Still searching for a soft and chewy gluten free vanilla sugar cookie recipe? I've got you covered with this gluten free roll out cookie recipe that doesn't need to be chilled and won't spread!!
I'm not super good at doing things "the right way" or even "the way any sane person would do them." I eat candy while running. I do my Christmas shopping the week after Halloween. I use tipless piping bags...with tips. I shower at 2 in the afternoon...sometimes. I am completely at ease talking to a room full of hundreds of adults...and 100% terrified to talk to just a handful of teenage girls. I rarely wear anything even remotely fashionable, but when I do... you can be sure that I am also wearing an over sized nondescript gray sweatshirt on top of it. And apparently, I open bananas from "the wrong end." Who even knew that there was a RIGHT and a WRONG end to open a banana?! Not this girl!
My very first recipe on this blog was for
CHOCOLATE sugar cookies...and it was months before I ever posted a traditional vanilla cookie recipe. I pretty much took the same direction when I started branching out into gluten free recipes. When Bob's Red Mill reached out to me in the spring, I jumped at the chance to make a
gluten free version of my chocolate cookies. And...between you and me... the gluten free version rivaled the original. It split my household - half of my family actually liked it better than the original. I was satisfied with that, in spite of all my sweet friends that kept asking me when I was going to create a gluten free version of my vanilla recipe.
But with the holidays coming, I really wanted to be able to love ALL of my friends and family through sugar and baking (like I do.) So when Bob's Red Mill reached out to me again, I took it like a sign in a holiday themed Hallmark movie. You know...the one where Bob's Red Mill turns out to be a handsome prince in disguise and evvvvvvveryone knew three minutes into the movie that he was going to save the girl. That one.
Just a note about
Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free 1-to-1 Baking Flour in case you haven't heard of it or used it before. It's designed to be used in place of a regular all-purpose wheat based flour with straight across substitutions. There's no searching endlessly for xanthan gum. You don't even have to know how to say xantham gum. Just use this flour cup for cup the way you would regular all purpose flour.
That being said...I'm neurotic about my cookie recipes. When I substituted this flour straight across with my Vanilla 2.0 recipe, it made a GOOD cookie. My husband loved it just the way it was. But I can't leave well enough alone and modified my 2.0 recipe just a smidgeon. Or two. The end result is this recipe that I am happy to say is a no-chill, non-spreading, CHEWY gluten free vanilla sugar cookie!!
Gluten Free No-Chill No-Spread Vanilla Roll Out Sugar Cookie
A gluten free, soft and chewy vanilla roll out sugar cookie recipe that doesn't need to be chilled and won't spread.
ingredients:
1 cup unsalted butter, slightly softened
1 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
3 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
4 1/2 cups Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free 1-to-1 Baking Flour
instructions:
1. Preheat oven to 375°F. Line baking sheets with silicone baking mats or parchment paper.
2. Cream butter and sugar together.
3. Add eggs, vanilla, baking powder and salt and mix well.
4. Add flour. Mix until the flour is completely incorporated and the dough holds together in a ball. Add additional flour if necessary to keep it from feeling sticky. If it seems crumbly...just keep mixing. It will get there.
5. Roll out between two sheets of parchment paper. Bake at 375° F for 6-9 minutes. (I roll my cookies 1/4" thick and bake 3 inch cookies for 7 minutes.)
NEED MORE??
FAQs
Chilling the dough is a key step in making sugar cookies, especially when you're making cut-outs. Even if you're tight on time, make sure to get the dough in the fridge, or even the freezer, even if it's only for a little while. Skip this step, and the dough will be sticky, and much harder to work with.
How do you keep gluten-free sugar cookies from spreading? ›
Learn to keep the dough cold by working with one piece at a time, leaving the rest in the fridge. Put your cookie dough, already rolled dough or even an entire cookie sheet with cut cookies on it in the fridge when it's too soft. This helps cut cookies hold their shape and overall decreases spreading during baking.
What makes sugar cookies not spread? ›
- The Rules for Making Sure Your Sugar Cookies Don't Spread. Chef Smith says that there are several easy mistakes that can lead to Christmas cookies spreading while they bake. ...
