Light, crisp with a subtle butter flavor and not too sweet despite all the sprinkles! This holiday classic is a longtime family recipe adapted to be gluten-free and it's a real treat!
New! I added a cooking video to this page so you could see how simple it is to make these gluten-free Roll Out Sugar Cookies!
As with all our recipes, there is a printable recipe with exact measurements and directions at the bottom of the page.
Hope you love them!
Original post…
The most wonderful time of the year comes with the most delicious, gluten-free Roll Out Sugar Cookies!
Recipe dating back to my Grandmother’s sister, these cookies have the perfect texture and taste light, crisp, subtle butter flavor and not too sweet (despite being slightly over-decorated by my elves!).
A little background…
Every holiday season we have our annual Cookie Baking Day with longtime friends & family, and it is always one of my favorite days of the holiday season!
Cookie Baking Day has been a tradition since I was a kid and the crew now includes 6 teens that have been baking together since they were babies. Two of them were diagnosed with celiac disease over 11 years ago and we’ve been baking our family recipes gluten-free ever since (we like using GF Jules all purpose flour – affiliate link ).
This Roll Out Sugar Cookie recipe is always the final cookie of the day…. it’ festive and fun, and it is all hands on deck rolling and decorating!
It’s an easy recipe but, especially if you make the full batch, it’s a lot of dough, a lot of cookies and we roll them thin so it takes time! But it’s worth it!
For this reason, I often halve the recipe and you still get plenty of cookies!
So let’s make them!
Here’s what you’ll need:
butter or dairy free butter
sugar
gluten-free all purpose flour with xanthan gum (we use GFJules -affiliate link)
baking powder
salt
milk
vanilla
egg
Note: In this photo, I halved the recipe so not full quantity of ingredients
As an aside, you may have noticed that we are affiliate for GFJules. To learn more about why we love GFJules flour and why we have used it for 10 years, click here.
Bonus: at the bottom of that post is a one-time use affiliate Discount Code.
And importantly, purchasing through an affiliate link does not change your cost at all. It generates a small percentage of the sale for me, and purchasing through an affiliate link helps me fund this website and all the recipes I share, so thank you!
Back to the Gluten-Free Roll Out Sugar Cookies…
The recipe is simple with few ingredients and the dough comes together quickly but you need to plan to chill the dough.
First you cream the butter until light and fluffy.
Then you add the sugar and cream until well combined and still light and fluffy.
Add vanilla, milk and eggs and mix to combine
Meanwhile, in a separate bowl combine part of the flour, baking powder and salt with a pastry cutter, whisk or sifter. Add to the mix and combine.
Lastly add the additional flour and mix until a roll-able dough forms (it forms quickly!)
Then form it into a ball and chill it for minimum an hour, but I find it easier to just make it the night before.
Pro Tip: take it out of the refrigerator several hours before you plan to roll it if you chill it overnight because it will be hard!
Tips for rolling dough:
Roll the dough in stages, keeping the remaining dough wrapped in wax paper so it doesn’t dry out. Depending on how long the dough has been out, you might even return it the refrigerator if the dough gets too warm .
This is a cookie where I find a wooden board really helps! Rolls much easier than a silicone rolling mat.
Place some flour on the board before rolling.
The dough does not have to be rolled into a perfect circle or shape. You will just be placing as many cookie cutters as you can on it so the shape doesn’t matter.
Take the scraps from after cutting out the shapes and form them into a ball and place in the wax paper with the remaining dough to be re-rolled. You will be amazing how many cookies you get!!
Then decorate them! Have fun with it and decorate with any sugar sprinkles you love!
And they only bake for 8-10 minutes (depending on how thin you roll the dough).
Pro-Tip: try to have the cut outs be the same thickness on any given baking sheet, that way they will bake at the same rate.
You can see they puff up the tiniest bit but they don’t spread, so you can fit as many as you can on any given baking sheet.
