Gluten Free Christmas Cookie Recipes

The Best Gluten Free Christmas Cookies

Cookies and Christmas just go together. I love making all sorts of gluten free cookies and putting out plates for my friends and family all throughout the holidays. It’s fun to bring a cookie charcuterie board to a party. Plus, I also love to package them up and give them away to friends, and neighbors!

You can easily make the dough or bake cookies in advance by following my tips below to help your holiday baking run smoothly.

From gluten free sugar cookies to gluten free gingerbread people to chocolate chip cookie cups to flourless peanut butter cookies, you’re sure to find just the right mix of gluten free Christmas cookies to bake this season. Learn how to bake the best gluten free Christmas cookies, and explore my favorite recipes!

Tips for Making Gluten Free Christmas Cookies

Here are some tips that will help you make the best gluten free Christmas cookies:

• Buy fresh baking powder and baking soda. It’s so important to use fresh baking powder and baking soda when you’re baking cookies (or anything else). Check the expiration dates on the packages in the pantry and if they’ve expired, or are close to expiring, discard them and buy new boxes.
• Check to make sure your other ingredients are fresh, too. The same goes for your other ingredients like flour or eggs. For the best final result, you’ll want to use fresh ingredients.
• Use good-quality butter. If you can, use good butter, especially in recipes like sugar cookies or butter cookies where butter is a featured ingredient. You’ll be able to taste the difference!
• And good chocolate. A good chocolate, such as Guittard, will elevate your gf Christmas cookies into something sublime!
• Choose unsalted butter, too. I prefer to use unsalted butter in my baking so that it doesn’t overpower the other flavors.
• Invest in a decent 1:1 gluten free flour mix. I like to use Bob’s Red Mill 1:1 gluten free flour in my cookies, and it works so well in all of my recipes on this site. King Arthur Flour also has a great gluten-free flour mix that will work well.
• Cream the butter correctly. For the lightest and best gf Christmas cookies, cream the butter and sugar until it’s light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes. This will give you wonderful results when the cookies are baked.
• Rest the dough in the fridge before baking it. The longer cookie dough rests in the fridge, the more the flavors will develop. This is also helpful when you’re baking gluten free cookies because gluten free flour benefits from resting. This allows it to hydrate and will produce smoother cookies.
• Then rest the cookies after baking. Thoroughly cool your cookies after they’ve baked so that they firm up and the texture is perfect. Once the cookies are completely cooled you can store or serve them.
• Freeze your dough. To help save time, you can prepare your cookie dough well in advance of when you plan to bake your gluten free Christmas cookies. Then, when you’re ready to bake, defrost the cookie dough in the fridge and proceed with the recipe.
• Try vanilla bean paste in sugar cookies. Sugar cookies, which are less flavorful than peanut butter or chocolate chip cookies, benefit from the concentrated burst of vanilla that comes from using vanilla paste rather than vanilla extract.