The thought of Christmas without cookies had me in tears!
It was Christmas 2012, I had been going without grains for months. It didn’t matter that I had made do mostly meats and vegetables day in and day it. It was Christmas!
Somehow making and eating cookies on Christmas is an essential tradition to me.
Maybe it’s because we did it every year growing up, maybe it’s because I have a sweet tooth, but I was a wreck!
My aunt poured over her cookbooks and found an almond cookie that I could have.
I was so thankful! I was overjoyed to have a safe cookie on Christmas! Instead of sacrificing, I got to try a different delicious cookie. What a difference it made!
Since then I’ve developed more allergies and that led me to Breaking Recipes. The Sugar Cookies we’re making today will look and taste like traditional sugar cookies, but they will be made without gluten, grain, dairy, egg, soy, corn, almond, sesame, cashew or peanut!
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Are you avoiding gluten, grain, dairy, egg, soy, corn, almond, peanut or cashew?
On a typical day, It’s easy to skip the cookies and go without…but when it comes to the holidays…no amount of willpower seems to be sufficient…
It’s good to dream, but it’s better to make that dream a reality…so that’s what we’re doing today, we’re making Sugar Cookies without gluten, grain, dairy, egg, soy, corn, almond, sesame or cashew!
Are you serious?
Oh, I’m serious! We are going to make cookies without gluten, grain, dairy, egg, soy, corn, almond, sesame, or cashew!
How? How is that possible?
Because This Is Break A Recipe!
And That’s What We Do Here!
We make traditional foods that look and taste like the foods you crave without the allergens!
Today we are going to make sugar cookies without gluten, grain, dairy, egg, soy, corn, almond, sesame, or cashew. They’ll have your gluten-loving friends going for seconds!
Welcome To Break A Recipe!
My name is Nina, I’m a grain-free food nerd who cooks and bakes without gluten, grain, dairy, egg, soy, corn, almond, sesame, and cashew.
When I tell people this, they laugh and ask, What’s left to cook with?
I always answer with, Unicorn Farts, of course!
We both laugh and I explain how I use simple healthy ingredients to create the delicious treats with the taste and texture of the traditional version!
If this is your first time visiting, thank you for stopping by! You are going to love this recipe. If you are a returning reader, newsletter subscriber, recipe tester, or Facebook group member, thank you for all your help! You keep me on my toes. You inspire me to Break New Recipes each week. Life is better with foodie friends, and I’m thankful to call you mine!
To see what kind of foods I’ve been making lately, check out my instagram. To read more about me and how I started breaking recipes, click here
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Now Let’s Get Back To Our Recipe!
How are we going to make sugar cookies without gluten, grain, dairy, egg, soy, corn, almond, sesame or cashew?
The secret to my grain-free baking is my Grain-Free Flour Blend, which we mix up in 5 minutes.
After our flour is mixed we’re pretty much baking like normal.
Okay…maybe there’s a little more to it…
We’ll use coconut oil in place of butter, our Grain-Free Flour Blend, chickpea flour, coconut milk, sugar, xanthan gum, vanilla flavoring, salt, baking soda, and cream of tartar.
Our cookies will have a delicious buttery flavor, a slightly flaky texture, and just enough lift to make you think they’ve come from a local bakery.
So what’s the catch?
The ingredients seem pretty normal…but what special technique or equipment will we need?
None! That’s Right! No special technique or equipment, if you have a hand mixer, a mixing bowl, silicone scraper, some measuring cups, measuring spoons, a rolling pin, and some cookie cutters, you’re ready to bake!
(If you have a stand mixer, you can certainly use it to make the mixing even easier. If you really want to get fancy a nice kitchen scale helps with measuring the flour!)
Is it really that easy?
Yes! You mix the dough, let it sit, roll it, cut out the cookies, bake them, let them cool, and enjoy!
Are you ready to Break a Recipe? Let’s Go Shopping!
If you’re looking for equipment or ingredients, here’s what I use in my kitchen.
Equipment
- Stand Mixer/ Hand mixer
- Mixing bowl
- Dry Measuring Cups
- Liquid Measuring Cups
- Kitchen scale (if you want to weight your flour)
- Adjustable Measuring Spoons
- Silicone Scraper
- Large Cutting Board
- Rolling Pin
- Flour Shaker
- Cookie Cutters
- Bench Scraper (to clean the flour from the counter)
- Baking Sheet
- Cooling Rack
Ingredients
- Coconut Flour
- Chickpea Flour
- Tapioca Flour
- Coconut Milk
- Coconut Oil
- Organic Beet Sugar or Organic Cane Sugar
- Vanilla Flavoring
- Xanthan gum
- Salt
- Cream Of Tartar
- Baking Soda
These ingredients and equipment are what I use in my own kitchen. As an amazon associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. If you purchase anything through an affiliate link, I earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you for helping to “keep the lights on,” here at Break A Recipe.
