Gluten-Free Gingerbread Cut-Out Cookie Recipe
Ali Segersten 456 comments
My children have so much fun cutting out and decorating these lovely gluten-free Christmas cookies! Just look at these photos, what is not to love? This time of year takes me back to baking gingerbread and sugar cookies with my mother. My brothers and I would decorate dozens of cookies with beautiful colored sprinkles and bright white icing. I wanted to share that experience with my own children, only with a healthier, gluten-free version. Thus, this recipe was born! It uses coconut sugar as the main sweetener, along with a powdered coconut sugar icing. Although coconut sugar is definitely a low-glycemic sweetener, it is still sugar, and these cookies are to be considered a sweet treat.
My recipe below calls for sweet rice flour. This type of white rice flour is made from sticky rice, or glutinous rice. It helps hold the cookies together without the use of gluten flour or gluten-free binders. I prefer to use this superfine sweet rice flour. Superfine flours are ground so finely that they lack the grittiness typically found in other types of rice flours.
You can follow my blog post for How to Make Powdered Coconut Sugar if you would like to use a more nutritious sugar in the icing. We like to decorate these cookies with nuts, seeds, and dried fruits. You can definitely get creative here with the toppings.
Gingerbread Hazelnut Cut-Out Cookies
These gluten-free cut-out cookies are fun to make with your children during the holidays! I use a powdered coconut sugar icing, which has a rich caramel flavor. You can refer to my blog post on How to Make Powdered Coconut Sugar in order to make this icing. Use currants, raisins, sliced almonds, natural sprinkles, or anything else you can imagine to decorate them. I find the dough is best if it is refrigerated overnight. You can make the dough after your children are in bed and then bake the cookies with them in the morning.
Dry Ingredients
Wet Ingredients
Coconut Sugar Icing
cookies:
- Whisk together the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl.
- In a separate, smaller bowl beat with an electric mixer (or vigorously whisk) together the wet ingredients. Add the wet to the dry and mix together.
- Form into a ball, cover, and place into the refrigerator for a couple of hours or overnight.
- When the dough is firm and chilled, preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
- Place a large piece of parchment or waxed paper down onto a clean, flat work surface. Lightly flour the paper with sweet rice flour.
- Take part of the dough and roll it out to a little less than 1/4 inch of thickness. Put the remaining dough back in the fridge to keep it chilled.
- Cut the dough out using your favorite holiday cookie cutters. Carefully peel away the dough around the cut-outs.
- Then take a thin spatula and lift the cookies onto a lightly greased cookie sheet (or parchment-lined cookie sheet).
- Bake for 12 to 15 minutes depending on how crisp you like them. A few more minutes of baking makes them crispy. Just watch them so they don't overcook.
- Transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool. Then repeat with remaining dough.
- Let cook completely before frosting.
Coconut sugar icing:
- Place powdered coconut sugar in a small bowl, whisk in the milk and vanilla.
- Use to ice cooled cookies.
- You might need to make more depending on how much icing you like on your cookies.
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About the Author
Alissa Segersten
Alissa Segersten, MS, CN, is the founder of Nourishing Meals®, the personalized meal-planning platform for whole-food cooking, therapeutic diets, and everyday family nourishment. A functional nutritionist, cookbook author, and pioneer in whole-food nutrition education, Alissa has spent over two decades translating nutritional science into practical tools for everyday life. As a mother of five, she understands the importance of making nourishing, home-cooked meals part of everyday life. Her work bridges functional medicine, therapeutic nutrition, and the art of feeding a family.Nourishing Meals Newsletter
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Comments
I shared this recipe on fb!
jabagne@comcast.net
Love these cookies!! What a great recipe! we will try these for sure!! and love the vitamix giveaway!! thanks!
Perfect timing for this recipe, our class is buzzing about Saint Lucia cookie dough. Thanks - jabagne@comcast.net
Those look delicious, Ali! Last year was the first year we made gluten free gingerbread cookies. I'd love to try this recipe out to compare.
Kristinevicker @ yahoo(dot)com
Sounds great! I'll have to try these.
would love any of those books...the gingerbread people look awesome!
~ Lisa
And posted on Facebook (citylifeeats at gmail etc)
Tweeted! (sorry, my email is citylifeeats at gmail etc.)
