Welcome to Ambitious Kitchen’s Cookie Week 2016. I’m going to lay the frosting on thick, brown the butter like no other motha and blow ya minds with these dank ass cookies. Yep that’s right, every day this week there will be a new, delicious cookie recipe complete with a recipe video.
GUYS I’ve been LOVING doing recipe videos because they make the recipes seem super easy, visual and achievable. I want you to be able to make these recipes with success and I’m confident the videos will help get you there.
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To kick off cookie week, I made you these delectably soft almond flour sugar cookies that just so happen to be both paleo and gluten free.
But wait! Don’t let the paleo/gf label defer you; these are some of the BEST sugar cookies I’ve ever had. The texture and flavor are incredibly similar to that of the real cookies you buy at the store. Soft, chewy, slightly cakey and a hint of almond flavor.
Can I get a YUM?
There are a few tricks to ensuring your cookies come out fabulous:
Make sure you pack your almond flour: Pack it just like you would with brown sugar!
Make sure you measure your coconut oil when it is melted. This is the best way to measure it. Also make sure that your coconut oil is NOT hot when you make the cookies. You need it to be melted and cooled so that you don’t end up cooking the egg.
Let the dough sit for 5 minutes. The coconut oil will need to absorb some of the liquid, so my best advice is to let the dough sit at room temperature.
More gluten free dessert recipes you’ll love:
Almond Flour Chocolate Chip Cookies
Almond Flour Chocolate Sugar Cookies with Velvet Chocolate Frosting
Grain Free Omega-3 Fudgy Walnut Skillet Brownies
If you make this, be sure to leave a comment below, or upload a photo and tag #ambitiouskitchen on Instagram.
Soft Almond Flour Sugar Cookies with Vanilla Buttercream
Ingredients
- 1/3 cup melted and cooled coconut oil
- 1/4 cup organic cane sugar (regular sugar or coconut sugar will also work)
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 1 egg, at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/4 teaspoon almond extract
- 1 1/2 cups packed fine almond flour (do not use almond meal)
- 3 tablespoons coconut flour
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- Vanilla Buttercream (optional):
- 4 tablespoons butter, softened
- 3/4 cup organic powdered sugar
- 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
- In the bowl of a food processor, add in coconut oil, sugar, honey, egg, vanilla and almond extract. Process for 20-30 seconds until well combined.
- Next, add in almond flour, coconut flour, baking soda and salt. Process until a dough forms. Allow dough to sit for 5 minutes. You can also mix by hand or use an electric mixer, but I find the food processor to be the easiest!
- Next use your hands to roll dough into golf sized balls. Place on prepared cookie sheet then flatten each dough ball with the palm of your hand or use the bottom of a glass to flatten.
- Bake for 8-10 minutes. Remove from oven, transfer to a wire rack and allow cookies to cool completely before frosting. Makes about 15 cookies.
- For the frosting: Beat butter, powdered sugar and vanilla on high until smooth and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Frost each cookie then decorate however your heart desires.
Recipe Notes
Nutrition
Recipe by: Monique Volz | Photography by: Sarah Fennel
WOW these are SUPER good! They are lightly sweetened so they are a perfect match with some frosting. I didn’t have coconut oil so used melted and cooled butter and it worked out great. Will definitely be making these again, thank you:)
Perfect! So glad you loved them!!
Excellent cookies, excellent frosting!!! Always double the recipe or you will be left wanting more.
Agreed! Glad you enjoyed 🙂
This is my 4th year making these cookies and they are my absolute favorite!
So happy to hear that!
Easy and delicious! They turned out perfectly and my whole family loved them.
Yay! So glad you did!
I made these this weekend and they came out SO GOOD! The dough comes together super easy and they taste even better than the Lofthouse cookies. Thank you for such a great recipe!
So glad to hear that you loved them, Kelly! Thank you!
Just made these to bring to a Christmas part and they are delicious! I used vegan butter, and a flax egg (1 T flaxseed meal + 3 T water) to make them fully vegan. Perfect for the holidays!!
So happy they came out well!! Thanks for leaving a review, Meghan 🙂
These are INCREDIBLE! So soft and fluffy, and I could eat the frosting by the spoonful. Everyone in my apartment loved these, even the ones that were not gluten-free! To quote my roommate, “These are the best things you’ve ever made.” If you need a sugar cookie recipe, this is it.
SO YUMMY! BETTER THAN LOFTHOUSE, CHEWY AND DELICIOUSLY BALANCED!!! THANKS FOR THE RECIPE, WILL BE IN MY MAKE OFTEN FILES!!
So happy to hear that, Shari!
Super tasty and versatile recipe – I added orange zest and cocoa powder to half the dough to make additional cookie types! Already added this recipe to my recipe box – will definitely be making more!
Pefect! Glad you love them!
I have never been a fan of cut out sugar cookies but I love the taste of sugar cookies so these are the best of both worlds – all the sugar cookie flavors and enjoyment of sprinkle decorating with the soft interior of a fluffy cookie!
