These crunchy almond flour sugar cookies are the most quick and easy gluten-free sugar cookie recipe ever. You will love their crispy edges, soft, sweet icing, and chewy texture in the center with delicious vanilla cinnamon flavors.
I originally posted this almond flour sugar cookie recipe in 2019, it’s one of my first cookie creations using almond flour.
The reason why I love baking cookies with Almond flour is pretty simple, it’s a healthy gluten-free flour. And if you are after more almond flour cookie flavors, you are in the right place, try my almond flour shortbread, almond flour banana cookies, or my almond flour pumpkin cookies.
If almond flour is not available in your store, you can try my oat flour sugar cookies instead.
Why You Will Love These Sugar Cookies With Almond Flour
- Quick and easy with just 5 ingredients
- Dairy-free
- Naturally gluten-free
- Egg-free
- Healthier than classic sugar cookies
There’s nothing easier than baking with almond flour. It’s actually one of the easiest grain-free flours to bake gluten-free sugar cookies, as long as you work with finely ground almond flour and not an almond meal!
It’s not as tricky as making my coconut flour shortbread cookies, because almond flour doesn’t contain as much fiber. It means almond flour keeps your sugar cookies crispy on the edges, and bottom, with a nice chewy center. They are not dry or crumbly.
Almond Flour Sugar Cookies Ingredients
The key to making tasty almond flour cookies is to use a combination of 5 ingredients.
- Unsalted Plant-Based Butter – This recipe works with coconut oil as well, but the cookies get harder.
- Blanched Almond Flour – Use ultra-fine almond flour. Avoid coarser almond meals that make cookies dark, grainy, and dry.
- Granulated Sugar – Feel free to use any cane sugar, white sugar, or caster sugar. I love white sweeteners to keep the sugar cookies golden yellow. But you can use refined sugar-free crystal sweeteners like coconut sugar.
- Vanilla Extract – You can also use almond extract for almond flour Christmas cookies for a lovely vanilla flavor.
- Cinnamon for a light cinnamon flavor.
- Salt – just a pinch for flavor.
- Sprinkles to decorate the cookies.
How To Make Almond Flour Sugar Cookies
- Beat the unsalted butter, vanilla, cinnamon, and sugar together to create a fluffy mixture. You can use a hand beater or a stand mixer with the paddle attachment (photo 1).
- Add the remaining dry ingredients: almond flour and salt. Beat again until it looks crumbly, but if you squeeze the batter, it comes together into a sticky cookie dough ball (photo 2).
- Wrap the cookie dough in plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for 10 minutes. Chilling the dough make it less sticky and easier to roll (photo 3).
- Meanwhile, prepare two large pieces of parchment paper. Encase the dough between the two pieces of parchment paper, and use a roller pin to roll the dough into 1/4 inch thickness (photo 4).
- Use a cookie cutter to cut out the sugar cookies. Gather the leftover almond flour cookie dough into a ball, place it between the two identical pieces of parchment paper, and roll again until all the sugar cookie dough has been shaped (photo 5).
- Transfer the cookies onto a large lined baking sheet covered with greased parchment paper (photo 6). Bake them at 325°F (160°C) on the center rack of your oven until the sides are slightly golden brown. It takes 8 to 12 minutes.
Icing Sugar Cookies
Let the cookies cool down for 10 minutes on the cookie sheet, then cool completely at room temperature on a wire rack.
When the cookies are cooled, you can keep the sugar cookies plain or frost them with some of the frosting recipes below.
- Cashew Frosting – For a healthy cream cheese frosting made from nuts.
- Vegan Royal Icing – It’s the one I am using in the pictures here. It’s a mix of icing sugar and almond milk.
- Vegan Vanilla Frosting – This is creamy, buttery, and close to regular cookie cream cheese frosting but dairy-free.
- Drizzle of melted chocolate – like vegan white chocolate or dark chocolate.
Expert Tips For Perfect Almond Flour Sugar Cookies
- Bake at a lower temperature – Almond flour browns and burns fast. Since sugar cookies are thin cookies, it’s better to bake them at 325°F (160°C) instead of 350°F (180°C), which is the traditional baking temperature for sugar cookies.
