25 Days of Holiday Cookies
As much as I love a great cake I really, really love a great cookie. And the holidays always make me want to bake all the cookies and share them with anyone who’ll take them.
Some of these recipes are already gluten free, dairy free and/or vegan, paleo or keto. Many are classic recipes I’ve adapted to be gluten and dairy free and all of my notes are included here so you can too. Some are quick and easy, some take a little more effort and time, but they’re all worth trying.
If you make one of these be sure to tag me @cleanmade and let me know how it goes! Did I miss one of your favorite cookies? Let me know.
Happy Holiday Baking!
Momaable’s Gluten Free Cut Out Cookies / Laura Fuentes
1 / Momable’s Gluten Free Cut Out Cookies
(Gluten Free, Dairy Free Adaptation, Vegan Option)
’Tis the season to decorate sugar cookies! I’ve got half a dozen or so roll out sugar cookies I rotate through and this is a good one to have on hand.
This is a classic roll out sugar cookie recipe to have on hand year round anytime a fabulous cookie cutter comes across your path. This is also a great dough to have on hand in the freezer and defrost when the urge strikes. I like to decorate these with royal icing and sanding sugar, but you can pipe some buttercream onto them (White Chocolate Buttercream would work especially well) or even dip them in chocolate and sprinkles.
This recipe is gluten free and was developed with Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free Flour blend, so use that if you’ve got it. To make these dairy free, sub the butter with a vegan butter alternative like Miyoko’s. If you want to cut the sugar, just swap the granulated sugar with Swerve Granular. If you need to make these vegan, there’s only one egg in this recipe and it can be replaced with a flax egg or a vegan egg replacer like Just Egg.
Find the recipe here.
Kumquat’s Cherry Marzipan Cookies / Gretchen Brown, R.D.
2 / Kumquat’s Cherry Marzipan Cookies
(Gluten Free, Dairy Free)
If I had to pick an absolute favorite cookie this one would be pretty close to the top of the list. It’s the perfect combo of chewy and sweet, but not too sweet, especially if you make them with unsweetened dried tart cherries (I find mine at Trader Joe’s or Sprouts Market). Gretchen Brown of the Kumquat blog is also a registered dietician so these somehow manage to be both healthy and delicious. You can sub the powdered sugar for Swerve’s Confectioners monk fruit if you want to make these refined sugar free, but they’re otherwise a pretty wholesome cookie.
Find the recipe here.
Natasha’s Kitchen’s Chocolate Crinkle Cookies / Natasha Kravchuk
3 / Natasha’s Kitchen’s Chocolate Crinkle Cookies
(Gluten Free, Dairy Free, Nut Free Adaptation)
Quick, easy, delicious, chocolatey and highly photogenic. There’s nothing not to love about these cookies. The original recipe here calls for vegetable oil and Dutch process cocoa. I like to make these with avocado oil and black cocoa which gives them even more contrast and even more rich chocolate flavor.
To make these gluten and dairy free, sub the all purpose flour for gluten free all purpose flour like King Arthur’s or Bob’s Red Mill and sub the butter with a vegan butter alternative like Miyoko’s. If you want to cut the sugar in these, just swap the granulated and powdered sugar with Swerve Granular and Confectioners. Both work well.
The Gluten Free Austrian’s Linzer Cookies / Daniela Weiner
4 / The Gluten Free Austrian’s Linzer Cookies
(Gluten Free, Dairy Free, Vegan Option)
Beyond this great cookie recipe Daniela is a celiac pastry chef and all of her recipes are well tested and excellent and hers is a great gluten free blog to follow. The hazelnut flour in these gives them such a warm nutty flavor. Once you find some great cookie cutters, you can’t really go wrong with filling a Linzer cookie. My favorite fillings are my Notella and lemon curd, but they’re also delicious with jam – apricot and raspberry are faves.
I use vanilla bean paste in these instead of vanilla extract. If you want to make these dairy free just sub the butter with a vegan butter alternative like Miyoko’s. If you want to cut the sugar, swap the granulated and powdered sugar with Swerve Granular and Confectioners. Both work well. You can also make these vegan by subbing the egg for three tablespoons of nondairy milk.
Ambitious Kitchen’s Paleo Gingerbread Cookies / Monique Volz
5 / Ambitious Kitchen’s Paleo Gingerbread Cookies
(Gluten Free, Grain Free, Dairy Free, Paleo, Vegan Option)
This recipe is excellent and a holiday favorite. This is a gingerbread that’s right between chewy and crisp and great for rolling with cookie cutters. The only change I make is to add a little mace to the spice blend.
