These look and taste just like the classic holiday butter cookies with sprinkles but are not only grain and gluten free but 100% dye free!
Cookies are great year-round, but for us – spritz cookies have always represented that the holidays are here. Growing up, my brother and I made spritz 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 one of my favorite childhood cooking memories. I’ve been working on developing a grain free and gluten free cookie recipe that is easy and taste delicious so I can continue that tradition on with my kids.
And these Grain Free Butter Cookies with Dye Free Sprinkles are the answer. They are so easy to make so that little hands can help with every step
They are so easy to make so that little hands can help with every step and they no joke taste like the traditional cookies we all remember. I know you and your family are going to love them!
NOTES:
- 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 wanted 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 more dense). Trader Joe’s also sells it pretty cheap ($3.99 / lb).
- Every parent has their thing and one of mine is artificial food colors. I draw a hard line and don’t allow my son to eat 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.
- I link to the India Tree Dye Free Sprinkles in the recipe below. There are a couple other brands (some newer) to the market. You can order online or check in your local health food store or natural grocery. Some tips – the darker colors (more pigment) show up better as you can see from my cookie pictures. The blue and pink are visible while the orange pretty much disappeared when baked. If you want to use a light color like yellow, orange or green, apply generously to have it stand out!
Did you make this recipe? Please give it a star rating below!
These look and taste just like the classic holiday butter cookies with sprinkles but are not only grain and gluten free but 100% dye free!
- 2 cups blanched almond flour
- 2 tablespoons tapioca flour
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon finely ground sea salt see NOTES if using salted butter
- 1 large egg room temperature
- 1/4 cup organic sugar
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter 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 couple times until all lumps are removed.
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Transfer flour mixture to a mixing bowl. Add egg, sugar, butter and vanilla to food processor and process until well combined. Use a spatula to scrape sides if necessary.
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Add flour mixture back in and pulse a couple of times until wet ingredients are incorporated with dry ingredients.
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Remove dough to mixing bowl and add to cookie press as needed to make cookies.
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Decorate with Dye Free sprinkles and 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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Immediately transfer cookies to cooling rack and allow to cool completely before eating or storing.
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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. Points Plus is based on 48 cookies.
Did you make this recipe? Tag @EverydayMaven on Instagram with the hashtag #EveryDayMaven and please give a star rating below.
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 🙂
Ooh, I really like this unusual-for-you cookie recipe (unusual in that like me you don’t have much time for sugar in recipes). this recipes sounds really good and I like your chat about not only the dyes but also notes on the recipe. Bookmarking for when I can borrow a butter cookie press. And it goes without saying that OXO donating $100 for every post published is just wonderful. Thanks for posting this, Alyssa.
Are the food dyes in food over there in Scotland Kellie? Or do they come with a warning label like in England?
I LOVE that these cookies are grain-free, and the little pinwheel shapes are adorbs. Isn’t OXO marvelous?! I love that they give to charities – an excellent cookie to support an excellent cause, my dear! xo
I really do love working with OXO – they are a great company!
These spritz cookies are adorable! And I love that they’re better for you than butter cookies. Even more incentive to get them in my life!
Cookies are always a good thing 😉
Glad to know there are dye-free sprinkles.
There are so many more options now!
Alyssa, love these cookies!!! such a great cause. . glad we could be a part of #OXOGoodCookies and help out. . go green sticker!
Thanks Alice – so glad to participate! No kid should ever have cancer – it’s heart-breaking 🙁