Cranberry Sugar Cookies with Almond Glaze
Super soft cranberry sugar cookies topped with an irresistible vanilla-almond glaze that give them a donut-like vibe. Quick swap for King Arthur’s Gluten Free flour makes this an easy gluten free cookies recipe! This is easily one of my favorite cookie recipes and I’m sure it will be a family favorite of yours soon too!
I have a friend in my book club that is gluten free and so at least once a month I am baking gluten free. We have been in book club now for four years so I have had a LOT of practice at gluten free baking!
The key to gluten free baking is moisture. Depending on what type of flour you are using will need to add more or less moisture to whatever it is you are baking. For example, you need about double the recommended moisture if swapping coconut flour into a recipe to make it gluten free!
But this is why I love to use King Arthur’s Measure for Measure flour. This way you can quickly make an even swap for the all purpose flour that the recipe calls for! This gluten free flour option makes for easy gluten free cookies! However, for best results, it’s best to make this swap in recipes that are already moisture heavy.
Moisture heavy is just what these cranberry sugar cookies are! That is what makes them so soft and irresistible!
Want more gluten-free recipes? Check out more from Struggle Shuttle:
Crazy for These Oatmeal Crazin Cookies
Equipment needed for this recipe:
- 3QT Saucepan
- LG Mixing bowl **or stand mixer
- MD Mixing bowl
- 2 Baking sheets
Shopping list for these cranberry sugar cookies:
- Crazins
- Crisco
- Granulated sugar
- Egg
- Vanilla extract
- Almond extract
- Baking soda
- All purpose flour (or King Arthur’s Measure for Measure for easy gluten free cookies!)
- Powdered sugar
How to execute this cranberry cookies recipe:
For cookies:
- Preheat oven to 350F.
- Prepare two baking sheets by spraying lightly with non-stick spray.
- Combine Crazins and water in a saucepan. Bring to boil. Reduce to simmer and cook until all liquid has been absorbed.
- In a stand mixer, combine: sugar, Crisco, egg, vanilla extract and almond extract. Beat until smooth.
- In a separate bowl, sift flour and baking soda together.
- Alternate adding flour mixture and Crazins to the Crisco mixture in the stand mixer.
- Mix well.
- Shape into small balls (1.25oz scoop) and roll in extra sugar to coat.
- Place at least two inches apart on prepared baking sheets.
- Bake in pre-heated oven for 10 minutes or until edges are SLIGHTLY browned.
- Allow to cool for 5 minutes on baking sheet before glazing.
For glaze:
- While cookies are baking, mix together ingredients for the glaze in a measuring cup with a pour spout.
- The glaze should have a glue-like texture. Should be easy to pour at a slow rate. Add more or less water until you get the optimal texture.
- After cookies have rested for 5 minutes on baking sheet, pour glaze over center of each cookie allowing to self-spread across cookie.
- When finished, remove cookies and place on cooling rack.
- Rinse cooking sheets with hot water as soon as possible for easiest clean up.
- Once glaze has fully set you may store cookies in an air tight container at room temperature for up to a week.
Tips for this recipe:
**You may also glaze the cookies on the cooling rack with parchment paper underneath to catch drippings. I just find it easier to clean up when glazing on the cookie sheet directly and rinsing right afterwards. Cookies are also quite soft and glazing on rack may cause them to crack.
**You may also use parchment paper on baking sheet (spray paper with non-stick spray) for even easier clean up!
**To make these cranberry sugar cookies into easy gluten free cookies, simply swap the all purpose flour for King Arthur’s Measure for Measure Flour.
**To reduce the sweetness of these cookies, you may omit the glaze completely. They will still be just as soft and delicious!
Want easy gluten free cookies? Don’t forget to grab some King Arthur’s Measure for Measure!
Cranberry Sugar Cookies with Vanilla-Almond Glaze
Equipment
- 3QT Saucepan
- LG Mixing bowl **or stand mixer
- MD Mixing bowl
- 2 Baking sheets
Ingredients
For sugar cookies:
- 6 oz Crazins
- 1/2 c Water
- 1/2 c Crisco
- 3/4 c Granulated sugar **plus more for rolling
- 1 LG Egg
- 1/2 tsp Vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp Almond extract
- 1/2 tsp Baking soda
- 1.75 c All purpose flour **or King Arthur's GF flour
For Vanilla-Almond Glaze
- 2 c Powdered sugar
- 1 tsp Vanilla extract
- 1 tsp Almond extract
- 3 tbsp Water **or until glue-like texture
Instructions
For cookies:
- Preheat oven to 350F.
- Prepare two baking sheets by spraying lightly with non-stick spray.
- Combine Crazins and water in a saucepan. Bring to boil. Reduce to simmer and cook until all liquid has been absorbed.
- In a stand mixer, combine: sugar, Crisco, egg, vanilla extract and almond extract. Beat until smooth.
- In a separate bowl, sift flour and baking soda together.
- Alternate adding flour mixture and Crazins to the Crisco mixture in the stand mixer.
- Mix well.
- Shape into small balls (1.25oz scoop) and roll in extra sugar to coat.
- Place at least two inches apart on prepared baking sheets.
- Bake in pre-heated oven for 10 minutes or until edges are SLIGHTLY browned.
- Allow to cool for 5 minutes on baking sheet before glazing.
For glaze:
- While cookies are baking, mix together ingredients for the glaze in a measuring cup with a pour spout.
- The glaze should have a glue-like texture. Should be easy to pour at a slow rate. Add more or less water until you get the optimal texture.
- After cookies have rested for 5 minutes on baking sheet, pour glaze over center of each cookie allowing to self-spread across cookie.
- When finished, remove cookies and place on cooling rack.
- Rinse cooking sheets with hot water as soon as possible for easiest clean up.
- Once glaze has fully set you may store cookies in an air tight container at room temperature for up to a week.
Notes
If you like this recipe, check out these other show stopping cookies from Struggle Shuttle:
Gluten Free Coconut Oatmeal Cookies
Please let me know what you think about these super soft cranberry sugar cookies in the comments!
18 Comments
Marysa
This sounds like the perfect combination of flavors. I love cranberries and it is nice to have that tartness combined with sweetness as well.
Beth
These cookies look so soft and delicious, I’m going to make them as soon as I can.
Catalina
I use cranberry all year round and these cookies are on my baking list for this weekend.
Ave
I haven’t baked cookies since Christmas but I’d like to give this recipe a try. That almond glaze sounds delicious.
Nishtha
I am always looking for gluten free ideas. Thank you for sharing this yummy recipe, will try with kids this summer 🙂