By Published Dec. 10, 2021.
Cookies are inescapable during the holiday season. We think everyone should be able to indulge, so we gathered some of our favorite gluten-free cookie recipes.
These cookie recipes run the gamut—from chewy to crispy, sugary to chocolatey. Some are naturally gluten-free and others were designed to be that way. The two things they have in common: They’re all gluten-free and they’re all delicious.
Take a look and find your new favorite gluten-free cookie recipe to make this holiday season.
Simply substituting our all-purpose gluten-free flour blend into our favorite holiday cookie recipe didn’t deliver the thin, crisp, easy-to-decorate cookie we were after. Swapping out the granulated sugar in favor of superfine gave our cookies a more even crumb, and creaming the butter and sugar made for a crisp texture. To make the dough easy to work with, we chilled it twice (before rolling it out, and again before stamping out the cookies), and adding a small amount of xanthan gum provided necessary structure. → GET THE RECIPE
Sugar cookies rely on just a handful of ingredients and even minor adjustments can upset the balance. After starting with the test kitchen's gluten-free flour blend, we used a relatively small amount of butter to prevent the cookies from turning greasy, and included cream cheese to enrich the dough. Incorporating some almond flour gave our sugar cookies pleasing heft and chew. → GET THE RECIPE
For a gluten-free take on chocolate crinkle cookies that lived up to their name, we used a combination of unsweetened chocolate and cocoa powder (plus a little espresso powder). A combination of both baking powder and baking soda was key to achieving the hallmark crinkly look, and xanthan gum helped create cookies that held together and maintained their fudgy texture. To ensure these cookies were easy to shape and looked perfect every time, we rolled the cookies in granulated sugar first, followed by confectioners’ sugar. → GET THE RECIPE
Most recipes for Florentines are best left to the pros, with much of the process more like complicated candy making. But given their elegance and the fact they rely on such a small amount of flour, we knew that figuring out how to make an approachable gluten-free Florentine was a must. To achieve it, we cooked the butter-and-cream base until it was thick, bubbly, and a creamy tan color, then stirred in the rest of the ingredients. We flattened the portions before baking to ensure evenly shaped, round cookies, and piped a drizzle of chocolate over each one. One web member’s review? “OMG, you folks at ATK have totally nailed this recipe.” → GET THE RECIPE
For a gluten-free cookie with all the chocolate flavor you can ask for, we used melted chocolate, chips, cocoa powder, and a little espresso powder. For a crisp-chewy texture, we used a combination of granulated sugar, xanthan gum, and brown sugar, and replaced some of the butter with vegetable oil. → GET THE RECIPE
Almond macaroons, commonly found in European-style bakeries, are flourless—and so, gluten-free—treats that rely on egg whites for both structure and leavening. They're sweet but not too sweet, and they taste strongly of their namesake ingredient. To form macaroons into their traditional round shape, some recipes call for a pastry bag, but we simply rolled the dough into balls. We baked the macaroons at a relatively low temperature (325 degrees) for a sufficient amount of time (20 to 25 minutes) for cookies that were crunchy-chewy on the outside but still moist and soft on the inside. → GET THE RECIPE
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