One of my favorite things about gluten free Valentine's cookies is how much fun they are to make! When the entire family gets together and spends time decorating cookies, it is an excellent way to make memories. Of course, they taste pretty amazing too!
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I love making these cookie-cutter sugar cookies for Valentine’s Day and giving them out to all my friends and family. The hardest part is keeping Mr. Fearless Dining out of the kitchen, so he doesn’t eat them all!
It’s time to whip out the rolling pin, sprinkles, and food coloring and get to work on these easy cookie cutter cookies. Every bite of these sweet, delicious gluten free sugar cookies will leave you begging for more.
These cookies are just that good! Now, if you have never made gluten free recipes, I highly recommend you take a look at Gluten Free Pantry Essentials and Equipment Recommendations. This guide gives you lots of helpful information to get started!
Why I love this easy cookie recipe:
If you love decorating cookies, this is a very simple recipe to make. My kids love it. You can make this recipe with either Pamela's Pancake and Waffle Mix or a gluten free flour blend, depending on if you want a little almond flour protein in your cookies.
These gluten free cut-out sugar cookies are terrific if you need an idea for a potluck dinner, party, or even a cookie exchange for the holidays.
Ingredient notes:
- Gluten free flour blend - as I mentioned above I have made this recipe with both Pamela's, King Arthur Measure for Measure, and Bob's Red Mill 1 to 1 GF Blend flours with great success. That doesn't mean others will not work, I just have not tested other flours.
- Xanthan gum - If your gluten free flour blend doesn’t contain Xanthan Gum or Guar Gum, please add 1 teaspoon.
- Butter - To make this recipe dairy-free, substitute the butter for vegan butter.
- Food coloring - You can use natural food coloring or regular. Note natural food coloring may have more muted colors that are not as vibrant.
Recipe step by step directions:
Step 1: Mix up the dry ingredients and whisk to blend. In a smaller bowl, add the wet ingredients and mix.
To measure your gluten free flour, I recommend using the spoon method or leveling method. In a perfect world, people weigh their flour, but most do not own a kitchen scale. To make a scale even trickier, every gluten free flour blend has a different weight.
Put the measuring scoop into the flour and fill. Do not pack the flour. Use a knife to scrape along the top to remove the extra flour.
You can also use a spoon to fill the measuring cup. Use a knife to level along the top to remove the extra flour.
Step 2: Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix into a dough ball.
Step 3: You will want to wrap your cookie dough into plastic wrap and refrigerate it for one hour.
Step 4: Roll the dough out and use your favorite cookie cutter to cut out your shapes.
Step 5: Set the cookies out on a baking mat or parchment paper. Bake at 350º F for 8-10 minutes.
Allow the Valentine cookies to cool completely before decorating.
Important cookie tips:
Before we get into the actual recipe, I want to give you a few helpful tips that will save your sanity while you are baking the gluten free sugar cookies.
- Use room temperature butter and eggs. I know that 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.
- When rolling out your dough, you want to make sure that it doesn’t get to thin. When the cookie is thin, then it is more likely to be brittle and break or crack.
- Use a silicone mat or parchment paper on your cookie sheet, so they don’t stick. This will help them from snapping in half when you are trying to remove them from the pan.
- Chill the dough when possible. I know you are probably ready to eat your cookies right now, but taking a few minutes to chill the batter makes them less likely to spread.
- Your oven temperature may be off. Periodically, check your oven temperature to make sure it's right. Otherwise, the cookies will, for sure, spread if it's not accurate.
- Use a cooled cookie sheet when baking. Don't take a hot cookie sheet and put the batter on it, or I promise the cookies won't turn out. They start baking immediately, and it messes with the 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 they have baked, only let them sit up to 5 minutes on the baking sheet. The pan will still be hot and continue baking them otherwise.
- One way to keep the dough from sticking to cookie cutters is to dip them into a gluten free flour mixture in between cutting cookies.
How to make royal icing:
(Sorry this picture isn't great...but you can see the thickness and consistency.) My daughter took the finished icing and divided it into bowls. She added food coloring to this.
Add each icing color to a frosting bag. My daughter squeezed out the icing to do the edges first. She used pink icing to dot the edges. It is very important to let those dry before doing the next color dots along the edges.
Next, to fill the middle area between the edge icing, squeeze icing in the middle. Use a toothpick to spread the icing around carefully.
Decorating tips:
- Let each color icing dry before adding another color. If you don't allow drying time, the icings will blend together (which might be nice if you are going for a tie-dyed swirled look, but not if you want crisp color separation!)
