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These tender, lightly sweet gluten free sugar cookies are soft but not fragile, so they'll hold any shape you can imagine—with a thick layer of sweet buttercream frosting.
This soft cut-out sugar cookie has become a staple at the holiday celebrations, baby showers, and birthdays of hundreds of readers for years. And they taste just like Lofthouse!
“This was the first GF sugar cookie recipe I’ve tried and I can assure you that my search is off! This will be my new go to!”
“Brought the cookies with decorating supplies to family Christmas and they were a hit! Everyone was surprised that they are gluten free!”
my take
Nicole's Recipe Notes
- Classic taste and texture: soft, tender cookies that are lightly sweet with lots of vanilla flavor.
- Perfect for all occasions: they'll hold any shape, from rounds and basic Christmas stars to Valentine Hearts, spring flowers, Easter bunnies, etc.
- Quick and easy: the dough is made in one bowl, with no chilling needed, and they're ready to eat in just 30 minutes, start to finish.
- Soft but not fragile: they melt-in-your-mouth, but they're thick enough that they won't break. I've even shipped these cookies across the U.S. (with icing, not frosting), and they arrived looking perfect!
Cookie ingredients
- Gluten free flour: Try your favorite gluten free flour blend, even if it's not one of my favorite blends, as long as the rice flour isn't gritty. If it's a little too starchy, you may have to add a few drops of water to bring the dough together. Bob's Red Mill 1-to-1 works well, though!
- Baking powder – helps the cookies puff out and spread a bit so they're not dense
- Sugars – 1/2 cup granulated sugar sweetens and tenderizes the cookies and and 3 tablespoons of powdered or confectioners' sugar help them hold their shape
- Butter – adds tenderness, flavor, and moisture
- Egg – binds the cookie dough together, and adds richness
- Vanilla extract – adds depth of flavor
- Salt – also a flavor enhancer, and helps balance the sweetness
How to make gluten free sugar cookies
Whisk the dry ingredients together (gluten free flour blend with xanthan gum, baking powder, salt, granulated sugar, and confectioners' or powdered sugar). Add the softened butter and press it into the dry ingredients with the back of a spoon until it looks like coarse sand.
Add a beaten egg and vanilla extract, and moisten all of the dry ingredients. Keep working until everything looks uniform, then knead together with clean, dry hands until smooth.
Sprinkle the cookie dough very lightly with more gluten free flour, and roll out about 1/3-inch thick. Use cookie cutters to cut out shapes. Pull away the rest of the dough, gather it into another disk, reroll and cut out more shapes.
Place the raw cut out shapes on a lined baking sheet, and bake at 350°F for less than 10 minutes, just until set, with little to no browning. Let them cool on the baking sheet for a few minutes, then place on a wire rack to cool completely.
Frost with the meringue buttercream frosting or royal icing, or leave plain. Store in a sealed glass container at room temperature, and they will keep their texture for about 1 week.
My Pro Tip
Expert Tips
Measure your ingredients by weight
Since the cookie recipe has so few ingredients, it's really important that they're all in perfect balance. You’ll find that the dough resembles moist crumbs and clumps, and you might be tempted to add more moisture.
Make sure you’re measuring your ingredients (especially the gluten free flour) by weight, not volume, for precise results.
Use soft room temperature butter
The term “room temperature” for butter, eggs, and other baking ingredients usually means about 68°F. Here, if the butter is below about 70°F, it may be difficult to work into the dry ingredients evenly.
To speed its softening, chop cold butter into small pieces and let it sit on the counter for about 20 minutes. Float cold eggs in very warm water during that time, too, or they'll make the butter clump.
Knead the dough until smooth
Once you reach a uniform mixture that resembles moist crumbs and clusters, knead the dough with clean hands to bring it together before rolling it out. You can also use a stand mixer with a paddle attachment to make smooth dough easily, but avoid a handheld mixer with beater attachments or your cookies will have too much air.
Decoration tips
- Spoon a generous amount of frosting on the top of a cookie in a mound. Moisten a small spoon, insert it into the center of the frosting at an angle and swirl lightly in a circle.
- For classic Lofthouse-style frosting, use a small moistened offset spatula or a simple wide butter knife to flatten a mound of frosting into a disk.
- Always let the frosting to set at room temperature until it becomes semi-hard so it's not so fragile.
- For a truly hard surface, use royal icing in place of frosting. To decorate sugar cookies, I use a #4 piping tip to outline and then “flood” the center, sprinkling decorations immediately before the icing has dried.
