Lime Sugar Cookies (Grain-Free/Dairy-Free)

Soft, buttery and bursting with vibrant lime flavor. I’m in love with these lime sugar cookies!

The Story:

Featuring a grain-free sugar cookie base that is packed with lime zest, then generously topped with a zingy, lime icing, and finally, they are topped off with extra lime zest. Summer in a cookie! With a very approachable recipe, they come together in one bowl, no mixer required, and are super easy to make. These gluten-free and dairy-free sugar cookies are made without any grains or dairy, but they are nothing short of amazing and battle any bakery cookie you can buy! So soft, so flavorful and so fun.

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• The Story:
• 🧾 The Ingredients:
• Step By Step Preparation Instructions:
• More spring recipes:
• 📖 The Recipe:
• Lime Sugar Cookies (Grain-Free/Dairy-Free)
• The Finished Product:

🧾 The Ingredients:

Here is the list of ingredients you will need to make these lime sugar cookies:

• Almond Flour: This grain-free flour gives structure and moisture to this sugar cookie dough.
• Tapioca Flour: This grain-free flour helps give fluffiness and lightness to this sugar cookie dough, as well as absorbing the liquid ingredients for the perfect combination.
• Dairy-Free Butter: I always use Earth Balance plant based butter for my sugar cookies, because it holds up fairly well to temperature changes.
• Sugar: Of course a sugar cookie needs some sugar!
• Egg Yolk: An egg yolk provides just the right amount of liquid, as well as rising properties for this recipe.
• Lime Zest and Lime Juice: The star ingredient! The use of fresh lime juice and zest takes a regular sugar cookie to such a memorable, exciting cookie! I love, love lime. It’s one of my very favorite flavors.
• Baking Powder: Your rising agent. This helps the cookies rise and become fluffy and soft.
• Xanthan Gum: This helps your baked goods hold together without the use of gluten. It helps maintain moisture so the cookie isn’t dry or cumbly.
• Powdered Sugar: This will be used for the dairy-free frosting. Look for grain-free powdered sugar that is made with tapioca starch as opposed to cornstarch if you cannot tolerate grains.
• Vanilla: Just a touch of vanilla gets added to the frosting to provide richness and help soften the tang of the lime.

Step By Step Preparation Instructions:

• Step 1: Preheat the oven to 350. Zest and cut your limes (you will need 2). First, start off by working the lime zest into the sugar. You can do this by simply using your fingers to rub the zest into the sugar, until they are mixed well. The smell is heavenly! Lime sugar is my new favorite thing. So. Good. This helps enhance the lime flavor as it releases the oils from the zest. Now, add the butter to the lime sugar, and using a fork, begin to work the butter into the sugar until creamy. Doing this step by hand helps reduce the amount of air added to the batter, therefore helping the sugar cookies maintain their shape and reduce the chance of spreading. Next, add in the egg yolk and mix well. Lastly, add in the flour and dry ingredients and mix until the dough comes together.
• Step 2: You can either make these as a simple drop cookie, or by cutting them out in a traditional cut out sugar cookie method as instructed here. Now, line a freezer safe cookie sheet with parchment paper and sprinkle tapioca starch on it. Turn out the dough onto the parchment paper. Sprinkle more tapioca starch on top of the dough, then pat into a disk. Place in the freezer for 8-10 minutes. Remove from the freezer and place a piece of parchment paper on top. Roll the dough out into an 8-9in round disk, ensuring the dough stays around ¾-1 inch thick. Cut out the cookies in the shape of your choosing, and place them on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet. For a bakery style cookie, choose a larger cookie cutter size. I used a 3 in round circle cookie cutter.
• Step 3: Bake for 11-12 minutes for a large cookie, 8-9 minutes for a smaller cookie. You want your sugar cookie to still be very light in color. The bottom should have just a slight golden tint to it. Sugar cookies are best when not over baked at all. The cookies will spread some, so for that perfect bakery look, here’s my secret: while the cookies are still warm, take a larger cookie cutter than the size of your cookie, place around your cookie and gently push/swirl around your cookie to reshape it before it cools.

More spring recipes:

📖 The Recipe:

The Finished Product:

A “better than the bakery” sugar cookie, made to be allergy friendly. These lime sugar cookies are perfect for any upcoming Spring or Summer celebrations! So pretty, so simple, so delicious and so memorable.