Enough With the Words, Let’s Break A Recipe!
Gluten-Free Sugar Cookie Recipe
Equipment
- Stand Mixer or Hand mixer and mixing bowl
- Dry Measuring Cups
- Liquid Measuring Cups
- Adjustable measuring spoons
- Flour / Sugar Shaker
- Large Cutting Board
- Rolling Pin
- Cookie Cutters
- Bench Scraper
- Baking Sheet
Ingredients
Wet Ingredients
- 1 Cup Coconut oil, softened
- 1 Cup White Sugar (Beet sugar or can sugar)
- 1/4 Cup Chickpea Flour
- ⅓ Cup Coconut Milk
- 2 teaspoons Vanilla Flavoring
Dry Ingredients
- 3 Cups Grain Free Four Blend, plus more for rolling or 300 grams See notes for link to recipe
- 1 teaspoon Xanthan Gum
- 1 teaspoon Cream of Tartar
- ½ teaspoon Baking soda
- ½ teaspoon Salt
- Olive Oil, Non-Stick Cooking Spray
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°. Mix the dry ingredients, set aside.
- Soften the coconut oil. With an electric mixer, blend in the sugar until creamy and fluffy. Blend in the chickpea flour.
- With the mixer running, gradually add the coconut milk and the vanilla flavoring. The batter will stiffen up slightly, this is exactly what it should do!
- Gradually mix in the dry ingredients. Once moistened, blend an additional minute. Allow the dough to rest 3-5 minutes before rolling and cutting.
- Using a bench scraper, divide dough into quarters. Return all unused dough to the mixing bowl and cover until ready to use.
- Using a flour/ sugar shaker, dust a large cutting board with flour, roll one of the quarters in flour. Using a rolling pin, roll the dough, shaking flour over the the dough as needed to prevent sticking.
- The Ideal thickness is between ⅛ and ¼ inch thick. Using cutters dipped in flour, cut cookies and transfer to a cookie sheet sprayed with Olive Oil non-stick cooking spray.
- Bake for 8-12 minutes. Cookies are done when edges are light brown. Remove from baking sheet and cool on baking rack.
Notes
Let’s Take A Closer Look At Our Ingredients
I’m a food nerd! One of the things I love learning about is how ingredients work together.
Organic Coconut Oil-—
The more ingredients a recipe has, the greater potential it contains allergen. Since we are using coconut milk and coconut flour in our Grain-Free Flour Blend, we’ll use refined coconut oil as our fat.
White Sugar (beet sugar or cane sugar)–
Sugar cookies are going to contain sugar. One cup for 5 dozen cookies means there’s approximately .8 teaspoons of sugar per cookie. Feel free to adjust the amount if you like. Your cookie will be slightly drier because sugar liquifies and contributes moisture as well as sweetness to the recipe.
Now let’s talk type of sugar–both beet sugar and cane sugar are white sugars. Of these two, beet sugar is less inflammatory than cane sugar. If you are concerned about inflammation, I would go with beet sugar. It’s what I use when I cook and bake.
Chickpea Flour—
Oh marvelous chickpea flour, it has so many uses. In this recipe it adds protein to our grain-free flour blend, and it takes the place of egg. Most doctors encourage their patients to consume more legumes if it is safe to do so. Baking with chickpea flour is a great way to do this!
Salt—
Known for brining out flavors, salt is an essential nutrient we need in moderation. If you are concerned about salt intake, take the salt shaker off the table, and salt your recipes in the kitchen.
Baking Soda—
What would a kitchen be without baking soda? Make sure to have a separate box or jar for the fridge and another for baking. We use baking soda to give the “lift” an egg would give these little loaves.
Cream of Tartar—
Another leavening agent, this recipe uses cream of tartar to in combination with baking soda and chickpea flour to replicate eggs.
Grain-Free Flour Blend,
This takes the place of white flour in our bread. We blend it from three main ingredients: chickpea flour; tapioca flour; & coconut flour. While all the flours are gluten-free, chickpea gives us protein, tapioca gives us starch, and coconut gives us fiber. This and a little xanathan gum and we can create breads which just look and taste like the real thing!
Organic Vanilla Flavoring—
Vanilla flavoring gives our sugar cookies their classic flavor. We’re using flavoring instead of extract because extracts use alcohol, and that means grain. If extract is safe for you to use and you prefer it, it will give the cookie the same delicious flavor!
Xanthan Gum—
The closest I’ll ever get to baking with unicorn farts, xanthan gum makes the magic happen! It thickens, it emulsifies, it foams. It creates structure and allows the CO2 pockets created by the yeast to remain after the yeast is removed from the oven. The most frequently asked question about xanthan gum is—“Does it contain: dairy, soy, wheat, or corn?” These are the most common ingredients uses in creating xanthan gum. So people are right to ask. But I have found Authentic Foods Xanthan Gum, a brand that is free of all these allergens! It’s made from cabbage. I haven’t had anyone tell me they dislike it. It’s high quality, allergen friendly, and it gets the job done!
