Valentine’s Day brings out the sweet tooth in all of us. And nothing says love like those little heart shaped sugar cookies. So cute and tiny and practically guilt free. At least that’s what I tell myself.

I baked an entire batch of these at Christmas (reindeer shapes, of course) and they were gone immediately. I was literally rolling out my last ball of dough, watching sneaky little hands do a drive by on the other side of the island, swiping fresh cookies off the plate. All night my family kept dipping into my gluten free container when I wasn’t looking (you know who you are).

This is a good gluten free recipe if you have little ones with sensitive tummies. Of course, you could make this recipe with all-purpose flour too. And the fun part is you can decorate the cookies however you want! I used powdered sugar on some and pressed peppermint candies into others. Melted white chocolate with a drop of peppermint extract would be fantastic! Or those little candied hearts with the valentine’s sayings? Can it get any cuter? Or more sugary for that matter?

A few things to note about this recipe. Most homemade sugar cookie recipes require you to refrigerate your dough before baking. Not this one! That’s right. You don’t have to refrigerate first. The gluten free flour causes the dough to be naturally dense so you can pop them right in! Which is a good thing, because if I’m making sugar cookies I don’t want to wait. I want to bake them. Right. Now.

If your dough does end up feeling a little soft, you can throw it in the fridge for 5-10 minutes to stiffen it up if you’d like.

Also, this gluten free flour has a tendency to bake very quickly. So you will need to watch them closely so they don’t burn! I accidentally burned a few and they turned out very dry. So of course I had to eat them all. It was the responsible thing to do.

I have made these cookies in two different ovens; one at 400 degrees for 5-6 minutes and the other at 350 degrees for 8-12 minutes. If you want to be safe, you might want to bake at 350 F for 5 minutes and then go a minute at a time keeping a close eye. You want the bottom of the cookie to be slightly brown but not dark!

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup white cane sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 2.5 cups Namaste Gluten Free Perfect Flour Blend
• 1 tsp baking powder (click here for a corn-free recipe)
• 1/2 tsp salt

Optional Toppings

• powdered sugar
• crushed peppermint candies
• white chocolate, melted

Directions

In a large bowl, cream softened butter and sugar together with a hand mixer. Blend in eggs and vanilla. Add flour, baking powder, and salt and stir to combine. Dough should be stiff. Place a lump of dough onto wax paper. Sprinkle a little flour on your rolling pin and roll out dough to about 1/4 inch thick (or however thick you like it). Use cookie cutters to cut shapes. If you desire, press crushed peppermint into some of the shapes before baking them.

Remove shapes and place cookies on an ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake at 350 F for 8-12 minutes or at 400 F for 5-6 minutes.  Watch closely so they don’t burn! Pull them out when the bottom of the cookie is light brown (but not dark) and the top is still a little soft. Transfer cookies to a cooling rack. Toss immediately in powdered sugar. Or spread some melted white chocolate with sprinkled candies on top after they cool! Serve with a glass of milk or cup of coffee and enjoy!