Gluten Free, Dairy Free Cutout Sugar Cookie Recipe

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Use this recipe to make some of the best sugar cookies you've ever had, gluten free or regular! We recently made these cutouts for Valentine's Day, but use them for any occasion like Christmas, Weddings, Graduations, you name it. This recipe makes about 30-40 cookies depending on the size of the cookie cutters you use.

Cookie Ingredients:

• 1 cup shortening

• 1 1/2 cups sugar

• 2 eggs beaten

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

• 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons orange juice

• 5 1/4 cups 1:1 gluten free flour

• Pinch of salt

• 1 teaspoon baking soda

• 1 teaspoon baking powder

Cookie Instructions:

1. Mix dry ingredients together in a large bowl and set aside

2. Cream shortening gradually at medium speed with stand mixer, adding in sugar until mixture is fluffy

3. Add eggs, vanilla, and juice together, then add to the mixture

4. Add in dry ingredients that were set aside a little at a time until dough forms

5. Divide dough into two, wrap, and then chill for at least 1 hour

6. Preheat oven to 350 degrees

7. Roll out dough and cut into desired shapes

8. Line cookie sheet with parchment paper and place shapes on it

9. Bake for 7 to 10 minutes based on your oven. Cookies should be a very light shade of brown

10. Cool cookies on rack completely before decorating

Dairy Free Icing Ingredients:

• 2 cups powdered sugar

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

• 3 to 4 tablespoons dairy free oat milk

• Dye-Free food coloring

• Dye-Free sprinkles

We doubled this recipe to ice all of our cookies

Dairy Free Icing Instructions:

1. Combine all ingredients into a medium-sized bowl

2. Beat together with hand mixer until consistency is liquid. Add more milk as desired

3. Add in drops of food coloring as desired

4. Dip top of cookies into the icing

5. Add sprinkles after a few minutes of icing

Notes:

We've made these cookies a few times now and here's our best tips for getting them just right.

• We used Crisco shortening

• The King Arthur's 1:1 Gluten Free flour is the best we've tried in several baked goods, so highly recommend for here too!

• Mixing the wet ingredients together before adding it to the mixture is a time saver and ensures everything gets spread evenly. The orange juice sounds weird (it did to us at first too!) but in the end you can't even tell it's in there.

• We stored our dough both overnight and for just about an hour, either way will work, but you do want the dough chilled.

• When rolling out the cookies, let the dough sit at room temperature for about 5-10 minutes to make it easier. Use a small amount of flour on your counter to make sure the cookies don't stick.

• Our oven runs hot, so that's why the lower temperature range on the recipe is 7 minutes. You want the cookies to be a very light brown tint so they don't overcook. If it's your first time making these, we suggest running a couple cookies first to get the temperature right before you put in a whole big tray.

• Give your cookies about 1-2 minutes after they come out of the oven before moving them to a cooling rack.

• The cookies should be completely cool in about 30 minutes before you go ahead and ice them.

• For the icing, we used oat milk, but any dairy free milk should work.

• When coating the cookies, simply just dip the top into the icing while you hold the sides/bottom. You'll want to sprinkle the cookies pretty soon after you dip so the sprinkles attach.

• Don't forget to put some foil or other protector down underneath your racks on your counters before starting to ice. This will save you a ton of time on cleanup!

• The icing will fully harden on the cookies in about an hour.

Cookie Cutter Recommendations:

Here's a link to what we used for Valentine's Day and then some recommendations for other holidays and events. We found the Ann Clark cookie cutters to be great quality and they have shapes for almost any occasion.

Enjoy and be sure to let us know how they came out!