As stated in the recipe, the butter and sugar based icing isn’t paleo, but it’s damn good on these cookies. These are also great with a classic royal icing piped on them. I especially like making gingerbread snowflakes with these. You can also make the icing a little more healthy with vegan butter and powdered monk fruit if that’s your jam.
If you want to make these vegan, just sub the eggs for an egg replacer like Just Egg.
Gluten Free on a Shoestring’s Snowball Cookies / Audrey Roberts
6 / Gluten Free on a Shoestring’s Snowball Cookies
(Gluten Free, Dairy Free, Egg Free, Vegan)
These will always be Mexican Wedding Cookies to me and they’re always a favorite. Moist and crumbly you can’t go wrong with a batch of these cookies. I really like this recipe and I’ve made these with both Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free Flour and Otto’s Cassava Flour, but not Better Batter. I also sub tapioca starch for cornstarch because I like to avoid processed and non-organic corn when I can.
You can make these dairy free by using a good quality vegan butter substitute like Miyoko’s and you can cut the sugar by using Swerve Confectioners in lieu of the powdered sugar in both the recipe and for dusting.
Find the recipe here.
Jessie Sheehan’s Epic Snickerdoodles / Julia Gartland for Food52
7 / Jessie Sheehan’s Epic Snickerdoodles
(Gluten Free, Dairy Free, Nut Free Adaptation)
Brown sugar, vanilla and cinnamon aren’t usually found in the batter of a snickerdoodle cookie but they do add up for an epic cookie that lives up to its name. Jessie describes these as “’doodles of the slightly puffy variety, and they are soft-middled, crispy-edged, and delish” and I have to agree.
This recipes cautions not to overmix the batter, which is important in standard baking since it’s easy to overdevelop gluten resulting in a tough or flat bake, but in gluten free baking it’s often the opposite. You want to fully mix your batters with a whisk, hand or stand mixer to aerate them which will result in a lighter bake with a better crumb.
To make these gluten and dairy free, sub the all purpose flour for gluten free all purpose flour like King Arthur’s or Bob’s Red Mill. I also sub the vegetable sorting for a good quality vegan butter like Miyoko’s. Coconut oil would work well too but if unrefined would definitely impart a coconut flavor (that you may love or hate) to these. If you want to cut the sugar, just swap the light brown sugar and granulated sugar with Swerve Brown and Granular.
Detoxinista’s Almond Flour Thumbprint Cookies / Megan Gilmore
8 / Detoxinista’s Almond Flour Thumbprint Cookies
(Gluten Free, Grain Free, Dairy Free, Paleo, Vegan)
Thumbprint cookies are all kinds of nostalgia for me and perfect for making with friends and family and sharing this time of year. I make these with homemade no sugar added raspberry preserves or apricot jam with a sprinkling of fresh thyme leaves. These are also delicious filled with cherry chia jam and a drizzle of dark chocolate.
Pretty Eats’ Salted Caramel Pavlovas / Jen Ramos
9 / Pretty Eats’ Salted Caramel Pavlovas
(Gluten Free, Dairy Free, Nut Free)
Pavlovas can be a bit of a mystery with their egg white meringue magic, but once you get the whipping of the egg whites down (a stand mixer, a squeaky clean bowl and the cream of tartar are all musts!) this is a really simple showstopper dessert to whip up. The combo of crunchy chewy meringues and sweet, salty, rich caramel make these a serious palate pleaser. Jen uses a jar of off the shelf caramel sauce but it’s so easy – and so much healthier – to make your own I highly recommend going that route.
You can lighten these up subbing half the sugar for monk fruit but like many recipes, the sugar here is part of a chemical reaction, not just a flavor element, so for best results, you don’t want to cut it completely unless you have to.
Find the recipe here.
The Roasted Root’s Maple Pecan Gluten Free Shortbread / Julia Mueller
10 / The Roasted Root’s Maple Pecan Gluten Free Shortbread
(Gluten Free, Dairy Free)
This is another one of my “Top Five” holiday cookies. Shortbread has always been a favorite of mine, and this was one of the first gluten free cookies I made following my diagnosis and the reality of living an entirely gluten free (and mostly dairy and sugar free) life, and I was blown away by how absolutely delicious – and forgiving – this recipe is. They’re also absolutely delicious, especially if you have any gluten free naysayers in your clan. This one takes a little time with the freezing step (you can’t skip it) but they’re worth it.
