The Best Gluten-Free Sugar Cookies For Valentine's Day (So Good, No One Will Know!)

Holiday cookies are my favorite, and I’m always on a mission to make the best gluten free version. I take the challenge so seriously, I like to serve these to people who are not gluten free and wait for them to tell me how delicious they are before I disclose they are gluten free. These sugar cookies are ridiculously good. Candidly, I recommend doubling this recipe because you’ll absolutely finish these in a day if you don’t, and you can freeze leftovers. 

Ingredients:

Sugar Cookie Dough:

• 3 cups fine blanched almond flour (Terrasoul)

• 1/2 cup coconut flour for the dough, plus more for rolling out the dough

• ½ cup butter, melted

• ½ cup organic coconut sugar

• 2 tablespoons honey

• 2 eggs, at room temperature

• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

• 1/4 teaspoon almond extract

• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda

• 1/4 teaspoon salt

Vanilla buttercream:

• 1.5 cups butter, melted

• 3 cups powdered sugar

• 3 teaspoons vanilla extract

• 1 teaspoon almond extract

To decorate cookies:

• Watkins and Go Supernatural Sprinkles

• Go Supernatural food coloring

• Once you’ve made your buttercream, make 3 bowls- 1 large white, 1 large red, and 1 large pink

• Heart shaped cookie cutters (stainless steel)

Directions:

1. In a small bowl mix your melted butter and honey.

2. In your stand mixer, add your honey butter, coconut sugar, eggs, vanilla and almond extract. Mix until well combined! 

3. Next add your almond flour, coconut flour, baking soda, and salt and whisk until combined. Then roll the dough into 2 balls, put in two separate bowls in the refrigerator and let cool for at least 2 hours. I personally made my dough in the morning and let it sit while I did my afternoon errands- about 5 hours.

4. Next, make the buttercream. Combine your butter, powdered sugar, vanilla and almond extract in your stand mixer, start slowly and then once it's combined, beat it fast for about 2 minutes. 

5. Put the buttercream in 3 bowls. Put it in the refrigerator to cool for at least an hour. 

6. Once your dough is chilled and you’re ready to bake, preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. 

7. Put a large piece of parchment paper on your counter, and cut another one the same size. Dust both with coconut flour. 

8. Take one of the dough balls and place it on your dusted parchment paper. Add your other sheet of parchment paper on top of the dough ball and then begin to roll out into a rectangle until the dough is about 1/4th inch thick. Your dough is soft, so you’ll want to work quickly so that it doesn’t warm up too much and is difficult to work with. Use your heart shaped cookie cutters to cut the dough into shapes, then use a spatula to help you transfer the cookies to the prepared baking sheet. Bake those cookies right away in the oven for about 8-10 minutes.  With your extra dough left after cutting your cookies from your first ball, roll it back into a ball and put it back in the refrigerator. 

9. Grab your second dough, and repeat step 8. Keep repeating step 8 until you are out of dough. I did this 4 times in total to get about 35 cookies, and threw out about a 2 inch diameter ball of dough at the end.

10. Let your cookies cool on your baking sheets for a few minutes and then transfer them to a wire rack to finish cooling. 

11. Once they are cool you are good to decorate! 

12. Once made, you can store them in your refrigerator for up to 5 days, or freeze them for up to 3 months. Wait until your decoration has hardened, and freeze them in glass containers with parchment paper between each layer so your decoration does not get ruined. 

*I recommend using Go Supernatural Food Coloring as it's free of artificial food dyes that are harmful to your health. 

** For sprinkles we used Watkins and Go Supernatural sprinkles as they are also free of artificial dyes.