How festive and fun are these?
Store them in an airtight container for several weeks or freeze them! They will taste great several months later!
Light, crisp with a subtle butter flavor and not too sweet despite all the sprinkles! This holiday classic is a longtime family recipe adapted to be gluten-free and it's a real treat!
Prep Time1hr15mins
Cook Time8mins
Total Time1hr23mins
Course: Dessert, Holidays, Cookies, Bakery
Cuisine: Gluten-Free, Vegan optional
Servings: 6-7 dozen cookies
Author: Healthy Gluten-free Family
Ingredients
1cupbutterI like to use 1 stick salted, 1 stick unsalted
1 1/2cupsugar
2teaspoonvanilla
2teaspoonmilk
2eggsslightly beaten
3cupsgluten-free all purpose flour with xanthan gum + 1 1/2 cup additional gluten-free flourI use GF Jules - affiliate
2teaspoonbaking powder
1teaspoonsalt
Instructions
Make the dough
Cream the butter until light and fluffy.
Add the sugar and mix very well with the butter, until light and fluffy.
Add the vanilla and milk, the 2 eggs and blend well.
Sift together the 3 cups of flour, baking powder and salt (OR add them to a bowl and mix with a pastry cutter or whisk) and then add to the above mixture, beating well after each addition.
Add 1 1/2 cup additional flour. The idea is that it should be stiff enough to roll.
Chill (at least 1 hour - I usually make the day before and then take it out to almost room temp so that it is easy to roll. If you refrigerate it overnight, take the dough out 2 or more hours before rolling as it will get hard overnight)
Roll, decorate and bake!
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F and line baking sheets with parchment paper. (You will need many baking sheets and probably reuse some)
In batches, use a rolling pin to roll dough to about 1/8 inch thick.
Use cookie cutters of your choice to cut out shapes and place on baking sheets. Sprinkle with colored sugar.
Bake for 8-10 minutes or until set, but not browning.
Let cool and enjoy!
Store in air tight container for several weeks. Cookies freeze well.
Tried this recipe for the first time this year and the cookies were perfect! Kept their shape and tasted delicious too. Only used an extra half cup of flour and baked for a few minutes less because of my oven. Definitely will keep this recipe for any roll out cookie needs throughout the year.
We have tried a different sugar cookie recipe every year trying to find a better one. We tried this one this year and we have now found our permanent sugar cookie recipe. Thank you for sharing this wonderful recipe.
Hi! I have never decorated with piping because my grandmother, then my mom always made us roll the dough super thin… but if you roll a bit thicker, piped frosting should work well! Let me know if you make them.
Hi! My name is Karen, and I’m the mom in our Healthy Gluten-Free Family. My posts and pictures here and on Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook and Twitter are labors of love that allow me to share a very personal journey with you, one our family has taken together — learning, experimenting and sharing how to raise a healthy happy gluten-free family. Read more ...
Tried this recipe for the first time this year and the cookies were perfect! Kept their shape and tasted delicious too. Only used an extra half cup of flour and baked for a few minutes less because of my oven. Definitely will keep this recipe for any roll out cookie needs throughout the year.
So happy you loved them Lydia! Thanks for sharing!
I want to make these, but I don’t have a bread mixer. What else could I use? Can I make it with a hand mixer or just by hand?
You can do it by hand but maybe cut the recipe in 1/2 as it’s a lot of dough… enjoy!
We have tried a different sugar cookie recipe every year trying to find a better one. We tried this one this year and we have now found our permanent sugar cookie recipe. Thank you for sharing this wonderful recipe.
Aw, this makes me so happy! This recipe has a lot of personal meaning to us, so means a lot when others love it too! Thank you!
Has anyone piped frosting on these after baking?
Hi! I have never decorated with piping because my grandmother, then my mom always made us roll the dough super thin… but if you roll a bit thicker, piped frosting should work well! Let me know if you make them.