Gluten-Free Gingerbread Cut-Out Cookie Recipe
Our 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.
I use Bob's Red Mill Hazelnut Meal Flour. It works beautifully in baking. You can check your local health food store for it or buy it on Amazon.com.
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.
Use this recipe in our Meal Planner
About the Author
Ali Segersten
Alissa Segersten holds a Bachelor's of Science in Nutrition from Bastyr University and a Master’s of Science in Human Nutrition and Functional Medicine from the University of Western States. She is a Functional Nutritionist, the mother of five children, a whole foods cooking instructor, professional recipe developer, and cookbook author. She is passionate about helping others find a diet that will truly nourish them. Alissa is the author of two very popular gluten-free, whole foods cookbooks and guidebooks: The Whole Life Nutrition Cookbook and Nourishing Meals. She is also the co-author of The Elimination Diet book. Alissa is the founder and owner of Nourishing Meals®.Nourishing Meals Newsletter
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Tweeted this give-a-way! @BreitWerk is my twitter name...
Following you! I am looking forward to trying this recipe! I LOVE Gingerbread!
Thanks for your willingness to participate in these giveaways! What a great way to celebrate the holiday season.
I love your recipes!
L. Dunnigan
I can't wait to try this recipe. I love following you and am slowly switching to gluten free. Its been harder than I though. I just wish they sold the ingredients at costco. Thank you for all that you do.
I also posted on facebook and twitter, and +1 for google.
Thanks for the recipe! Can't wait to make these with my daughter!