Watch out because this new gluten-free butter cookie recipe is going to become one of your new favorites! They taste like those famous Danish-style butter cookies that come in those fancy blue tins. Make a batch in under 45 minutes!
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(*This post was sponsored by Plugrá® Butter. All delicious opinions are my own.)
I have been so excited to share this recipe with you in time for the holidays. These are the best gluten-free butter cookies!! This is one of our favorite recipes of all time.
They taste just like the Dutch butter cookies we all love. (You know, the ones that are sold in that festive blue tin every holiday season!) Only my version is gluten-free!
They are also perfect for making gluten-free holiday cookies that you can decorate for a party, bake sale, or cookie exchange! If you are a cookie fanatic like me, you must give some of these gluten free cookie recipes a try!
In my family’s homemade butter cookie recipe, better butter matters!! If you haven’t tried Plugrá® Butter yet, I highly encourage you to pick some up. Plugrá® Butter is slowly churned, making it creamier than regular butter.
Why I love these gluten free butter cookies:
- I have perfected this homemade butter cookie recipe for you. I have made this cookie a complete copycat of those delicious Danish cookies in the blue tin.
- You can make these cookies by piping the cookie dough or drop style, depending on your comfort level!
- Plugrá® Butter has a higher fat content than regular butter, which means this butter makes better pie crusts, flavorful sauces, and buttery cookies. You can read more about Is Butter Gluten Free for more information.
- They make a great holiday cookie for those cookie exchange parties, and even Santa.
- They are crisp and slightly soft outside, just like Danish butter cookies should be.
- You can dip them in chocolate, sprinkle them with sprinkles or coarse sugar, or enjoy them plain!
Allergen Information:
These buttery, homemade cookies are gluten-free, nut-free, soy-free, and oat-free. Make them dairy-free using a plant-based butter.
These are truly delicious! I used almond extract in place of vanilla (just personal preference) and let the cookie dough rest for a few hours in the fridge to allow the flavors to develop and the gluten free flours and starches to absorb moisture (I do this with all my gf cookie recipes and most all of my other gf baked goods). So, so yummy!! My husbands favorite cookie is a butter cookie and he said these were he best I have made (and he doesn’t have to eat gf, he just does it for me to make my life easier). Thanks for this superior cookie recipe!”
ella, Blog comment
Ingredient Notes:
All you need are six simple ingredients to make this classic butter cookie recipe!
- Gluten Free Flour Blend – I tested this recipe with Bob’s Red Mill 1 to 1 GF blend and King Arthur Measure for Measure. That doesn’t mean others will not work; I have not tested other flours.
- Xanthan Gum- if your gluten free blend doesn’t contain this or guar gum, you will need to add it.
- Sugar – Use regular white sugar.
- Salt – I used sea salt, but you can also use kosher salt. I do not recommend pink Himalayan salt.
- Eggs – Use size large.
- Pure Vanilla Extract – The vanilla flavor is the star of these butter cookies, and I do not recommend imitation vanilla.
Tips For Success:
- Use room-temperature butter and eggs. It sounds crazy to use butter and eggs at room temperature, but it dramatically helps how your cookies will turn out. You’ll thank yourself later if you try it.
- Use a cooled
cookie sheet when baking. Don’t take a hotcookie sheet and put the batter on it, or I promise the cookies won’t turn out. They start baking immediately, and it messes with their shape of them. Use a couple of sheets and rotate them out when making large batches of cookies. - Don’t let the cookies sit on the pan too long. After baking, only let them sit on the baking sheet for up to 5 minutes. The pan will still be hot and continue baking them otherwise.
I have a great Gluten Free Cookie Troubleshooting Guide if you need help baking gluten free cookies. Be sure to check out my favorite Cookie Equipment Recommendations.
Step-By-Step Photos and Directions:
Step 1: Add your dry ingredients to a large
Step 2: Add the wet ingredients to a medium bowl and whisk to mix. Be sure your butter is at a very soft room temperature. You can microwave the butter for 20 seconds to soften it more, but do not fully melt the butter.
Add the wet ingredients into a bowl and whisk. Can you believe how creamy this butter is??
Step 3: Mix the wet ingredients with the dry ingredients.
📢 Sandi says: Every gluten-free flour blend has a different starch-to-grain ratio. The brand of gluten-free flour you use will affect the moisture of the batter. If your cake batter is too runny, add more flour, and if it is too thick, add more liquids.