So glad you loved these ones!
SOO yummy, Not too sweet and very easy! Love the almond, and the amount of frosting was perfect! 🙂
Glad you loved them!
I got your cookie e-book in my email this morning, saw these, and made them immediately. They are so yummy paired with a hot cup of coffee! I didn’t make the icing, but the plain cookies are delicious.
Amazing! So happy to hear that!
These are the best! Seriously so fluffy and soft. The texture is amazing and the buttercream pairs so well with the cookies 🙂
So happy you loved them!
very yummy and the cookies are super soft in a good way!
Yes! These stay deliciously soft for awhile 🙂
These were so good. I made them for my personal trainer and she loved them as well.
Love it! So happy to hear that 🙂
Hello , im so confused because the ingredients dont list eggs but the video does. help please 🙂 I LOVE all your recipes and plan to make these tonight with my girls. Not allergic to egg, just wanna make correctly. thank you for all you do!
Hi! There is 1 egg listed in the ingredients (right under the honey). Enjoy! 🙂
Can these be made into cut out cookies?
Yes they can — just add another tablespoon of coconut flour and refrigerate the dough for 1 hour before rolling out.
This recipe is amazing. I love trying new recipes that are healthy, and these honestly taste like real sugar cookies-just with a hint of coconut. For my cookies, I found that baking them for 8 minutes and then taking them out to cool was perfect and gave them that slighty cakey/chewy feel that I love. As for the vanilla frosting, I personally found that 3/4 cup of powdered sugar was too sweet, so I think that next time I bake these I’ll reduce the amount. Thank you for such a great recipe; I cannot wait to share these with my friends! =)
Glad you found the perfect temp with your oven 🙂
These are great, I’ve made them 5 or so times now. Something I started doing that works fantastic with these is taking the dough and rolling it in parchment, and sticking it in the freezer. That way I can slice and bake the day of an event or whatever.
Also palm shortening in place of the coconut oil gives a more “butter” taste and works out just fine.
Perfect! Great tips 🙂
How do you store them? The frosting is soft and I can’t stack them on top of each other!
I would add wax paper in between the cookies or even put small rectangles of cardboard wax paper in between so that the cookies don’t get smooshed 🙂
I don’t have coconut flour, would 1-1 gf flour work? Or oat flour?
Oat flour should work!
[…] Modified from the ones at Ambitious Kitchen […]
Absolutely the most delicious cookie ever!
My favorite! Glad you loved it.
These cookies look amazing and I’m so excited to bring them to an otherwise gluten-filled cookie exchange! Thank you for making my first cookie exchange since eliminating gluten something I’m looking forward to. Quick question – is it possible to replace coconut flour with more almond flour? If so, what liquid needs to be eliminated? Thank you again!
I just found this recipe and made it with my grandson. I liked that it made only 13-15 cookies. Fun and fast and so YUMmy! Fall is in the air so we used a few fall sprinkles on top of the icing and shared them with friends. They looked great. I used grassfed butter so they had a golden hue.
Amazing! Sprinkles are perfect on these 🙂 So glad everyone loved them.
Hi Monique! Can this frosting recipe be used for cupcakes? If not, do you have a vanilla or buttercream cupcake frosting recipe? I couldn’t find one on your site. I know there are thousands of recipes out there, but I wanna start with the best ❤️ Thanks!
Hi April! This frosting would be delicious on cupcakes (and it’s super easy!)
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I am celiac, and love using almond flour. My kiddos and I made these yesterday and they were super easy and soooooo delicious! soft and with the hint of coconut, they were heavenly! we added food colouring to our icing (of course they needed blue and pink cookies! haha!) These will be my GO-TOs when they kids want to bake again!
I’ve signed up for your email subscription, and am going to be looking through your other recipes now! thanks for sharing your creations with us!
I’m so glad you found this recipe! The blue and pink sound awesome 🙂 I have tons of other recipes with almond flour, too – hope you find some new favorites!
These were really good! My one suggestion would be adding lemon zest to to batter! I also made the buttercream dairy free by using vegan butter instead of regular butter.
Thanks!
I’m so glad you enjoyed! And noted on the lemon zest – I’ll have to try it next time 🙂 Perfect with the dairy free frosting!
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Hi! Can these be made with butter instead? I don’t like the flavor of coconut oil. Thank you
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I made these and had my roommate taste test – her exact response was: “Oh sh*t these are good. I wish I could eat the whole plate.”
Had to share 🙂
YES amazing! So happy to hear that 🙂
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Is there an alternative for buttercream so its more dairy free?
Yes! Try soaking 1/2 cup of cashews (for about 2 hours) 1/4 cup of maple syrup water to thin if necessary. Blend this up!
These cookies look amazing! I am planning to make them for a friend who is gluten and dairy free. Do you have any suggestions of what I could use to “glaze” the cookies that doesn’t include butter?
Try the cashew butter vanilla glaze from this recipe!
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