Creative and Delicious: Gluten-Free Sugar Cookies

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Kids are home on break looking for things to do, friends and family are visiting, and…you’re craving some delicious gluten-free baked treats!

Baking and decorating sugar cookies is a fun and creative activity that people of all ages can enjoy – both during the process and afterwards with a nice cold glass of milk or steaming cup of coffee. Decorated holiday cookies are also a lovely thing to share with others outside of your home (if there are any left!).

The Cookies
Use your favorite gluten-free sugar cookie recipe or try the delicious recipe below from the gluten-free blogger gfJules.  You may also be able to find ready-made gluten-free cookie dough, as another option. Once your dough is ready to go, roll out with a rolling pin onto a lightly (gluten-free) flour dusted surface and use cookie cutters to make festive shapes. Or simply make nice round cookies by using the top of a glass to cut. If you choose the round look and would rather skip rolling out the dough, form the dough into balls, flatten them out with the bottom of a glass, and use the top of the glass to cut and even out the circle if needed.  Remember to keep your dough nice and chilled before making the shapes you’ll be baking.

 

The Frosting

Frosting can be a decorating tool on its own, or it can be the surface that sprinkles, and other decorations will stick to (or both).  It can be fun to separate out portions of your frosting for adding food coloring to, so you have different colors to decorate with.

Going all white with your frosting can work well too – you can add color with sprinkles, dried cranberries, and/or any other little gluten-free candies of your choice.

Let the cookies cool completely before you frost them. Check out our simple frosting recipe below or use your own favorite recipe.

The Decorating

Get all your decorating supplies ready before spreading the frosting. Frosting can stiffen up quickly, and you want to add decorating toppings before that happens.

Here are some decorating supply ideas:

  • Sprinkles: chocolate, rainbow, glittery colors. Lots of options available
  • Raisins, dried cranberries, or cherries
  • Chocolate chips
  • Any favorite small gluten-free candies

*Always confirm that all decorating items are gluten-free

When you’re done decorating, let your cookies sit for a bit so the icing firms up.

Gluten-Free Sugar Cookie Recipe

This great recipe comes from the gluten-free food blogger, gfJules.

Prep time 20 minutes          Cook Time 7 minutes          Yield: 3 dozen cookies, depending on size

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup vegetable or palm oil shortening or butter
  • 1 cup granulated cane sugar or palm sugar 
  • 1 egg or egg substitute (e.g. Ener-G Egg® Replacer OR 1/4 cup natural applesauce)
  • 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—several minutes at high speed of the mixer.

Add egg (or egg replacer), vanilla extract, milk, and food coloring (optional), beating until integrated. Add the dry ingredients last, mixing until evenly blended.

Form the dough into a ball and wrap tightly with plastic wrap to make the dough less sticky. Refrigerate until cold and no longer sticky, at least 2 hours. (Note: you may roll the dough out immediately without refrigerating, but if you find the dough too sticky, or if using butter, refrigerate for an hour or two.)

Preheat the oven to 375ºF (static) or 350ºF (convection).

Lightly flour the rolling surface, rolling pin, and cookie cutters with gfJules Flour. Roll the dough to approximately 1/8-inch thickness and cut shapes, re-rolling dough 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 6–8 minutes but remove before they begin to brown at the edges; make sure to err on the side of cooking less if you want them to remain soft and chewy.

Once completely cooled, frost with icing, if desired.

Store in Tupperware-type containers or freeze to keep for longer.

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Frosting Recipe

Note: depending on how many cookies you’re making – and on whether you’d like to have enough frosting to have different colors – you’ll probably want to double this recipe.

  • Put 1 to 2 cups of powdered sugar into a small mixing bowl. The amount depends on how many cookies you will be frosting.
  • Stir in a little milk or water. Start with 1 tablespoon. Stir it up. If it’s still too thick to spread, just add a bit more liquid.
  • Adjust the amounts of sugar and liquid until it is nice and spreadable.

To make frosting of different colors, divide it into several small bowls and use different food coloring colors in each. Remember to leave one white for those snowmen you’ll be decorating!

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