AIP & Paleo Shortbread cookies: Powdered Sugar, Chocolate Cherry, Cinnamon Swirl
These AIP Shortbread cookies are made from 5 simple ingredients, and they are AIP, paleo, vegan, and grain-free. This recipe comes with three holiday flavor ideas for you to try! These AIP holiday cookies are perfect because they get nice and crispy on the outside but stay slightly soft and crumbly on the inside. They are easy to make and take very little active prep time.
Ingredients
Base Cookie Dough
- 1 ½ Cup Cassava flour
- ¾ Cup Palm shortening
- ¼ Cup + 2 Tablespoons Maple syrup
- ½ Teaspoon Vanilla extract
- ¾ Teaspoon Salt
To make one flavor reference notes
Powdered Sugar Cookies for ⅓ of the dough
- 2 Tablespoons Maple powdered sugar for dusting
Chocolate cherry cookies for ⅓ of the dough
- 3 Tablespoons Chopped dried cherries
- 2 Tablespoons AIP chocolate recipe in notes
- Maple sugar for rolling
Cinnamon Swirl cookies for ⅓ of the dough
- 1 Tablespoon Coconut sugar
- ½ Teaspoon Cinnamon
- Extra coconut sugar and cinnamon for rolling
Instructions
Base cookie dough
- In a large bowl, mix the shortening and maple syrup together. The mixture will likely not mix fully together, but get it as incorporated as you can.
- Add in the vanilla extract and salt, and mix again.
- Add the cassava flour to the mixture one half at a time. Start by adding ¾ cup of cassava flour and stir until the flour is well mixed. Add the second ¾ cup of cassava flour and again stir until the dough has formed. The flour may seem like it does not want to mix in because the dough is too dry, but don’t worry, keep mixing until a thick dough has formed.
- Split the dough into three sections, one section for each flavor of shortbread cookies.
Powdered Sugar
- For the powdered sugar shortbread, just take the plain dough and roll it in a log to chill in the refrigerator.
Chocolate Cherry
- For the chocolate cherry, take 3 tablespoons of dried cherries and chop them into smaller pieces. Add the cherries to the dough and mix. Then add 2 tablespoons of AIP chocolate chunks or if in stage 1 of reintroduction use your favorite dark chocolate. Finally roll the dough into a log to chill.
Cinnamon Swirl
- For the cinnamon swirl, take your ball of dough and flatten the dough out to fold in the sugar and cinnamon. Mix 1 tablespoon of coconut sugar and ½ teaspoon of cinnamon together. Sprinkle onto the surface of the dough then fold the dough a few times until the dough holds together. To achieve the swirl, do not over fold or over mix the cinnamon sugar into the dough! Finally, roll the dough into a log to chill.
- Put all the dough in the refrigerator and chill for at least 1 hour or overnight.
Baking cookies
- When the dough is chilled, preheat the oven to 325 degrees fahrenheit.
- Take out the chilled dough and roll the chocolate cherry log in maple sugar, and roll the cinnamon swirl in coconut sugar and cinnamon. Leave the plain as is. Slice each log into 9-10 slices and place the cookies on a baking sheet.
- Bake the cookies for 16-20 minutes at 325 degrees Fahrenheit. Flip the cookies about half way through the baking. Cookies will be done when they start to show a slight golden brown color on the edges. Do not over bake the dough or it will make them very dry and crumby!
- Once the cookies are out of the oven, let them cool about 3-4 minutes. Take each plain cookie and drop it in the maple powdered sugar on both sides until all are coated.
- Store the cookies in an airtight container for up to a week (if you don’t eat them all). This recipe makes about 30 cookies total.
Notes
AIP Chocolate Chunks
If you want to make only one flavor of cookie, it is fairly easy. For chocolate cherry, add ½ cup chopped cherries and ⅓ cup chocolate chunks. For the cinnamon swirl, mix 3 tablespoons of coconut sugar with 1 ½ teaspoon cinnamon and fold into the dough. For the powdered sugar, make sure to have about ¼ cup of powdered sugar on hand to coat the cookies with.
To make AIP powdered sugar, you will need Maple sugar. You can buy a small bag of maple sugar here. Measure your sugar into a blender. I used a blender cup on my Ninja blender and it worked well. Typically your sugar will double in size when you powder it. So if you blend ¼ cup of maple sugar you will have a little less than ½ cup of powdered sugar. For the cookies you will need about 2-3 Tablespoons of powdered maple sugar. I like to make more than I need and save it for later use. You can also make powdered sugar out of coconut sugar, but the flavor is stronger and it has a darker color and texture.