Name: Gluten Free Spice Sugar Cookies
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 10 min
Total time: 1 h 25 min
Yield: 30
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: 1 cup confectioners' (icing) sugar; 2 Tablespoons milk; 2 teaspoons light corn syrup; 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon; 1 cup granulated sugar; 1/2 cup shortening; 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened; 1 large egg; 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract; 1 1/3 cup brown rice flour; 2/3 cup potato starch; 2/3 cup tapioca starch; 1 1/2 teaspoons xanthan gum; 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon; 1/2 teaspoon baking powder; 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg; 1/2 teaspoon salt

Add a little extra kick to the ordinary with these gluten free Spice Sugar Cookies. Perfect for the holiday cookie trays.

I’ve been baking gluten free Rolled Sugar Cookies for years. I love that recipe, and many of you have given it rave reviews as well. I use the recipe year round, just using different cookie cutters for the different times of year. Hearts for Valentine’s, bunnies for Easter – that sort of thing.

But when I saw a local coffee shop offer up Spice Sugar Cookies at their store for fall – I knew I had to create a gluten free version.

I dug out my fall shaped cookie cutters, and went to work.

The dough rolled out beautifully, and held it’s shape pretty well when baking too. I decided to use half butter and half shortening, and I really like the cookie that it created. You could use full butter if you wanted though.

Instead of these autumn shapes, you could always use this Spiced Sugar Cookie recipe to cut out Christmas shapes and just use a regular royal icing to decorate them with. They would be beautiful!

I kept things simple with this recipe – using a simple spiced icing to create some swirls on top of the cookies, but you could go all-out if you want.

We found that the texture of this cookie actually improved on days 2 and on. Fresh from the oven, it is a very fragile cookie. But when you let it age a little, the texture actually does change. And the spices have a chance to meld more as well. So, keep that in mind. They are great to make ahead of time.

If you love these gluten free Spice Sugar Cookies, I think you’ll also love:

Gluten Free Rolled Sugar Cookies
Gluten Free Gingerbread Cookies (great gingerbread men recipe)
Gluten Free Pumpkin Spice Sandwich Cookies
Paleo Sugar Cookies

Gluten Free Spice Sugar Cookies

Yield: 30

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 10 minutes

Additional Time: 1 hour

Total Time: 1 hour 25 minutes

Add a little extra kick to the ordinary with these gluten free Spice Sugar Cookies. Perfect for the holiday cookie trays.

Ingredients

Cookies:

1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup shortening
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 large egg
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 1/3 cup brown rice flour
2/3 cup potato starch
2/3 cup tapioca starch
1 1/2 teaspoons xanthan gum
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt

Icing:

1 cup confectioners' (icing) sugar
2 Tablespoons milk
2 teaspoons light corn syrup
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Instructions

Cookies:

In the bowl of a stand mixer on medium speed, beat the sugar, shortening, and softened butter until fully incorporated. Reduce the speed to low and add the egg and vanilla. Mix just until blended.
In a separate mixing bowl, whisk together the rice flour, potato starch, tapioca starch, xanthan gum, cinnamon, baking powder, and nutmeg.
With the mixer on low speed, slowly add the dry ingredients, scraping down the bowl as necessary. Mix just until the dough comes together.
Scrape the dough out onto a sheet of plastic wrap, and wrap tightly before refrigerating for at least 1 hour. This will help your butter to solidify and help your cookies to keep their shape while baking.
When you are ready to bake, preheat your oven to 350 degrees F and line your baking sheets with parchment paper.
Working with a quarter of the dough at a time, roll the dough to about 3/8-inch thick between two sheets of plastic wrap, dusting with a small amount of sweet rice flour if necessary. Cut to desired shapes and place on prepared baking sheets, leaving 2-inches between cookies. You can re-roll the scraps until all the dough has been used.
Bake in preheated oven for 8-12 minutes, depending on the size of your cookies. The cookies should just barely be turning brown around the edges, and have just a light brown colour on the bottom of the cookie.
Let cookies sit on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to a cooling rack. Allow cookies to cool completely before decorating with icing or storing in an air-tight container.

Icing:

Mix together all ingredients until fully incorporated. Scrape the icing into a piping bag fitted with a small round tip (I used a Wilton #3 tip). Get creative and decorate. Let the icing dry before stacking the cookies in a container. Be sure to place waxed paper between layers.

Notes

Add a little extra kick to the ordinary with these gluten free Spice Sugar Cookies. Perfect for the holiday cookie trays.

Comments

Barb says
October 18, 2018 at 1:39 pm
Do you dip your measuring cups into the flour or spoon in and level off? Makes a big difference.
- Jeanine says
  October 19, 2018 at 8:52 am
  Hi Barb, I’m a scooper. 🙂
  - Barb says
    October 22, 2018 at 8:53 pm
    It would be good to mention the way you measure flour as so many books and blogs emphasize spooning and leveling off.
Linda Hermann says
October 18, 2018 at 5:23 pm
Flour measurements in grams would cut all the fuss 🙂
Thanks for working out so many “doable” recipes.
- Jeanine says
  October 19, 2018 at 8:53 am
  Would grams actually help? I don’t see many bloggers including it. I could add it, just takes more time to figure, but I could.
Jeanne says
October 19, 2018 at 8:31 am
Jeanine, these cookies are beautiful! I’m not sure if I could change the recipe to make them with paleo flour though. Our daughter is now on a semi paleo diet, since she can no longer tolerate rice and other usual gluten free flours. It’s easier to bake one kind of thing for both of us.
I hope you’re doing well!
- Jeanine says
  October 19, 2018 at 8:54 am
  Thanks, Jeanne! We’re doing well! I would add the spices to the Paleo Sugar Cookies recipe I linked to above, I’m sure adding some spices wouldn’t change the results of the cookie – should work!
Tilly says
October 20, 2018 at 12:57 am
What brand brown rice flour do you use. I generally stay away from rice flours because of the grainy texture, These look yummy!
- Jeanine says
  November 9, 2018 at 10:02 am
  I use Bob Red Mill’s. I think it has a lot to do with how things are combined as to the texture. I’ve also heard that you can let your dough/batter sit for 30 minutes before baking, and that will help with grittiness.
Lynn A Zeddies says
December 19, 2020 at 4:21 pm
Thank you! Thank you for this recipe. I tried last year to make our family favorite cookie with one to one gluten free flour and it was a failure! Took this recipe and tweaked a bit, especially the spices, and I have a perfect gluten free version of my favorite Christmas cookie recipe!
https://s.amsu.ng/TCYpRtzqlCnN
- Jeanine Friesen says
  December 20, 2020 at 7:18 am
  That’s awesome, Lynn! So glad that you were able to tweak it and make it like your traditional cookie. Perfect! They look great!