32 Gluten-Free Baking Recipes Everyone Will Enjoy

You’ll be whipping up everything from classic cookies and cakes to savory breads and muffins—and all without the gluten!

Updated on September 19, 2023

By: Carlos Olaechea

Related To:

Photo By: Renee Comet

Photo By: Rob Pryce

Photo By: Renee Comet

Photo By: Chantell Quernemoen

Photo By: Heather Ramsdell ©Food Network 2016

Photo By: Levi Brown

Photo By: Teri Lyn Fisher

Our Best Gluten-Free Baking Ideas

Adopting a gluten-free diet has become easier than ever, even when it comes to baked goods that traditionally rely on wheat flour. With these delicious alternatives that rely on clever swaps like almond flour or specialty gluten-free flours, you’ll be baking everything from classic cookies and cakes to savory breads and muffins—and all without the gluten! Wondering where to start? These chocolate chip cookies contain zero grains or starches and are made with almond flour as their base. Other than that, they contain all the sweet, chewy goodness of a traditional chocolate chip cookie. And, yes, they are perfectly dunkable!

Get the Recipe: Almond Flour Chocolate Chip Cookies

Gluten-Free English Muffins

Now you can enjoy hearty breakfast sandwiches like you'd get at your favorite fast food drive-thru but without the gluten. This is a straightforward recipe that doesn't call for many hard-to-find ingredients, meaning you could enjoy the nooks and crannies of this favorite English transplant every day if you want.

Get the Recipe: Gluten-Free English Muffins

Gluten-Free Banana Bread

A slice of warm banana bread is like a slice of warm comfort. This recipe eschews the wheat flour and replaces it with brown rice flour, which gives it a rich flavor. Tapioca flour acts like gluten without actually having gluten, giving the bread just the right amount of springiness.

Get the Recipe: Gluten-Free Banana Bread

Carrot-Coconut Birthday Cake

We all need an opportunity to celebrate ourselves sometimes, and there are fewer better ways of doing that than with a birthday cake. You don't need to source an expensive gluten-free cake from a remote bakery, though. This cake merges traditional carrot cake with the heady flavors of coconut using coconut flour and coconut oil.

Get the Recipe: Carrot-Coconut Birthday Cake

Gluten-Free Pumpkin Muffins

These muffins use a gluten-free all-purpose flour, which gives them a texture similar to the gluten-filled variety. They are easy to put together and invoke the flavor of comforting autumn pumpkin pie, although you can enjoy these any time of year.

Get the Recipe: Gluten-Free Pumpkin Muffins

Mixed Berry Pavlova

Here's another old-school dessert recipe that has always been gluten-free. This has been a perennial favorite in Australia and New Zealand for decades and is now a nearly global sensation that requires zero flour of any kind. Fluffy meringue and just a pinch of cornstarch form the backbone of this gorgeous dessert.

Get the Recipe: Mixed Berry Pavlova

Gluten-Free Coconut Flour Brownies

Is there anything more that needs to be said about brownies? How about that these, in particular, are almost too easy to make. Coconut flour replaces the wheat flour while also ensuring that your brownies come out ooey, gooey and delicious each and every time.

Get the Recipe: Gluten-Free Coconut Flour Brownies

3 Ingredient Peanut Butter Cookies

If you don't believe these cookies are made with only three ingedients, click on the recipe link and find out for yourself. We were surprised, too! But it is possible, and these cookies are proof. Just remember to let them cool completely before eating (and dunking).

Get the Recipe: 3 Ingredient Peanut Butter Cookies

Flourless Chocolate Cake

This is a classic recipe for a classic flourless chocolate cake. For many, this is the original gluten-free chocolate cake before there was mainstream awareness of gluten intolerance and sensitivity. As such, it's been a favorite with everyone for a long time, regardless of whether or not they consume gluten. Don't tell anyone it has no flour in it, and people won't ever know that it's gluten-free.

Get the Recipe: Flourless Chocolate Cake

Pao de Queijo

You can't eat just one of these naturally gluten-free Brazilian cheesy breads. They are made with tapioca flour, which gives them a pleasantly chewy texture. The uncooked dough balls freeze beautifully, meaning you can make a huge batch, freeze them and have a savory gluten-free snack whenever you want.

