Gluten Free Cut-Out Sugar Cookies

For as far back as I can remember, I can recall my Mom making these sugar cookies for St. Patrick's Day parties at school. Everyone always loved them. 

I was really curious to see if I could make these gluten free and still taste close to how they used to taste. It's such a unique flavor, not like any normal sugar cookie, and I so badly missed that taste. I was quite happy with the results! 

The original recipe calls for 3 cups of self-rising flour. To make gluten free self-rising flour, you have to add some ingredients to your all-purpose flour mix. More on that in a little bit.

First, you need your all-purpose mix. 

To equal the 3 cups originally called for, I used:

-2 cups  brown rice flour

-2/3 cups  potato starch

-1/3 cups  tapioca starch

Mix all that together and then add

-1 1/2 tsp of xantham gum

Now, to make that flour mix a self-rising mix, all you need to do is add:

-1 1/2 tsp baking powder

-1/2 tsp salt

Now that you have self-rising flour, onto the rest of the recipe...

What you need now is:

-2 sticks of softened butter or margarine

-1 1/2 cups of sugar

-1 tsp vanilla 

-3 eggs (original recipe calls for two, but I added another to make it gluten free)

Mix all these ingredients together and chill for several hours or overnight. (The colder the dough, the better)

Now comes the fun part...rolling out the dough and cutting out your shapes. 

Something I have found that helps when rolling out gluten free dough is using confectioners sugar to combat the stickiness....don't be stingy with it either...you'll need to use a lot! 

Bake at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes or so. It will probably take longer than that for them to brown, but just watch them. You might need to add or subtract time from that amount. Our oven is old and as we know, every oven is different. 

Now, you could stop right here and eat them plain like this...I wouldn't blame you. They are THAT good...but if you want to go another step, here's the recipe for the icing:

Mix 

-1/2 cup crisco

-1/2 cup butter (softened)

-2 tsp vanilla

Then add 3 cups of powdered or confectioners sugar to that mix. Then add your food coloring. 

Allow the cookies to cool and then ice, ice, ice!! 

This yields about 60 or so cookies, depending on what shape you make them of course. 

Yum, yum, yum!

I know these aren't the healthiest cookies in the world, but if you need something to take to a party or get together and know you won't have these sitting at home (like I've had at my house), then you won't have to worry about being tempted to eat so many of them! 

And you won't be making these all the time, probably only for special occasions. 

Everything in moderation...

Oh yeah, don't forget about my Van's Coupon Giveaway! It ends at midnight tonight (Tuesday)!! Don't miss out! 

Enter here.