Christmas cutout cookies are a yearly tradition in our household. In fact, we have a Christmas Cookie decorating party with friends each year. We have a BLAST! I think us adults end up enjoying it even more than the kids—the kiddos typically decorate only one plate of cookies each before the sugar hits and it’s like they’re on rocket fuel. They chase each other around the house, giggling and screaming like banshees. That’s about the time we drag the bouncy house (a fantastic present from Santa a few years ago) into the family room and try to contain them all in there.
Meanwhile, Hubby and the other dads have a friendly competition going to see who can decorate the most ornate cookie. And my tribe and I sit around the kitchen island drinking coffee and gabbing, pausing only to slide tray after tray of cookies in and out of the oven. We look forward to this all year long. And the cookies made on that night are delicious and unabashedly unhealthy. It’s tradition!
A Healthy Alternative
During the rest of the holiday season, when it’s just Hubby, the kiddos and me, sometimes we want to be able to make cutout cookies with complete abandon and not feel remotely guilty for eating our weight in cookies. So, I came up with an extremely healthy Christmas Cookie recipe that uses almond flour in place of regular flour, and has no refined sugar, dairy or eggs. Essentially, it’s almost as healthy as eating a handful of almonds. And it’s super easy to make.
Almond Flour Christmas Cookies
Equipment
- food processor
- 1 Gallon Size Plastic Bag
- Rolling Pin
- parchment paper or silicone liner
- Cookie Tray
- Oven
Ingredients
- 2 cups blanched almond flour
- 1 TB arrowroot powder (or tapioca starch or cornstarch)
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 pinch salt
- 1 tsp real vanilla extract
- ¼ cup real maple syrup
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F.
- Dump all dry ingredients (almond flour, arrowroot powder, baking powder and salt) into the food processor and pulse a few times to mix.
- Add maple syrup and vanilla to food processor.
- Process on low speed until everything forms a smooth ball. It should take a minute or so. Dough will be smooth but very sticky. It should have the consistency of marzipan.
- Put dough in a gallon-size plastic bag and seal. (Using the plastic bag allows you to work with the dough without it sticking to everything.)
- Using a rolling pin, roll the dough out smooth until it fills nearly the entire bag. It should be about ⅛-¼ thick.
- Place bag in the freezer on a flat surface and freeze for 15 minutes.
- Line a cookie sheet with either parchment paper or a silicone baking liner.
- Remove dough from freezer and immediately rip the bag down the sides to open all the way.
- Use cookie cutters to shape cookies, then lay them on the lined baking sheet. They should be easy to remove because the dough is still mostly frozen.
- Bake at 350°F for 5-8 minutes, depending on your oven and altitude.
- Remove from oven and allow to cool completely before icing.
Notes
Icing
Allow your cookies to cool completely before icing them. Otherwise you’ll have a sticky mess on your hands. I don’t currently have a set recipe for cookie icing: I typically just take a cup of organic powdered sugar, add a teaspoon of vanilla and put it in my stand mixer. I then gradually add some coconut milk or almond milk (one tablespoon at a time) until the consistency is almost runny, but still spreadable (that’s usually about 3-4 tablespoons of the milk).
Make Your Own Powdered Sugar
If you’re like me, you may or may not have powdered sugar on hand. Half the time I don’t have any in my pantry. So, I’ve learned how to make it quickly and easily: put a cup of sugar in the blender and blend. Within a minute or two you will have powdered sugar. You can store it in a jar, but it tends to clump after a few days unless you add a teaspoon of cornstarch while mixing it. Typically, I just make it in small batches and use what I make immediately. This technique also saves you some money—you pay a premium for powdered organic cane sugar in the grocery stores. It costs a lot less just to buy organic sugar and powder it yourself.
Natural Food Colors
One other thing to note is that there are now a lot of natural food colorings available made of fruit and vegetable powders. McCormick makes a great one called Nature’s Inspiration Food Colors for about $6 on Amazon. So, if you want to have brightly colored cookies, you can do so guilt-free!