Whats a sugar cookie or gingerbread man without a little festive decor?
Today I have a simple, easy and fun sugar free (or low glycemic- pending your selection of ingredients) solution for you. Your cookies are going to turn out spectacular.. and imagine this.. taste great too!
Making homemade powdered sugar will take a total of 30 seconds to do. All you need is some granulated sugar and either a high powered blender or coffee grinder.
Lets talk sugar: Today to make this gorgeous frosting I used Erythritol. It has a glycemic index of 0 and is one of my go to sugars of choice. Its quite similar to Xylitol which will also work in this recipe. I selected Erythritol since its white- the perfect blank slate for any color you want to add. Of course you can also just use White Cane Sugar if you don’t care about watching the glycemic index of your food .
This recipe will also work using Sucanat, Coconut Palm Sugar, Maple Sugar or just about any other granulated variety. However keep in mind that these golden colored sugars tend to have a caramel like flavor and color. Both of those aspects of the sugar will affect your glaze. This flavor will taste fabulous – just know beforehand that your results in color are going to be less vibrant and much darker than my photos. Think about using these sugars to create a caramel flavored glaze- combine these powdered sugars with Vanilla Extract, Rum, Almond Extract etc.
First we’ll make the powdered sugar- and then the glaze..
Homemade Powdered Sugar
1/3 Cup Granulated Sugar of Choice (Erythritol, Xylitol, Coconut Palm Sugar, Sucanat, Maple Sugar etc.)
- Place sugar of choice into a high powdered blender or into a coffee grinder. Process until powdery and completely smooth.
- Make the frosting/glaze.. follow directions below.
To make a glaze or frosting all you have to do is add a little liquid to the homemade powdered sugar. Start with a tiny amount (1 tsp.) and add more until you have reached the desired thickness.
The Liquid does not need to be water. For a incredible tasting frosting or glaze try one of the following “liquids” instead:
Vanilla Extract, Almond Extract, Peppermint Extract, Orange Extract (or oil). Cherry Extract (or oil). Hazelnut Extract, Lemon Juice, Lime Juice, Orange Juice, Beet Juice, Rum, Grand Marnier, Amaretto or just about any other alcohol of choice.
Additionally you can make colorful fruit glazes by boiling and pureeing any berry of choice in a sauce pan with a little bit of water, lemon juice and sweetener of choice. Use the pureed fruit as your liquid to make the glaze!
NOTE: If using xylitol or erithritol as your sugar I highly highly recommend using one of the flavored liquids to make your glaze for the best tasting results!
Want to avoid unnatural food coloring? Try using the food coloring and sprinkles from India Tree or order some from THIS company.
Once you have made and colored your frosting- frost the cookies and let them dry. Store them between sheets of parchment in the freezer or leave them at room temperature for a few days.
Need Cookie recipes? I have tons of them. Check out my latest grain/egg free Cut Out (sugar free) Sugar Cookies and Gingerbread Men.
-Brittany-
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
Nice. And I LOVE your photos and colors.
How did you get YOUR green and red? Are those naturally derived? I know beet works well for red.
Beet for the red! For the green I used un-natural as I was out of my bottle ! BUT another trick to get a vibrant green is to combine natural green food coloring + turmeric!
Can you use powdered stevia in this recipe?
Thanks!
No, its much to sweet. Sorry!
Second time making these cookies !! They turned out awesome and we made sure we made them thicker this time !! We also did the frosting ! with cranberries and blueberries, the cranberries frosting turned out pinkiesh and the blueberries very red !! I loved the cranberries flavor in them ! They’re soooooo yummy ! It’s almost 10:00 at night and we all had to try one each !!
My daughter’s class is having a Christmas Party tomorrow … So thanks to you, she’ll have her very own ALLERGEN’S FREE Christmas cookies !!!! THANK YOU ! They’re delicious !!!
I just made the frosting recipe and added arrowroot starch to make it more like a creamy frosting and it really worked!!! I also added some earth balance dairy free butter but i’m not sure that was necessary. good stuff!!
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