Last Updated on September 22, 2026 by The Allergy Chef
Oh hey there gluten free baking buddy 🙂 Today, we will be making a well loved gluten free shortbread cookies recipe that my kids have been gobbling up for ages. This was also sold at the bakery, and shared with a LOT of kids during my Allergy Chef in the Classroom speaking engagements.
Needless to say, I’m confident you’re going to enjoy making these shortbread cookies, but what’s so dang cool is that they’re also dairy free, egg free, vegan, and top 9 free. SO many can enjoy these cookies together. So, grab your gear, and let’s get to work.
Also! be sure to use the TOC to jump around. I’ve included tips, and fun ways to serve your shortbread cookies.
What to Expect From These Easy Gluten-Free Shortbread Cookies
With a gluten free cookie recipe like this one, I thought it would be good to give you a quick rundown on what to expect.
Zero Rise. There’s no leavening agent in this cookie recipe, which is a trait of a classic shortbread cookie. You won’t have puff, etc.
Almost Zero Spread. Whilst there is dairy free butter in the recipe, generally, your cookies aren’t going to move about much.
Foolproof Recipe. This is a pretty simple recipe and you don’t need fancy tools to pull it off.
Crowd Pleasing. Good for cookie exchanges, birthday parties (decorating the cookies can be an activity at the party), holiday dessert tables, etc.
Cut-out Cookies. This refined sugar free shortbread cookie is designed for your rolling pin. You will need parchment paper for ease, but roll, cut, and enjoy super fun cut-out cookie shapes.
Allergy Status
Free From: Wheat/Gluten, Dairy, Egg, Soy, Tree Nuts, Peanut, Fish, Shellfish, Sesame, Top 9 Allergens, Alliums, Apple, Avocado, Banana, Beans & Lentils, Berries, Buckwheat, Cane/Refined Sugar, Carrot, Celery, Cinnamon, Citrus, Coconut, Cruciferous, Garlic, Latex Cross Reactive Foods (H/M), Legume, Lupin, Mushroom, Mustard, Nightshade, Onion, Pea & Pea Protein, Potato (Nightshade Variety), Poultry, Red Meat, Rice, Squash & Gourd, Stone Fruits, Strawberry, Sweet Potato & Yam, Tapioca/Cassava/Yuca/Manioc, Tomato, Yeast
Friendly To: EOE, GERD, Low FODMAP, Low Histamine, Migraine Diet (Cleveland Clinic & Johns Hopkins) Vegan
Compatible With: Seed Free
- Seed Free: If millet isn’t tolerated, swap for 40g of any medium weight flour, or an all purpose flour.
- GERD Reminder: Make sure you have a portion size that works for your personal tolerance level for fat (vegan butter)
- Low FODMAP Reminder: Eat cookie portions that work with your personal oat threshold.
- Low Histamine Reminder: If vanilla extract isn’t tolerated, use 2.5 tsp organic ground vanilla instead.
Tools Needed to Make This Gluten-Free Shortbread Recipe
- Kitchen Scale (a digital scale is a non-negotiable in free-from baking since it allows me to ensure your success at home)
- Stand Mixer + Paddle Attachment OR Large Bowl + Handheld Electric Mixer (if you only have a medium bowl, make a half batch of this recipe)
- Spatula (for transferring)
- Rolling Pin
- Parchment Paper
- Large Baking Tray
- Spatula (for removing cookies, I like this one but technically it’s called a turner)
- Large Measuring Cup (if making the optional cacao glaze, I have 4 of these and just love the angle inside)
- Disposable Decorator Bag (if making the optional glaze)
Gluten Free Shortbread Cookie Ingredients
This gluten-free shortbread cookie recipe was designed with simple ingredients in mind. If you don’t know, one of my kids is low/no sugar for medical reasons, and also requires a mostly organic diet. Originally, this recipe was made during a holiday season so he could feel total inclusion.
Part 1 Ingredients
- 112g Dairy Free Butter OR Unsalted Butter (4 ounces/8 TBSP)
- 85mL Organic Maple Syrup
Part 2 Ingredients
- 2 tsp Organic Vanilla Extract
- 1/2 tsp Sea Salt
Part 3 Ingredients (Dry Ingredients)
- 180g Sorghum Flour, superfine OR Brown Rice Flour, superfine
- 145g Organic Gluten Free Purity Protocol Oat Flour
- 40g Millet Flour, superfine
Chocolate Glaze Ingredients (optional)
- 260g Organic Powdered Sugar
- 2 TBSP Organic Cacao Powder
- 7 – 10 TBSP Water
- 2 Organic Candy Canes crushed
Refined Sugar Free Topping (optional)
- Organic Maple Butter
Maple Butter: This is whipped and heated maple syrup. There’s no dairy/butter in this product. This is the product I personally use. Know that at some grocery stores, in the produce section, they now sell unsalted butter + maple syrup and call it maple butter but they’re being literal. It’s not the same product.
