These easy cut-out Paleo Sugar Cookies are made with almond and coconut flour and sweetened with honey. The perfect sugar cookies for the holidays that no one will guess are Paleo. Grain free, refined sugar free, kid approved!
Of all my baking experiments over the past two weeks, these sugar cookies made me the happiest. I’m almost sure they made my kids even happier though. And husband.
It was one of those “are these ACTUALLY paleo?!!” moments – a moment that wins for the ultimate Paleo baking compliment, in my opinion.
And, that was before I put the icing on – this should be noted, of course! Anyway, they were all thrilled that it took me a couple of tries to get the cut-out part right, since that meant extra cookies that weren’t waiting for photos.
And, I might have decorated those 5 cookies just for myself, in the name of recipe testing. Or just because they tasted really good with my coconut butter icing and melted dark chocolate!
Ingredients in Paleo Sugar Cookies
It’s so easy to make this Paleo cookie dough! Here’s what you’ll need:
- Softened butter (grass-fed and unsalted)
- Raw honey
- An egg
- Vanilla extract
- Almond flour
- Coconut flour
- Baking soda
- Salt
The grass-fed butter adds amazing flavor to these cookies, but you can also use ghee for a nearly identical flavor. Just make sure it’s the consistency of room-temperature butter before creaming it.
Coconut oil doesn’t work as well in this recipe as butter or ghee – it makes the dough difficult to roll out and cut, and the flavor isn’t the same. For a completely dairy free version that will keep the texture, you can use palm oil shortening.
How to Make Sugar Cookies
The dough is extremely quick and easy to make!
- Cream together the butter & honey. Using my electric hand mixer, I combined the grass-fed butter and raw honey until nice and smooth.
- Add the rest of the wet ingredients. After the butter and honey are nice and creamy, we add in an egg (room temp) and vanilla.
- Mix the dry ingredients in a separate bowl, then add them to the wet ingredients. Don’t overmix – you’ll want everything just combined to form a ball of dough.
- Chill the dough. Form the dough into a disc and wrap it with plastic wrap. The dough itself it very easy to roll after about an hour of chilling in the fridge. You can also refrigerate it overnight if you want to make the dough ahead of time.
- Roll out the dough. Since it’s still a moist dough, I prefer rolling it between two pieces of parchment paper for best results. And of course, this part is easier if you have a good assistant!
- Cut out the cookies and bake. Cut out shapes using your favorite cookie cutters. Place the cutouts an inch apart on a cookie sheet lined with parchment, then bake for 10 minutes in a 350 degree oven.
- Cool and decorate. When the cookies are baked, remove them from the oven and allow them to rest for a few minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack. When the cookies are cooled to room temperature, decorate them with icing and enjoy!
Speaking of icing, I used two types of white icing for these cookies – a traditional (not Paleo) icing with organic powdered sugar and orange juice, in case you simply need grain free cookies. For those who want to keep it Paleo, I provided a simple coconut butter icing recipe, too. And don’t forget the melted dark chocolate – my favorite part!
Once I practiced my cookie-cutting and perfected the recipe, I had my daughter Emily help me with the photos and decorating.
Sugar cookies need at least one good assistant/helper, I think – someone to cut, someone to get rid of the extra dough (without eating it!!) and decide which shape comes next.
The icing, the design, and who gets to eat which shape. Sugar cookies require more decision making than any other cookie, I’m sure! Which is probably one reason kids can’t get enough of them.
How do you store cookies after baking?
Baked sugar cookies should be wrapped and stored in an air tight container at room temperature. They’ll stay fresh for up to a week.
Here’s a cool trick for softening cookies that have hardened: Place a piece of apple or bread in the container with the cookies to help them retain moisture and keep from drying out.
Do cookies freeze well?
Yes! You can actually freeze cookies baked or unbaked.
To freeze baked cookies: Allow the cookies to cool to room temperature, then store them in an airtight container, in layers separated by parchment.
To freeze unbaked cookies: Cut your rolled out cookie dough into shapes, then freeze the unbaked cookies on a cookie sheet lined with parchment or wax paper.
You can also freeze the dough before cutting the cookies out. Shape the cookie dough into a disc or log, then wrap and freeze.
Okay, let’s get into baking mode and make the best paleo cut-out sugar cookies we’ve ever made – enjoy!
Perfect Cut-Out Paleo Sugar Cookies {Grain Free}
Perfect Cut-Out Paleo Sugar Cookies
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup grass-fed butter unsalted, softened
- 6 tablespoons raw honey
- 1 egg room temp
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 2 cups blanched almond flour sifted
- 1/4 cup coconut flour sifted
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
Icing
- 2/3 cup organic powdered sugar or powdered monk fruit sweetener, for paleo friendly
- 3-4 teaspoons fresh orange juice or water
Instructions
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In one bowl, combine the sifted almond flour, coconut flour, baking soda and salt, set aside
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In a separate bowl, using an electric hand mixer (or stand mixer) cream together the butter and honey until very smooth and creamy on medium speed.
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Add in the egg and vanilla and beat on low speed until combined. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and beat until a thick cookie dough forms (you can stir it by hand at this point if it’s too thick to mix.)
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Using a silicone spatula, scrape all dough off the sides of the bowl and form a ball. Wrap the dough ball in plastic wrap and chill for at least 1 hour so the dough can be rolled. You can also chill overnight if you want to make the dough ahead of time.
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Once chilled, preheat your oven to 350 degrees F and line a large cookie sheet with parchment paper.
