Paleo “Sugar” Cookies

Hey everyone! Welcome to Day #2 of my Holiday cookie series. I am super excited to be doing this. I know sticking to a diet during the Holiday season can be a nuisance. My goal is to make it a little bit easier for you with this series. Yesterday, I made “sugar” cookies, and the recipe is ALMOST the same as the gingerbread recipe I made the other day, minus the molasses and spices of course.

Sorry about the piping work in advance, I am in no way shape or form a master icing piper. The goal with these was to have fun with them. If you’re only strictly grain or gluten-free, by all means, feel free to use regular royal icing with normal sugar. I used powdered monk fruit sweetener for this to keep it sugar free. It yielded good results, but nothing beats regular royal icing. The sugar-free alternative did have to be worked with SUPER fast because of the fast setting time.

Grain-Free “Sugar” Cookies

(paleo, dairy-free, gluten-free)

Serves 14-16

1 1/2 cups almond flour
3/4 cup tapioca flour
3 tablespoons coconut oil, melted
1/4 cup maple syrup
1 egg yolk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract or almond extract
1/4 teaspoon sea salt

Process:

**You MUST use an electric or stand mixer for this recipe**

1. In a large bowl or stand mixer, combine the almond flour, tapioca flour, and salt.

2. Mix until well-combined, then add all wet ingredients and beat until mixture starts to form wet crumbs. This may take a few minutes.

3. Remove the dough mixture and combine the dough together by pressing it together with your hands until it becomes one large ball.

4. Roll the dough in between 2 pieces of parchment paper until about 1/4″ thick. (Make sure it is as even as possible.)

5. Refrigerate dough for 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 350.

6. Cut cookies with a whatever shaped cookie cutters your heart desires and bake for 8-12 minutes until golden brown. You can repeat the process if you have a lot of extra “scraps”. Just keep rolling, refrigerating, and baking until you run out of dough!

7. Cool and decorate as desired with your favorite royal icing recipe. Use powdered erythritol in places of regular confectioners sugar if desired!