Ingredient Notes
Maple Syrup: Technically, you can swap this with other liquid sweeteners (honey, agave, etc.). However, if you do, you’ll absolutely shift the flavor of these gluten free shortbread cookies.
Gluten Free Flour: If you’re not able to use my gluten free flour blend, you can swap it for a solid all purpose blend that you know performs well. However, I can’t vouch for every AP blend out there, and by making this swap, you’ll alter the taste of these GF cookies.
Gluten Free Shortbread Cookie Directions
Before we hop into the instructions, remember, you don’t need to make the glazes if you don’t want to. You can just make the cookies and dip them in a cup of coffee or a cup of tea, or I don’t know, just eat one.
- Oven Temperature: 325f/163c
- Baking Time: 10 – 12 Minutes
- Cool on Tray Time: 20 Minutes
To make these gluten free shortbread cookies, I use a stand mixer with the paddle attachment. You can use a large mixing bowl if needed. A medium bowl won’t be large enough, so make a half batch if that’s all you have. If you don’t have a stand mixer, I suggest using a handheld mixer. Mixing by hand isn’t encouraged. Not impossible, but you may not get the best results.
Place your empty mixing bowl on your kitchen scale and tare to zero. Add the Part 1 Ingredients (butter and maple syrup). Cream (mix) your butter and maple syrup together.
Turn the mixer off and add the salt and vanilla. Mix again for 20 – 30 seconds. Turn the mixer off, scrape down the sides of the bowl (this ensures everything mixes well), then return the bowl to your digital scale.
Tare to zero (it’s OK to leave the paddle in the bowl for ease), then add the Part 3 Ingredients (Dry Ingredients). Once they’re all in, start on low speed and pulse the mixer on off. This prevents flour from flying everywhere and making a hot mess in your kitchen.
Once enough of the flour is wet that it won’t go everywhere, turn up the mixer speed to medium. Once the ingredients are all incorporated and a shortbread dough has formed, mix on high speed for 20 seconds. Turn the mixer off and you’re ready to roll (har har).
If the shortbread dough isn’t coming together well, add in a little more maple syrup, one teaspoon at a time.
Rolling, Shaping, and Baking Your Cookies
Roll your dough (about 1/8 inch [3.2mm] thick) and use cookie cutters to make shapes. Transfer your cutouts to a tray lined with parchment paper, then pop the whole tray into your preheated oven.
Bake at 325f/163c for 10 – 12 minutes. Cool your cookies on the tray when they’re out of the oven.
Alternatively, you can use a small or medium cookie scoop to portion the dough. Roll it into a ball then press down flat (a cookie stamp would be helpful). Do this if you don’t need to have cute shapes because I’ll be honest, that’s going to take you a hot minute to do.
Making the Optional Glazes
Chocolate Glaze: Place a large measuring cup on your kitchen scale and tare to zero. Add the powdered sugar and organic cacao. Use a fork to lightly combine.
Add in water, 1 Tablespoon at a time until the desired consistency is reached. Load your icing into a disposable decorator bag, and make fun designs on your cooled cookies. Top with crushed candy canes and enjoy.
You can crush candy canes in a quart freezer bag using the smooth side of a meat mallet, or your rolling pin.
Maple Only Cookie: Load organic maple butter into a disposable decorator bag, and make fun designs on your cookies.
How to Store Your Delicious Shortbread Cookies
After you’ve made these delicious gluten free shortbread cookies, it’s time to store them. You can store your cooled cookies on the countertop at room temperature for 4 days (covered), or you can freeze them for many months. For best results, do not store your baked cookies in the fridge.
One of my favorite things about this shortbread recipe is that your cookies are freezer friendly. To freeze your cookies, place them on a single layer on a lined baking sheet. It’s OK if the sides of the cookies are touching. If you need a second layer, place a piece of parchment paper over the first layer of cookies first. The pieces of parchment paper between the layers will prevent the cookies from freezing together and clumping, or being hard to separate later.
Place the entire baking tray into your freezer. Once your gluten-free shortbread cookies are frozen solid, transfer them to an airtight container, or a clamshell container. You can store them in a container with a lid, or in a large freezer baggie. Be sure to label your container.
These cookies can be frozen for 4 – 6 months before you start to see a decline in the texture. To thaw, leave some cookies out on the counter, at room temperature for 45 – 60 minutes. Once thawed, you’ve got the perfect shortbread to enjoy, or decorate.
Decorated cookies with a glaze can be frozen, and thaws very well. If you plan to stack frozen glazed cookies, freeze them in a single layer on a baking tray first. Then, place cookies into a container for freezing. Technically, you don’t even need to separate each layer with parchment paper so long as they’re frozen solid first with the glaze.
