The perfect gluten free Halloween cookies to get your holiday started off right. A buttery sugar cookie paired with matcha tea for the monster green coloring!
Rejoice! It is almost the best time of year for those of us who love fall and Halloween! I mean who doesn't love the crispy fall air, beautiful leaves, and cozy fires at night?
Now you can rejoice even more because you have found the most perfecto Halloween treat for all your gluten free Halloween needs!
Everyone will absolutely love the way these gluten free monster cookies look, but once they bite into their perfect buttery sugar cookie taste, they will be back for more.
Jump to:
What if I don't like matcha?
No problem.
First, the matcha is not an overwhelming taste. They are a tad earthy but it really goes with the sugar cookie well. And to prove how much they don't taste like too much matcha my 10 and 11 year olds ate these without a peep of "these taste funny" or "what's in these".
They ate them up and asked for more. Because, who can resist a green cookie with tons of eyeballs.
Still not convinced? Just use green food coloring for your green color and you still have a gluten free Halloween cookie.
What matcha should I use?
It is best to use a high quality ceremonial grade matcha tea powder. I love Matcha Is for Lovers, matcha tea. If you love supporting nice people, with a small start up business then head on over there.
The tea is exceptional and mixes better than any matcha tea I have ever tried. Their tea is what I used in these cookies.
But, just so you know, any matcha powder will work.
Expert Tips and how to store these gluten free Halloween cookies
If you follow the below tips, these will be the easiest sugar cookies you have ever worked with. You know those sugar cookie recipes that fall apart or stick to everything? Well this recipe is not like that.
Trust.
- You need to chill the dough. If you want a dough that is easy to work with and not sticky, chilling is a must. If you choose to ignore this step, your cookies may change shape with baking, and will be harder to work with when rolling out.
- Use parchment paper to roll the cookies on instead of flouring a work surface.
- Be sure to divide the dough in half. Keep half in the fridge while you are working with the other. You will get 6.5 cookies out of each dough half. This will help you gauge how thick you should roll it out.
- Roll the cookies out to about ¼" thick. The first time you roll it out you will be able to get 3 cookies cut out before needing to re roll. The next times you will get 1 cookie and then need to re roll, and repeat 2 more times and then move on to your next dough ball in the fridge.
- Do no place cookie dough on a warm or hot cookie sheet.
Storing
The most important thing to know about storing these cookies is to keep them out of the sunlight!
I made these cookies and then set them wrapped up by a window for the next day to photograph. Well that next day was very sunny and the cookies that were exposed to the sunlight faded on the top.
So lesson learned, store in a place that has no direct sunlight or you will end up with faded green cookies.
Otherwise, you can store in an airtight container at room temperature. These also freeze well after baked.
Let's Connect
First things first, I really love and appreciate when you come back and rate the recipes. It means a ton to me and really helps me out 🙂 Second! Have you joined me on IG yet? Come on over and follow along @sweetrusticbakes and tag me in your recipes you make!
Recipe
Matcha Monster Cookies
- Total Time: 19
- Yield: 13 1x
- Diet: Gluten Free
Description
The scariest and greenest gluten free Halloween Cookie! These matcha monster Halloween cookies are a fun kid friendly treat for your favorite fall holiday!
Ingredients
- 1½ cups gluten free flour (use a 1-1 gluten free flour with xanthan gum and use a "spoon and level" method to measure)
- ½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- ¾ cup granulated white sugar
- ¼ tsp salt
- 1 large egg, room temperature
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tablespoon of matcha tea powder
- 1 package of candy eyes (see note)
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 375°. Prepare two- three large cookie sheets with parchment paper. (see notes)
- In a stand mixer or hand mixer, cream together your sugar and butter . Cream until the mix becomes pale and smooth. Once smooth, add in your egg and vanilla.
- While that is creaming together, in a separate bowl whisk together your flour, salt, baking powder and matcha tea powder.
- Once your butter and eggs have creamed together, turn the mixer down and slowly add your flour in about ½ cup at a time. Once all flour has been added, mix until just combined being sure to scrape the sides of the bowl if needed.
- Remove the cookie dough from the bowl and form into a round ball. Divide the dough ball in half and place each half in plastic wrap.
- Chill dough balls in the refrigerator for 1 hour, up to overnight.
- When you are ready to make your cookies remove only one dough ball at a time. Remove from plastic wrap, place on parchment paper to prevent sticking, and use a rolling pin to roll the dough out until it is even and ¼ inch thick. You want the dough to be thick. (see notes)
- Using a 2 ½ inch diameter round cookie cutter or biscuit cutter, cut the dough by pressing the cookie cutter into the dough and moving back and forth slightly to ensure a clean cut. Place cookie dough onto prepared cookie sheet, leaving 2 inches between each cookie. You will need to re-roll the dough and continue cutting until it is all used up. Once the first dough roll is used you can remove the other dough out of the fridge and proceed in the same steps.
- Place desired amount of candy eyes on cookies. See notes for tips.
- Bake at 375° for 9 minutes. All ovens are different, you do not want to over bake. The cookies will begin to wrinkle on top and the bottoms of the cookies will start to become lightly golden when finished baking.
- Cool on baking sheet for 3-5 minutes then remove with spatula and cool on a cooling rack the remainder of the way. See notes about eyes.
- You can freeze these cookies after baking and cooled or store in an airtight container at room temperature out of sunlight.
Notes
- If you do not have multiple cookie sheets, be sure to let the cookie sheets cool down before placing the cookie dough on them between each baking round.
- Spoon and level your gluten free flour when measuring, do not scoop out of bag
- Each dough half will re roll three times. At a ¼ inch thickness the first time you will get three cookies then re roll, then get one cookie then re roll (repeat two more times)
Candy Eyes Tips
- You can use any sized candy eyes you prefer. But you need to know a few things!
- Some of the small candy eyes start to melt by the end of the baking. This actually looks fun for the Halloween. But if you do not want that to happen you can do what I did, which was just stick another small eye on top of any that melted during baking. You will need to do this right out of the oven.
- Or you can wait until finished baking and add the eyes with dots of frosting on the back.
- I found my eyes at Michael's
- Prep Time: 10
- Cook Time: 9
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Keywords: gluten free halloween cookies, halloween, halloween cookies, monster halloween cookies, gluten free halloween cookies
Want more matcha recipes? Try this Matcha Collagen Latte. Or maybe more gluten free cookies? Try these Irresistible Gluten Free Granola Cookies.
Hannah
I seriously have NO luck with gluten-free cookies. It seems like no matter what brand or what recipe I use, they ALWAYS come out with a slightly "sandy" texture when I bite into them. What brand of flour do you have luck with for cookies??
Loren
Hi Hannah, I use King Arthur for this recipe!
Katie
Oh my gosh, my kids and I loved making these! They were perfectly spooky for Halloween without being overly complicated like some seasonal cookies. We will be making them again and again!!
★★★★★
Josie
Wow were these good! Mine didn't quite crackle like yours (probably because of a different flour), but they looked fine anyway and tasted delicious. Next time I hope to try them with a higher-grade matcha so they're greener 😀 Thank you for the recipe!
★★★★★
Loren Runion
Hi Josie! Thank you so much for trying the recipe and letting us know how it went! The crackle could have been the weigh you measured the flour. Too much flour would make it more cake-like less sugar cookie crackle like also baking time may affect that. So glad they tasted great!