Sugar Cookies- gluten-free, top 8 allergen free
The sugar cookie. They seem like such simple cookies, but they seem to hold a lot of nostalgia for people too. Many of us have memories of cutting out sugar cookies growing up, decorating them with a ridiculous amount of frosting and sprinkles, making it hard to decipher what shape they actually are. Others have made cut out sugar cookies to spend intricate time using royal icing, piping beautiful creations and sharing their masterpieces with loved ones. Then there are the pink frosting sugar cookie lovers. There is just something special about this simple cookie that can be created into so many wonderful things. We did a poll on Instagram several months ago asking whether people preferred soft or crisp sugar cookies. The vast majority of people wanted soft sugar cookies. We have you both covered!
We have made these sugar cookies in our family for a long time. I think it’s been well over a decade since we began making them so our middle daughter could eat them. At the time she had a list of so many food allergies we had to keep a written list in the house so we all knew how to feed her safely, including extended family. She was allergic to the top 8 allergens plus many outside the top 8. That’s when we really began baking everything from scratch. We were willing to make anything we could so she wouldn’t ever feel left out or as though she was missing out. Of course sugar cookies were something we just had to make. Now we get to share this recipe with you, the one that we have created so many memories making. We want you all to have the opportunity to create your own memories with your loved ones using safe ingredients. Head on over to get our Rustic Scoop™ Pancake and Waffle Mix so you can make these. They are great for any season, we can’t wait for you to make these simple and delicious treats. Be sure to tag us when you make these cookies and post them on social media. We love seeing all of your creations and sharing them!
Sugar Cookies
Ingredients
1 Rustic Scoop™ Pancake and Waffle Mix
1 Cup Sugar of choice (be sure it’s granulated sugar, not liquid)
*6 Tablespoons - ½ Cup Stick butter of choice
*6 Tablespoons - ½ Cup Shortening
¼ Cup Egg whites or powdered egg replacer for 1 egg
1 ½ teaspoons Vanilla
6-8 Tablespoons Milk of choice
Directions
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Prepare 2-3 baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
In the bowl of a stand or hand mixer, cream together the butter and shortening. Once the butter and shortening are creamed well together, add the egg white/powdered egg replacer and vanilla. Mix until well combined. Slowly mix in the Rustic Scoop™ Pancake and Waffle Mix, mix on medium speed until combined as much as you can. Slowly start adding milk. Start with ¼ Cup then add one more Tablespoon at a time if need be. The final texture of the dough should be a nice pliable dough that isn’t dry and crumbly nor wet and sticky.
If you have a silpat mat, place it on your counter. Roll out the cookie dough between two pieces of parchment paper. You should not need non-stick spray or a floured surface. The dough should roll nicely and not stick. Roll the dough out evenly until it is approximately ¼ inch thick. Use desired cookie cutters to cut out your cookies. Gently transfer the cookies to your cookie sheets with parchment paper. If your cookies seem crumbly and don’t roll out of transfer nicely, try adding one Tablespoon milk at a time until the dough isn’t crumbly. Take remaining dough and roll it back out, cut out more cookies. Repeat until all dough is cut out. Leave ½ inch between cookies giving them space to rise.
Bake at 350°F *for 10-12 minutes for crisp cookies (using 6 Tablespoons each of butter and shortening). For soft cookies (½ Cup each of butter and shortening), bake for 11-14 minutes. The cookies will feel a bit soft when you take them out of the oven. They will firm up a bit as they cool. The bake time will vary if you make thicker cookies. We err on baking the soft cookies towards the 14 minute time, but we do live at high altitude. Let your cookies cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes then transfer them to a cooling rack. If you find that the soft cookies are too soft, put them back in the oven for another 2 minutes. Makes approximately 28 cookies depending on the size of the cookies you cut out.
Once fully cool, frost, royal ice, or decorate any way you wish. Here is a link for our favorite vanilla frosting which has instructions for other flavors as well. If you would like “pink” frosted cookies, use 1 teaspoons of beetroot powder, add it to the powdered sugar in the recipe. Follow the rest of the directions as written. Enjoy!
*For those that like a crisp sugar cookie use 6 Tablespoons each of butter and shortening, if you prefer a soft sugar cookie use ½ Cup each of butter and shortening. If your shortening is super soft or even partially liquid at room temperature, you can decrease to 1/4 Cup as it will make these cookies spread quite a bit. If you don’t want to use shortening (we think it’s best to) you can use all butter. If you use a vegan butter, you’ll need to use less/no milk as vegan butter has a higher water content than dairy butter. Coconut oil may be a fine substitute for the shortening though we haven’t tried it. It will inevitably make these cookies have a coconut flavor so keep that in mind and will also spread far more. Be sure to read teh dough consistency details to know what your dough should be like.