Plan Ahead
Anytime I make these gluten free shortbread cookies for my kids during the holidays, I make shapes in advance for Valentine’s Day and St. Patrick’s Day. They get to decorate Christmas cookies, and I freeze the rest for later. Fast forward a few months, I pull heart shaped cookies out for them to decorate in February.
10/10 absolutely recommend.
Extra Shortbread Cookie Dough
If you’ve made a bunch of shapes and you have remaining dough, you can cover it with plastic wrap or place it in a freezer baggie. Store in the fridge until you’re ready to use.
To use it, you’ll need to thaw it completely at room temperature so it can be manipulated with your rolling pin. If the shortbread dough is still stiff after fully thawing, you’ll need to put it back in your stand mixing bowl, add water or maple syrup, and mix to loosen it up. Start with 2 teaspoons of the liquid, assess, and only add more as needed.
How to Decorate or Jazz Up Your Gluten Free Shortbread Cookies
There’s so much to love about this gluten-free shortbread cookie recipe. One could argue that the best part is that the base recipe is simple enough that you can really mess about and make these tasty treats your own. Here are a few easy ideas, followed by some bigger ideas:
- Drizzle melted chocolate on your baked cookies (after they’ve cooled).
- Smear vanilla frosting on top of your cooled cookies and sprinkle mini chocolate chips on top.
- Add different extracts to the shortbread dough including rum extract, toffee extract, and almond extract. I like this brand for specialty extracts.
- Drizzle or smear melted white chocolate chips on top of the cookies, then add chocolate shavings or freeze dried fruit powder. The goal is to have the “sprinkles” stick to the white chocolate so it’s well connected when the chocolate sets.
- Add lemon zest (5 to 10 grams) to the shortbread cookie dough and brush cookies with organic food grade lemon oil once they’ve come out of the oven for the ultimate lemony treat.
- Consider going a little savory and adding lavender to your shortbread dough. I could see this being a hit at a DIY spa party.
- Make strawberry rose shortbread cookies. Add rose water to the dough and drizzle a simple strawberry glaze on top once your cookies have cooled.
Use Your Shortbread Cookies as Part of a Cake Assembly!
The crunchy nature of these gluten free shortbread cookies makes them a perfect base for other desserts. Bake a large, somewhat thin cookie layer in a cake pan. It can be a round pan, rectangle pan, etc., but it needs to match the cake you’ll be using, or be slightly larger. So, if your cake is a 6-inch or 8-inch cake, you can use a 9-inch cake pan, or an 8-inch cake pan (for the 6″).
Make a Shortbread Cookie Pull Apart “Cake”
Rather than use regular cookie cutters, roll your dough out to a good sized circle. Use a triangle cookie cutter to make a cake “slice” all around. I’m guessing you’l have 6 to 8 slices.
Bake these up, decorate with colourful glaze, then slot them back together to it looks like slices of a cute little cake.
Create Edible VIP Passes for a Fun Party
OK, this works for a birthday party, or something of that nature. Make large rectangles out of your shortbread dough. For added realism, punch out a small circle with a straw (or use a sharp knife to cut out a smaller rectangle). Bake the cookies and once they cool, decorate them with big V I P letters in the center. Add a border and maybe a little more decor. Now, you can take a piece of kitchen twine or something similar to make a necklace with the little hole you punched out.
When guests arrive, be like, welcome you VIP and hand them a cookie necklace and they’re going to be BLOWN AWAY.
More Awesome Gluten-Free Recipes
If gluten-free baking is your jam, I’ve got more delicious bakes for you to try out.
- Gluten-Free Peanut Butter Cookies
- Gluten-Free Sugar Cookies (these are soft and cakey)
- Dairy, Egg, Gluten Free Pumpkin Cake Recipe
- Gluten Free Chocolate Cookies with Mint
 |
 |
 |
 |
Answering Your Questions About This Gluten Free Shortbread Cookies Recipe
Could I use white sugar instead of powdered sugar in the glaze?
Great question! No, you won’t be able to use white sugar out of the bag when making the chocolate glaze for your gluten-free shortbread dough. Regular cane sugar won’t produce the right mouth texture.
However, there’s good news here. You can take your white sugar and combine it with a starch to make powdered sugar in your blender. Then, use that sugar in your glaze mixture.
Combine 230g organic white sugar with 2 – 3 Tablespoons arrowroot powder. Blend on high speed to form a homemade powdered sugar.
Also note, I’ve only tested this blender powdering with organic white sugar and organic maple sugar. I wouldn’t do anything wild like use light brown sugar or dark brown sugar since the moisture content is different (as is the taste).
Is it OK to use almond flour instead of oat flour?
