Gluten Free Valentine Sugar Cookies

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This Valentine's Day we kept things simple. We did not make a special valentine for every. single. friend or go out for a fancy dinner. What we did do was hand make valentines for each member of our family and make our own special cookie treats. We hung the paper valentine hearts on our tree that I (accidentally) saved from Thanksgiving. It totally worked, and to watch them snip and glue and write in them a couple of days before the actual event, might have been my favorite. I love to see their thoughtfulness in action.In keeping with simple and thoughtful, I decided to make them special cookies because, well, cookies are their love language ;)No, I kid (maybe - I haven't read the book yet, but it's on my nightstand). They don't get a lot of treats because we eat gluten / dairy / free and tend to stay away from the majority of store bought treats. I do know they love to decorate them so I let them help me with that part. And then, eating them has never been a problem. So these gluten free sugar cookies are always a hit in my house. We use this recipe from Tammy Credicott's book "The Healthy Gluten-Free Life." My fave for delicious GF/DF baking.

Gluten Free Sugar Cookie Recipe:

Dry Ingredients:3/4 Cup teff flour1/2 Cup brown rice flour3/4 Cup sorghum flour1 cup potato starch3/4 Cup tapioca starch2 tsp xanthan gum1 tsp salt1 1/2 tsp baking sodaWet Ingredients:2 Tbsp flax meal mixed with 1/3 Cup hot water1 Cup nondairy butter1 Cup organic evaporated cane juice2 Tbsp pure vanilla extract1/8 tsp pure almond extract1 Tbsp unsweetened organic applesauce

Sugar Cookie Icing:

2 Cups organic powdered sugar2-3 Tbsp nondairy milk (I use almond milk)1 Tbsp golden syrup (I use1Tbsp nondairy butter, very soft (I like Earth's Balance)1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract1/4 tsp pure almond extract 

Directions:

1. Whisk together dry ingredients.

2. Mix flax meal with hot water. Set aside.

3. In a stand mixer, cream butter and sugar together.

4. Add vanilla, almond extract, applesauce, and flax meal mixture. Mix until combined.

5. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients a little at a time until fully incorporated. Blend on high for 30 seconds.

6. If dough is too soft, refrigerate for 1 hour before rolling out.

7. Roll dough between sheets of parchment paper (the same size as your baking sheets). When the dough is 1/4 inch thick, remove the top sheet of paper. Using cookie cutter, cut shapes into dough. Remove excess dough, leaving cookie shapes on the bottom sheet of parchment. No need to transfer your cookies! Place parchment with cookie shapes onto your baking sheet.

8. Bake cookies in 350* oven for 10 minutes, or until edges start to brown.

9. Cool in pan for 3 minutes, then transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.

10. Frost with Sugar Cookie Icing.

Do you need an allergy friendly valentine treat? These Delicious dairy and gluten free sugar cookies are a hit at my house!

This is a recipe I like to use time and again, so you might want to pin this for later. Think Christmas ;)Enjoy!