- Rule No. 1: Bake at the Right Temperature. ...
- Rule No. 2: Don't Over or Under Cream Your Butter. ...
- Rule No. 3: Don't Over-Soften Your Butter. ...
- Rule No.
As a general rule of thumb, you should refrigerate cookie dough for at least 30 minutes and up to 24 hours. More than that, and you won't see a noticeable difference in the final product. Once the dough has chilled, let it warm up at room temperature until it's just pliable (about 5 to 10 minutes).
Why are my gluten-free cookies spreading? ›
Removing gluten makes cookie dough less springy. So the cookies spread as they bake. And then they spread some more. This is why my gluten-free cookies in the first experiment were so much wider than wheat-based cookies.
Why aren t my gluten-free cookies spreading? ›
13- Make sure your baking soda and/or baking powder are fresh. These are the leavening agents in your cookie recipe and if they are no longer active, your cookies won't puff up and may spread more. Try a fresh container if they've been open longer than 3 months. 14- Use a tried and true gluten free cookie mix.
Why didn't my gluten-free cookies spread? ›
Temperature Of Ingredients
If the temperature of your ingredients isn't just right, you won't get the results you want - like when your cookie dough refuses to spread out evenly on the baking sheet. This could be caused by too-cold butter or eggs that haven't been brought to room temperature.
Why do my cookies always spread? ›
If your cookies repeatedly turn out flat, no matter the recipe, chances are your oven is too hot. Here's what's happening. The butter melts super quickly in a too-hot oven before the other ingredients have firmed up into a cookie structure. Therefore, as the butter spreads so does the whole liquidy cookie.
Should I use baking soda or baking powder in cookies? ›
Baking soda is typically used for chewy cookies, while baking powder is generally used for light and airy cookies. Since baking powder is comprised of a number of ingredients (baking soda, cream of tartar, cornstarch, etc.), using it instead of pure baking soda will affect the taste of your cookies.
Is it better to bake cookies on parchment paper or silicone mat? ›
Parchment keeps cookies from spreading too much in the oven, and keeps their texture nice and light. Silicone encourages more spread, reduces conductivity, and can often cause baked goods to sweat on the bottom as they cool which can make the texture a little weird.
Here are some of the most common reasons why your cookies didn't flatten in the oven.
- You added too much flour. ...
- You chilled the cookie dough for too long. ...
- Your butter wasn't at the right temperature. ...
- Your oven wasn't at the correct temperature. ...
- You changed the recipe.
Once those cookies hit the oven, though, the fat starts to soften and melt. And the hotter the oven, the more quickly it melts. If the oven's hot enough, the fat melts before the cookies set. And since their flour/liquid matrix hasn't yet had a chance to harden, the cookies spread – becoming those dreaded cookie blobs.
What happens if you don t refrigerate sugar cookie dough before baking? ›
Popping your dough in the fridge allows the fats to cool. As a result, the cookies will expand more slowly, holding onto their texture. If you skip the chilling step, you're more likely to wind up with flat, sad disks instead of lovely, chewy cookies. Cookies made from chilled dough are also much more flavorful.
What happens if you don't chill cookie dough before baking? ›
But the truth is, the primary reason bakers chill their dough is to prevent cookies from spreading too much. Chilling firms up the fat (usually butter) in the dough, ensuring that the dough doesn't spread too quickly in the oven.
Why does sugar cookie dough need to chill? ›
1) Chilling cookie dough controls spread.
And the longer the fat remains solid, the less cookies spread. In addition, the sugar in the dough gradually absorbs liquid. If you bake the dough immediately, before sugar has a chance to absorb much liquid, that liquid remains "free" in the dough, and promotes spread.
Why is chilling cookie dough necessary? ›
The colder your dough is before it heads into the oven, the less it will spread during baking, which makes for loftier cookies. The chilling phase also gives the flour in your dough time to hydrate, just like pie dough, which translates into a cookie that's more chewy than cakey.