Whilst each one is a special GF flour (read all about gluten free flour in this article), almond flour isn’t a 1:1 swap for oat flour. If you were to make that swap, your shortbread cookie dough wouldn’t form properly, and you might not even be able to bake cookies.
The only swap you can make for the oat flour is organic tiger nut flour (tuber, not a tree nut). However, for the best texture, you shouldn’t make that swap. Tiger nut flour has a grittiness about it that you pick up on, especially in an amount this large. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it also isn’t going to produce the perfect texture for you like the original recipe does.
Can I swap the dairy free butter for coconut oil?
In theory, yes. However, coconut oil has a very distinct taste and will absolutely shift the flavour profile of your shortbread cookie dough. So, make that swap eyes WIDE open (and LOOVEEE the taste of coconut), or test it out on a half batch of cookies first (the best way to experiment if you ask me).
I’ll also add this, you cannot swap the dairy free butter for vegetable oil, or any other oil that’s liquid at room temperature (olive oil, tiger nut oil [tuber, not a tree nut], etc.).
Will these cookies have a buttery texture like a traditional Scottish shortbread cookies?
Your baked cookies will have a buttery flavor, and a bit of a rich texture when compared to other cookie recipes. If you want a more pronounced butter experience, try this great recipe for Gluten Free, Vegan Danish Butter Cookies instead. It’s a light cookie, still has some crisp, but based on what tasters have said, it has amore pronounced buttery texture.
Is a cookie sheet the same thing as a baking tray?
A cookie sheet (sometimes called a cookie tray) and a baking tray (also called a baking sheet) are similar, but not quite the same. Unfortunately, a lot of homemade cookie recipes online use the terms interchangeably. A baking tray is solid, without holes, and generally has some weight to it, which prevents warping. It’s also usually dishwasher safe.
On the other hand, a cookie sheet is lighter, usually doesn’t have a lip/raised border, and often has small holes all over to promote better airflow. These slight changes allow for most cookie dough balls to bake up to cookie perfection.
In terms of if you’ll see a huge difference between the two, that’s going to depend on the cookie recipe. Some genuinely require improved airflow to perform their best. If you’re following my recipe, know that for the best cookies, you’ll only need a standard baking tray.
Should I cool my cookies on a wire rack?
Nope, you don’t need to do that. I’ve been making free-from cookies professionally for over a decade, and guess what? I’ve never once used a cooling rack for cooling my free-from traditional cookies (or my wild cookie inventions).
All you need to do is allow the cookies to cool on the tray as instructed, then you can transfer them to the countertop or storage container without an issue.
What’s the best brand of vegan butter?
Honestly, I can’t tell you because I haven’t used them all. I use the commercial 30 pound box from Earth Balance because it’s top 9 free and coconut free. All the commercial options usually contain some kind of allergen I like to avoid when baking (either because of the needs of my tasters, or the needs of the website).
So, you’d have to test them all side by side. However, in terms of performance, they’re all going to be nearly identical. When baked in a gluten free shortbread cookie situation, you won’t even be able to taste the differences/variations for the most part (unlike spreading butter on toast where you can really taste it, yanno?)
This article here on my website lists out the different brands that make vegan butter. Read them over, check out the websites, and maybe you’ll find something new to experiment with.
Will this gluten free cookie recipe turn out well even though there’s no xanthan gum?
Yes!! Great news, well, not great, but you get the idea. I personally have a severe, life threatening corn allergy. That means a LOT of ingredients are off the table, including most xanthan gum.
I’ve been able to own and operate an award winning GF + free-from bakery, all without xanthan gum. Now, I did tinker with guar gum at one point, but when I did side by side comparisons (even with a freeze and thaw test), the guar gum didn’t have a meaningful impact.
Here’s why: I don’t call for gluten free all purpose flour. Instead, I make a custom gluten free flour blend for each of my recipes. This means there’s balance from the start, and you don’t need dough conditioners and enhancers and additives to boost the results. In the case of easy shortbread cookie recipe, even though there’s limited gluten free flours, they’re in perfect balance with the maple syrup and supporting ingredients, so you don’t need extra bits and bobs to get them to work well.
As long as you follow the recipe as-is, yes, your gluten free shortbread cookies will turn out beautifully, even without xanthan gum, guar gum, and all their friends.
Could I use Bob’s Red Mill all purpose gluten-free flour in place of your flour?
Generally, you can swap my gluten-free flour blend for something like Bob’s Red Mill All Purpose Gluten-Free Flour (or King Arthur Measure for Measure Flour that’s GF). However, there will be some differences since it is a different blend and usually contains extra ingredients like xanthan gum.
If you opt to swap, just make sure you manage your expectations and go into it eyes wide open because not all GF flours are created equally, and I make a custom free-from blend for each recipe that I develop.
