This is our family’s FAVORITE gluten-free Cut-Out Sugar Cookies recipe that doesn’t spread while baking! The soft buttery dough is rolled out, cut with cookie cutters, baked in the oven, then coated with the best homemade icing. Learn all the tips and tricks for getting the cookies to hold their shape and decorate them perfectly for this Christmas season.
I am absolutely OBSESSED with this gluten-free cut-out sugar cookies recipe!!!
They are hands down the BEST I have ever tasted… and no one can ever tell that they’re gluten-free!
Not only is the flavor wonderful, but the texture is perfectly soft and tender.
And, with the right ingredients and a few tips they hold their shape beautifully after being baked.
Create gorgeous designs with icing and share the love by gifting them to your friends and family. (Or hog them all to yourself… I won’t tell!)
So if you’re ready to make the most impressive Christmas cookies ever, keep reading and find out all the tips and tricks!
Ingredients
The simple ingredients you need to make this cut-out cookie recipe include:
- Flour. All purpose flour or Bob’s Red Mill 1-to-1 gluten-free baking blend may be used. You can also substitute for a blend of white rice flour, tapioca starch, and xanthan gum.
- Sugar. Regular, white sugar is best. Do not replace with a sugar alternative such as coconut or even turbinado sugar.
- Egg. These will give the cookies their lift. Make sure you get large eggs.
- Salted Butter. This is where a large majority of the flavor comes from. You can try substituting with vegan “buttery sticks” or margarine if you are dairy-free.
- Extracts. Both clear vanilla extract and almond extract are used to give this recipe a unique taste.
How to Make this Gluten-Free Cut-Out Sugar Cookie Recipe
The basic steps for making cut-out cookies are simple to follow. Please see the recipe card below for more detailed ingredient amounts.
Make the Dough (No Need to Chill!)
Take your butter straight from the refrigerator. Cut it into cubes and load into a large bowl or stand mixer along with the sugar.
Cream the butter and sugar with a stand or handheld mixer on medium speed for 1-2 minutes, or until the dough resembles coarse crumbs.
Add in the egg and extracts and continue to mix for 1-2 more minutes.
Little by little pour in the flour allowing it to fully combine after each addition.
Once the flour is completely absorbed and the dough sticks together you are ready to roll.
You can either refrigerate the dough at this stage for up to 3 days or freeze for up to 2-3 months until ready to use.
Roll Out Dough
Sprinkle about ¼-cup of powdered sugar over a cutting board. By skipping flour and using powdered sugar you prevent sticking while adding even more flavor to your cookies!
Place half of the cookie dough onto the surface and sprinkle with another 2-3 tablespoons of powdered sugar.
Flatten out the cookie dough using a rolling pin until the dough is ¼ – ⅓ inch thick.
Cut into Shapes
Cut dough into shapes with metal cookie cutters. The metal ones make cleaner cuts than the plastic ones and are easier to use.
Use those cute cookie cutters to make these gluten-free gingerbread cookies next!
Bake in Oven
Place the shapes on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet about 1-inch apart. Parchment paper makes clean-up a breeze, they don’t get stuck on the baking sheet, and the cookies bake more evenly. You can also use a silicone mat, if you’d prefer.
Bake in a preheated 375°F oven for 9-11 minutes, or until the edges begin to brown slightly. Cook on the longer side if they are thicker, and for less time if they are thinner.
Let rest on a wire rack until they come to room temperature.
Sugar Cookie Frosting
Mix egg whites on medium speed for 1 minute. Add the butter (for the family icing), vanilla and 1-cup of powdered sugar. Combine until the sugar is fully incorporated.
Add the remaining sugar incrementally and stir well each time. If the frosting is too thick, add 1-2-tbsp of milk until the desired consistency is reached.
Finally, drop in your desired food coloring (gels work the best!) and stir until combined.
Decorate to Impress!
Use a piping bag fitted with a 3M piping tip to outline where you would like the family icing to fill. Then use a toothpick to spread it all over evenly.
You can also just spread it on with a butter knife or a spoon if the kiddos are helping you out!
Once it has set you can pipe designs with the royal icing.
Place white nonpareils on the wet icing with tweezers.
Shake on sprinkles and enjoy!
Meal Prep and Storage
- To Prep-Ahead: The cookie dough can be made in advance and refrigerated for up to 3 days or frozen for up to 3 months. Defrost in the refrigerator before rolling out.
- To Store: Baked sugar cookies taste best when kept in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3-4 days.
