Gluten-free

I love baking, especially around the holidays, so let’s get the holiday season started with a cookie recipe! Every year I make my mom’s sugar cookies. They are hands down my favorite sugar cookie ever. My best friend, Kristy, loves them so much that one year I made her one HUGE cookie as a birthday cake. Last year, she found out that she has a gluten sensitivity and has done her best to cut gluten out of her diet. I couldn’t let last Christmas go by without Kristy being able to eat sugar cookies, so I baked a batch of gluten free sugar cookies and surprised her the week before Christmas.

Gluten-Free Sugar Cookies

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Ingredients

1/2 cup butter softened
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 cups brown rice flour
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Method

In a stand mixer, cream the butter and sugar.

Add the egg, beat well. Add in the balance of the ingredients and mix until combined.

Remove from the stand mixer and form into a ball. Refrigerate for at least an hour and up to overnight.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Let the dough warm up a bit before rolling it out so that it is easier to work with.

You want a thickness of about 1/8 to 1/4 of an inch. I always tend to go a bit thicker with a 1/4 inch because I like my cookies to be chewy rather than crunchy. Press the shapes and continue to roll out the dough until there isn’t enough left for another cookie.

These cookies will puff up, but they won’t spread so I put as many on the cookie sheet as possible.

Bake until slightly brown, about 7-9 minutes. My oven needed 9 minutes, but test it out so they are not overcooked. Cool for about 30 seconds on the cookie sheet before moving them to a cooling rack. Allow them to cool completely before storing.

To make these traditionally, just use all-purpose flour instead of brown rice flour. The only difference I noticed in the gluten-free cookies is that they tend to be more crumbly than the traditionally prepared ones, so be careful when moving them from cookie sheet to cooling rack.

I know some people ice their cookies but I’m a sugar cookie purist, I leave them unadorned. I love the simple flavor and the soft chewy texture. I hope you enjoy these cookie as much as I do!