The Texanerin’s Paleo Chai Spiced Cookies / Texanerin
11 / The Texanerin’s Paleo Chai Spiced Cookies
(Gluten Free, Grain Free, Dairy Free)
Another “Top Five” cookie enters the ring! As you likely know from my chai cakes, I love chai spice. I’d go so far as to say, chai is my pumpkin spice and it works well to warm up the flavor profile of so many things this time of year. She updated the recipe in 2019 but this version is still my favorite. You can sub out the sugar with monk fruit but otherwise this recipe is perfect as-is.
Find the recipe here.
Los Angeles Times’ Cherry-Walnut Mexican Milk Fudge / Silvia Razgova for LAT
12 / Los Angeles Times’ Cherry-Walnut Mexican Milk Fudge
(Gluten Free, Grain Free, Dairy Free, Vegan)
What holiday cookie list would be complete without fudge? Ben Mims’ coconut milk based fudge recipe is gluten, grain, dairy and egg free by default, so the only substitution to be made is monk fruit if you need to cut the sugar, but it’s pretty perfect as-is. If you can find canela (Mexican cinnamon) for these, the flavor is noticeably different and it’s worth the effort.
Ambitious Kitchen’s Salted Tahini Caramel Millionaire Bars / Monique Volz
13 / Ambitious Kitchen’s Salted Tahini Caramel Millionaire Bars
(Gluten Free, Dairy Free, Paleo, Vegan)
I was torn between these bars and my favorite Paleo 7 Layer Bars making the cut for the list, but these always feel at home on a holiday cookie plate. This recipe is good to go as-is. You could use any nut butter in these but the tahini flavor and fleur de sel finish is what makes these so good. Like everything, the quality of ingredients is what makes the recipe, and I highly recommend trying these with Pepperwood’s Organic Ethiopian Tahini.
Find the recipe here.
Whole Lotta Yum’s Keto Rum Balls / Jen
14 / Whole Lotta Yum’s Keto Rum Balls
(Gluten Free, Dairy Free, Grain Free, Vegan, Paleo, Keto)
Who doesn’t love a rum ball? And who doesn’t know someone doing keto during the holidays?! This is one of those recipes you can’t really go wrong with and they’re easy to make ahead of time and freeze to store, in a half or a double batch, finishing them when you’re ready to defrost and serve. Like any recipe, the quality of your ingredients is important and you’ll want to use a good dark or spiced rum for these. I like Siddiqui Brown Rum and Don Q Oak Barrel Spiced Rum if you can find them. As for finishing, you can roll them in cocoa powder, more coconut, or even dark chocolate shavings and sprinkles if you want to get fancy.
New York Times’ Salted Chocolate Chunk Shortbread Cookies / Melina Hammer for NYT
15 / New York Times’ Salted Chocolate Chunk Shortbread Cookies
(Gluten Free, Dairy Free, Nut Free Adaptation)
These cookies didn’t get more than 10,000 5* ratings for nothin’!
Instead of trying to perfect the chocolate chip cookie Alison Roman took her favorite parts – salted butter and good chocolate – and created a new cookie. This is a great recipe to make in advance, roll into a log and pop into the fridge or freezer to slice a cookie (or two) off anytime you need a little sweet.
To make these gluten and dairy free, sub the all purpose flour for gluten free all purpose flour like King Arthur’s or Bob’s Red Mill and sub the butter with a vegan butter alternative like Miyoko’s – just be sure to choose the Hint of Salt variety and not the unsalted baking version since the salt in the butter is key here. If you want to cut the sugar in these, just swap the light brown sugar and granulated sugar with Swerve Brown and Granular. Both work well.
Bon Appetit’s Skillet Butter Pecan Cookies / Ted + Chelsea Cavanaugh for BA
16 / Bon Appétit’s Skillet Butter Pecan Cookies
(Gluten Free, Dairy Free Adaptation)
This is one of the cookie’s I made for a neighborhood Gluten Free Cookie Exchange last year and it became a quick favorite. If you love the flavor of butter and pecan, this one’s for you!
To make these gluten and dairy free, sub the all purpose flour for gluten free all purpose flour like King Arthur’s or Bob’s Red Mill and sub the butter with a vegan butter alternative like Miyoko’s. If you want to cut the sugar in these, just swap the light brown sugar and confectioner’s sugar with Swerve Brown and Confectioners. For best results, be sure to use a well seasoned cast iron skillet.
Find the recipe here.