- Flavor the cookie dough – Almond flour obviously tastes like almonds! So to mask its flavor add some flavors like cinnamon, ginger, or pumpkin spices. Or, try some citrus zest like a tablespoon of grated orange zest or lemon zest – add one tablespoon.
- Use only fine almond flour with a lovely white-golden color. Stay away from ground almonds, and almond meals that are dark and contain almond skin. This flour makes cookies dry and gritty.
- Don’t put roller pins in direct contact with the almond flour cookie dough. Almond flour dough is sticky. You must roll it between silicone mats or parchment paper sheets.
Damien’s Take On These Cookies
I’m normally not a huge fan of buttery cookies, but these are pretty awesome.
They are soft and crunchy with subtle almond flavors. I definitely recommend them for a quick afternoon snack. But be careful, you might find yourself taking more than a few!
More Almond Flour Cookie Recipes
If you’ve enjoyed this recipe, you’ll love the following:
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Almond Flour Sugar Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup Almond Flour
- 3 tablespoons Dairy-Free Butter (Unsalted)
- 3 tablespoons Sugar
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
- ¼ teaspoon Cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon Salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325°F (160°C). Line a large cookie sheet with parchment paper. Lightly oil with cooking spray. Set aside.
- In a mixing bowl, or the bowl of your stand mixer, beat vanilla, cinnamon, unsalted butter, and sugar with an electric beater or the paddle attachment. Beat until fluffy and well incorporated – about 20 seconds on medium speed.
- Add in almond flour, and salt. Beat again until it looks crumbly and consistent. Use your hands to gather the dough pieces and form a dough ball. Roll in plastic wrap.
- Place the dough ball in the fridge for 10 minutes to firm up.
- Remove the dough from the fridge and place the ball between two pieces of parchment paper. Roll the dough with a rolling pin to 1/4-inch thickness.
- Peel off the top parchment paper sheet and use a cookie cutter to cut out shapes.
- Lift a flat tool (knife, spatula) under the cookie to transfer onto the prepared cookie sheet.
- Gather the leftover dough, form a ball, and roll again, following the same process. You should be able to form 20 sugar cookies with this recipe.
- Bake the cookies in the center of your oven until the sides are slightly golden brown, about 8-12 minutes.
- Cool down 10 minutes on the baking sheet then cool compeltley on a cooling rack at room temperature before frosting with vegan royal icing.
Could I use honey?
I would recommend a crystal sweetener to keep the texture right, if you use a liquid sweetener the batter will be softer and difficult to roll and cut. Instead of honey, healthier option i recommend are coconut sugar, demerara sugar, muscovado sugar. Note that the cookies will be darker in color with unrefined cane sugar.
I decided to give these a try on a whim for some cute stamp cookies (tarot card, potions, moth etc.) and they turned out so adorable. Baked them for about 8 mins be cause I made them a little thinner to yield more. Love this recipe.
Can I use avocado oil instead of butter?
It won’t taste as good avocado oil has a strong flavor. It might also make the cookies crumbly.
Can I substitute sugar product instead of coconut sugar?
Yes, any crystal sweetener would work.
Wonderful recipe! Can I freeze the dough, if I make a larger batch?
Yes, you can! Thaw it in the fridge before forming new cookies!
What will the outcome be if I don’t have an electric beater? Do you think I should just pass? I have a smallish chopper/food processor I use for pulling seitan together. Would that do? I like the simplicity of ingredients in this recipe.
I think it should work to cream the vegan butter and sugar
We are a gf vegan household. I made these tonight since my husband and I are quarantined because of Covid. Had all ingredients on hand. Went with a nice vanilla paste instead of extract and fresh orange zest. Made a ton of little trees, stars, bears and gingerbread people. About 40 cookies! So easy and fun! Sprinkled with red and green sugar. They baked in under 8 minutes. Thanks for the recipe. I’ll make them again! Added a little cheer to our holidays!
Thanks so much for this lovely feedback, Merry Christmas!
Hello I love all your recipe so much, I was wondering if I could use a other flour .
You can try my vegan shortbread cookie recipe instead if you prefer to use regular white flour
is it possible to use a sugar other than coconut sugar?
Absolutely! Any granulated sugar works well
these are delicious, but how teeny are your cookie cut outs? i got 10 cookies and they are very thin. (probably a bit too thin)
I usually make 20 little stars but it depends of your cookie cutter size as well.