We all need a favorite sugar cookie recipe, and this is ours! You'll never know it's gluten free, and the dough is so easy to work with! You can cut out your favorite holiday shapes, then eat them plain or frost them with our favorite buttercream frosting - so good! Kids love to decorate sugar cookies, so these are a must during the Christmas season.
Christmas Sugar Cookies
Makes 2 dozen
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 egg yolk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup gluten free flour (I use Bob's Red Mill 1:1)
1/4 teaspoon salt
In a large bowl, beat sugar and butter together until creamy. Add the egg yolk and vanilla. Beat until well mixed. Add flour and salt and beat until combined and easy to make into a ball. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for an hour. Heat oven to 350°F. Roll out half of dough on a lightly floured surface to 1/4-inch thickness. Cut with cookie cutters and place on parchment lined cookie sheet. Place cookie sheet with cut-out cookie dough in the refrigerator for at least 15 minutes. Repeat with remaining dough, filling two baking sheets. Bake for 8-9 minutes or until edges are lightly brown, leaving other baking sheet in the refrigerator until baking. Cool for a few minutes before moving to a wire rack to cool completely.
Sugar Cookie Frosting:
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 tablespoon sour cream
1/2 teaspoon clear vanilla
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
4 cups powdered sugar
2-3 tablespoons milk or cream
In a medium bowl, beat the butter, sour cream, vanilla, and almond extract. Add the powdered sugar and milk (or cream) and beat until well combined and the right consistency for frosting. Add additional milk or powdered sugar to get desired consistency. You can add food coloring if desired. Frost the cooled cookies and decorate with sprinkles.
Step-by-step tutorial:
Gather your ingredients for the cookies. You will need 1/2 cup butter (1 stick), 1/2 cup sugar, vanilla, gluten free 1:1 flour blend, and salt.
In a mixer, beat the softened butter and sugar until creamy. Add 1 teaspoon vanilla and beat. Add 1 cup gluten free flour and salt and beat until combined.
The dough will be a good thick consistency that can be easily rolled into a ball with your hands. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for an hour.
Meanwhile, you can make the most amazing sugar cookie frosting! It's so fantastic and just the right consistency for cookies. You will need a stick of butter, sour cream, clear vanilla (for the whitest frosting), almond extract, powdered sugar, and milk or cream.
In a mixing bowl, beat 1/2 cup softened butter, 1 tablespoon sour cream, 1/2 teaspoon vanilla and 1/2 teaspoon almond extract. Add 4 cups powdered sugar and 2 tablespoons milk or cream.
Beat well until combined and creamy. You can add more powdered sugar or milk to get the desired consistency. You want it to be easy to frost cookies.
Preheat oven to 350°F. After the dough is chilled, roll half of it out on a lightly floured surface to about 1/4-inch thickness. Cut with cookie cutters and place the cookie dough on a parchment lined baking sheet.
Place the baking sheet in the refrigerator for about 15 minutes,
Remove from chilling and bake for 8-9 minutes or until just starting to brown on the edges. Allow the cookies to cool for about 2 minutes on the pan.
Move cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.
The trick to getting the shape to hold while baking is to chill the cut-out dough before baking. This dough is so wonderful to work with and has never failed me!
Frost the cooled cookies and decorate as desired. Sprinkles are always fun. I like to shake sprinkles on the cookies over the kitchen sink so the extras don't go everywhere in my kitchen.
You can also just enjoy these sugar cookies plain if you like. They are so buttery and delicious! A little crispy is how we like them!
Christmas is just not complete without some sugar cookies to decorate. Kids of all ages really enjoy the creativity that comes with this.
You can put out different colors of frosting, and different sprinkles or candy. To get the really white frosting, be sure to use clear vanilla.
Happy baking!
Recipe Source: Recipe adapted from a recipe by Land O Lakes