- To Freeze: Seal in a freezer-safe airtight container and freeze for up to 3 months.
FAQs
Cut-out sugar cookies are made by rolling out the dough and cutting it into shapes before baking. Drop sugar cookies are simply made by dropping the dough onto the cookie sheet, and are generally thicker.
Sprinkle powdered sugar on a wooden surface and use a rolling pin to press and roll the dough until it is flattened.
To avoid burnt or undercooked cookies try to roll the dough so that it is ¼ – ⅓-inch thick. You can check the thickness of cookie dough by measuring with a ruler.
Skip the baking powder and baking soda, use cold butter, and bake chilled dough on parchment paper-lined baking sheets.
Expert Tips and Tricks
- Forget the leaveners!! Baking soda and baking powder have a tendency to make cookies spread.
- Keep it cold. Use cold butter and keep the dough chilled until you are ready to bake so the cookies hold their shape.
- Sugar not flour. Dust powdered sugar on your rolling surface to prevent the dough from drying out and add even more flavor.
- Line the sheet. Bake the cookies on parchment paper to maintain shape, avoid sticking, and keep cleanup easy.
- Smooth it out. Toothpicks work great for evenly spreading the icing.
More Christmas Cookie Recipes
There’s never a bad time for cookies! And these cookies can all be made gluten-free:
Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
Gluten-Free Chocolate Chip Cookies
No-Bake Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies
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Ingredients
- ½ cup butter cold, but not frozen, cubed*
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
- ½ tsp. almond extract
- 2 ¼ cups flour or a gluten-free 1-to-1 baking blend
- ½ tsp. salt
Family Icing Recipe:
- 2 egg whites
- 2 Tbsp. butter melted*
- 3 cups powdered sugar sifted
- ½ tsp. vanilla extract
- 1-2 Tbsp. milk if needed
- food coloring
Royal Icing Recipe:
- 1 egg white
- 2 cups powdered sugar sifted
- ½ tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tbsp milk optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer combine cold butter and sugar. Mix on medium for 1-2 minutes, or until butter and sugar are just combined.
- Add egg, vanilla and almond extract. Continue mixing for 1-2 more minutes.
- In a separate bowl combine white rice flour tapioca starch, xanthan gum and salt. Toss to combine.
- Slowly add dry ingredients to the butter sugar mixture. Continue mixing on medium until dough starts to form a ball.
- Place dough out on a lightly powdered sugar-coated surface. Roll dough out to ¼ – ⅓ inch thickness.
- Using cookie cutters, cut dough into desired shapes and place on a parchment paper lined baking sheet.
- Bake cookies for 9-11 minutes or until edges just begin to brown.
- Let cookies cool completely before frosting.
Family Icing:
- In a medium-sized bowl place, mix egg whites over medium speed for 1 minute. Add butter, vanilla and 1 cup powdered sugar. Mix until sugar is incorporated.
- Add remaining sugar incrementally and mix well between each addition. If frosting is too thick, add 1-2 tbsp milk until desired consistency is reached.
- Add food coloring as desired.
- Frost cookies using a toothpick to spread the icing where you want it on the cookies.
Royal Icing: *optional*
- Place egg white in a medium bowl. Mix egg white for 1-2 minutes or until it becomes frothy. Add vanilla and mix for another minute.
- Add powdered sugar and mix over medium-low speed for 4-5 minutes.
- If icing is too thick, add milk as needed to reach an easy piping consistency.
- Place royal icing in a piping bag fitted with a 3M piping tip. Pipe designs on cookies and enjoy!
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Video
Notes
- You can also use 1 1/2 cups sweet white rice flour, 3/4 cup tapioca starch, and 1 teaspoon of xanthan gum instead of the gluten-free flour blend.
- Food coloring gel works best when getting really vibrant colors in your icing.
- Use tweezers when placing small nonpareils onto the cookies.
- These sprinkles and these white nonpareils were used to decorate the cookies you see pictured.
- You can also use vegan “buttery” sticks or margarine if dairy-free.
- To Store: Baked sugar cookies taste best when kept in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3-4 days.
- To Freeze: Seal in a freezer-safe airtight container and freeze for up to 3 months.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Hi London!
I baked a batch of these last night and they taste great! But they were not smooth on top. They looked like drop-cookies. Is there anything I can do to prevent this? I’ll be decorating with royal icing so I need a smooth surface!
Thank you!
Hi Dakota! So happy you enjoyed the taste! A simple fix could be to soften the butter in the microwave SLIGHTLY. Too much and they will become a runny mess. But my guess is that your butter was a bit too cold. Thanks for your question!
