Happy Valentines Day everyone! It's the day to show those you love just how much you care. I have no doubt that making these cookies either for or with your valentine kiddos will show the love! ❤ My son, who eats gluten free, signed up to bring two dozen heart sugar cookies to his drama class today. He's a smart one..... signing up for something he would not normally get to eat so he can make them gluten free! Nice thinking there. It pretty much took up our entire evening last night, but he got so much joy out of decorating these by himself! Of course, I helped, A LOT, but he really felt ownership of this baking adventure and was so excited to take them to school today. Let's get to the recipe!
Roll-out Sugar Cookies
Makes 2 dozen cookies
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 egg, room temperature
1 tablespoon milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups gluten free flour (Bob's Mill 1:1 works great)
In a large bowl beat together sugar and butter until very light and fluffy. This should take about 3 minutes for mixture to be fully creamed. Add the egg, milk, vanilla, and salt to the butter/sugar mixture. Beat again until very well combined. It may look separated and curdled at first, but as it beats longer it will blend together smoothly. Add the flour and beat at low speed until combined.
Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour or freeze for 30 minutes. The dough should be very cold throughout.
Preheat oven to 350°F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. Sprinkle gluten free flour onto a rolling surface. Use half the cold dough and roll out to about 1/4" thickness. Cut out the dough with cookie cutters and use a spatula to transfer the cut-out cookies to prepared baking sheets. Repeat with all the remaining dough. TIP: If you plan on baking the cookies at the same time, store the baking sheets with cut out cookies in the refrigerator until ready to bake. Warmed dough spreads more during baking.
Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until cookies are set. Let the cookies cool 5 minutes on the baking sheets before transferring to wire racks to cool completely. After cookies have cooled, decorate as desired. Store in airtight container up to 3 days.
Step-by-step tutorial:
Making these cookies a few days ahead of when you need them works well with this recipe! Just keep them in an airtight container.
Gather your ingredients. It's a short list which includes butter, sugar, milk, an egg, vanilla, and GF flour.
To your mixing bowl, add the softened stick of butter (1/2 cup) and 1 cup of sugar.
Beat until creamy, then add one egg. Beat until combined.
Measure 1 tablespoon of milk and 2 teaspoons of vanilla. (Aren't these mini beakers so adorable? My husband gave them to me for Christmas and even wrote the English measurements on them. That's true love.)
Add both to the bowl and combine.
Lastly, add two cups of gluten free flour. Beat this until it all comes together and looks something like this.
Key step! Cover your bowl with plastic wrap and put in the refrigerator for at least an hour. You want the dough nice and chilled all the way through for proper rolling.
Now we get to roll and cut out the cookies! This part used to be so intimidating to me because I had not found this great cookie dough that acts just like dough with gluten. This is a keeper because it works!
Sprinkle some gluten free flour over your counter. Take half of the chilled dough and flatten with your hands into a disk, then sprinkle it with more flour. Take your rolling pin and flatten the dough until it's 1/4" thickness.
It will not roll out into a perfect circle, and that is okay! You just need enough good flat area to use your cookie cutters. Cut out your shapes, then using a spatula, transfer them to your lined baking sheets. Collect leftover dough and repeat the process. Then do the second half of the dough the same way.
This recipe made exactly 2 dozen heart shaped cookies for me.
Bake at 350°F for 10-12 minutes (I tend to stick to less time because I like them a little soft). Only bake one sheet at a time for even cooking. While one sheet is baking, I put the other baking sheet with cookie dough in the refrigerator, so it stays chilled. The cookies will retain their shape better if they go into the oven cold.
After cooling a few minutes on the pan, move to a wire rack to cool completely.
Now the fun and creative part! There are countless ways you can decorate your cookies. There are many delicious buttercream frostings out there as well as fun sprinkles and toppings. This time we decided to try a fun technique with glace icing. You can find this technique at https://ourbestbites.com/tutorial-cookie-decorating-with-glace-icing//
I think my son had a blast experimenting with fun designs. He was proud of the outcome and couldn't wait to take them to school. Not only did they look amazing, but HE COULD EAT THEM. That's a huge boost to any kiddo's day!!
Any way you frost them, your kiddos will thank you for making them these awesome sugar cookies!
Aw...... when love is in the air.
Recipe Source: Mamagourmand @ www.mamagourmand.com