Gluten-Free Spritz Cookies

These Gluten-Free Spritz Cookies are a Christmas cookie classic! Soft buttery cookie with a hint of almond and vanilla, and decorated to your liking. It's the perfect cookie to serve this holiday season!

Growing up I remember my grandmother's spritz cookies were always a Christmas cookie favorite. Similar to her recipe, this gluten-free version uses almond extract which in my opinion gives these cookies the best flavor. These gluten-free spritz cookies are customizable to your liking, which makes them a family favorite for everyone. You can make them tender or crisp by adjusting the baking time, picking your favorite color, and sprinkles for the dough, and using a cookie press and the disk of your choice to create fun holiday shapes.

Gluten-Free Spritz Cookie Ingredients

This gluten-free spritz cookie recipe is quite simple with only a handful of ingredients to use. Customize the color of dough with food coloring and choose your favorite festive disk.

• Gluten-Free Flour: It's important to measure the flour for this recipe. My favorite gluten-free flour blend is Bob's Red Mill 1 to 1 flour. Other gluten-free flour blends make yield different results.
• Butter: Use unsalted butter at room temperature. Some people like to use shortening in the place of butter, but I don't care for the taste. For a dairy-free/vegan option, try Earth Balance vegan butter sticks.
• Sugar: White sugar will sweeten the cookie dough.
• Egg: One large egg at room temperature will help the dough to rise.
• Salt: The salt will help bring out the sweetness in the dough.
• Vanilla Extract: I use only a ½ teaspoon of vanilla, but feel free to adjust to your liking. Try to choose a high-quality pure vanilla extract for the best results.
• Almond Extract: I tend to go heavier on the almond extract and use 2 teaspoons, but adjust to your liking.

How to Make Gluten-Free Spritz Cookies

These buttery spritz cookies are easy to make, with lots of options for color and fun shapes. They would make a great holiday gift!

1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. In a large bowl or stand mixer, cream the butter, salt, and sugar together at medium-high speed.
3. Add the egg, almond extract, and vanilla extract until combined, while scraping down the bowl.
4. Slowly pour the flour into the mixer, continuing to mix until well combined. ( There may be bits of flour at the bottom of the bowl, but do not add more liquid. Just keep mixing until all the flour is absorbed.)
5. Let the dough rest for 5 minutes, and prepare the cookie press.
6. Divide dough into equally separate bowls and add the food coloring of your choice.
7. Fill your cookie press with the dough. Choose a disk pattern, then press the cookie onto an unlined and un-greased baking sheet, about ½ an inch apart.
8. Decorate with sugar sprinkles or colored sugar. (optional)
9. Bake for 6-8 minutes.
10. Remove from the oven and allow the cookies to rest on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire cooling rack to completely cool.
11. Store in an airtight container for several days.

Tips For the Best Gluten-Free Spritz Cookies

These specific instructions will help you create the best gluten-free spritz cookies yet!

• Allow the dough to rest for 5 minutes before pressing in order for the gluten-free flours to absorb properly.
• Do not bake longer than 8 minutes. For tender soft pillowy cookie bake for 6 minutes, and for a golden brown crisp cookie bake for 8 minutes.
• The dough may occasionally get clogged then come out too quickly from the press. If this happens, squeeze a bit of dough out of the disk and wipe the disk clean, discarding the excess dough. Continue to press dough onto the cookie sheet.
• Weigh your gluten-free flour. Gluten-free baking requires precision which starts with properly weighing your flour. This recipe uses Bob's Red Mill 1 to 1 gluten-free flour. Not all gluten-free flours are created equally.
• Invest in a good cookie press. There are a lot of options, but investing in a higher quality cookie press will allow for use in years to come. If you do not have a cookie press you can always try a piping bag and star tip to create the spritz cookies.
• Use an unlined and un-greased cookie sheet/tray or the cookies won’t stick to the tray as you are pressing them out. Do not use parchment paper or aluminum foil.

Looking For More Delicious Christmas Cookie Recipes? Check Out the Links Below

• Mint Chocolate Cookies (Gluten-Free)
• Snowball Cookies (Gluten-Free & Vegan)
• Chocolate Crinkle Cookies (Gluten & Dairy-Free)
• Molasses Cookies (Gluten-Free)
• Gingerbread Crinkle Cookies (Gluten-Free)

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