Stevia Sweetened Sugar Cookies (gluten-free + vegan)

Ali Segersten

These beautiful holiday cut-out cookies are made with whole food ingredients and sweetened only with stevia. Not only are they gluten-free, but grain-free as well. I use a combination of almond meal and shredded coconut pulsed in the food processor to create a nutritious, low-glycemic, and naturally sweet "flour" blend.

These cookies certainly don't have that toothsome sugary bite even though they use naturally sweet ingredients and a little stevia to help boost the sweetness. My children are not accustomed to really sugary treats so they love these cookies and will devour the whole batch in one day if I let them. If you are accustomed to treats being a little on the sweeter side you may consider replacing 2 tablespoons of the applesauce with 2 tablespoons of honey.

Recipe from our Meal Planner

Coconut Almond "Sugar" Cookies

Sugar-Free Sugar Cookies Paleo Vegan Gluten-Free
Servings
10
Cook Time
10 minutes
Prep Time
20 minutes

These flakey, flavorful cut-out cookies can be used for just about any holiday. Here we have used Easter cookie cutters and colored the icing with natural food colorings. In the past, to color the icing, I have used turmeric powder to create yellow, beet juice for pink, and spirulina powder for green. This time I thought we would try something new. I used natural, plant-based food coloring in these photos. Once the cookies are baked and frosted they are best frozen until ready to serve. This keeps them crispy and flakey and the icing set in place. They will thaw out in a matter of minutes. This is also nice if you don't have a large family and would like to store your cookies for a longer period of time. 

Ingredients

Dry Ingredients

1¼ cups blanched almond flour
1 cups unsweetened shredded coconut
½ cups arrowroot powder
½ teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoons baking soda
¼ teaspoons sea salt

Wet Ingredients

6 tablespoons coconut oil
4 tablespoons unsweetened applesauce
1 teaspoons vanilla extract
½ teaspoons organic lemon flavoring
30 drops liquid stevia

Icing

½ cups raw cashews
6 tablespoons melted coconut oil
¼ cups warm water
2 tablespoons raw honey
1 tablespoons arrowroot powder
½ teaspoons vanilla extract
¼ teaspoons organic lemon flavoring
2 teaspoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
Directions

cookies

  1. Place the dry ingredients into a food processor fitted with the "s" blade. Pulse the ingredients until combined and ground fine, about 60 to 90 seconds.
  2. Add the wet ingredients and process until a dough ball forms. It will be soft but you should be able to form it into a ball. Place the dough into a bowl sprinkled with a little arrowroot powder. Chill for one hour in the refrigerator.
  3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Then remove from refrigerator and roll out in between 2 pieces of wax paper or parchment paper to about 1/8 inch of thickness. Cut out with your favorite cookie cutters (they should all be fairly equal in size).
  4. Bake for 10 minutes and watch carefully as timing and temperature may need to be adjusted. If they cook fast and brown then turn oven temp down to just over 325 degrees. Cool on a wire rack.

icing

  1. Place all ingredients for the icing into a high-powered blender and blend until ultra smooth, stopping the machine if necessary to scrape down the sides.
  2. Spoon icing into individual small bowls and add a tiny amount of natural food coloring if desired. We use chopsticks to ice each cookie, and then sprinkle them with shredded coconut or natural sprinkles. Freeze the cookies for at least 20 minutes to set the icing.

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Posted In
cookies almond flour coconut dessert easter egg-free grain-free paleo spring stevia sugar-free vegan xanthan-free recipes recipe
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About the Author

Alissa Segersten, MS, CN

Alissa Segersten, MS, CN, is the visionary behind Nourishing Meals®, a comprehensive online meal-planning membership designed to support

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