Gluten-Free Butter Cookies that look, feel, AND taste like the classic holiday butter cookie you are used to! Decorated with dye-free sprinkles. Recipe created in partnership with Bob’s Red Mill.
Cookies are great year-round, but for us – traditional butter cookies (also called spritz cookies) have always represented that the holidays are here.
Growing up, my brother and I made butter cookies with our Mom every year. We used to play around with the dough, decide on which shapes to make, and of course, decorate them like crazy with all of the sprinkles we had. This is by far one of my favorite childhood cooking memories!
Gluten-Free Butter Cookie Ingredients:
- Bob’s Red Mill Blanched Almond Flour
- Bob’s Red Mill Tapioca Flour/Starch
- Baking Soda
- Sea Salt
- Sugar
- Unsalted Butter
- Egg (room temp)
- Pure Vanilla Extract
- OPTIONAL: Dye-Free Sprinkles or Natural Food Coloring for Dough
I worked hard on developing a grain-free and gluten-free butter cookie recipe that is easy and of course tastes like the classic spritz cookie so that I can continue that tradition on with my kids!
These butter cookies are so easy to make. Little hands can help with every step. And, there are endless ways to decorate and design the cookies which kids absolutely love.
Dye-Free food coloring and sprinkles have come a long way and are not only more affordable than they used to be but are much easier to find at both nregular grocery stores and online!
After the cookies cool, they hold up well for delivery if you are thinking of dropping off or sending a care package to friends and family this holiday season. I recommend a cookie tin lined with parchment paper and a layer of parchment between each layer of cookies, then pack with some tissue paper, pop the lid on, put a bow on it, and off it goes!
Recipe Tips:
- While unsalted butter is the standard for baking, I have made these with salted butter and they were delicious! Just decrease the sea salt to 1/4 teaspoon.
- I want my cookies to look (and taste!) like traditional butter cookies so I used organic sugar. Since there is only 1/4 cup and this recipe makes at least 48 cookies, you are looking at less than 1/4 teaspoon of sugar per cookie! You can definitely substitute coconut palm sugar but the color and texture of the cookie will change a bit. I do not recommend subbing a wet sugar like maple syrup or honey as the batter will be sticky and hard to navigate with the cookie press.
- Blanched almond flour (finely ground blanched and skinless almonds) is different than almond meal (has the skins / brown specks and is denser which will result in a heavier and more gritty cookie).
- Baking Sheet Tip: Make sure to use a COOL baking sheet when working with the cookie press to make the cookie shapes. If you use a WARM baking sheet or SilPat, the dough will not stick properly and lose its shape as it comes out of the cookie press.
- Cooling Tips: Allow the cookies to cool for about a minute on the baking sheet after you remove them from the oven. Then transfer to a cooling rack until completely cooled. Do not let the butter cookies sit out for more than a few hours or they will begin to absorb moisture from the environment and lose their crunch.
- Storing Tips: The best way to store these gluten-free butter cookies is in a metal cookie tin (think Dollar Store) lined with parchment paper. A glass container will also work. I do not recommend storing in plastic or in food storage bags as they will likely get soft.
- When it comes to Dye-Free or Plant-Based food coloring, there are a lot of options (especially online!). I have found that pastel and light colors tend to fade when baking. If you are using a light color, I recommend adding the sprinkles midway through cooking (add an extra 20 to 30 seconds cook time to accommodate for opening the oven). Bottom line: dark color with more pigment shows up better!
- Every parent has their thing and one of mine is artificial food colors. I draw a hard line and don’t allow my sons to eat synthetic food coloring (I don’t eat it either!). To me, it’s not food – it’s chemicals and there is never a good enough reason for us to consume it. Artificial food colors are banned in many other countries and for very good reason. Here are three links with more information about artificial food colors.
More Gluten-Free Cookie Recipes:
Double Chocolate Avocado Cookies
Did you make this recipe? Please give it a star rating below!
Gluten-Free Butter Cookies that look, feel, AND taste like the classic butter cookie you are used to! Decorated with dye-free sprinkles.
- 2 cups blanched almond flour
- 2 Tablespoons tapioca flour
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon finely ground sea salt
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter room temperature
- 1 large egg room temperature
- 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
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Preheat oven to 350F. Line two baking sheets with silpats or parchment paper.
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Combine almond flour, tapioca flour, baking soda and sea salt in body of food processor fitted with the steel chopping blade and pulse a of couple times until all lumps are removed.
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Transfer flour mixture to a mixing bowl.
Add sugar, butter, egg, and vanilla to food processor and process until well combined. Use a spatula to scrape sides if necessary.
- Add flour mixture back in and pulse a couple of times until wet ingredients are incorporated with dry ingredients.
- Remove dough to mixing bowl and add to cookie press as needed to make cookies.
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Decorate cookies before baking. Bake one tray at a time on center rack of oven for 10 to 12 minutes. The smaller the shape and the more exposed edges, the faster the cookies will cook. You want the bottoms to be slightly browned but not dark brown.
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Remove from oven, allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 1 minute and then transfer cookies to a cooling rack and allow to cool completely before eating or storing.
- Once cool, store in a cookie tin or glass container. Enjoy!
Recipe Makes Approximately 48 to 58 cookies depending on size of cookie disc used in cookie press. Nutrition Information is Based on 48 Cookies.
Recipe Tips:
- While unsalted butter is the standard for baking, I have made these with salted butter and they were delicious! Just decrease the sea salt to 1/4 teaspoon.
