SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH (Good Things Utah) — St. Patrick’s Day is just around the corner, and for those with gluten sensitivities, it can be difficult to join in on the festivities. However, Emma Drennan has six GF ideas that will make St. Patrick’s Day magical for everyone!

  1. Belgium Chocolate coins in cute little black pots
  2. Skittles
  3. A charcuterie board with fruit, a lemon fruit dip, cheese, and gf crackers
  4. Lemon macaroons with homemade lemon curd and buttercream frosting as the filling
  5. Shamrock shaped sugar cookies with buttercream frosting
  6. Gluten Free inspired t-shirts & hats – A local company

Emma also walked us through the process of making GF sugar cookies. The three essential ingredients that make this recipe work are xanthan gum, psyllium husk, and refined coconut oil. She demonstrates how to roll and cut out the dough, and shows us the finished product. The cookies are then frosted with buttercream frosting.

Gluten Free Sugar Cookies

Ingredients:

  • 1/2 C butter, unsalted, softened
  • 1 tsp refined coconut oil
  • 1/2 C granulated sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 1 spash vanilla
  • 3 TBSP powdered sugar
  • 1 tsp xanthan gum
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1/4 tsp sea salt
  • 1 TBSP psyllium husk
  • 2 C Emma’s all purpose gluten free flour blend

Directions:

  1. For this small amount of dough, I find a hand mixer works better than my Bosch with a paddle. There just isn’t enough dough for that kind of mixer to do a good job. You may have another type of mixer that can mix small amount of sugar cookie dough well, and that is fine to use that too.
  2. In a large glass bowl, beat the butter and refined coconut oil together well. Add the sugar and cream together.
  3. Add the egg and vanilla and mix well.
  4. Add the powdered sugar, xanthan gum, baking powder, sea salt, and psyllium husk and mix. Add the flour and mix until combined.
  5. With a spatula, scrape dough onto some plastic wrap. Press the dough together using the plastic wrap until the dough is pressed well together in a rectangle. Wrap up tightly and place in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.
  6. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Prepare baking sheets with silicone liners AND parchment paper on top of the liner.
  7. On parchment paper on your counter, sprinkle some gf all purpose flour lightly. Take about half the dough, sprinkle some more gf flour on top, and roll it out to about 1/4 inch thickness adding tiny amounts of flour as needed.
  8. Use cookie cutter shapes to cut out the dough. Place on prepare pans. The dough is a bit soft, so if it stuck to your parchment paper, you can try using a metal spatula to gently lift the dough onto the prepared pan. Continue gathering
  9. scrapes and reforming the dough to roll out and cut out more shapes until the dough is used up.
  10. When you have filled up one pan, bake it for 11-12 minutes or until the sides of your cookies are a little firm(just don’t want them to press in still when lightly touched). Cool 2-3 minutes on the baking sheet before removing to a cooling rack. This is an important step, you need the cookies to finish “cooking” out of the oven. Then place the cookies on a cooling rack to finish cooling. When completely cooled frost and decorate as desired. (While your first batch is baking, roll and cut out the rest of the dough)
  11. Frost cookies as desired using my butter cream frosting or another of your choice. Once frosting is completely dried, you can store in a zip baggie or air tight container for several days(if your family hasn’t consumed them all that is!)

Buttercream Frosting

Ingredients:

  • 1/3 C unsalted butter, softened
  • 4 1/2 C powdered sugar
  • 1/4 C milk I like to use whole Fairelife milk
  • splash of vanilla
  • dash of sea salt (optional)
  • 2 drops food coloring of choice I prefer gel food coloring

Directions:

  1. In a large glass bowl, using the hand mixer, beat butter until smooth. Add powdered sugar and milk and mix until smooth.
  2. Add vanilla and mix.
  3. If the frosting is too thick at this point, then add a splash of milk. If it is too thin, add a little more powdered sugar. I always wait until this point in the recipe because both the vanilla and the coloring will thin the frosting.
  4. Add food coloring and mix. If making multiple colors of frosting, place the frosting in separate bowls before adding the food coloring.
  5. Frost cookies or cakes as desired. Store any leftover frosting in the fridge.