These gluten free funfetti cookies are a huge triumph for me – they’re big, chewy in the center, crispy on the edges, with a fantastic crunch of sprinkles throughout (basically my ideal cookie)! I’ve had a low-level dread of coming up with new gluten free cookie recipes after countless attempts over the past 15 or so years that resulted in dry, crumbly, cakey, “gluten free tasting” (if you know you know) cookies. Now, to be fair, I have come up with a few recipes in the past three years, notably my absolute go-to hazelnut chocolate cookies, or these peanut butter sandwich (nutter butter) cookies, or these tahini chocolate chunk cookies which are freaking amazing, or these pistachio chocolate chunk cookies, or these ultimate chocolate chip cookies. BUT, all of them require either hard-to-get ingredients or lots of tricky steps to try and get that perfect chewy+crispy texture. This, of course, inhibits others from making them and certainly deters me from spontaneously tossing a batch of them together. After much hemming and hawing, I determined that there must be a way to create a gluten free cookie recipe that was simple, easy, fast, and still got that perfect texture and taste. I finally took the plunge on the recipe development side after making those gluten free mini eggs blondies for Easter this past week and realizing that, if I were to use the same recipe for a cookie, it might just work. So here you go! I changed a few things around to make it more cookie-specific, but it absolutely was a success: these gluten free funfetti cookies are a new favorite (for me and the housemates), they’re super easy, require no fancy ingredients, only need to be chilled for an hour or so, and without fail, result in that mind-blowingly amazing chewy+crispy combo. It’s a good cookie day!!
Tips for fantastic funfetti cookies!
- Cream the butter + sugars for at LEAST a few minutes. It’s wild how important this step is and how much your butter and sugar will transform after beating it with an electric mixer for minutes and minutes. It’ll change color (become much lighter), look actually creamy (hence the term), and be a bit fluffy. That’s what you’re going for!
- Chill that dough! I recommend two hours, but at least do 1. If you end up chilling it longer though, be sure to let it rest at room temp for about 45 minutes to an hour because it will be too cold/hard at that point and the cookie dough won’t spread as much.
- Don’t overbake those cookies! This is basically the biggest key to getting that chewy center: if you overbake, the center will be just like the edges, crispy and crunchy with no chew. You want the cookie dough to be still soft/look a bit underbaked (they’re safely baked, don’t worry) in the center and as the cookies cool, the center will settle into that glorious chewy bit.
Gluten Free Chewy Funfetti Cookies
Equipment
- Cookie sheet
- Parchment paper (optional)
- Electric mixer
Ingredients
- 1 Cup softened salted butter (227g)
- ¼ Cup packed light brown sugar (58g)
- 1 Cup white sugar (238g)
- 1 large eggs plus one egg yolk
- 1 ½ Tbsp vanilla extract (22.5ml)
- 2 Cup gluten free 1-1 flour mix that contains xanthan gum (338g) if your mix does not contain xanthan gum add 1/2 tsp (1g) now
- ¾ Cup arrowroot starch or cornstarch (110g) cornflour in the UK
- 1 tsp baking soda (6g)
- ½ tsp. salt (4g)
- 2 Cups rainbow sprinkles (476g)
Instructions
- In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, cream together the room temp butter, brown sugar, and white sugar until lighter and fluffy (2-3 minutes – don't skimp on this step!). Add in the egg plus egg yolk and vanilla extract and beat until smooth, another 30 seconds. Add in the flour, starch, baking soda, and salt and mix by hand with a wooden spoon or spatula until fully combined (it will be quite stiff). Finally, mix in 1 cup (238g) of the rainbow sprinkles until they're fully distributed. Scoop dough into a smaller bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and chill in the fridge for two hours (if you chill it longer, you may need to bring it closer to room temp by leaving it out on the counter for an hour).
- Once the cookie dough is chilled, preheat the oven to 350° Fahrenheit (180° C, no fan) and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Lightly grease the parchment and then start scooping out the cookie dough and rolling it into 2-inch round balls. Roll the balls in the remaining 1 cup (238g) of rainbow sprinkles to coat the outside of the cookie dough ball, then place 4-5 balls on the cookie sheet (~4 inches apart) and bake for 9-10 minutes (do not flatten the balls!) until the edges are just starting to turn golden. Let cookies cool COMPLETELY before removing from the cookie sheet (15 minutes) – they will be chewy in the center and crispy on the edges!
Tag @sisterssansgluten on Instagram if you snap a photo of your cookies!
Food photography and styling by Amelia Farber