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Place the dough on a separate large sheet of parchment paper on your countertop and cover with another sheet. Roll out the dough slowly between the two sheets of parchment paper to 1/4 inch thickness for cutouts.
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Place cookie cutouts on the parchment lined baking sheet and repeat with remaining dough, chilling before rolling out again if needed.
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Bake cookies in the preheated oven for 10 minutes or until just beginning to turn light brown. Allow cookies to rest on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before carefully transferring to wire racks to cool completely.
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Once completely cooled, decorate as desired and enjoy!
For Icing 1*:
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Combine sugar and orange juice or water in a small bowl and mix until a smooth icing forms.
For Icing 2:
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Carefully stir honey into melted coconut butter, then drizzle on cookies. If you need to re-melt the mixture, do it in small 5 second increments - coconut butter can easily separate to it’s important to be gentle!
Recipe Notes
**To melt coconut butter, you can either submerge the jar in very hot water for 10 minutes, then stir (preferred) You can also microwave in a glass dish on increments of 7-8 seconds, stirring after each, until drippy. If coconut butter is overheated, it seizes up and turns grainy, so it's best to under-heat at first!
***Nutrition was calculated without icing.
Nutrition
What I Used to Make My Perfect Paleo Cut-Out Sugar Cookies:
Want more Paleo cookie recipes? Try one of these!
Chocolate Chip Cranberry Cookies
“Oatmeal” Raisin Cookies {Grain free, vegan}
Coconut Flour Chocolate Chip Cookies {Nut Free}
Almond Butter Fudge Cookie Cups
Coconut Butter Macadamia Nut Cookies
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Hi Michelle, I’m wondering if you or any of your readers tried freezing these? I tend to do my baking ahead of time and freeze, but since eliminating grains haven’t found much success. I would love to surprise my adult kids with some sugar cookies again!! I just don’t want to have to make them the day before when I’m already busy prepping other items. Thanks for all you do!!!
While I haven’t tried freezing these (they were gone too fast!) I did freeze my vanilla wafer cookies successfully which have similar ingredients, with the exception of coconut flour. Unfortunately I don’t have the answer specifically for these cookies though!
Hey there, have you tried using coconut oil, instead of coconut butter, for the 2nd icing option? If not, do you think regular butter would work okay?
Hello!
In March, I made these for several of my friends. They loved them so much, I thought I’d make some more. For one of them, eggs are a no go. Any ideas on how they’d turn out if I did a flax egg instead? Thanks you for your fabulous recipes! The site has become my go to when looking for any type of recipe. Thank you!
Hi Michele. My son is allergic to nuts so being Paleo as a family is not easy. Do you think I could use cassava flour in place of the almond flour in this recipe? Actually, could I use cassava flour to replace almond flour in most recipes? Thanks in advance for your response!
No, cassava would make the cookies way too crumbly, as in couldn’t even pick one up without it breaking. Unfortunately cassava is very difficult to make cookies with and it has a totally different texture than almond flour. I’ve tried several times to make cookies with cassava and they were all frustrating unfortunately – the dough would be great and the cookies crumbled after baking. If you can use flaxseed meal, that is the closest sub I know for almond flour, although I haven’t tested it enough to know how much almond flour it can sub for and still turn out okay. I haven’t totally given up on cassava though, since I have so many readers who want nut free, coconut free cookies, but for now sadly I don’t have a recipe!
Hi actually you CAN use that flour just not with this particular recipe maybe. There is a recipe called healthier sugar cookies using cassava flour. I have Lupus and MANY food allergies there is ALWAYS a way try searching that and with a nut allergy Paleo recipes may not be your thing or at least this blogs though I enjoy her recipes almond and coconut flour are almost always used.
Along with being grain free, I am also diabetic. Do you think I could substitute Swerve for the honey? And if so, do you think it would be equal measurement?
Thanks for this recipe! We have added it to our Advent activities!
I’m not familiar with swerve and how it measures, it may affect the texture a bit but I do think you can sub another sweetener successfully.
These look amazing! Do you know if you would need the same amount of ghee as the butter? I know sometimes the measurements aren’t exactly comparable…thanks!!!
It should work out to be the same, as long as it’s in the same soft/solid state as butter would be. Since you’ll chill the dough anyway it should be fine 🙂
These were absolutely great!
My daughter has 22 food allergies and these worked great with coconut oil too, instead of butter. Best allergy free cookies I have made. I’m was about to give up on ever using my cute cookie cutters. So happy I can use them this year, thanks again.
That’s so great to know about the coconut oil! Couldn’t be happier to hear!
How many cookies does this recipe produce?
It should make about 16-18 depending on your cookie cutters 🙂
Thanks! Very helpful!
Oh boy. So Michele, I need your help. I made a double batch of these. The dough just would not hold up, and after trying various things (egg, almond milk, more honey, refrigerating – haha) I realized I used COCONUT flour instead of almond flour (the bags look SO similiar!). How can I rescue my double batch of dough?
Eek, I’m not sure since that’s a whole lot of coconut flour! Especially with your additions, trying to save it I’m not sure there’s anything else you can do. I know I’ve been there before and it’s super frustrating 🙁
I made the cookies and just drizzled them with melted dark and white chocolate- perfect! Great recipe.
Yum! Sounds delicious 🙂 So happy it worked out well!
Do you think I can use pure maple syrup instead of the honey we cant do honey
Yes I think that would work just fine 🙂
Can I use Cassava flour to replace the almond four?!?