Egg-Free Christmas Sugar Cookies

I've been making desserts all my life, I even went to pastry school, but I can't even bake a "normal" cake or cookie for my son. This is the irony of my life. When my son was diagnosed with multiple food allergies, I thought I would never be able to make him all my favorite desserts and pastries. Key ingredients like flour, butter, milk and eggs were off-limits. I couldn't even look at tv commercials where the kids were helping their moms bake sugar cookies. It was heartbreaking because I wanted that moment with my son too.

Fortunately, my son outgrew his wheat and dairy allergies last year. I didn't get the chance to find a good egg-free cookie recipe in time for Christmas, but this year, I was able to modify one of my favorite sugar cookie recipes for him. These cookies are light, crispy and buttery. They taste perfect without any icing at all, but since I recently found a glace icing recipe from Our Best Bites, I wanted to try it out. In my gingerbread cookie post, I mentioned that I used food color markers and marshmallow fondant to decorate the cookies instead of royal icing. Now, I have this great icing to use for decorating as well! I added more powdered sugar so I could pipe it onto the cookies. When the icing was dry enough, I mixed a little bit of clear alcohol (lemon extract or vodka) with some food color gel and gold luster dust to paint it.



Egg-Free Christmas Sugar Cookies
Makes 4 dozen cookies, 3 inches in diameter
Allergy Note: contains dairy and wheat

1 1/2 cups flour
2 Tbsp. cornstarch
3/4 cup powdered sugar
3/4 cup butter, softened to room temperature
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
Sift the flour, cornstarch and powdered sugar into a mixing bowl. Add the butter and vanilla extract; mix together to make a smooth dough. Divide in half, cover in plastic wrap and refrigerate if needed. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough to about 1/4 inches thick. Cut into shapes and transfer onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper or silicone baking mat. Bake for 15 minutes or until the golden brown.

Glacé Icing
recipe from Our Best Bites
Allergy Note: contains dairy ingredients

1lb powdered sugar (about 3 3/4 C)
6 Tbs. whole milk
6 Tbs. light corn syrup
1 tsp. extract (vanilla, almond, lemon, peppermint etc.)
food coloring (for best results, use gel or paste)

With a whisk, combine powdered sugar and milk until smooth. Then stir in corn syrup and extract. Add food coloring into the icing or paint it on afterwards like I did. You can adjust the consistency of the icing for piping by adding more powdered sugar.

Our Best Bites has a wonderful step-by-step tutorial on how to decorate cookies with glace icing so check it out.

Please check these Art of Dessert links for additional decorating tips and icing recipes:
Egg-Free Gingerbread Man (with dairy-free alternative)
Egg-Free Sugar Cookies with Egg-free Royal Icing
Egg-Free Gingerbread House(with dairy-free alternative)