The best Paleo Sugar Cookies I’ve tried are finally here! A sneak-peak from my book Paleo Baking at Home, these cutout sugar cookies are crisp and slightly chewy with a buttery flavor and paleo friendly icing.
*Order my book Paleo Baking at Home here.
I’m ridiculously excited to share a recipe from my NEW BOOK, Paleo Baking at Home, with you today! With the holidays here I couldn’t resist sharing the sugar cookie recipe that completely rocked my world while testing recipes for the book last Spring.
I’ve tested tons of Paleo sugar cookie recipes, and these are by far the best ones, crisp and slightly chewy. The dough is easy to work with (YAY!) as far as grain-free dough goes, and the cookies make perfect cutouts for holiday decorating!
What You Need to Make Perfect Paleo Sugar Cookies
These cookies are made with simple ingredients that you most likely have on hand already for paleo baking. Here’s what you’ll need:
- Ghee
- Maple sugar
- Vanilla extract
- Egg
- Blanched almond flour
- Tapioca flour
- Baking soda
- Salt
- Dairy-free milk (for the icing)
How to Make Paleo Sugar Cookies
The dough comes together quickly and easily, but you will need to leave yourself time for the dough to chill. I typically like to make the cookie dough the day before I plan to bake the cookies, so it can chill overnight. At least 3 hours is recommended for the best texture.
This dough is relatively easy to work with, as far as grain free doughs go! Allow it to sit at room temperature for about 10 minutes after chilling. Make sure to preheat your oven to 350° F. Place the dough between two sheets of parchment and gently roll it out to about 1/4-1/2″ thickness.
Use whatever cookie cutters you like to cut the dough into shapes. Remove leftover dough and set aside. Carefully transfer the shapes onto a parchment lined baking sheet with about an inch of space on all sides. Bake for 8 minutes or until set and light golden brown. Remove from the oven and allow the cookies to cool for about 10 minutes on the sheet, then transfer to wire racks to cool completely.
Repeat this process as many times as necessary to use up all the dough.
How to Make Paleo Icing for Cookies
To keep this recipe strictly paleo, you can use powdered maple sugar to ice your cookies. The icing will be a light brown color so this isn’t the best option if you want to color your icing. If you’re okay with using cane sugar, organic powdered sugar will work perfectly to make a great white cookie icing.
Mix 3/4 cup of the powdered sugar with about 1 Tbsp of dairy free milk, like almond milk, and 1/2 tsp vanilla extract. You can add the milk slowly to make sure you get the right texture for icing the cookies.
Making Paleo Powdered Sugar
If you choose to make your own paleo friendly powdered sugar – it’s incredibly simple and quick. You can use either maple or coconut sugar, but I prefer maple since it’s lighter in color and has a better flavor in my opinion. For a low carb option, you can use monk fruit or erythritol instead of maple or coconut sugar.
Simply blend your sugar of choice in a NutriBullet (what I use), high-speed blender or food processor until it has a powdery consistency. Make sure to measure the sugar after blending to add the correct amount.
How to Make Naturally Colored Pink or Red Icing
Using freeze dried strawberries is a great way to both flavor AND color your icing! Simply blend the strawberries to a powder and mix the desired amount into the already-prepared white icing.
I love the fruity flavor it gives the icing and the colors are so pretty. I made the red icing in the below photo with freeze dried strawberries, but you can also make pretty much any shade of pink, depending on how much of the powder you add.
There’s also a much better variety of natural food coloring options available now – including ColorKitchen and Supernatural. You can also buy beet powder for red food color without the strawberry flavor.
I hope you’re ready for FUN seriously delicious sugar cookies that just happen to be better for you too! I know you’re going to love them – enjoy!
Perfect Paleo Sugar Cookies {From Paleo Baking at Home!}
Perfect Paleo Sugar Cookies {From Paleo Baking at Home!}
Ingredients
Cookies:
- 6 tbsp (73 g ) ghee, at room temperature
- 6 tbsp (59 g ) pure maple sugar
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1 large egg at room temperature
- 2 cups (192 g blanched almond flour
- ¼ cup (28 g) tapioca flour
- ¼ tsp baking soda
- ¼ tsp fine sea salt
Icing:
- ¾ cup (117 g ) powdered maple sugar (see note)
- 1 tbsp (15 ml) coconut or almond milk
- ½ tsp pure vanilla extract
Instructions
Prepare the cookie dough:
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In a large bowl, cream together the ghee and maple sugar, using an electric hand mixer. Add the vanilla and egg and continue to mix until smooth. Stir or mix in the almond and tapioca flours, baking soda and salt until a dough forms. Gather the dough into a ball and flatten into a disk. Wrap in plastic wrap, then chill in the refrigerator for 2 hours or overnight.
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Preheat your oven to 350°F (177°C) and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
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Place the dough on a separate sheet of parchment paper and roll out to ½-inch (1.3-cm) thickness. Use cookie cutters to cut your preferred shapes, then place about 1 inch (2.5 cm) apart on the prepared baking sheet.
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Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, or until the cookies just begin to turn light brown. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 5 minutes on the baking sheet, then transfer to wire racks to cool completely.
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Repeat the steps with remaining cookie dough, chilling the dough in between batches if it becomes too sticky.
