You're going to fall in love with these crispy sugar cookies! Perfect for any occasion, these sugar cookies come out thin, chewy, and crunchy. A nice switch-up from the classic.
Leave them traditionally sprinkled with sugar or decorate them with a simple, three-ingredient, dairy-free sugar cookie icing!
A Quick Look At The Recipe
- ⏲️Ready In: 1 hour 55 minutes
- 👪Serves: 10
- 🍽 Calories and Protein: 148 kcals and 2 grams of protein
- 📋 Main Ingredients: Oat flour, hazelnuts, cane sugar, arrowroot powder, coconut oil, honey, maple syrup, vanilla extract
- 📖 Dietary Notes: Dairy-free and gluten-free
- ⭐ Why You'll Love It: Simple to make, perfect for satisfying your sweet tooth anytime!
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A sugar cookie you can feel good about eating!
These thin crispy sugar cookies are deliciously light and crunchy in comparison to a traditional sugar cookie.
Jump To
- A Quick Look At The Recipe
- 💭Why You'll Love This Recipe
- Ingredients and Substitutions
- Expert Tips to Make It
- How To Make Crispy Sugar Cookies
- Icing The Sugar Cookies
- Frequently Asked Questions About Crispy Sugar Cookies
- Kitchen Tools You May Find Helpful
- Other Gluten-Free Desserts You'll Love
- Crispy, Gluten-Free Sugar Cookies
💭Why You'll Love This Recipe
- Dairy-free and gluten-free
- Made with mostly whole food ingredients
- Easy to make
- Have a dose of healthy fats to balance out the sugar
- A hit with kids
- Perfect for any dessert table
Ingredients and Substitutions
Though you'll need your regular gluten-free pantry staples for this sugar cookie recipe, it also has a unique twist!
Hazelnuts: Naturally gluten-free, you can control the texture of the sugar cookies based on how much or little you grind the hazelnuts.
Coconut oil: This helps hold the cookies together. Make sure to grab a cold-pressed coconut oil if you can.
Honey: You only need a hint of honey, which helps the cookies hold together since there are no eggs.
Oat flour: To ensure the cookies are gluten-free, grab gluten-free oats and grind them into flour yourself.
Learn more about gluten-free baking tips.
Cane sugar: Used to sweeten and sprinkle the tops. I personally like a super fine cane sugar over thick granulated sugar, especially for sprinkling on top.
Vanilla extract: Grab a pure vanilla extract, as it gives a much more potent flavor to the cookies. Learn more about the types of vanilla and which one is best for this recipe.
Arrowroot powder: Because these gluten-free sugar cookies are egg-free, the arrowroot helps absorb the liquid and keep them together. Cornstarch should be able to be used in its place.
Baking powder: The goal isn't for the cookies to rise and deflate, which is why you only need a bit.
Expert Tips to Make It
These healthy sugar cookies come out thin, crispy, and deliciously crunchy. They pair perfectly with a gluten-free gingerbread house. And, since the base is made with hazelnut flour, you're in control of the texture.
When I grind the hazelnuts I leave the mixture a bit chunkier as I like something to chew in my cookies. However, if this isn't you, simply ensure that the hazelnuts are ground into a softer powder.
The dough is extremely delicate. Take care rolling it and know you need to physically press it back together every time you need to recut.
After you press your cutters into the though, make sure to use a very thin spatula to transfer the cookies to a sheet.
Likewise, when they come out of the oven, let them cool on the tray completely before moving them. This is what finishes them cooking and turns them perfectly crispy. It also makes it so that your icing doesn't melt.
Keep in mind, they won't look quite done coming out of the oven so be patient!
How To Make Crispy Sugar Cookies
Step 1: Pour wet into dry and mix until combined. Let sit for 2-3 minutes to let the arrowroot absorb.
Step 2: Place the cookie dough into saran wrap and squeeze the batter into a ball. Pop into the fridge for one hour.
Step 3: Once removed from the fridge, roll the cookie dough between sheets of parchment paper and using cookie cutters, cut out the shapes.
Step 4: Sprinkle some cane sugar on top of the cookies.
Step 5: Move the shapes onto a lined baking sheet (or the best ceramic baking sheet) and bake for 13-15 minutes at 325 degrees Fahrenheit.
Icing The Sugar Cookies
Now, to be honest, icing isn't really my thing. As a busy mom, I don't have time to make the sugar cookies look like little trains with different colors or whatnot.
If you want to ice your gluten-free sugar cookies traditionally, you'll want to make royal icing and color it.
Royal icing is still dairy-free and gluten-free, but it is LOADED with sugar. In contrast, you'll notice that this gluten-free sugar cookie recipe is actually not that sugar-dense. Sweet but not sugar-based.
Likewise, I also do my best to use natural sugars (honey and maple syrup) when I can. Thus, royal icing is not something I would use.
However, there is another option!
