These are the absolute BEST Gluten Free Cut Out Sugar Cookies! They're easy to roll out, hold intricate shapes well, and stay soft for days.
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One of my fondest memories growing up was at Christmastime when we would make cut out sugar cookies. Rolling out and decorating the cookies was one of my favorite holiday traditions. I remember pulling out my mom's beat up old Betty Crocker cookbook (with the pages falling out of the binder) and flipping to Mary's Sugar Cookies. Funny how I can remember the name of those cookies, but can't remember what I had for lunch yesterday lol! Those good memories seem to really etch themselves into our brains where they stay for a lifetime.
When I first made these cookies years ago after being diagnosed with celiac, I nearly cried at how good they were. I actually thought they were better than any gluten-filled sugar cookie I'd ever had, including Mary's Sugar Cookies (sorry Mary). And everyone that tastes them agrees. I hope you do as well!
what you'll need for cut out sugar cookies
- Kim's gluten free all purpose flour blend - you may be able to substitute with a store bought gluten free blend, but please note I have not tested any.
- Cream cheese - this is the ingredient that makes these cookies so irresistibly soft.
- Egg yolks - the egg yolks add richness to the cookies.
let's make cut out cookies
Beat butter and sugar together until smooth. Add egg whites, vanilla, salt, and flour, beating until well combined.
Divide dough between two sheets of plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 2 hours, up to 48.
Roll out dough to about ⅜th to ½-inch thickness. Thinner cookies will be more crisp, thicker cookies soft.
Cut out cookies with cookie cutters and place on baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
Bake at 350 for 12-14 minutes, or until barely brown around the bottom edges. Let cool completely.
Decorate cookies as desired.
Rather Watch?
Gluten Free Sugar Cookies: Frequently Asked Questions
Absolutely! This is one of the BEST cookies for freezing! They freeze extremely well. The dough can be frozen for up to 3 months, and you can freeze both undecorated and decorated cookies. To freeze undecorated cookies, stack cookies and place in an airtight container. Freeze for up to 3 months. For decorated cookies, make sure icing is completely set and stack between layers of parchment. Freeze in an airtight container for up to 3 months.
Dairy-free butter and cream cheese can both be substituted in these cookies to make them dairy free.
They will keep well and remain soft in an airtight container for up to one week.
more gluten free cookies to make!
Did you know this very same recipe for sugar cookies can be made into EIGHT different cookies??? You read that right. I doubled this very cookie dough recipe and made EIGHT completely different shaped, flavored, textured cookies from this ONE dough! Check out my Gluten Free Sugar Cookie Recipe with Endless Variations for all the details (with an in-depth video too!).
The following year, I also made Gluten Free Butter Cookies Five Ways. These are more buttery and slightly more crisp than sugar cookies, so if you'd rather have a more crisp and buttery cookie, check that one out!
Here are a couple more gluten free cookie recipes to get you in the cookie making spirit:
- Gluten Free Biscoff Style Cookies
- Best Gluten Free Peanut Butter Cookies
- Perfect Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Perfect Gluten Free Ricotta Cookies
- Gluten Free French Butter Cookies
- Ultimate Gluten Free Ginger Cookies
- Gluten Free Fudge Ribbon Cookies
- Gluten Free Chocolate Sugar Cookies
These Gluten Free Cut Out Sugar Cookies are actually better than the gluten-FILLED ones I remember eating before celiac! And they can be made for ANY holiday. I hope you enjoy them as much as we do 😋
Gluten Free Cut Out Sugar Cookies
Equipment
- cookie cutters
Ingredients
- 1 lb (453g) butter, at room temperature (dairy-free butter may be substituted)
- 8 oz (226g) cream cheese, softened (dairy-free cream cheese may be substituted)
- 2 cups (400g) granulated sugar
- 2 large egg yolks, at room temperature
- 1½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 4¾ cups (665g) Kim's all purpose gluten free flour blend (plus additional flour for rolling out dough)
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
Royal Icing
- 4 cups (480g) powdered sugar
- 3 tablespoon meringue powder
- 5-10 tbsp (75-150g) water, room temperature (amount depends on the consistency you desire)
Buttercream Frosting
- 1½ cups (340g) butter, at room temperature
- 3 cups (340g) powdered sugar, sifted
- 1½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon almond extract (optional, but adds so much flavor)
Instructions
- Whisk together the flour blend and salt and set aside.
- Cream together the butter and cream cheese, and then slowly add the sugar. Beat until light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes.
- Add the egg yolks and vanilla and mix well.
- Slowly add the dry ingredients, mixing on low until fully combined.
- Divide the dough between two sheets of plastic wrap, shape into a flattened disk, and chill for at least 2 hours and up to 48 hours.
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
- Roll out one half of the dough at a time. On a lightly-floured surface, roll dough out to between ⅜-½ inch thick. Thinner cookies will be slightly more crisp, while thicker cookies will be perfectly soft.
- Cut out shapes with floured cookie cutters and place about 2 inches apart onto parchment-lined baking sheets.
- Bake for 12-14 minutes in the top and bottom third racks of the oven, rotating once halfway through baking (or bake one sheet pan at a time). For soft cookies, bake until set but not browned, or only very minimally browned around the bottom edges.