Get the Recipe: Pao de Queijo

Gluten-Free Double-Chocolate Ginger Crinkle Cookies

These cookies are so decadent, so elegant and so beautiful that your gluten-eating friends will be envious. Many recipes call for a gluten-free flour blend, but this recipe actually provides you with a recipe so you can always have it on hand. The combination of chocolate and ginger is heavenly, and the baked cookies get dipped in white choclate and more candied ginger at the end.

Get the Recipe: Gluten-Free Double-Chocolate Ginger Crinkle Cookies

Cauliflower Cornbread Muffins

This corn muffin recipe is not only gluten-free but also a la bit lighter than traditional corn muffins, subbing riced cauliflower for the wheat flour. A generous amount of sharp cheddar and a couple of jalapeños make these muffins ones you won't soon forget.

Get the Recipe: Cauliflower Cornbread Muffins

Cocada

Marcela Valladolid shows us how to make this traditional Latin American treat in her recipe for sumptous cocada. The secret to the decadence is sweetened condensed milk, a baking staple throughout most of Latin America. Some shredded coconut and a few minutes in a hot oven are the only other things you need.

Get the Recipe: Cocada: Easy Coconut Bark

Chocolate Souffle

You can always count on Geoffrey Zakarian to show us how to bring a little restaurant-level luxury into our home kitchens, and his recipe for chocolate soufflé is no exception. You'll definitely want to bookmark this recipe for a special occasion or when you truly feel like treating yourself to something decadent.

Get the Recipe: Chocolate Souffle

Gluten-Free Coconut-Almond Strawberry Shortcakes

This recipe for strawberry shortcakes is one you should keep in your back pocket. The recipe for the shortcake, itself, is so versatile you can even use it to make scones! Try out the recipe as it's written first. Afterwards, you're only limited by your imagination, so have fun with it!

Get the Recipe: Gluten-Free Coconut-Almond Strawberry Shortcakes

Decadent (Gluten-Free!) Chocolate Cake

Leave it to Ina to provide a luxurious (yet still elegant) chocolate cake sans the gluten. This recipe calls for Cup4Cup gluten-free flour, which you can purchase online. The secret to the rich, deep chocolate flavor is just a little bit of coffee.

Get the Recipe: Decadent (Gluten-Free!) Chocolate Cake

Gluten-Free Cornbread

You may think that cornbread is naturally gluten-free, but many recipes call for a mix of wheat flour and cornmeal to make a fluffier, more tender cornbread. This recipe subs out the offending gluten-filled wheat flour with a mix of millet flour, rice flour and potato starch.

Get the Recipe: Gluten-Free Cornbread

Cracked Chocolate Earth with Whipped Cream

Tyler Florence's interpretation of a classic flourless chocolate cake truly looks like cracked earth or a really rough patch of asphalt. This makes it an ideal recipe for a kid's themed birthday party, letting you decorate it with dinosaurs, cars or whatever else your little one is currently obsessed with. What's best is that it only requires a handful of ingredients.

Get the Recipe: Cracked Chocolate Earth with Whipped Cream (Flourless Chocolate Cake)

Giant Sprinkle Macaroons

Macaroons (not to be confused with French macarons) are a popular treat among Jewish-Americans, especially during Passover when they must abstain from eating any type of grain. These beauties are therefore naturally gluten-free. Molly Yeh takes these just one step further by giving us a funfetti-inspired macaroon recipe.

Get the Recipe: Giant Sprinkle Macaroons

Gluten-Free Cinnamon Sugar Teacake

Besides being free of gluten, this cake also includes a lot of healthy ingredients that make this more of a whole food than a regular cake. Bean flour, coconut oil, applesauce and evaporated cane juice give this tea-time cake a natural flavor and texture.

Get the Recipe: Gluten-Free Cinnamon Sugar Teacake

Gluten-Free Apple Pie

Apple pie filling is almost intrinsically gluten-free. That crust, however, is another issue entirely. Thankfully, this recipe for apple pie has a fool-proof crust so you can make a huge dome like in the photo or a beautifully intricate lattice crust.