- When mixing your royal icing, you never want to mix on to high of speed because it will introduce air bubbles and that becomes a pain for you when you are trying to decorate. So always use caution and mix at a lower speed.
- If your royal icing is too thick, just add a little bit of water to thin it up and it will be much more usable.
This recipe is fantastic because you can make gluten free sugar cookies to fit any theme or style you are looking for. You will end up with a beautifully elegant cookie that tastes so good you can’t help but gobble up every crumb!
Want to make your gluten free Valentine's cookies groovy?
- Dip the cookie in white royal icing.
- While it is wet, drop on red royal icing.
- Use a toothpick or the back of a spoon to swirl the two colors together.
Recipe FAQ:
The cookies can be refrigerated for up to a week, but they can get dry. We prefer to store the sugar cookies in the freezer, for up to three months.
The most important part of making the cookies last is storing them in an airtight container. If you are decorating the sugar cookies, don’t frost them if you plan to store them in the freezer for best results.
I always make too much icing! Yes, you can freeze royal icing for up to a month in the freezer. Just put one color of the royal icing in a ziplock plastic bag and remove excess air.
Do a separate bag for each color. The thaw the icing out you can just allow it to sit on your counter until it is pliable and soft then it is ready to use.
The best way to get sugar cookies to keep their shape is to roll out the dough, use cookie cutters to make shapes, place them on a pan with parchment paper then freeze them for ten minutes or refrigerate for up to thirty minutes.
You should also run an oven temperature test to see that your oven is heating properly. Use an oven-safe thermometer that is placed inside the oven, preheat to 350º F, and once it is heated check the thermometer. If it is higher or lower, adjust your oven temperature accordingly.
More Gluten Free Cookies to Try:
- Quick and Easy Gluten Free Sugar Cookies
- Gluten Free Nutella Linzer Tart Cookies
- Old Fashioned Gluten Free Molasses Cookies
Tools You Need To Make This Recipe:
- A non-stick cookie sheet
- Silicone liner to prevent sticking
- Various colors of food coloring
- Rolling pin
Recipe
Gluten Free Cut-Out Cookies
Ingredients
For Cookies
- 2 cups gluten free flour blend * see note
- ½ cup sugar
- 1 egg
- ⅔ cup butter softened, but not fully melted
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Royal Icing
- 3 cups powdered sugar
- 2 egg whites
- ½ teaspoon cream of tartar
- pinch salt
Instructions
- In a bowl, add the cookie dry ingredients (gluten free flour and sugar) and whisk to blend.
- In a small bowl, add softened butter and vanilla. Mix well.
- Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix. Take the dough ball and wrap it in plastic wrap. Chill for 45 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 350º F.
- Remove the dough ball and roll the dough out flat.
- Use cookie cutters to cut shapes. Place the shapes on a parchment lined baking sheet and bake for 8 minutes.
- Remove the cookies and cool on a cooling rack.
- Time to make royal icing!
- In a mixer, add powdered sugar, egg whites, cream of tartar and salt.
- Turn the mixer on SLOW. (If you turn it on too fast, it will explode sugar everywhere!)
- Slowly mix the icing for 9 minutes until it becomes somewhat fluffy and thick.
- Decorate your cookies, don't forget to let each color icing dry before adding another color, otherwise the colors can run together.
Notes
- You can use Pamela's Pancake and Waffle Mix or a gluten free flour blend in making this cookie recipe.
- If your gluten free flour blend doesn’t contain Xanthan Gum or Guar Gum, please add 1 teaspoon.
- These cookies will keep up to 4 days in an air-tight container, or up to 4 months in the freezer.
- When rolling out your dough, you want to make sure that it doesn’t get to thin. When the cookie is thin, then it is more likely to be brittle and break or crack.
- Use a silicone mat or parchment paper on your cookie sheet, so they don’t stick. This will help them from snapping in half when you are trying to remove them from the pan.
- One way to keep the dough from sticking to cookie cutters is to dip them into a gluten free flour mixture in between cutting cookies.
- When mixing your royal icing, you never want to mix on to high of speed because it will introduce air bubbles and that becomes a pain for you when you are trying to decorate. So always use caution and mix at a lower speed.
- If your royal icing is too thick, just add a little bit of water to thin it up and it will be much more usable.
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.
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Rita
Hello, I was trying to follow this recipe but am wondering where the wet ingredients are. I got as far as the butter and vanilla but that's not enough to mix it together and form a dough.
Sandi Gaertner
Hi Rita, can I ask what gluten free flour blend you used?