Today I’m going to show you what’s essentially AIP sugar cookies with pumpkin. That’s a thing, right? If not, it is today! This AIP cookie recipe is designed for those who follow an AIP Diet, however, it’s so tasty that you can share it with friends and family who don’t manage dietary restrictions.
Allergy Status
Free From: Wheat/Gluten, Dairy, Egg, Soy, Tree Nut (including Coconut), Peanut, Fish, Shellfish, Sesame, Top 9 Allergens, Alliums, Apple, Avocado, Banana, Beans & Lentils, Berries, Buckwheat, Cane/Refined Sugar, Carrot, Celery, Citrus, Corn, Cruciferous, Garlic, Latex Cross Reactive Foods (H/M), Legume, Lupin, Mustard, Nightshade, Oat, Onion, Pea & Pea Protein, Potato (Nightshade Variety), Poultry, Red Meat, Rice, Seeds, Stone Fruits, Strawberry, Sweet Potato & Yam, Tomato, Yeast
Friendly To: AIP Paleo, EOE, Paleo, Vegan
Low Histamine Reminder: If vanilla extract isn’t tolerated, swap for ground vanilla.
GERD Reminder: Make sure you serve a portion size that works for YOU. With too large a portion, this could be considered a high fat food due to the shortening content.
AIP Cookie Recipe Ingredients
Part 1 Ingredients
- 170g Organic Shortening (6 ounces)
- 250g Organic Maple Sugar
Part 2 Ingredients
- 300g Cassava Flour
- 280g Organic Pumpkin Purée
- 2 TBSP Water
- 3 tsp Organic Ground Cinnamon
- 3 tsp Organic Vanilla Extract OR Safe Vanilla (such as vanilla powder)
- 3/4 tsp Sea Salt
Important Ingredient Notes
Shortening: I use organic palm shortening since several tasters are allergic to coconut. You can also try coconut shortening, but I don’t know how present the flavour will be.
Maple Sugar: You can swap this with coconut sugar or date sugar if needed.
Cassava Flour: Normally I use a combination of flours for my free-from baking recipes, but this one is an exception. If you have a trusted autoimmune protocol compliant all purpose flour, you can use 300g of that instead. Know that the flavour profile will change some, especially if your blend contains tigernut flour or coconut flour.
Alternative Flour Blend:
- 190g Cassava Flour
- 80g Organic Tiger Nut Flour
- 30g Arrowroot
If you don’t like the gumminess that can come with cassava as a standalone flour, use this flour blend instead. The taste changes a bit, but you’ll still be happy.
Ingredient Sourcing: You probably won’t be able to find tiger nut flour at a local grocery store. This is the one I’ve been buying online.
AIP Cookie Recipe Directions
For cookie recipes, I like to use an electric stand mixer with the paddle attachment. Preheat your oven to 325f/163c.
Place your empty mixing bowl on your kitchen scale and tare to zero. Add the shortening and maple sugar to the bowl. Cream the fat and sugar together (mix/whip) on medium speed.
Once they’re well mixed, scrape down the edges of the bowl and mix again. Return the bowl to your kitchen scale (you can leave the attachment in). Tare to zero and add the Part 2 Ingredients.
Return the bowl to the stand and pulse the mixer to start (to prevent a huge mess). When the ingredients are slightly combined, turn the mixer on low speed. Once they’re more combined, increase the speed to medium-high. Mix until a nice cookie batter forms. Unlike most cookie dough, this batter will be on the soft side.
Line a Baking sheet (also called a baking tray) with parchment paper. Use a small or medium cookie scoop to portion the cookie dough. Roll each portion into a ball and press lightly to flatten a bit before baking.
To achieve the textured look in the picture, use a large open star tip and decorating bag to pipe dough on to your tray. When your tray is full of cookie goodness, bake at 325f/163c for 13 – 15 minutes.
You can sprinkle cinnamon or a homemade cinnamon sugar on top of your cookies before baking, or before serving. If you ask me, the best part if you ask me is that this is an amazing recipe, the kind that you can share with friends and family and they’ll enjoy eating it with you (we all know how some people get about gluten free alternatives etc.).
More Delicious Recipes
These AIP recipes are purpose built to be incredibly inclusive. They’re also coconut free for those who also manage a coconut allergy.
- AIP Crunchy Cookies (soooooo good! legit some of the best AIP cookies you’ll ever eat)
- AIP Frosting Recipe (this frosting is perfect if you have a sweet tooth)
- Paleo Chocolate Chip Cookies (great if you’re past the AIP elimination stage and have successfully reintroduced something like homemade carob chips)
- Gingerbread Cookies
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Be sure to check out the Advanced Recipe Search on RAISE if you’d like to see more AIP Paleo recipes that are tailored to your individual needs. There are more than 120 filters you can mix and match to get results.
AIP Cookie Storage
Once you’ve baked and cooled your delicious cookies, the best way to store them in my humble free-from opinion is in the freezer. To freeze cookies, place them on a parchment lined baking tray in a single layer. It’s OK if the sides are touching. Top with a layer of parchment, then add another single layer of cookies.
Freeze the entire tray. Once they’re solid, transfer to an airtight container (I like to use freezer baggies). Whenever you’d like a cookie, leave it on the counter at room temperature for about 45 minutes to thaw. Honestly, you can also eat them cold for a different kind of sweet treat.
Remember, when batch cooking and storing food in your freezer, meal plan and include said food so you don’t forget to rotate thru it.
