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Gluten-free baking opens up a world of textures and flavors, and these cookie recipes prove just how inventive and satisfying it can be. From classic sugar cookies enriched with spice to airy meringues, nut-forward treats, and elegant macarons, each recipe offers a reliable technique and a sweet result. Whether you’re baking for yourself or your guests’ dietary needs or simply expanding your dessert repertoire, this collection highlights the versatility of alternative flours, nut butters, and meringue-based methods. Get ready to bake a batch of goodness!
Gluten-Free Sugar Cookies
Victor Protasio / Food Styling by Margaret Dickey / Prop Styling by Julia Bayless
These classic gluten-free sugar cookies are laced with cinnamon, nutmeg, and almond extract for gentle warmth. An overnight rest hydrates the dough for a tender crumb, and rolling it between parchment helps prevent sticking before finishing with vanilla icing and sparkling sugar.
Crunchy Peanut Butter Cookies
These flourless cookies from former F&W art director Elizabeth Woodson use peanut butter as the binder, creating an exceptionally nutty dough that comes together in minutes. A quick bake yields lightly crisp, tender cookies, with optional chopped peanuts or mini chocolate chips adding extra crunch or richness.
Chocolate Pretzel Crinkle Cookies
Chocolate crinkle cookies are often more cloying than satisfying. By substituting the flour with Glutino pretzels, this version of the holiday staple is not only gluten-free but also perfectly salty-sweet with a wonderfully chewy center.
Fun and Fancy Macarons
Sarah Crowder / Food Styling by Drew Aichele
Pastry chef Paola Velez gives these macarons a festive finish by brushing them with shimmering edible luster dust in multiple hues. They can be made ahead and frozen, then filled just before serving with dark chocolate ganache, holiday jam, apple butter, or firm caramel sauce.
Zimtsterne (German Cinnamon Star Cookies)
Eva Kolenko
These classic German Christmas cookies made from almond flour and cinnamon bake up soft and chewy. Each star is topped with a glossy, snowy layer of meringue that dries into a delicate, crisp shell.
Chewy, Fudgy Almond Butter and Palm Sugar Cookies
Christopher Testani / Food Styling by Chelsea Zimmer / Prop Styling by Claire Spollen
Inspired by the salted peanut butter cookies at New York City’s Ovenly bakery, these chewy, fudgy, and intensely flavorful treats blend almond butter with deeply caramel, tangy Indonesian palm sugar. Tiny sugar nuggets melt into crisp edges and pockets of caramelization, giving the cookies incredible richness.
Gluten-Free Cacao Nib Meringues
These airy meringues layer three forms of chocolate — melted bittersweet chocolate, cocoa, and crunchy cacao nibs — for an especially intense flavor. Their crisp exterior gives way to a soft, marshmallow-like center, a texture achieved by gently heating the egg whites before whipping. Plus, with only five ingredients and less than half an hour of active preparation, they come together seamlessly.
Coconut Macaroons
David Malosh
These five-ingredient macaroons bake up sweet, chewy, and golden and keep for up to two weeks. Baker Danny Cohen, a.k.a. Danny Macaroons, doesn’t think all macaroons have to be round. “Make whatever shape you want,” he says. “There are no rules.”
Honey Tahini Cookies
Anja Schwerin
These cookies balance almond flour, tahini, honey, and vanilla to create a dough that’s both delicately chewy and lightly crisp at the edges. Rolled in sesame seeds for extra texture, they bake quickly and are full of nutty richness.
Coconut Flour Butter Cookies
Kristen Stevens
These simple butter cookies use coconut flour for a naturally dense, chewy texture and a subtly sweet, nutty flavor. Shaped into small rounds, they’re baked just until the edges brown — and freeze beautifully.
Raspberry Macarons
Michael Turek
Pastry chef François Payard’s raspberry macarons combine almond flour, confectioners’ sugar, and a glossy Italian meringue tinted pink. The cookies are sandwiched with seedless raspberry jam for a wonderfully bright, sweet-tart cookie.
Apricot-Walnut Oat Cookies
Sarah Bolla
Generous pieces of dried apricot and walnut add sweetness, tang, and crunch to these hearty whole oat and oat flour cookies that are especially soft, chewy, and tender.
Peanut Butter Rice Krispie Treats
Food & Wine Video Team
Pastry chef and Tartine co-owner Elisabeth Prueitt updates the classic Rice Krispie treat with gluten-free crispy rice cereal and a generous swirl of creamy peanut butter for a crisp, chewy finish. Melted marshmallows and coconut oil bind everything together for an easy, deeply nostalgic sweet.