Get the Recipe: Gluten-Free Apple Pie

Focaccia Cloud Bread

Cloud bread became a gluten-free (and low-carb) sensation on the internet as a great alternative to conventional bread that is as easy to whip up as making an omelet. This recipe takes it one step further turning it into a satisfying Italian flatbread.

Get the Recipe: Focaccia Cloud Bread

French Macarons

We can't give you a list of gluten-free recipes without including a recipe for macarons. These iconic French cookies have always been gluten-free even back when Marie Antoinette was rumored to have nibbled on them. They are made with almond flour and whipped egg whites and usually sandwich a jam or cream filling. This recipe provides you with the foundations along with instructions for making various flavors and fillings.

Get the Recipe: French Macarons

Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies

Claire Robinson's fabulous recipe for flourless peanut butter cookies truly are flourless, as in they don't contain any kind of flour. These get a little hint of vanilla extract and a sprinkling of sea salt for a nuanced symphony of flavors in each bite.

Get the Recipe: Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies

Vanilla Meringue Cookies

Meringue cookies are naturally gluten-free, and Ree Drummond's recipe for them contains no starch, either, which is somtimes used in meringue cookies. These do take a while to bake since you are basically dehydrating them to get them crispy. However, it's mostly hands-off, and the reward is well worth the wait.

Get the Recipe: Vanilla Meringue Cookies

Torta Caprese

It used to be very challenging to enjoy Italian food when you're avoiding gluten. However, it's now becoming increasingly easier to find scrumptious gluten-free pastas that will make you forget the traditional semolina varieties. When it comes to dessert, though, Giada has you covered with this unctuous chocolate cake that's sure to please.

Get the Recipe: Torta Caprese

Gluten-Free Banana-Nut Muffins

These muffins are similar to our gluten-free banana bread recipe, but with one major difference: amaranth flour. Amaranth is tiny pseudo-grain (it's actually a seed) that is a close relative to quinoa and native to the Americas. These seeds traveled far and wide and are known as kiwicha in Peru and rajgira in India.

Get the Recipe: Gluten-Free Banana-Nut Muffins

Honey Buttermilk Pavlova

Trisha Yearwood gives us this down-home adaptation of a classic pavlova perfumed with tangy buttermilk and seductive honey. This baked meringue dessert is then topped with freshly whipped cream and a medly of tropic fruit and berries.

Get the Recipe: Honey Buttermilk Pavlova

Gluten-Free Chocolate Frangipane Tart

This elegant tart is filled with a a rich almond and bittersweet chocolate mixture that is a decadent spin on the traditional plain almond frangipane. Nestled inside like sweet gemsare pieces of dried mission figs, which provide a bright contrast while also bringing out the fruity notes of the chocolate. Everyting is held together by chocolate and almond flour crust.

Get the Recipe: Gluten-Free Chocolate Frangipane Tart

Gluten-Free Zucchini Bread

Zucchini bread is an underrated classic that's almost like the halfway point between banana bread and carrot cake. It's also a great way to use up the mountains of zucchini everyone seems to be stuck with when they're in season. This recipe also includes a mini recipe for an all-purpose gluten-free flour mix, so you're really getting two recipes in one.

Get the Recipe: Gluten-Free Zucchini Bread

Sugar-Free Cookies

If sugar doesn’t fit well into your diet, it shouldn’t mean that enjoying a classic comforting cookie is out of the question. These cookies sub the granulated stuff for monk fruit sweetener, which makes them low on the glycemic index and diabetic friendly. (Monk fruit is a small round fruit native to southern China.) As a bonus these cookies are gluten free, made with almond meal as well as flax meal to boost fiber. The result is chewy, nutty and satisfyingly sweet.

Get the Recipe: Sugar-Free Cookies

Chickpea Blondies

These gluten-free, vegan chickpea blondies taste just as they should: like soft bar cookies with a touch of vanilla and load of chocolate chips. Because there’s no egg or wheat-based flour in this recipe, we added a touch of aquafaba (liquid from canned chickpeas) to provide structure to these delicate treats. Instead of butter or oil, we use almond butter, which gives the blondies a nutty flavor and craveable richness.

Get the Recipe: Chickpea Blondies

On Tonight