Against All Grain’s Maple Frosted Cardamom Biscotti / Danielle Walker’s Against All Grain
17 / Maple Frosted Cardamom Biscotti
(Gluten Free, Dairy Free, Egg Free, Vegan, Paleo Friendly)
Inspired by Danielle Walker’s Against All Grain recipe for paleo friendly Pumpkin Spice Biscotti, I made a little adjustment to make these one of my favorite Christmastime cookies.
She loves all things pumpkin and I love all things maple. I use her recipe and simply sub out the pumpkin pie spice for cardamom and these are perfection. Note for the glaze, if you don’t have maple sugar on hand (you can order my favorite here) you can totally swap out maple syrup in the glaze and it’ll work. If you don’t have cacao butter, simply omit it and the arrowroot and use Swerve’s Confectioners powdered monk fruit instead.
If you love biscotti, another variation on these is my Dark Chocolate Dipped Cranberry Orange Biscotti. To make a paleo version, just add 1/8 cup freshly squeezed orange juice, 1-2 tablespoons orange zest, and 1 tablespoon vanilla bean paste in place of the cardamom. Gently fold in 1/8 cup of chopped unsweetened dried cranberries into the batter. Then melt some dark chocolate to dip your biscotti in instead of the maple glaze. Note, you keep the pumpkin in the recipe since it acts as an egg replacer here, but not to worry, you won’t taste it.
Food52’s Olive Oil Blondies with Salted Caramel / James Ransom for Food52
18 / Food52’s Olive Oil Blondies with Salted Caramel
(Gluten Free, Dairy Free, Nut Free Adaptation)
I’m mildly obsessed with all things baking with olive oil and who doesn’t love a good blondie? (Blondie > Brownie IMHO). This is another recipe that’s easy enough to adapt. Sub the all purpose flour for gluten free all purpose flour like King Arthur’s or Bob’s Red Mill, sub the butter with a vegan butter alternative like Miyoko’s and sub the heavy cream in the caramel with coconut cream (not milk, but cream). If you want to cut the sugar in these, just swap the light brown sugar with Swerve Brown. As always when baking with olive oil, use the best you can possibly find. The results will be worth it.
If you’re into blondies like me, these Sticky Toffee Blondies are worth adding to your list too. Sticky Toffee Pudding is always date based so it’s easy to make a healthier version of these. This recipe also includes a great hack for getting the pits out of dates! To make these gluten and dairy free, sub the all purpose flour for gluten free all purpose flour like King Arthur’s or Bob’s Red Mill, sub the butter with a vegan butter alternative like Miyoko’s and sub coconut cream (not milk) for the heavy cream. If you want to cut the sugar in these, just swap the dark brown sugar and granulated sugar with Swerve Granular and Brown plus a tablespoon of dark molasses.
Vanilla Bean’s Pan Banging Ginger Molasses Cookies Dipped in Rum Glaze / Sarah Kieffer
19 / Vanilla Bean’s Pan Banging Ginger Molasses Cookies Dipped in Rum Glaze
(Gluten Free, Dairy Free, Nut Free Adaptation)
These cookies by Sarah Kieffer at Vanilla Bean blog were inspired by another food blogger Pinch of Yum (more about that in her Instagram post here). I love a chewy ginger cookie and this hits the spot. The Rum-Butter Glaze was inspired by Yotom Ottolenghi & Helen Goh’s beautiful cookbook Sweet. They also couldn’t be prettier once dipped and decorated with a festive sprinkle or two.
To make these gluten and dairy free, sub the all purpose flour for gluten free all purpose flour like King Arthur’s or Bob’s Red Mill and sub the butter with a vegan butter alternative like Miyoko’s. If you want to cut the sugar in these, just swap the granulated sugar and confectioner’s sugar with Swerve Granular and Confectioners. Both work well here.
Find the recipe here.
Chrissy Teigen's Sweet Potato Rum Cookies / Rocky Luten for Food52
20 / Chrissy Teigen's Sweet Potato Rum Cookies
(Gluten Free, Dairy Free, Nut Free Adaptation)
Is rum a theme here? Could be! Not gonna lie, I was skeptical as heck about this recipe, and getting it anywhere near the “healthy” zone was a bit of a challenge, but it can be done, and this one is worth the effort.
To adapt this recipe and make it gluten and dairy free, sub the all purpose flour for gluten free all purpose flour like King Arthur’s or Bob’s Red Mill and sub the butter with a vegan butter alternative like Miyoko’s.