Read Why Gluten-Free Flour Blends Vary to learn more about this.
You want your cookies to be the same size for the best results. This is simple to do.
Step 4: There are two great ways to ensure your cookies all turn out the same size. The first way is to take a small glass and trace circles around the bottom in rows, along with a piece of parchment paper.
You can also use a silicone macaron mat that has the circles pre-drawn. To avoid getting ink on the cookies, turn the parchment paper over. Now we get to pipe the cookie dough into the cute circles.
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Step 5: Use a tip that has jagged edges if you want your cookies to have the flower shape my cookies have. I like the Wilton tip 8B, too. You can use other tips, but if you want the texture of your gluten-free butter cookies, use a tip with cut zig-zag edges.
Step 6: Add the semi-soft batter to a pastry bag with the shape of the piping tip I show above. Your cookie batter should be somewhat soft for piping.
Step 7: Grab your pastry bag with cookie dough. Pipe the cookie dough along with the circle shapes.
🔑 Sandi says: If you are sugar-coating these cookies, sprinkle coarse sugar over them before baking instead of dipping them in chocolate.
Step 8: Do this until you fill all the circles with cookie dough. Bake your cookies at 350º F for 8-10 minutes until the cookies are just slightly golden. Remove the cookies from the oven onto a wire cooling rack.
Let the cookies cool completely before moving them. The cookies will be a little soft until they cool into a nice crisp texture.
Step 9: As these Danish-style cookies are cooling, add your melting chocolate to a microwave-safe dish and melt. I like to melt in 10-15 second increments, stirring between increments to avoid the chocolate burning.
Step 10: Dip your cookies halfway into the chocolate and sprinkle with colorful sprinkles. Note: make sure the sprinkles you use are gluten free. Read here for information on all of the gluten free sprinkles.
Storage/Freezing Instructions:
Store these cookies in an airtight container. I prefer storing them in the refrigerator. They will keep fresh for up to 4 days. You can also freeze these cookies. Place cooled cookies into a zip-style freezer bag.
If you like to decorate cookies, try these Gluten Free Cinnamon Sugar Cookies too!
Frequently Asked Questions:
Yes, you can definitely use your standing mixer with a paddle attachment if you prefer. Add your wet ingredients to the standing mixer and mix on low speed. Slowly add the dry ingredients.
Once the dry ingredients are mixed, mix the speed up to medium for 30 seconds.
Filling a piping bag can be messy. To make it easy, I fold down the piping bag to fill the batter deeper into it.
I really like to use Ghirardelli melting wafers best. You can get them in milk, dark, and white chocolate flavors. Other chocolate chips will also work well.
More Gluten-Free Holiday Cookies:
- Chestnuts roasting over an open fire are the inspiration for these Gluten-Free Roasted Chestnut Cookies.
- Santa loves these Easy Gluten-Free Snickerdoodles cookies!
- These Gluten-Free Chocolate Pizzelles are fabulous Italian cookies for the holidays.
- Everyone loves this classic Holiday Gluten-Free Gingersnaps cookie recipe.
- A Collection of Gluten-Free Christmas Cookies
I hope you love these gluten-free butter cookies as much as we do. They make a beautiful holiday gift. If you love European cookies, try these Italian Gluten Free Pizzelles too!
Love This Recipe?
If you made and enjoyed this recipe, I would be incredibly grateful if you could leave a comment below. Please include which flour blend you used. This will help others know this recipe is delicious. Thank you!
Gluten-Free Butter Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter softened
- 1 ¾ cups gluten free flour blend * see note
- ½ cup sugar
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 egg
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Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350º F.
- In a bowl, add the dry ingredients and whisk to blend.
- In a smaller bowl, add the wet ingredients and mix well.
- Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix.
- Take a pastry bag and a star tip. Cut the tip of the bag and insert the tip.
- Fill the pastry bag with the butter cookie dough.
- Place a piece of parchment paper onto a cookie sheet. Use the small glass to trace circles on the parchment paper. (Or use a macaron mat!).
- Pipe the cookie dough in a ring around each circle. (See photos above for step by step instructions on how to do this.)
- Bake the cookies for 8-10 minutes.
- Optional, dip into melted chocolate and sprinkles.
Notes
- I have tested this recipe with King Arthur Measure for Measure GF, Bob’s Red Mill 1 to 1 GF blend, and Authentic Foods Multi Blend in this recipe. That doesn’t mean others will not work, I just have not tested other flours.