Ali,
Thanks so much for this recipe. I've found that it's not the gluten, it's the wheat. And I've recently discovered the wonders of date sugar as a sweetener alternative that will chemically work in a cookie. Saw your technique for the powdered sugar but don't have a Vitamix - so pick me to win it! I've been racking my brain trying to figure out how am I going to powder that date sugar? I'm thinking I'll put it in a plastic bag and crush it with a rolling pin maybe. These cookies look yummy. Will definitely be trying them.
These cookies are so pretty - and I love the idea of using Hazelnut flour :)
Tweeted! @ATHDolls
Shared your Giveaway post on Facebook.
I would love to be entered into your giveaway! I have been a big fan of your cookbook and use it almost daily. Thank you :)
Oops! I meant to post that last question about replacing hazelnut flour under the cookie recipe, not the powdered sugar one. Sorry!
I posted a message on facebook also. Is there anyway to make these vegan? I'm allergic to dairy and eggs. Thank you!!!!
This cookies look amazing. Glad to see a baked item without xanthan gum.
I posted this on Facebook. :)
These look delicious, I cant wait to make these with my little one.
Shared this on Facebook for you!
I also shared it on Twitter! Awesome recipe! I just purchased a gingerbread house cookie cutter kit and I know my four-year-old son will be DELIGHTED to make this simple yet beautiful recipe. :)
These look so fun, my kids LOVE cut out cookies of any variety! Thanks! Tessa@TessaDomesticDiva
I shared it on Facebook! I have some gluten-free friends who are "newbies," so I know that they will find your recipe particularly helpful at this holiday season.
Thanks so much! I love gingerbread. Do you think this recipe works well with almond flour, too? My husband doesn't like hazelnuts.
What an amazing giveaway selection. The cookbooks look wonderful, but I have to admit that I would love, love, love the Vitamix. :)
Thanks!
These look amazing! My daughter has been asking to make gingerbread cookies, now I know what we'll be doing this weekend!
kchalbi @ hotmail . com
Thanks for the great-looking recipe and the opportunity to win.
I am sooo excited to have found your site and this recipe. I've been dreading losing my favorite cookies at Christmas and now i won't miss them. I'll have these. I'm sharing this on FB so my other friends can see it to!
THANKS!
Ali,
These cookies look fantastic! We have tried cut out cookies year after year with no success. Can't wait to make these! Your give-aways look like a lot of fun and a blessing! Thank you for all you do to help my family and so many others that I have shown your blog. You are a blessing!!
Stephanie Moschel
bmoschel@mwt.net
I share your lovely post on Facebook! :) Lots of love, Debbie
Shared the post on Facebook!!
Will definitely be using this recipe - I love hazelnut flour!
Thank you for the chance at thes great prizes, too!
This recipe looks great - I love hazelnut flour! Thank you for the chance at the wonderful prizes!!
My daughter just mentioned wanting to make gingerbread dog and cat cut-outs. This recipe looks GREAT, thanks!
My daughter was just talking about wanting to make gingerbread dogs and cats this year. This recipe looks GREAT, thanks!
Ali, I love how recipes come to you in a flash and these Cut-out cookies are beautiful! xo Debbie
Your cookies look excellent and what a great giveaway! Sign me up for the prize :)
These look super
These look amazing!!! So glad I don't have to miss out on this with my kids this year. :)
These books look great1 I would be thrilled to have any one of the! I am ANXIOUSLY awaiting the release of your new cookbook though!
Brandee
bsimmang@comcast.net
I subscribed to your blog.
I liked you on facebook.
Cookies look delicious! will have to try them soon.
Thanks for the post, the tradition of making gingerbread cookies can now continue even though my daughter and I are gluten-free!
I'm really excited about these cookies! Now to find hazelnut flour in Japan...
We eliminated wheat from our diet several years ago and we stunned how much better we felt. In the past year though we started eating wheat again because we failed to plan ahead and now once again can feel the results. Time to make a change for life. Thanks for your inspiring blogging!
I'm really excited about these cookies! Now to dig up some hazelnut flour in Japan...
I have tweeted this post.
I have shared this post on facebook
These cookies are so cute - like the powdered coconut sugar idea for the icing.
Posted this on facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/LivingGlutenFree/
posted on Facebook for the giveaway!