Ingredient substitutions
Dairy free
I have successfully replaced the butter in the cookie dough with Melt brand vegan butter. The edges of the gf sugar cookies aren’t quite as clean as they are when you use butter, but the recipe tastes and looks great overall.
Try replacing the butter in the frosting recipe with Spectrum brand butter-flavored nonhydrogenated vegetable shortening. For the milk in the frosting, use any unsweetened unflavored nondairy milk (I like almond milk).
Egg free
There is only one egg in the cookie recipe, so you should be able to replace it with a “chia egg” or a “flax egg” egg substitute (1 tablespoon ground white chia seeds + 1 tablespoon lukewarm water, mixed and allowed to gel). Some readers have reported success with Bob's Red Mill egg replacer, too. I also think that “Just Egg” liquid refrigerated plant egg should work.
Meringue powder
Meringue powder is made of egg white powder, sugar, a starch, and some stabilizers. If you can’t have eggs, I’d just eliminate meringue powder as an ingredient altogether. The frosting will just be a bit softer.
Gluten Free Sugar Cookies Recipe
Equipment
- Stand mixer or handheld mixer
Ingredients
For the cookies
- 2 cups (280 g) all purpose gluten free flour blend, (See Recipe Notes), plus more for sprinkling
- ¾ teaspoon xanthan gum, omit if your blend already contains it
- ¾ teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ cup (100 g) granulated sugar
- 3 tablespoons (22 g) confectioners’ sugar, or powdered sugar
- 8 tablespoons (112 g) unsalted butter, at soft room temperature (about 70°F)
- 1 (50 g (weighed out of shell)) egg, at room temperature, beaten
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
For the frosting
- 10 tablespoons (140 g) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- ¼ cup (2 fluid ounces) milk, at room temperature
- 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
- ⅛ teaspoon kosher salt
- 2 teaspoons meringue powder, LorAnn and AmeriColor brands are gluten free
- 4 cups (460 g) confectioners’ sugar
- Seeds from one vanilla bean, optional
- Sprinkles, optional
Instructions
Make the cookies
- Preheat your oven to 350°F. Line rimmed baking sheets with unbleached parchment paper and set them aside.
- In a large bowl, place the flour, xanthan gum, baking powder, salt, granulated sugar and confectioners’ sugar and whisk to combine well.
- Add the butter, and mix to moisten the dry ingredients with the butter, until the mixture looks sandy, pressing down on the butter with the back of the mixing spoon.
- Add the egg and vanilla, and mix to combine, until the dry ingredients are all moistened with the wet.
- With clean, dry hands, knead the mixture together to form a cohesive dough. It will be thick and relatively stiff, but not dry.
- Place the dough on a clean, flat surface, and roll it into a round a bit less than 1/3-inch thick, sprinkling very lightly with flour to prevent the rolling pin from sticking.
- Using a 2 1/2-inch round cookie cutter (or whatever shape you like), cut out shapes from the dough and place them about 1-inch apart on the prepared baking sheets.
- It can be helpful to remove the surrounding dough from the cutouts, and then peel the shapes off. Gather and reroll the scraps and repeat the process until you’ve used all the dough.
- Place the baking sheet in the center of the preheated oven and bake until the cookies are just set on top, about 8 minutes, depending upon size and shape. The edges of some cookies may brown slightly.
- Remove them from the oven before there is any significant browning, and allow them to cool on the baking sheet until set before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely.
Make the frosting
- In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or a large bowl with a handheld mixer, place the butter, milk and vanilla, and mix on medium speed until combined. Increase the mixer speed to high and mix until creamy (about 5 minutes).
- Add the salt, meringue powder and about 3 1/2 cups of confectioners’ sugar. Mix slowly until the sugar is incorporated. Turn the mixer up to high and beat until it becomes uniformly thick.
- Add the optional vanilla seeds and as much of the rest of the confectioners’ sugar as necessary to thicken the frosting, and beat to combine well.
Frost the cookies
- Once the cookies are completely cool, pipe or spoon a generous amount of frosting onto the top of each, and spread into an even layer with a wide knife or offset spatula. Scatter sprinkles, if desired.
- Allow the cookies to set at room temperature until the frosting hardens a bit before stacking them. Store any leftovers in an airtight glass container at room temperature. Freeze any plain cookies for longer storage.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
make ahead/leftovers
Storage instructions
Once these cookies are cooled, you can store them plain in a sealed glass container at room temperature. They'll stay fresh that way for at least 1 week. If you've used royal icing and allowed it to set fully, they'll last up to 2 weeks that way.