- I want my cookies to look (and taste!) like traditional butter cookies so I used organic sugar. Since there is only 1/4 cup and this recipe makes at least 48 cookies, you are looking at less than 1/4 teaspoon of sugar per cookie! You can definitely substitute coconut palm sugar but the color and texture of the cookie will change a bit. I do not recommend subbing a wet sugar like maple syrup or honey as the batter will be sticky and hard to navigate with the cookie press.
- Blanched almond flour (finely ground blanched and skinless almonds) is different than almond meal (has the skins / brown specks and is denser which will result in a heavier and more gritty cookie).
- Baking Sheet Tip: Make sure to use a COOL baking sheet when working with the cookie press to make the cookie shapes. If you use a WARM baking sheet or SilPat, the dough will not stick properly and lose its shape as it comes out of the cookie press.
- Cooling Tips: Allow the cookies to cool for about a minute on the baking sheet after you remove them from the oven. Then transfer to a cooling rack until completely cooled. Do not let the butter cookies sit out for more than a few hours or they will begin to absorb moisture from the environment and lose their crunch.
- Storing Tips: The best way to store these gluten-free butter cookies is in a metal cookie tin (think Dollar Store) lined with parchment paper. A glass container will also work. I do not recommend storing in plastic or in food storage bags as they will likely get soft.
- When it comes to Dye-Free or Plant-Based food coloring, there are a lot of options (especially online!). I have found that pastel and light colors tend to fade when baking. If you are using a light color, I recommend adding the sprinkles midway through cooking (add an extra 20 to 30 seconds cook time to accommodate for opening the oven). Bottom line: dark color with more pigment shows up better!
Did you make this recipe? Tag @EverydayMaven on Instagram with the hashtag #EveryDayMaven and please give a star rating below.
DISCLOSURE: This post is part of a series of posts sponsored by Bob’s Red Mill. Bob’s Red Mill has compensated me for my time to develop this recipe and share my experiences with their products. Thank you for supporting the brands that make EverydayMaven possible. All opinions are my own.
Oh! These were delicious and so easy to make. I had no idea there were dye-free sprinkles – will look for those for next time!
Dye-free sprinkles are so much more common now! Whole Foods has a great selection if you live close to one of their locations
The grain free cookies came out so pretty! They browned up just right and they taste delish. Thanks for the new cookie recipe for me to add to my repertoire.
Perfect Scarlet! So happy to hear you liked these!
Thank you! This is a solid gluten-free cookie recipe – so glad I found it!
Yay! Love hearing that Andrea – thanks for letting me know.
It’s so hard to good gluten-free butter cookies that taste amazing, but these do!
That is such high praise – I appreciate it Renae!
We loved these during the holidays – I’m sharing with my GF friends for next year!
So happy to hear it Sarah!! Thanks for sharing 🙂
I do not have tapioca flour. Any other suggestions – i have oat, chickpea, arrowroot, and amaranth. Would any of those work?!?
Excited to try these with my kiddos!
Hi Amanda! you can sub arrowroot for the tapioca. Hope everyone loves them!
This is our go-to Christmas Cookie recipe! Excellent recipe but I do 2nd the cookie tin. We got ours at Target and reuse it year after year.
LOVE! That makes me so happy Kelly! Yes, we have a bunch of cookie tins from Target, Fred Meyer, and the Dollar Store!
omg…I JUST stumbled into this recipe from another board. You just made my year! I’ve been wanting to find a grain free recipe for this for a very very long time now and could never find one. We used to make these during the holiday stoo and I wanted to do the same with my kiddos. Thank you so much!
Yay!!! Hope you all love the cookies Kim <3
I used coconut oil instead of butter and mine were really wet, did anyone else have this issue?
Hey Nicole – coconut oil performs differently than butter and for this recipe – these are meant to be Butter Cookies. I would suggest a non-dairy butter (like Myokos or Earth Balance) to experiment with if you want to avoid dairy. Ghee *might* also work.
Even with butter, they still drip oil
Wow Nicole – I have never had this experience or heard of anything like this. How frustrating. Are you doing anything else differently?
Do you have to use a food processor for the grain-free butter cookies?
Hi Denise!
No, you could use a hand mixer!
Is there anything I can sub for the butter? Coconut oil or something dairy free?
Hi Hilary – You would have to experiment. I can’t tell you what will work 100% because I haven’t tried these with anything except pastured butter. My first substitute for taste and texture would be something like Earth Balance.
Could I use coconut sugar in this recipe? Generally coconut sugar is a bit less sweet. Would it mess up the proportions to use a bit more like say 1/3 cup?
Hi Jessica, You definitely can and I agree with the increase to 1/3 but just note that cookies will be much darker in color and not really look like traditional butter / sugar cookies. Also, make sure your coconut sugar is lump-free. Enjoy!
Thank you! 🙂 Excited to try these out!
Just tried these using xylitol (xyla) instead of sugar. If you don’t have a cookie press, you can just roll the dough in plastic wrap, refrigerate, then slice and bake. They were quite acceptable, though mine were soft and didn’t have the crunch of a traditional spritz. Still, not a bad trade-off for grain-free and sugar free! Happy Holidays everyone!
Xyla performs a bit different than organic sugar Sue – I would try baking them a couple extra minutes. Mine always come out crisp with a nice crunch! Glad you still liked them even with the changes and love the idea of a slice and bake dough!
Grain free cookies. Mmmm. I want that.
Oh so glad to know that there are dye-free sprinkles!
Yes! and there are dye free natural (liquid) food colorings as well 🙂
Glad to know there are dye-free sprinkles.
There are so many more options now!