Answering Your AIP Cookie Recipe Questions
Can I use tiger nut flour in place of the cassava flour?
As a 1:1 swap, no, you won’t be able to use tiger nut flour. The good news is that you can use tiger nut flour only and really lean into the nutty flavor, however, I can’t tell you how much to use. These two flours aren’t on the same weight and performance level.
If you can only have tiger nut flour, you’ll want to follow the directions for the Part 1 Ingredients. Then, add all of the Part 2 Ingredients except for the flour. Once it’s well mixed, add 200g of tiger nut flour to start. Mix well, then add 50g at a time until a nice cookie dough forms. If I had to guess, you’re going to need at least 400g of tiger nut flour, and maybe a bit more.
You’ll want to do a test bake of 3 cookies at different heights (how much you press the dough ball down). Start with a reduced cooking time of 10 minutes, check the cookies, and add more time as needed. Whilst this is a little extra work, take good notes along the way. Once you’ve successfully made the cookies with just tiger nut flour, you can refer to your notes next time and things will move along faster.
Is it safe to eat the raw dough?
If we’re talking about a tablespoon of dough, you’re fine. If we’re talking about an edible cookie dough rather than baking the dough, no, you don’t want to eat that much raw dough. Many people think that eggs are the issue when it comes to raw dough, but uncooked flour can also be an issue.
The best way to make an edible dough is to roast the flour first, then allow it to cool completely. Once cool, make the cookie dough, and now you have a safe to eat edible cookie dough. Store it in the fridge and enjoy.
Could I use tapioca flour in place of the cassava flour?
No, you won’t be able to use tapioca flour standalone in place of the cassava flour. Like arrowroot, it’s a light fluffy starch and performs best when it’s part of a blend. If you’d like to use tapioca in this delicious treat recipe, see my custom flour blend in the ingredient notes. The only change you’ll make is swapping arrowroot for tapioca. Everything else remains the same for the ingredients and instructions. Happy baking!
Will this recipe work with cookie cutters?
Yes, you should be able to carefully use cookie cutters with this cookie dough. There’s not a huge shift in the spread or rise in the cookies, and they’ll hold their shape very well. The only thing to keep an eye on is your cooking time. If your cookies are considerably shorter than mine, you’ll want to start with a reduced bake time, check your cookies, and add more time as needed.
Can I use maple syrup in place of the maple sugar?
No, you won’t be able to use maple syrup since it’s a liquid sweetener and this recipe calls for a granulated sweetener. You can however swap the maple sugar for coconut palm sugar, date sugar, or any other granulated sweetener that’s safe for you.
Know that if you were to use a liquid sweetener such as maple syrup or date syrup, this AIP cookie recipe will pretty much fall apart.
Would adding a gelatin egg make this cookie better?
For this particular AIP cookie recipe, I don’t think an egg replacement is necessary. The cookies hold together pretty well. However, one of my kids is allergic to all bovine material, so I’ve never worked with a gelatin egg.
I’d suggest making the cookie dough and test baking a couple. Since you know how a gelatin egg would perform, after eating the tester, you should know if it will help, or make little to no impact. Happy baking!
Can I use arrowroot flour instead of cassava flour?
This is a great question and I’m glad you asked before making the swap. No, you absolutely cannot swap the cassava for arrowroot flour. Arrowroot is a light fluffy starch and to make the best cookies with that particular flour, well, anything really, it needs to be part of a flour blend.
If you go back up to the ingredient notes, I’ve included an alternative flour option where arrowroot flour is included. You’ll notice that it’s only about 10% of the blend, and that’s where you want the arrowroot to be when it’s part of your dry ingredients.
What would happen if I were to add baking soda or baking powder to this AIP cookie recipe?
First, it’s important to know what both baking soda and baking powder do in a cookie recipe. They’re both key ingredients in baking, but have mostly different roles. Without getting into too many details, just remember this: the P in baking Powder is for Puff and S in baking Soda is for Spread.
Essentially, baking powder will give your recipes more puff whereas baking soda will help the spread. Now, there’s a lot more going on, and you’ll want to read this article to get all of the details.
Where this particular recipe is concerned, if you were to add baking powder, you would only see a little bit of puff since it’s more of a dense cookie. If you add baking soda, you’ll see a little spread. Neither are necessary though for this particular recipe to have success.
Can I make this recipe with sweet potatoes instead of pumpkin?
Yes! In fact, you can used canned sweet potato, just be sure it’s unsweetened. I like the organic canned sweet potatoes from Farmer’s Market (name of the brand, not the local farmer’s market).
If you go this route, it’s a 1:1 swap, and the rest of the ingredients stay the same.
Could I replace the shortening with coconut oil?
I don’t advise doing that, nor would I replace it with a creamy coconut butter. If you really want to use coconut products in your cookies, use coconut shortening in place of the organic palm shortening.
Now, full disclosure, since several of my taste testers have a coconut allergy, I don’t work with coconut products often, and I couldn’t tell you how present the coconut flavour is when making that swap.
Are these cookies similar to shortbread cookies?
No, not really. Whilst they do have shortening, overall, these cookies are more moist and cake-like. They also have a bit of a fruity taste. I wouldn’t compare them to shortbread cookies at all. This recipe on RAISE (my membership site) is going to be closer to shortbread cookies, but still not the same. I do have an actual shortbread cookie recipe, but it’s not AIP compliant.