FAQ
What Flour Do You Use?
I use a grain-free flour made from tapioca, chickpea, and coconut. Click here for the recipe. The flavors cancel each other out and create a very neutral taste. You will taste slight coconut flavor but it won’t be strong.
Why Is The Chickpea Flour With The Wet Ingredients?
In this recipe the chickpea flour is taking the place of eggs so we add it with the wet ingredients. Don’t worry the recipe won’t taste like chickpea. No one has ever been able to taste the chickpea in this recipe!
Can You Taste The Chickpea Flour?
No! No one has ever been able to tell that any of my cookie recipes include chickpea flour. It blends nicely with the coconut flour and they balance each other out well.
Can I Use Less Sugar When I Bake This Recipe?
Of course you can! This blog is called Break A Recipe for a reason. The best recipe is the one you can enjoy safely. If you’d like to decrease the amount of sugar, consider cutting down the sugar by 1/4 cup. Remember that sugar liquifies and when we remove sugar we are removing some moisture from our baking. So it’s best to adjust a recipe slowly or you just might Break It Good!
I’ve made these cookies with beet sugar, cane sugar, and coconut sugar. There’s hardly any difference in flavor between cane sugar and beet sugar. With coconut sugar you’ll get a slightly caramel flavor.
How Do You Use A Rolling Pin?
Great question. Rolling pins can be tricky…prepare a large cutting board. Dust your cutting board and your rolling pin with flour. This will keep the cookie dough from sticking to the board and to the rolling pin. Lightly roll the rolling pin over the surface of the dough, the dough will flatten slightly. Flour the dough, turn it over, flour the other side, roll, flour, repeat until your dough is its desired thickness.
What Can I Use In Place of Xanthan Gum?
Oh xanthan gum! I love it so, but not everyone does. I had trouble with xanthan gum a while back. Many varieties of xanthan gum are made from corn, soy, wheat, or dairy. I switched to Authntic Foods’ Xanthan GUM which is made from cabbage. I can use it safely. I have tried to substitute psyllium husk powder for xanthan gum, but I didn’t have good luck with it. See what happened when I tried.
Why Are We Using Vanilla Flavoring And Not Vanilla Extract?
Extract means alcohol and that’s grain based. For food nerds like me with a grain allergy, vanilla flavoring is the safest. If you enjoy vanilla extract and it’s safe for you to use, Break The Recipe and enjoy it your way! Recipes Are Meant To Be Broken!
Can You Frost These Cookies?
Of course you can! Cookies are always more beautiful when frosted. I don’t frost mine because I eat too many! Maybe I’ll frost them for Santa on Christmas Eve. If you’re looking for a recipe, a cup of powdered sugar and 1 tablespoon of coconut milk with a drop of vanilla is a good place to start.
How Do You Deal With The Mess?
There’s no question that baking is messy! I try and keep the mess down by using a bench scraper on the counters as I go. I wear an apron to keep my clothes a little cleaner, I use just a few cookie cutters to keep the dishes down. I try and tidy the counters and dishes while the cookies bake! And then I wear the flour with pride. Because it’s part of the fun!
Good Food Is Best When Shared!
I hope you get to share these magnificent sugar cookies with friends, family, coworkers, and neighbors. They’ve brought joy, flavor, and holiday cheer to our Christmas for many years now. I can’t wait to hear how your cookies turn out.
If you’d like to share photos of your cooking, please connect with me in our Facebook group, Grain-Free Lifestyle and Support Community. It’s a fun place to connect and share recipes. I look forward to seeing you there!
Before You Go…
Thank you for reading, for trying this recipe, and for taking a chance on a recipe made with unique ingredients!
You’ll find it’s easy to make, and your body will feel much better after eating it. You will find your gluten-and grain loving friends going for seconds!
If you’re cooking this for someone with allergies, thank you again for supporting them. You’re an amazing friend. Pin this recipe so you can share it with those who need it, and find it later!
Please tell me how your recipe turned out when you make it. Click here to reach me directly. You can also find me on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or Pinterest using the links below. I really enjoy your feedback and comments. I can’t wait to hear how your recipe turned out!
Come connect with others who cook without grains. Life’s better with Foodie Friends. We’d love to have you join us in Grain-Free Lifestyle And Support Community.
Do you have a picture of them baked and rested? Meaning not a photo of them in the oven?
Thanks for asking! We ate the last batch too fast for me to take photos. I found a pic from last year’s baking and adding it to the gallery. Do you prefer your sugar cookies iced or plain?