Gluten-free Homemade Animal Cookies
gluten-free | dairy-free option | tree nut free
by Alexa Lehr | The Pioneer Chicks | May 1, 2025
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Making your own animal cookies is way more fun than buying a bag of animal cookies at the store! You get to choose what animals you make and watch the magic happen as you roll out the dough, cut out the cookies, and bake the shapes into delicious animal cookies! Whether you like snacking on animal cookies throughout the day, using them as a summer travel snack, or mixing them into a trail mix… these gluten-free animal cookies can be used in all the same ways that traditional store-bought animal cookies would be used. They are fun recipe to make with young modern pioneers and everyone will enjoy snacking on the results!
Animal cookies are certainly a modern pioneer food. I’m pretty certain that the early pioneers did not have the handy-dandy mini animal cookie cutters that we have today for making animal cookies. But nonetheless, I love this modern pioneer recipe because it is a great way to make a delicious homemade snack. Instead of buying snacks at the store, these animal cookies make a great alternative!
Additionally, this recipe is allergy-friendly, which makes it the perfect snack recipe for modern pioneers with dietary restrictions. These animal cookies are….
Another reason why you will love these gluten-free animal cookies is because they are a super easy recipe to make as a packable snack. Once baked and cooled, these animal cookies will last for a month when stored at room temperature in an airtight container. They can easily be made in advance, packed on road trips, or crammed into lunch boxes. They are a fairly hardy snack that won’t crumble into pieces if they get stuffed into the bottom of a backpack.
For other fun on-the-go snack options, check out these gluten-free energy balls or these no-bake protein bars!
I LOVE making animal cookies. They are so adaptable and can be used in countless ways to make for fun snacks or creative desserts. Once you make your first batch of gluten-free animal cookies, you will be hooked!
These gluten-free animal cookies are fun to snack on as they are, but there are also fun ways to get creative with them. Instead of buying animal cookies, use your homemade animal cookies to make a variety of different snacks. Here are some of my favorite ways to use animal cookies:
If you’re looking for a grain-free version of animal cookies, then make sure you check out my Grain-free Animal Cookie recipe too! They are just as simple to make and can be used in all the same ways as these gluten-free animal cookies.
I have made this recipe with both King Arthur gluten-free all-purpose flour and gfJules gluten-free all-purpose flour. I am fairly certain that the recipe will work just fine with other gluten-free flour blends as well. It is a very forgiving recipe and you can easily make small adaptions if necessary to get the right dough consistency.
I have not tried substituting in any other flours for the oat flour. You can use homemade oat flour (grind whole oats in a food processor or blender) or a store-bought oat flour.
This recipe uses both a granulated sugar and a liquid sweetener for creating perfectly sweetened animal cookies. You can make this recipe free from refined sugars by using organic maple sugar and pure maple syrup!
Additionally, for the granulated sugar, you can use organic cane sugar, maple sugar, or coconut sugar. Coconut sugar will result in darker colored animal cookies. For the maple syrup, you can use raw honey instead, although the cookies may not be as sweet.
Yes! You can make these gluten-free animal cookies dairy-free by using melted coconut oil or dairy-free butter alternatives.
This recipe is very forgiving, and if your dough seems too dry or too sticky, there are some simple fixes you can do to create the perfect dough consistency. But first, let’s troubleshoot.
The dough may be sticky if your egg was very large, your oat flour wasn’t absorbent enough, you used a different blend of gluten-free flours, or you used oil instead of butter. The dough may be too dry if your gluten-free flour or oat flour was very absorbent, your egg was small, or your butter wasn’t melted enough.
In the end, you want a soft dough that is pliable and can easily be rolled out. You should be able to handle it easily without it sticking to your hands or crumbling into pieces. To achieve this constistency, simply add a little bit of water (if the dough is too dry) or a little more gluten-free flour (if the dough is too sticky). Use your hands to knead the dough into a smooth ball before rolling it out to make the cookies.
I found my mini animal cookie cutters at a local craft store, but then I found the same cookie cutters online sold at thecookiecuttershop.com. They offer a wide range of mini cookie cutters in whatever shapes you could want! I like to use a toothpick or sharp knife to make ‘eyes’ in my animal cookies or add additional lines to the cookies to further enhance the shape. However, if you want more classic looking animal cookies, you may check out the animal cookie cutters on Amazon.com.
These gluten-free animal cookies are super easy to make and will yield delicious results that modern pioneers of all ages will love! Hint: You can even make different flavors by throwing in a handful of chopped chocolate bar, a dash of cinnamon, or a generous spoonful of sprinkles!
Once you make your very own homemade animal cookies, you won’t be going back to the store-bought versions. Or, maybe you couldn’t have the store-bought versions because of dietary restrictions… then this recipe brings you the fun of enjoying animal cookies for snack while still being gluten-free! These gluten-free homemade animal cookies are so easy to make, you’ll find yourself making a batch for snacking, a batch for baking fun treats, a batch for sharing, a batch for saving… there’s no end to the fun you can have with this recipe!
Join our modern pioneer newsletter community so you don’t miss any other fun modern pioneer recipes like this one! All the recipes I share are gluten-free and perfect for making from scratch in the homestead kitchen!
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