Easter is just around the corner, and I am always put in charge of bringing pasta salad and dessert to our huge family potluck each year. This year I have a few gluten-free relatives that will be attending the party, so I wanted to come up with a delicious sweet treat that everyone could enjoy. The result? Melt-in-your-mouth gluten-free vanilla bean sugar cookies decorated with colorful sugar syrup paint.
Ingredients
- 1 cup Butter, cold and cubed
- 1 cup Sugar In The Raw Organic White® (or white sugar)
- 1 Egg
- 1 tbsp Vanilla Extract + Seeds/Paste from 3 Vanilla Beans
- Juice of 1/2 Lemon
- 3 1/2 cups Gluten-Free Flour (I use Cup4Cup brand)
- 1 tsp Salt
Instructions
- Cream together butter and Sugar In The Raw Organic White in a chilled mixing bowl. Add one egg, vanilla extract, vanilla bean, and lemon juice, and mix well.
- In a second bowl, combine gluten-free flour and salt.
- Mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, and stir until well combined.
- Roll out the dough between two sheets of parchment paper until it is approximately 1/4" thick.
- Use a cookie cutter (mine are from Williams-Sonoma - newer version) to cut the cookie shapes. Trim excess dough, and place cookies on to a parchment lined baking sheet.
- Bake at 350 degrees for 12-14 minutes until edges are lightly golden.
- Cool on a wire rack.
*Tip: cooling the mixing bowl in the freezer for 15-30 minutes before mixing will allow you to roll the dough right away without needing to chill it!
The cookies are yummy as-is straight out of the oven, but I wanted to dress them up for the Easter party, so I came up with a way for my boys and I to easily decorate them while still retaining the same delicious flavor.
I made a simple syrup by boiling 1 cup of water and 1 cup of Sugar In The Raw Organic White until the sugar had dissolved, and the liquid was the consistency of a thin syrup. Once the syrup had cooled, I divided the mixture into small plastic containers and colored it with food coloring (about 1-2 drops of color per 1 oz of syrup). Sugar In The Raw Organic White and most food colorings are gluten-free, so they’re a great option for decorating gluten-free cookies!
It was quick and easy to add color and pizzazz to our cookies with the sugar paint and a small paintbrush.
The boys had a blast decorating the cookies, and they even added some homemade pink sugar sprinkles (one drop of food coloring mixed into 6 tbsp. of Sugar In The Raw Organic White) to some of them.
The best part about these cookies is that they taste as good as they look! I have to admit that I’m not normally a huge fan of sugar cookies myself, but I’ve discovered that these are just perfect with a cup of tea! They’re really good, and the vanilla bean gives the cookies a delectable flavor without being overpowering.
I’m excited to be partnering with In The Raw this year to bring you several must-make recipes from the In The Raw family – Sugar In The Raw®, zero-calorie Stevia In The Raw®, Monk Fruit In The Raw®, and Agave In The Raw®. For more information about the In The Raw family of sweeteners, be sure to visit them on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and YouTube.
This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of In The Raw via Burst Media. The opinions and text are all mine.
