With the holidays in full swing, sweets are everywhere. If you still want to enjoy the season with cut out cookies shaped like snowmen and Christmas trees but don’t want tons of sugar you’ll love this refined sugar free sugar cookies recipe. Naturally sweetened with date sugar (dried and crushed dates) this cookie is sure to be a hit for family and friends. Best of all, you’ll be able to feel good about feeding these to your kids.
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Ingredients for Date Sugar Cookies
This recipe uses simple ingredients. Aside from the date sugar, you’ll likely already have all the ingredients needed for this recipe.
- Butter – grass fed is the best in flavor and nutrition. It is expensive though so get what you can afford. And don’t use some fake, plant based, or lab made “butter”.
- Date sugar – we are loving this brand.
- Large egg – pastured if you can afford it for the most nutrients
- Vanilla extract – the real stuff as always. Or learn how to make it yourself š
- All purpose flour – organic, unbleached
- Baking powder – aluminum free if you have it
- Sea salt – we love Redmond’s Real Salt
If you want cut out cookies for decorating, a craft my kids love this time of year, then a good set of cookie cutters is a must. We got ours at Hobby Lobby for 50% off as part of their Christmas sale.
While date sugar is very easy to work with and makes a simple substitute for cane sugar, I do recommend measuring out the sugar and flour with a digital scale. Because the date sugar is a dehydrated product, too much date sugar will turn our cookies into more of a cracker.
How to make sugar free sugar cookies
Make the dough
In a small-ish mixing bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. Set that aside.
Then, we will cream together the date sugar and butter, just like you would with typical cane sugar.
Next, beat in the egg and vanilla.
Finally, add in the flour a third at a time, waiting for the flour to be fully incorporated before adding the next third.
Chill the dough
Once the dough is made you have two options:
- Cover the dough and place it in the fridge to chill for at least one hour, even over night if needed. (This is a great dough to make ahead)
- Divide the dough into two parts. Roll out each portion on parchment paper to a 1/4″ thickness. Place the rolled out dough on trays and chill in the fridge.
Neither option is better than the other. It all comes down to what you have the time for in your home. If you have some time, rolling out the dough before hand is really handy. But if you’ve got the dough mixed up and the baby decides she’s had enough waiting for you, go ahead and put the dough into the fridge without rolling.
Cut out your cookies
With the dough sufficiently chilled, it’s time to roll out the dough (if you haven’t already) and cut out our cookies. Also, about now is a good time to preheat the oven, too. 350F š
Roll the dough to 1/4″ thickness. Roll it too thin and it’ll be difficult to transfer the cut out dough onto the baking tray. And if you do get to the tray you’ll end up with a cookie that’s more like a graham cracker, which certainly isn’t the worst thing in the world. š¤·āāļø I’ve found it’s easier to roll out the dough on parchment paper then a floured counter top.
You’ll still want to dust the dough and rolling pin with flour as you go.
Place your cut out dough onto a baking sheet and fill that thing up. These cookies won’t spread so you can place your cookies a bit closer together then other types of cookies.
Reroll the dough as needed until all the dough is shaped and ready to bake.
Bake at 350F for 10-15 minutes. Bake times will vary depending on your oven. Check the cookies after twelve minutes and then every couple of minutes from then on.
To eat or to decorate?
Honestly, we can’t keep these cookies around long enough to think about decorating them. However, if you want to decorate them with your kids, allow the cookies to cool completely.
We love these date sugar “sugar cookies”. The date sugar lends a slight caramel taste to the cookies that we love.
If you give this recipe a try, I’d love to hear how it turns out for you in the comments below!
Happy Baking š
Date Sugar Cookies
Ingredients
Equipment
Method
- In a small mixing bowl whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
- In a medium sized mixing bowl cream together butter and date sugar.
- Add egg and vanilla and beat to combine.
- Add the flour to the wet ingredients one third at a time. Fully incorporate the flour before adding more. Beat until all the flour is just combined.
- At this point, you can roll out the dough. Divide the dough into two portions and roll out on parchment paper 1/4" in thickness. Place the rolled out dough into the fridge to chill for 1-2 hours or up to several days.Otherwise, simply cover the mixing bowl with the dough in it and place in the fridge to chill. In this case roll out the dough after chilling.
- Preheat oven to 350F.
- Roll out the dough if you haven't already. I've found it's easier to cut out the dough when the dough is rolled onto parchment paper versus a well floured countertop.
- Cut out your cookies, re rolling the dough when needed to use it all up.
- Place cookies onto a lined baking sheet and bake for 10-15 minutes or until the edges are golden brown.
- Let the cookies cool completely before eating or decorating.
I can’t wait to try these! My husband is insulin resistant so we use date sugar in place of sugar. I’m always looking for recipes and do a lot of experimenting myself!
I hope you love them š I just discovered date sugar and am absolutely loving it, it’s so fun to bake with š
As someone in a season of health where I need to minimize or delete refined and processed sugar out of my diet, I appreciate this recipe! Refined sugar is directly related to pain for me, (but I can tolerate honey so Iām thinking date sugar is fine too), so finding a way to still enjoy a holiday treat is exciting! Thank you for sharing!
I hope the date sugar works for you!
We never bake with refined sugar, usually honey. I haven’t tried date sugar! Thank you for sharing, ill have to try these!
Oh this is right up my alley! I have never tried date sugar before but these cookies show me that I am clearly missing out. I can’t wait to try these!
So good and easy! Thanks for sharing!