I've been whipping up a super speedy, dairy-free icing recipe that I find is working really well. I love it because:
- There are only three ingredients (color aside)
- It hardens just like "normal" icing
- Slightly less sugar-dense
Dairy-Free Sugar Cookie Icing Recipe
If you want to "fancy-up" the gluten-free sugar cookie recipe and give it some icing, this dairy-free sugar cookie icing recipe is perfect.
It's made from coconut milk powder, which is a great healthy fat. Thus, it's dairy-free and gluten-free.
Nevertheless, some coconut milk powders contain sugar, so take a peek at the back of the ingredients! I personally use one without added sugar.
For the sugar cookie icing, simply whisk together:
- 5 tbs coconut milk powder
- 2 tbs coconut oil (measured solid and then melted)
- 2 tbs cane sugar
First, heat the coconut oil and ensure there are no clumps in the coconut milk powder.
Then, mix together all the ingredients until ultra-smooth. Finally, place the sugar cookie icing into a plastic bag, cut the corner, and pipe it on!
Likewise, you can also use this dairy-free buttercream frosting also which is what I used in the pictures.
Color Options For The Icing
Again, I'm not overly fancy when it comes to decorating sugar cookies but I do try to use natural coloring options. A few of my favorites are:
- A tiny bit of beet powder (it makes everything pink)
- Crushed EnergyBits tablets (a light green, use code mamabear to save some money and learn more about why these tabs are a staple in my diet!)
- Blue spirulina powder
Regarding this, I find that you only need a tiny bit of the powders (¼ teaspoon-ish) to get a nice light color. But again, use what you're comfortable with!
Frequently Asked Questions About Crispy Sugar Cookies
No. Given that there's no baking powder in these sugar cookies with almond flour, they do not puff up. After you use your cookie cutter and transfer them to the baking tray, they will mostly stay the same shape.
With this recipe, gluten-free flour cannot be subbed in. It will absorb too much liqui,d and the cookies will come out dry.
These hazelnut sugar cookies can be stored in the fridge. They will firm up slightly because of the coconut oil, but soften again at room temperature.
If your sugar cookies are crumbly, chances are you didn't grind the hazelnuts into flour well enough. If there are super large chunks in the flour they won't hold together as well.
Kitchen Tools You May Find Helpful
Other Gluten-Free Desserts You'll Love
If you tried this Gluten-Free Crispy Sugar Cookies or any other recipe on my blog, please leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know how it goes!
Crispy, Gluten-Free Sugar Cookies
Video
Ingredients
- 1 cup hazelnuts 1.5 cup ground
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- 2 tablespoons oat flour store-bought, or manually ground
- 2 tablespoons cane sugar
- 1 teaspoon arrowroot powder
- 2 tablespoons coconut oil measured solid
- 1 tablespoon honey
- 3 tablespoons pure maple syrup
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 tablespoons cane sugar for topping
Instructions
- Grind the nuts into a flour- leave some texture if you like. In a large bowl combine the first five ingredients.
- In a smaller bowl, melt the coconut oil and combine the liquid ingredients.
- Pour wet into dry and mix until combined. Let sit for 2-3 minutes to let the arrowroot absorb.
- Lay a piece of saran wrap on the counter and place the cookie dough into the center. Wrap into a ball and place in the fridge for 30-60 minutes to firm up.
- Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.
- Remove the ball from the fridge and saran wrap. Lay the dough between two sheets of parchment paper and roll until roughly ¼ inch thick. Using cookie cutters, cut the dough into shapes and use a silicone spatula to lay the cookies onto baking sheets with parchment paper.
- The shapes are delicate so move slowly!
- Sprinkle the cane sugar on top of the cookies and bake for 13-15 minutes (13 if you like softer cookies).
- The cookies won't look done. Remove them from the oven and let sit on the baking pan for thirty minutes before removing. This gives them time to firm up.
- Ice the cookies with the sugar cookie icing and store in the fridge!
Notes
- Makes roughly ten sugar cookies depending on the cookie cutters.
- The majority of the ingredients for this recipe can be found in my Pantry Staples.
- Use whichever icing you enjoy, I personally use dairy-free buttercream because it's easy.
- Nutrition breakdown does not include the icing.
- Make sure to grind the hazelnuts until mostly flour, otherwise, the cookies won't hold together as well.
- The dough is extremely delicate. Take care rolling it and know you need to physically press it back together every time you need to recut.
- After you press your cutters into the though, make sure to use a very thin spatula to transfer the cookies to a sheet.
- Likewise, when they come out of the oven, let them cool on the tray completely before moving them. This is what finishes them cooking and turns them into crisp sugar cookies.
- Keep in mind, they won't look quite done coming out of the oven so be patient!
- For traditional sugar cookie flavor you can add ¼ teaspoon of almond extract to the flour mixture.
- Use shapes that aren't too complicated as the cookies do expand a bit. Either that or cut the baking powder by a teaspoon.
Disclaimer:
Nutrition values are estimates only, using online calculators. Please verify using your own data"
Nutrition
Kathy says
Very light, nutty, sweet, and subtly spiced-- cant wait to make them again on the Holidays.
fitasamamabear says
Glad you liked them!