With the buttercream meringue frosting, once it's set, you can stack them and store them in a sealed glass container for up to 2 days.
For longer storage, freeze them. If they've been frosting, freeze in a single layer on a rimmed baking sheet for 2 hours, then pile them into a freezer-safe zip top bag and freeze for up to 3 months. Defrost at room temperature. Don't heat cookies with icing or frosting or the topping will melt.
You can also freeze the raw cookie dough. Roll out the dough, cut out shapes, and freeze the rounds in stacks with a light dusting of gluten free flour between them. Wrap them tightly and freeze. When you're ready to bake, place the rounds on prepared baking sheets and let them defrost before baking as usual.
FAQs
If you’ve got the right ratio of ingredients, you’ll find that your dough resembles moist crumbs and clumps. Try pressing it into a disk. If it doesn't hold together well, you can try adding water by the drop and kneading it in to the dough until you reach the right consistency. Go slowly, though, since you don't want a drop more water than absolutely essential, or your cookies won't keep their shape in the oven.
You probably rolled out your sugar cookie dough a bit unevenly. That means some cookies came out thinner, baking faster and becoming crispier, while others stayed soft.
For best results, try my gluten free drop sugar cookies recipe instead. But if you change your mind mid-recipe, you can use this recipe. Just portion the cookie dough into equal-sized pieces, roll each in your palms into a ball, place it on the baking sheet, and flatten it using the palm of your hand. Bake at 350°F until the cookies appear set all the way to the center. Depending on how thick your cookies are, you may have to increase the baking time.
We just refer to these as crack. I have a family of five that never all like the same thing. But I can barely get these out, cooled and frosted before they’re gone. I’m surprised WWIII hasn’t started here. LOVE THESE SO MUCH. Bravo, Nichole! We love your site so much. (One celiac, one gf sensitivity and three others gf because that’s just how mom cooks!)
I’m so glad, Karen! I love that everyone else has to eat what mom makes. I have a household like that. In fact, I have a sign in my kitchen that reads “Dinner choices: 1. Take it. 2. Leave it.” Thank you so much for the kind words. They really mean a lot.
These are AMAZING! I can’t find my kitchen scale so I was stuck using volume measurements, but they were still amazing. So amazing, in fact, that I now need to make another huge batch since the ones I already made are gone.
Haha I’m so glad, Kate!
Can I make dough ahead of time and keep
I’m fridge until ready to use later in the day?
I don’t recommend making this dough ahead of time and chilling it, Alyse, but if you must, just make sure it sits on the counter until it comes to room temperature before rolling it out.
Wow perfect
Can i jus roll the dough i to balls and bake like a regular cookie? I dont like icing and not into shapes. Thank you.
No, Joe, please see the text of the post about whether you can use this recipe to make drop cookies, and what recipe to use instead.
As in the true Nicole Hunn fashion, these cookies are fantastic. GF dough is often difficult to work with. This recipe makes me feel like I’m working with the regular flour sugar cookies of yesteryear before I was diagnosed Celiac.
Thank you for another family favourite!
That’s so lovely of you to say, Liana, and I’m so happy to hear you had a good experience both raw and baked. That’s the goal!! ❤️
I noticed that you call for 2 cups of flour or 280g. Is one cup of better batter flour equal to 140g? If using a different brand should I use the gram equivalent of 2 cups or stick with 280g? Thanks so much!
Heidi, the weight of the flour is consistent, and volume measurements are not. It doesn’t matter what flour blend you use, but please understand that you can’t make any of my recipes with anything other than one of my recommended flour blends or my “mock” equivalents and expect good results.
Love the easy instructions (as always), thanks! I’ve never gone wrong with one of your recipes. Wondering if I can use this recipe in cookie molds?
I’m not sure what you mean by cookie molds, Jennifer. Do you mean different shaped cutouts? If so, then most definitely yes! And thank you for the kind words. I really appreciate it!
Super impressed with this recipe, to the point that I am recipe reviewing for the first time ever (and I am someone who relies on comments)! These were so easy to make, and so easy to lift off the counter! I only had King Arthur GF flour – I’d read another comment about adding a small amount of milk and water. I added about a teaspoon of milk, and then a sprinkle of water and it worked out well. Thank you!
Hi, I am planning to make a huge batch of these as gifts that will take multiple days of work. How long will these keep in an airtight container?
Please see the section of the post titled “Storing your gluten free sugar cookies.”