Pillsbury “Slice & Bake” Cookies Copycat (Dairy, Egg, Gluten, Soy, and Nut Free)
Nostalgia arises every time I make these Pillsbury Slice and Bake Cookies. My mom used to make these cookies for Christmas every year. She’d buy the classic Pillsbury “Slice & Bake” Tube of dough and bake it in the oven. I’ll never forget the sound of the tube popping open when you take the dough out-it was so fun (if you know, you know, haha). Anyway, my favorite was the reindeer design because the reindeer was made out of chocolate dough. It was like a fun little surprise in every cookie!
This Pillsbury copycat recipe is everything I desire when it comes to those classic Pillsbury cookies, the crispy outside, soft inside, and super cute designs. These sugar cookies always bring back just a little bit of nostalgia in each bite.
History of Sugar Cookies
If you want to find out more about the history of sugar cookies, here is where I found my information!
This post may contain affiliate links. See full disclosure HERE.
Ingredients & Substitutes
EQUIPMENT
- 1.5 inch Christmas cookie cutters. You can use regular sized cookie cutters too but just note you will end up with huge cookies doing it that way. Worth it, haha.
INGREDIENTS
- soy free vegan butter, room temperature
- powdered sugar
- vanilla extract
- baking powder
- salt
- gf all purpose flour. We like Namaste or Bobs Red Mill. Both are great options for allergy friendly baking. We do not recommend King Arthur gluten free flours as they contain possible trace contamination.
- dairy free milk.
- food coloring. As much as I loathe artificial food coloring, this recipe doesn’t work well without it. Natural plant colors bake out when cooked, resulting in a very light color. If you do use plant based colors, use double as much as you think you need!
How to Make Pillsbury “Slice&Bake” Sugar Cookies
Making these Pillsbury Slice and Bake Cookies is time consuming, but well worth it! First, you simply mix all ingredients together till a sticky dough forms.
Then, divide dough into 3 equal balls and then divide one of those balls in half to make two smaller balls.
Place your two larger dough balls in a bag in the fridge for later. (This dough will be used to border the colored shapes later).
Add in 10-20 drops of food coloring to each of the smaller dough balls. We like doing red and green OR red and blue.
Pick any cookie cutter shape you’d like to use that is no bigger than 1.5 inches in diameter. Some suggestions are: ornaments and snowflakes, or gingerbread men & trees, snowmen and candy canes, or any combination of the above.
Roll out the two colored dough balls to 1/4 inch thick and cut out your shapes.
Place your colored shapes individually on a baking sheet lined with parchment. Freeze them for 15 mins.
Preheat oven to 350.
To avoid having the dough thaw too quickly, take out half of your colored shapes from the freezer and individually pack white dough around each shape until you have a circle-shaped cookie. When finished, repeat this step with the second half of the colored dough in the freezer.
Place each cookie 1 inch apart on a baking sheet lined with parchment.
Bake for 10-12 mins (10 for soft, 12 for crispy), or till cookies look firm.
Common Questions
- Why should I not slice and bake these cookies like the original Pillsbury cookies? I have tried this and have not yet found a good way for the frozen dough to not fall apart when slicing. Gluten free sugar cookies are just a bit more finicky than wheat filled cookies. If I do find a good way, I’ll let you know!!
- Why freeze the dough? Just like the Pillsbury Slice and Bake Cookies, freezing the dough will allow you to border your cookie with more dough without compromising your cookie cut-out shape.
Other Favorite Cookie Recipes
Pillsbury “Slice & Bake” Cookies Copycat (Dairy, Egg, Gluten, Soy, and Nut Free)
Ingredients
EQUIPMENT
- 1.5 inch Christmas cookie cutters
INGREDIENTS
- (113g g) 1/2 cup soy free vegan butter, room temperature
- 2 cups (240 g) powdered sugar
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 2 1/2 cups (313 g) gf all purpose flour, we like Namaste or Bobs Red Mill
- 6 TB dairy free milk
Instructions
- Mix all ingredients together in a kitchen aid till a thick dough forms.
- Divide dough into 3 equal balls and then divide one of those balls in half to make two smaller balls.
- Place your two larger dough balls in a bag in the fridge for later. (This dough will be used to border the colored shapes later).
- Add in 10-20 drops of food coloring to each of the smaller dough balls. We like doing red and green OR red and blue.
- Pick any cookie cutter shape you’d like to use that is no bigger than 1.5 inches in diameter. Some suggestions are: ornaments and snowflakes, or gingerbread men & trees, snowmen and candy canes, or any combination of the above.
- Roll out the two colored dough balls to 1/4 inch thick and cut out your shapes.
- Place your colored shapes individually on a baking sheet lined with parchment. Freeze them for 15 mins.
- Preheat oven to 350.
- To avoid having the dough thaw too quickly, take out half of your colored shapes from the freezer and individually pack white dough around each shape until you have a circle-shaped cookie. When finished, repeat this step with the second half of the colored dough in the freezer.
- Place each cookie 1 inch apart on a baking sheet lined with parchment.
- Bake for 10-12 mins (10 for soft, 12 for crispy), or till cookies look firm.