix the dough but it does end up a nice smooth dough. If I use the dough hook so the mixer doesn’t wobble and work so hard, the dough remains a crumbly, piecey mix no matter how long I let it mix. The Kitchenaid manual says to use the flat beater attachment for normal to heavy mixtures and the dough hook for mixing and kneading yeast doughs. I’m not sure which one I should be using since the mixer struggles so much mixing this cut out cookie dough with the flat beater attachment. Thanks for any help you can provide:)
Monica
Hi Monica, great question! I actually use the flat beater attachment for nearly all my gluten-free batters and doughs. I don’t find much success with the dough hook getting things mixed well, but the flat beater should be able to easily handle this cookie dough. My KitchenAid doesn’t wobble a lot and seem to work overtime on this dough – I wonder if there is something amiss with your mixer? You may want to check with KitchenAid on that, because I use mine to make this dough often, and never have any trouble. Glad the dough finally gets smoooth for you, but I’m worried that your mixer may need a checkup! Best of luck!!
Jules,
Thanks so much for your quick response and sharing your experience mixing the cookie dough with your Kitchenaid mixer. I had a feeling something might be wrong with my mixer but wanted to contact you first and make sure I shouldn’t be using another attachment to mix the dough. I just got off the phone with Kitchenaid and they are sending me a replacement:) Thank goodness I contacted you when I did – I have exactly 16 days left on my one-year warranty!
Monica
Way to go, Monica! Enjoy that new mixer – it will serve you well!!! Happy I was able to help!
Hi Jules,
I used your flour this week to make my grandmother’s pot pie recipe. It was just as good as my grandmother used to make. My hubby also said it was delicious. Thank you so much for your products.
Thanks Amy! I’m so glad to hear that your grandma’s pot pie turned out great, gluten-free!
Could butter , or something, be used in place of crisco to avoid soy?
Hi Bailey, try Earth Balance Coconut Spread which is soy-free, or Spectrum Palm Oil shortening. Butter in this recipe will likely add too much moisture and make the dough too sticky to work with.
Do you use a cover on your rolling pin when You make roll out cookies or just pie crusts ?
Hi Ann, I prefer using the rolling pin cover for most of my rolling needs – it’s not essential though. It’s more about personal preference. Happy rolling!
Do your sugar cookies freeze well? (Without frosting on them)
Hi Shannon – they do freeze well, but I would slightly under-cook them so they don’t get crumbly during the freezing process (freezing and refrigeration can dry out cookies). Happy cookie baking!
Thanks Jules! I did take advantage of your offer and appreciate the free shipping. I will be sticking the cookbook in my stocking!
Fantastic, Crystal! Nice to know you’ll be getting something you really want for Christmas!
Anyway to make these without milk? Would coconut milk work?
Absolutely, Dave. That’s what I use!
I really wanted the tree kit, but when the shipping is the same price as the item $12–I find that a bit outrageous. The kit cannot weigh much, I don’t understand why ground shipping is $12. I’m stocked up on my flour and mixes, just wanted the kit. bummer.
Hi Crystal, sorry about the shipping costs but the FedEx man is getting more expensive every year! We do all we can to offer shipping specials where we can absorb the shipping costs, but with gas prices the way they are, I guess FedEx can justify raising its prices all the time. Unfortunately, the base shipping rate is high and there’s nothing we can do about that. I’m sure you know that my flour and mixes have long shelf lives – perhaps there are some that you haven’t tried or want to have extras on hand so you could reach the free shipping point? They’re all on sale right now! AND we just posted a new special where you can get a paperback copy of my first cookbook, Nearly Normal Cooking for Gluten-Free Eating, and FREE SHIPPING! You could get the kit + the book and no shipping — would that work for you?:) Here’s the link: http://www.julesglutenfree.com/dealoftheday.asp