Prepare the Icing:
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While the cookies cool, prepare the icing: In a small bowl. whisk all the icing ingredients together and drizzle over the cooled cookies, or decorate as desired. Place back on parchment paper for the icing to set - it will harden after 20 minutes or so.
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Store loosely covered at room temperature for the first day, then cover and refrigerate for up to 5 additional days.
Recipe Notes
Note: Making powdered sugar from maple sugar is surprisingly easy, and it’s the base for many of the frostings and icings in this book. Simply blend your maple sugar in a NutriBullet (what I use), high-speed blender or food processor until it has a powdery consistency. You’ll want to measure the sugar after blending to make sure you’re adding the right amount.
Nutrition
Shop Products and Ingredients:
Want More Paleo Holiday Cookie Recipes? Try One of These!
Chewy Double Chocolate Mint Cookies
Ginger Molasses Cookies with Pecans and Cranberries
Cranberry Orange Chocolate Chip Cookies
Best Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies
Thick and Chewy Snickerdoodles
Note: This post contains Amazon affiliate links. This means that if you click on a link and make a purchase, I will receive a small commission at no cost to you. Thank you for supporting Paleo Running Momma!
Can you freeze this dough? Would love to make ahead for Christmas Eve!!! Thanks
I cannot wait to make these!! Sadly I think I got rid of all my cookie cutters when I became paleo; do you think they would work in a cookie press?
This was awesome, I’ll make it again
The dough is hard to work with because it’s so sticky, but they come out of the oven looking cute, so it’s fun if you have a little one who wants to decorate cookies. Unfortunately, without the icing they aren’t sweet enough and have an odd aftertaste that lingers in the mouth. I won’t make these again.
I made these as a grain and dairy free cookie, so used white sugar and a very unpaleo coconut buttercream frosting. The cookies were delicious, rolled well, and only spread a little in the oven. I didn’t feel left out at our cookie decorating party, so it’s a win! Cannot wait for the cookbook!
These were awesome and tasted just like the real thing! I recommend rolling them a bit on the thicker side, refrigerating for about 30 mins after cutting the shapes and under baking a bit for super soft ones 🙂
I love all your recipes for dinner and I am not a complainer type but I have to say I am super frustrated with both sugar cookie recipes as both are VERY sticky. They’re so sticky there’s NO possible way to use cookie cutters. It’s a disappointment to say the least now 2 years in a row. I’m sticking this dough rolled up like a jelly role in the freezer to hopefully at least be able to slice and bake. Would hate to just pitch all this dough. Any tips on how to make it way less sticky but preserve flavor? I want to like this recipe as the flavor of the dough I snitched is yummy. But the point is to do cookie cut outs with my 5 year old – and this recipe just simply does not deliver. Bummed.
With ingenuity, determination, time and a freezer you can salvage your VERY sticky Cookie dough and make those cookie cutting and decorating memories with your little.
– Roll dough with parchment paper into a jelly roll (put your glob of overnight chilled dough in the middle of a big sheet of parchment paper. Roll dough with the paper into a “jelly roll.” Squeeze roll gently so there are no gaps from rolling. Dough will be a long “log.”)
– Freeze for at least 30 min
– Unroll paper and slice with a Sharp knife. Use arrowroot flour on parchment paper and put slice here. Quickly spread out dough a little (not too much handling bc don’t want dough to warm much) with floured fingers. Dip cookie cutters in flour and carefully peel off paper with floured fingers.
– Place dough back in Freezer as needed (this is a process but a classic tradition)
– Help yourself out and consider Buying (no shame and no guilt, sister!) “Simple Mills” vanilla frosting at Whole Foods. Use natural food dye (Whole Foods- 365 brand) and sprinkles (Amazon – supernatural Christmas sequins sprinkles)
My 5 year old told me while decorating these cookies, “This made my day!” I told her that SHE made MY day!! Definitely worth it all. Then later after eating another cookie she says, “Mommy, I just like the frosting but not the dough cookie part.” 🤦🏽♀️ 😂She doesn’t like ghee. What can I say? Next year, I may just try KerryGold butter instead. I’m choosing to focus on the memories made together because THAT is what is important. Merry Christmas y’all! ❤️💚
I know your original post is from a few years ago, but mine wasn’t able to be rolled out either. I ended up freezing the dough and then using a cookie scoop for a drop style sugar cookie and that worked well for me. That way you could still decorate them potentially, but they wouldn’t be in the shapes. But if that doesn’t bother you, I ended up saving this recipe anyway and making a note to myself to just scoop with a cookie scoop instead.
These cookies turned out really well!! I found them tasting very similarly to regular sugar cookies the day after I baked them 🙂
Can you use coconut sugar instead of maple sugar for the dough? I’m out of maple
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For learning how to bake and cook at 57 years old this recipe amongst a lot more are awesome and easy. I’m a retired nurse at 1 year and paleo running mama has been awesome! Thank u!!
I’ve been afraid to make cutout cookies since I became paleo, but this year, me and my 8 year old made these. We let the dough chill overnight and they held their shape and turned out perfect! Probably the prettiest cutouts I’ve ever made! And delicious. Thank you so much for all these great recipes. I thought my baking days were over when I was diagnosed w/ AI disease, but I’ve discovered it’s definitely not!
Everyone loved these, including all of my non-paleo family!
Can the butter be substitutes with coconut oil or other oils