With the holiday season upon us, these paleo and gluten free shortbread cookies make the perfect treat to top your cookie platter. Made with an almond and cassava flour blend and sweetened with maple sugar, these cookies contain a distinct buttery taste

We’re mere days from Christmas and hours from Hanukkah (jaw drop), which means the holiday baking frenzy is completely underway at my house. In the past month, I tweaked a snickerdoodle recipe from the archives, perfected a gluten-free cornbread for your holiday table, tweaked an old favorite gluten free cracker toffee recipe, and whipped up an apple galette that’s far easier to make than it appears.

But you know me: can’t stop won’t stop. 

I couldn’t shake the feeling that this year’s piece de resistance was a new recipe for gluten-free shortbread cookies. And, about 8 test batches later, here they are, just as perfectly thick, buttery, a little bit crumbly, and melt-in-your-mouth-y as you’d expect – no, demand – of a perfect shortbread. 

How to Make Gluten-Free Shortbread Cookies 

To start, preheat your oven to 3o0 degrees. Yes, 300 – not 350. We want these thick, yet delicate cookies to cook low and slow so they just cook through without browning or, worse, burning. While your oven is preheating, line a baking sheet with a silicone baking pad or parchment paper, and set aside. 

Ingredients for this shortbread cookie recipe

These cookies use a gluten-free flour blend of almond and cassava flour, plus, salt, and maple sugar. That will make up your dry ingredients mixture. The only wet ingredients you’ll need are grass-fed butter (yes, butter! Not ghee!) and vanilla extract. 

Since it’s such a simple recipe with limited ingredients, you need to make sure you’re using the best of the best quality ingredients. That means finely ground blanched almond flour, grass-fed butter, and pure vanilla extract. 

Equipment for the shortbread recipe

The good news is that these cookies come together entirely in the food processor. The bad news is that if you don’t have a food processor, it might turn you off to this recipe. Don’t let it!

You can also make the dough in stand mixture, but make sure to keep it at low speed and mix until the vanilla and dry ingredients are just combined with the butter and sugar – not a moment longer. You don’t want to incorporate too much air into these cookies! Id you don’t have a food processor OR a stand mixer, you can put this together in a mixing bowl, but be warned: you really need to stir like crazy to cream together the butter and sugar.

Once the dough comes together, it will also be handy to have a rolling pin, bench scraper, and parchment paper for rolling and cutting the cookies into the traditional little “fingers”. Oh, and a fork or toothpick or poking the cookies! 

Shortbread Method 

In the bowl of the food processor, combine the butter and maple sugar and blend until the mixture is creamed together. Add the remaining ingredients, and process until the dough comes together in a ball. The dough will look way too dry at first, but let the machine do its work: it will come together. 

When the cookie dough comes together, stop the machine immediately, and turn the cookie dough out onto a piece of parchment (or a cutting board dusted with a little extra cassava flour). Cover with another piece of parchment, and roll out into a rectangle about 5-6 inch wides x 12 inches long x 1/2 inch thick. 

Use your bench scraper to cut the dough into rectangles about 3/4″ x 2.5″, then to move the cookies to your prepared baking sheet.

Finally, use a fork or toothpick to poke holes on each of your cookies before baking. Technically, these are to let air escape so the cookies don’t bubble, but they’re also the shortbread calling card, so don’t skip this step!

Bake for a total time of 18–20 minutes, or until the edges turn golden brown. When you take your cookies out of the oven DO! NOT! MOVE! THEM!!! This is critically important. The cookies are very soft when they’re fresh from the oven, and require about 20 minutes of cooling time on the cookie sheet to set up. 

Once they’re cooled and set, use a spatula, transfer your cookies to a cooling rack. Store in an airtight container on the counter for one week, or up to six months in the freezer.

FAQs and Tips for Gluten-Free Shortbread Success

New around here? Here’s my present to you: I’ve been slowly adding posts on basic tips and essential ingredients for gluten-free baking. Be sure to keep coming back to keep navigating your way around gluten-free recipes.

Where do I find gluten free flours? 

Finely ground blanched almond flour is available in grocery stores (look for Bob’s Red Mill brand). Cassava flour is available at Whole Foods and other health food stores, in the baking aisle (I recommend Otto’s). Of course, you can also get everyone on Amazon! 

Talk to me about butter.

Ah, yes. We don’t see a lot of butter around here, do we? When you use butter in baking, always make sure it is unsalted butter, because salted butter contains an inconsistent amount of salt, which makes it difficult to control how salty the recipe turns out. No one likes a salty cookie. ?

Additionally, as I said above, make sure you’re investing in high quality butter, since the buttery flavor is so critical to good shortbread. I strongly recommend Kerrygold unsalted grass-fed butter, which you can find at the grocery or natural foods store when you go to grab your flours.

Can I substitute the maple sugar for a different sweetener? 

Yes, kind of. If you’re looking to substitute because you can’t find maple sugar, don’t stress. You can always get it online. If you don’t want to invest in maple sugar, you can use coconut sugar, which substitutes 1:1 for maple sugar, but will change the taste slightly, and will speckle your cookies with brown flecks. Not deal breakers, though.

If you want to make these low carb, I wouldn’t recommend substituting low-carb sweeteners. Instead, use this recipe, which is designed to be low carb and keto, in addition to gluten free and paleo, using coconut flour instead of cassava, and granulated monk fruit instead of maple sugar. 

I have not tried this using granulated sugar or brown (cane) sugar, but I imagine it would probably work. 

Can I make this recipe dairy free and vegan? 

You could, fairly easily, actually; the recipe is already egg-free. . Since this recipe doesn’t require eggs to bind the cookies together, all you need to worry about is the butter. The best replacement would be palm shortening, but coconut oil would also work fine. It would lend a pretty strong coconut flavor, instead of the distinct buttery flavor.

Do I need xanthan gum for this recipe? 

Nope! I try to stay away from it since I don’t tolerate it very well – and I know I’m not alone.

Why do you separate the cookies on the baking pan?

Shortbread is usually cut, then cooked (without separating the log of cut cookies), then cut again to separate the baked cookies. I tried it and it ended up increasing the baking time substantially and producing a less-pleasant texture (more cakey). Neither was ideal. I found that the non-traditional baking method works best, which makes sense, since we’re using non-traditional flours!

Why do you prick them? 

Traditionally, shortbread cookies are poked with a toothpick or similar instrument in two rows down the length of the cookie to allow air to escape and prevent the cookie from rising or bubbling. Since you’re using grain free flours here, that is not as much of a concern, so I used a fork to prick them for aesthetics only.  

How can I jazz these up a little? 

Well you know me: I’ve never met a chocolate dunk I didn’t love. I’ve included instriuctions for melting chopped chocolate or chocolate chips with coconut oil for dipping. Just dunk, shake off the excess, and place cookies on a wire rack for an hour or two until the chocolate sets. 

You could also frost them and top them with sprinkles to make Christmas cookies — excuse me, Christmas trees — or simply sprinkle them with a dash of sea salt. And don’t be afraid to cut them out into different shapes to inspire your decorating!

Enjoy These Gluten-Free Shortbread Cookies this Holiday Season

Or birthdays. Or anniversaries. Or keep them in the freezer and enjoy one whenever you get the cravings.

Speaking of holiday baking, I highly encourage you to visit the holiday archives section on the blog. There are plenty of gluten-free and paleo treats perfect for Christmas and Hanukkah. Enjoy!