If you want to cut the sugar, just swap the light brown sugar and confectioner’s sugar with Swerve Granular and Confectioners. Both work well here. Skip the artificially flavored extracts in the butter rum glaze and use a quality spiced rum and another tablespoon of butter (real or vegan) plus a little pinch of sea salt to hit that flavor just right.
As for the sweet potato syrup in the recipe– it’s essentially just simple syrup made from a sweet potato and you can make it with organic cane sugar, Swerve Granulated monk fruit or even maple syrup. Vee the Baker has a good simple recipe. Be sure to save the leftovers for cocktails!
Eric Kim’s Best Red Velvet Cookies / Rocky Luten for Food52
21 / Eric Kim’s Best Red Velvet Cookies
(Gluten Free, Dairy Free, Nut Free, Dye Free Adaptation)
If you’re into red velvet, these cookies are for you!
To make these gluten and dairy free, sub the all purpose flour for gluten free all purpose flour like King Arthur’s or Bob’s Red Mill and sub the butter with a vegan butter alternative like Miyoko’s. If you want to cut the sugar, just swap half the granulated sugar and powdered sugar with Swerve Granular and Confectioners. Both work well here. Just don’t cut all of the sugar because this recipe needs it for the cookies to properly caramelize.
The author suggests you can use just about any vinegar here, but I love my red velvet with ACV.
And for that red color! If you want to make these dye free (there’s a whole tablespoon of red food coloring in these – yikes!) you can use two tablespoons beet powder plus one tablespoon non dairy milk instead. You won’t get the same rich red tone that you do with the artificial stuff but it will read red enough to do the trick without all of the artificial nasties.
François Payard’s Flourless Chocolate Walnut Cookies / Rocky Luten for Food52
22 / François Payard’s Flourless Chocolate Walnut Cookies
(Gluten Free, Dairy Free)
This recipe is gluten and dairy free by default but if you want to lighten up the sugar, just swap the confectioner’s sugar with Swerve’s powdered monk fruit. This is one of those recipes I love subbing black cocoa in for Dutch Process, so if you have some, give it a try for an even darker, richer cookie.
Find the recipe here.
The Vanilla Bean’s Olive Oil Sugar Cookies with Pistachios and Lemon Glaze / Sarah Kieffer
23 / The Vanilla Bean’s Olive Oil Sugar Cookies with Pistachios and Lemon Glaze
(Gluten Free, Dairy Free Adaptation)
To make these gluten and dairy free, sub the all purpose flour for gluten free all purpose flour like King Arthur’s or Bob’s Red Mill and sub the butter with a vegan butter alternative like Miyoko’s. If you want to cut the sugar in these, just swap the granulated sugar and confectioner’s sugar with Swerve Granular and Confectioners. Both work well here.
Find the recipe here.
The Seaside Baker’s Cinnamon Stars / Jackie
24 / The Seaside Baker’s Cinnamon Stars
(Gluten Free, Dairy Free)
This recipe is almond flour based and already gluten free. If you want to cut the sugar, sub the granulated sugar and confectioner’s sugar with Swerve Granular and Confectioners. Both work well here. Just don’t skip the drying time before you bake!
Keto Mince Pies / The Sugar Free Londonder
25/ Mince Pies
(Gluten Free, Dairy Free)
Since you made it this far, a bonus recipe!
If you’re a Brit (or live with one, like me) Mince Pies are a must for the holidays. The first recipe I adapted for these was BBC Good Food’s classic and they were really good, but this Tesco’s gluten free recipe is even better.
My tip for making these perfect is to prep the mince mix (even if it came out of a jar) at least a day in advance. Even if you go with mince from a jar (most are gluten free, but check your labels just in case) don’t skimp on the addition of some dried fruit (dried cherries, dried apricot and dried currants are all delicious) and nuts (walnuts and pecans are classic), add some good brandy and calvados, and let it sit covered for a good 24-48 hours before you finish these. The fruit and nut additions and boozy touch takes any mince over the top and makes these little pies extra special, even for the uninitiated.
If you’re in the UK or if you can get your hands on Doves Farm Gluten Free Plain Flour in the States, it’s my favorite for these (and for many cakes) but it should work well with most gluten free flour blends that include xantham gum.
To make these dairy free just sub the butter with a vegan butter alternative like Miyoko’s. A dusting of icing sugar (aka powdered sugar) is a must to serve, but you can sub it for powdered monk fruit if you prefer.
Need a Keto Mince Pie recipe? The Sugar Free Londoner’s recipe gets raves.