I bake sugar cookies often and freeze them without an issue in regards to taste/texture. I have never baked GF sugar cookies, do they freeze just as well? Thanks!
Hi Kelly! Yes, these cookies should freeze similarly to gluten-filled cookies. Thanks so much for your question!
I found this recipe before Valentine’s. I wanted to make them with the grandson who is not GF but his Mom is. I wanted her to be able to enjoy them too. I was amazed at how well they held up. They weren’t dry or gritty and they tasted like Non GF sugar cookies.
Fast Forward to today as I was making them for Easter for the same reason. I used the Bob’s Red Mill 1 to 1 Flour as I had the first time as well as all the other ingredients.I also followed the recipe to the letter as before. But, the dough was dry and while it came together it was in 3 pieces. I mixed it a little longer (not much) to see if it would come together but it didn’t. When I rolled it out it rolled out fine but it was cracking. Any idea what went wrong this time? We’re going to use them but we will have to be careful when decorating. We are in Central Texas and as you can imagine it’s already humid. i don’t think that has anything to do with it though. Any thoughts?
Hmmm. Not quite sure what went wrong, Kathy? The one thing I can think of is the softness of the butter. Since there are so few ingredients in the recipe, having the butter be too cold could slightly affect it. Next time I would let the butter sit out at room temp for about 20 minutes before using so it softens slightly. Hope this helps!
Great recipe. Perfect for my 5 year old Celiac warrior! Only suggestion I would make, if you’re not using parchment paper, absolutely DO NOT use icing sugar to roll out the cookies. They will stick to the cookie like cement. I learned the hard way.
Hi Terri! So glad you and your little one enjoyed the cookies so much. And great tip about the icing sugar! Thanks so much for your comment 🙂
It was very easy to make. It was very tasty too. It made our desserts look fancy. Thanks!
So happy you enjoyed the recipe, Cara! Thanks for the comment and rating 🙂
These cookies are fantastic! I made a batch for my GF son to decorate with this non-GF friends. They giggled, decorated and munched down the whole batch before one friend exclaimed, “Wait, can you eat these?” She thought they were glutinous cookies. As a side note, I had Bob’s brown rice flour and used that in place of the white rice, and it worked out just fine. Thank you!
Hi Lisa!! I am SO happy to hear the little ones enjoyed the cookies so much. It’s great when they can’t tell they’re GF 🙂 Thanks so much for your comment/rating!
love these cookies, they almost don’t taste gluten free. Thank you for this Christmas gift!
Yay!! So happy you got to enjoy some Christmas cookies, Kat! Thanks so much for your comment and rating 🙂
Mine spread. What brand white flour did you use? I used Bob’s Red Mill. Could that be why? I use cold Challenge butter.
Hi Shari! I used Bob’s Red Mill white rice flour and tapioca flour. Did you use a GF 1-to-1? This could be the issue since different flours have varied results.
This was the third batch of cut out sugar cookies I had attempted this year. I was about to give up before trying this recipe. I’m so grateful I decided to give this one a go. The cookies are perfect. I rolled them out with powdered sugar which helps the flavor, but my family actually enjoyed that the cookies aren’t overly sweet. My mister saved some to eat sans frosting.
Speaking of frosting, we used your “Family Recipe” for frosting/decorating our cookies and it was delicious. My boys are excited to share their creations with Santa tonight.
My mother in law even commented that she couldn’t tell they were gluten free.
I didn’t have fancy flour to use (or my own blend – most stores in my area are out of the good stuff) so I legit made these cookies with walmart GF flour and they turned out great! I’m sure using a “fancier” blend would yield even better results so after the holidays I’m going to make this recipe again and again! Thank you!
Hi Katrina! Wow!! I am SO happy you and your family enjoyed the cookies so much. My mister enjoys eating the cookies sans frosting, too! Can’t wait for Santa to get to taste a few of the cookies tonight, too. Hope you and your family have a very Merry Christmas!!
These cookies are incredible. Easy to make and roll out really well. I followed the recipe exactly. I tried a second batch with Bob Mills 1-1 baking flour and they were difficult to roll out and dry tasting. I’ll stick to the original recipe! I tried the family icing but I wasn’t happy with how long the icing took to harden up so I bought the royal icing powder mix and just added colouring and water to it.
Hi Susan!! So happy you enjoyed the cookie recipe. Yes, using GF flour mixes can lead to varying results. Thanks so much for your comment and rating!