- Cool on the baking sheets for 5 minutes before removing to a cooling rack to cool completely. Decorate as desired with your choice of frostings and sprinkles.
For Royal Icing
- Place all icing ingredients (beginning with 5 tablespoon water) in large bowl or bowl of a stand mixer using the whisk attachment. Whisk on high for 2-3 minutes. Check consistency by lifting up head of mixer. Add more water, one tablespoon at a time, until desired consistency is reached. For spreading, opt for a thicker consistency. For piping and writing, a thinner consistency is best. For flooding cookies, a very thin consistency is needed.
For Vanilla Buttercream Frosting
- In the bowl of a stand mixer (or with a handheld mixer), beat butter until smooth and creamy. Add powdered sugar in increments with the mixer on low (so it doesn't fly out of the mixer). Add the vanilla and almond extracts. Turn the mixer up to medium and beat for about 5-6 minutes, or until lighter in color and texture (this extra mixing is crucial to the texture of the buttercream).
Decorating Cookies
- You can use either royal icing or buttercream frosting. Royal icing will dry completely hard, buttercream will not. You can divide them into individual small bowls and color them with food colorings. Add sprinkles on top as desired.
Amanda says
Another dynamite recipe!
I had to modify because I realized my kids ate the last of my cream cheese, so did I use sour cream instead. I usually don’t modify your recipes. I’m sure it’s even BETTER with cream cheese! I’ll definitely make sure I have it on hand next time, but for anyone else who’s in a pinch, the sour cream worker.
I added about 1/4 - 1/2 cup extra flour to offset the liquid from the sour cream, and it worked fantastically well! These are so delicious!
They’re soft and chewy and hold their shape and are just fantastic.
Thanks Kim!!
Kim says
So glad you liked them! And thank you for the wonderful tip about subbing with sour cream 🥰
Amanda says
I did make another batch with cream cheese, and the flavor was super similar but the cream cheese ones didn’t spread and the sour cream ones did. So again, in a pinch, the sour cream works but the cream cheese is for sure better!
Thanks Kim!
Jennifer says
I followed your recipe and refrigerated the dough, then rolled the cookies out, cut them, and baked them. They spread out a lot. The taste and texture was good, I’m just not sure why they spread out. Going to try again and see if I can figure out why they didn’t hold their shape.
Kim says
Did you use a store bought blend or my blend? There are so many different blends on the market these days and maybe it was the blend that caused the spread. I've made this recipe more times than I can count and it has never spread for me.
Natalie says
Hey Kim!
I’ve made this recipe twice now (with King Arthur measure for measure flour) and they are absolutely delicious! The top of my cookies however were a bit flaky so a bit harder for icing. I’m wondering if I should bake a bit less next time?
Super appreciate you have a YouTube video of this recipe as I was able to follow along super easily.
Lindy says
This is the real deal. I have used Kim’s all purpose flour in other recipes on this website with great success (I.e. the brownie recipe was a big hit at work). I will add that I screwed up by forgetting to bring Kim’s all purpose blend with me when I had planned to make this out of town for the holidays; however, I nonetheless wanted to leave this comment because I did end up using King Arthur’s measure for measure as a substitute (Kim does state this recipe should work with a gluten free flour blend that isn’t hers) and it was a HUGE success. Next time I plan to make this using Kim’s flour blend given that is how this recipe is written and I want to respect that, but for me, a substitute gluten free, store bought blend, did work in a pinch. I followed the recipe exactly as written with this one substitution and it really did make the best cut out cookies I have ever had. I know it’s cliche to add, but people truly had no idea it was gluten free. They held their shape really well and I appreciated the detailed instructions regarding softer versus crisper cookies. We pulled ours from the oven when they started to brown around the edges and they were the perfect soft sugar cookie texture. The dough was also super easy to use once it warmed a bit out of the fridge (but you don’t want it to warm too much). Thanks Kim for yet another success - look forward to using your blend the next time with these as I’m sure they will be even better.
Kim says
Yay!!!! I'm so glad they worked with a store bought blend! Thank you for your kind words, Lindy 🥰🥰🥰
Sarah says
The method of starting with the dry ingredients rather than creaming the sugar and butter made these very dry and hard to work with in terms of rolling. They were very dense and grainy and probably would have benefitted from a longer baking time but I followed the recipe instructions.
Kim says
You didn't actually follow the recipe instructions. If you followed the instructions correctly, you would have first whisked together the flour blend and salt and then "set aside". You cream the butter and cream cheese with the sugar and add the egg yolks and vanilla, and finally (at the end) add the flour blend and salt. I can't stand when someone rates one of my recipes poorly when they didn't follow the instructions, because I can assure you if you had you would have been rewarded with the softest, best (non-grainy) sugar cookies of your life.
Lori Huhn says
Absolutely yummy. I even like them. My gluten free husband loves them. I used lemon extract. I also didn't frost them. I sprinkled them with powdered sugar. I also didn't roll them out. I rolled them into log froze them for 45 minutes then sliced.
Thank you
Kim says
Awesome! So glad you liked them 🥰
jacqueline jacobson says
Do these cookies need any leavening? Baking powder or soda?
Kim says
No they don't.