My sisters converge on my house for Thanksgiving. During their visit, we always bake the best sugar cookies ever. I call them “Kim’s Sugar Cookies” after my dear friend I left behind in South Carolina who taught me how to make them. She bakes like a queen. With these cookies, it’d be cookies for breakfast. Cookies for snack. Cookies for lunch, dinner, and another snack. I’d love to share that recipe if you’re interested. They’re the most beautiful, tasty things ever. Not those hard brick cookies that people bake and throw icing onto. These are the ones you see on Martha Stewart or Better Homes and Gardens. Yet they taste soft, flaky, creamy, and divine! If you’re interested, let me know. I’ll get that recipe to you.
But this year my GI tract cannot do gluten and dairy (I seem to tolerate ghee fine). And since this GAPS/SCD diet I’m doing is going pretty darn well for me, I decided to give up one of my favorite Holiday treats. (Sob, sob). (Drying tears).
However, Google did not let me down. I found two most excellent cut-out sugar cookie recipes! We tried them both. Both are absolute keepers. These bakers are absolutely amazing!!!! I love how they tweak and pull and push and tweak and come up with these recipes to help people like me bridge their diets!!!! How do they do that? I mean, come on! Cookies with no eggs? Crazy!
And I’m sorry. I know all that honey and almond flour isn’t “good for me”, but I love the joy of time in the kitchen with my daughters and sisters. And who am I kidding? Coffee and cookies rock. For breakfast. Lunch. And the leftovers for dinner. With coffee.
The recipes are from The Urban Poser and scdrecipe.com. We couldn’t decide which we liked best. Here they both are. Both are worth the investment in Honeyville Almond Flour if you don’t have any:
1. SCD Cut-Out Cookies
Click for original recipe page: http://www.scdrecipe.com/recipes-cookie/scd-cutout-cookies/
For ginger cookies use: 1-1/2 tsp. ginger 1/2 tsp. cloves 1 tsp. cinnamon
For “sugar ” cookies use: 1-1/2 tsp. nutmeg
2. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Flour both sides of one of the dough patties with almond flour. Lightly flour counter top or wooden pastry board too. Roll out to a thickness of 1/4 ” using additional almond flour as needed to prevent dough from sticking to rolling pin and board. You may need to lift dough while rolling and dust a little more almond flour underneath to prevent it from totally sticking to the work surface… a little sticking may be unavoidable. Cut dough with cookie cutters which have been dipped in the almond flour (didn’t dip mine and it went fine). With a spatula (silicone works the best) transfer the cut-outs carefully to a cookie sheet that has been lined with parchment paper. Place cookies 1″ apart. Gather dough scraps into a ball and re-roll. If dough becomes too warm, it may be returned to the refrigerator until workable. Repeat with other dough patty. Combine scraps from both patties and continue to roll out and cut until finished.
3. Bake cookies one sheet at a time for 7-10 minutes at 325. They are done when they are lightly browned at tips and edges. When firm enough to handle, remove to cooling racks with spatula. Turn oven off and let cookies cool completely. Save parchment paper.
4. To crisp the cookies: Preheat oven to 170 degrees. Arrange cookies on parchment paper lined cookie sheets (you can use the same ones). Bake for 1 hour and then turn off the oven. Let the cookies cool in the oven. When the oven is cool, the cookies will be crisp. Store them in an airtight container for up to two weeks. If cookies loose their crispness you can”re-crisp” them by putting them back in a 170 degree oven for 15 minutes, letting them cool in the oven as before.
Tasters’ review: When I baked this recipe, I used ghee, honey, and nutmeg. I added a bit of vanilla and almond extract because my old recipe used both of these and in my mind I was recreating that old, most awesome sugar cookie! This recipe created cookies that were super moist yet held their shape excellently. Delicious. Everybody liked them a lot. You will sacrifice absolutely nothing with this recipe. One sister commented that she’d like them a bit more crispy–but the recipe itself noted that you could reheat them in the oven later to add some crisp. The rest of us liked them soft and moist. Kind of like an Archway cookie–if anyone remembers those!
2. Almond Flour Cut Out “Sugar” Cookies (Dairy, egg, and grain-free)
Click for original recipe page: http://urbanposer.blogspot.com/search?q=almond+flour+cut+out+cookies
Tasters’ review: For this recipe I used coconut oil and honey. Again, I added both vanilla and almond extract as I tried to recreate my old gluten/dairy containing recipe. Again, everybody liked them. One sister (a different one from the one mentioned above) commented that she could taste the coconut a bit. Not strong. As I’m acclimated to coconut, I didn’t notice the taste. These cookies were a bit more crisp. Not hard, though! Good.
General tips for most roll-out sugar cookies:
1. Divide the whole batch of dough into about four parts. Put each part onto its own piece of parchment paper (or wax paper) and wrap up. Place in refrigerator for 12 hours or freezer for 1-2 
hours.
2. Only take one part out to roll out at a time. Leave the others cooling while you work.
3. Roll one piece at a time or even only half a piece between two pieces of parchment paper (or wax paper). If your dough gets sticky, put it back in the freezer for a bit. Don’t force it.
4. Have those thick rubber bands that you can buy at a kitchen store to put on your rolling-pin. Helps you make perfect thickness cookies every time! (The bands are on my rolling-pin in the photo. They are green. I use 1/4″ thickness. Several thicknesses come in a package.)
5. Put only one shape of a cookie on your pan at a time–otherwise you risk having some be too 
done and others not done well enough.
6. Silpats work great to keep them from sticking and for easy transferring!
7. I highly recommend a thinned Royal Frosting (using meringue powder by Wilton) piped on from a plastic condiment bottle. Again, I can give details. Contact if interested. But as I am cutting refined sugar from my diet, I cannot eat this frosting at this time. It is the frosting shown above in the photos.
Best wishes to you and yours.
Terri