- If your gluten free flour blend doesn’t contain Xanthan Gum or Guar Gum, please add 1 teaspoon.
- To make this recipe dairy-free, substitute the butter for vegan butter.
- Note, you can pipe these cookies into any shape.
- These cookies will keep up to 4 days in an air-tight container, or up to 4 months in the freezer.
SPECIAL NOTE
Please know that every gluten free flour blend has a different starch to grain ratio. If you use a blend I didn’t test, you may need to adjust your moisture levels in your baked goods.
Nutrition
Nutrition Disclaimer
Nutritional information is an estimate provided to you as a courtesy. You should calculate the actual nutritional information with the products and brands you are using with your preferred nutritional calculator.
This post was updated from an older November 2019 post with more details.
Can you use a cookie press for this recipe?
Hi Jennifer, yes! You can easily use this recipe in a cookie press.
The picture of the ingredients calls for baking powder, but there’s none listed in the ingredients of the recipe. Can you post how much baking powder, if any, is needed? Thank you!
Hi Kate, there is no baking poweder. I will amend the photo. Thank you!
They turned out yummy but I used bobs all purpose gluten free which is mainly legume flour and they turned out flat. I followed the recipe and I’m assuming it’s cause of my flour choice. Will have to try again with something else.
I am so glad you liked them, Catherine. I would not recommend the flour you used for sweets as the bean flour can behave oddly and add bitterness in baked goods.
Best cookies ever!! Yes, King Arthur’s flour works best! Baggie works great!
Thank you so much🙏🏼♥️
I am so glad you loved these Suzie! They are one of my favorites too!
This sounds super easy. My question is – can I use a cookie scoop to make a regular disc style cookie? I don’t have the piping bags/tips, etc. Many thanks.
Hi Sandra, you should be fine using a cookie scoop. YOu can also use a sandwich bag with the corner cut off. Enjoy 🙂
This is fabulous, my whole family loved it… Thanks for sharing the recipe.
I am so glad you loved them Raylize 🙂
I followed the recipe exactly (I even got the Plugra butter!), they came out amazing, and almost perfect, but didn’t quite hold their shape, as in the photos. Should I add a little more flour?
Hi Ren, It sounds like a smidgeon more flour would have helped, or refrigerating after piping? Which flour blend did you use? Did you use piping tips or a cut corner of a plastic bag to pipe them?
Have you ever done these with a cookie press? Or rolled them out to get the other shapes like the cookie tin?
Yes, I use this dough in my spritz cookie press often :-). I would say do not refrigerate the dough.
Can you make these with an egg substitute? If so, which would be the best to use?
I have not tested any egg substitutes with this recipe. If you try it, please let us know if it works.
I subscribe and often use your recipes b/c you do a great job with Gluten Free. I understand why you direct people to Plugra butter and Safeway and other brands. Sponsorship and ads are part of the deal with blogs such as this. And…there are so many local farm and small businesses that can provide high quality butter and eggs and other baking ingredients. I use only organic ingredients and I find they are of much higher quality than the ingredients you recommend. I’d like to suggest readers try locally sourced butter and eggs from a local farm and organic chocolate. Once you taste the difference, you’ll be sold.
I love the idea of fresh butter. COVID shut down our farmer’s market where I would get this amazing raw butter. I hope at sometime our market will reopen so we can get it again.
Is this dough the right consistency to use a cookie press? I have a gf recipe I used for Christmas trees, but the cookies were so fragile, they disintegrated when picking them up.
Actually, a cookie press should work well Carole :-). Please let me know how it works and I will add a note for readers in case they have the same question.
Could you roll this into a log, refrigerate until firm, and then slice and bake?
Hi Nancy, you can easily roll these and make slice and bake cookies. Great idea!
Hello. My cookies spread badly after it’s baked ?, what did I do wrong?
Hi Phyllis, my first guess is the gluten free flour blend. Can you please tell me what brand you used? Starch content varies widely by the company so it is important that I know what you used so I can see.
What type of gluten free flour blend do you suggest
Hi Jackie, I like King Arthur Gluten Free Measure for Measure or Bob’s Red Mill 1 to 1 GF Blend.
just made these using coconut gluten free flour. they turned out amazing. a cross between a shortbread cookie and a macaroon. never made gluten free before or tasted gluten free anything but will definitely make these again.
I am so glad it worked with coconut flour!
Must one pipe these cookies? Could I roll or drop on cookie sheet?
Hi Linda, you can easily make these cookies drop style 🙂