These 3-Ingredient Sugar Cookies are the easiest sugar cookie recipe ever with crisp edges and a tender center. You won’t believe they are made without eggs or dairy and ready in just 25 minutes.
I love to make sugar cookies for the holiday season, like my Almond Flour Sugar Cookies, Vegan Halloween Sugar Cookies, or Oat Flour Sugar Cookies. But today, I wanted to make an even easier version and created this recipe with only 3 ingredients.
Ingredients and Substitutions
This recipe is super easy and can be made with just 3 base ingredients.
- Vegan Butter – Butter provides richness and helps create the classic sugar cookie texture. Use a high-quality plant-based butter for the best results. It also works with margarine.
- Sugar – This is not only for sweetness as it contributes to the cookies’ crisp edges (so you can’t just replace it with stevia). You can use coconut sugar or brown sugar for different flavor profiles.
- Flour – All-purpose flour works best for this recipe, but it should also work fine with spelt flour or whole-wheat flour. I haven’t tried gluten-free flour.
How to Make 3-Ingredient Sugar Cookies
This is a really simple recipe to put together, but if you like visual cues, here are pictures of the key steps.
Combine the sugar and softened vegan butter in the bowl of your stand mixer.
Once the mixture is uniform, add the flour and incorporate it.
Stop the mixer when a sticky dough forms.
Roll the dough into 24 small dough balls.
Place the dough balls on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
Flatten the cookies and bake them for 14-16 minutes at 325 °F (160 °C).
Expert Tips
You have everything you need to make these cookies in the printable recipe card further down, but to make it completely fail-proof, I’ve included below a few more tips:
- For the best texture, make sure your vegan butter is softened but not melted. This helps create the right consistency in the dough.
- Chill the dough for 30 minutes before baking if you prefer thicker cookies that spread less during baking.
- For perfectly round cookies, use a cookie scoop to portion the dough.
- Experiment with flavors by adding lemon zest, almond extract, or rolling the cookies in cinnamon sugar before baking.
- These cookies are great for decorating. Once cooled, you can ice them with a simple vegan royal icing or vegan buttercream.
- Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to a week, or freeze for up to 3 months.
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3-Ingredient Sugar Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup Dairy-Free Butter (Unsalted) - softened at room temperature (note 1)
- ⅔ cup Sugar
- 2 cups All-Purpose Flour
Optional
- 1 teaspoon Baking Soda
- 2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 325 °F (160 °C). Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper. Lightly oil paper with cooking oil spray. Set aside.
- In a mixing bowl or the bowl of your stand mixer using the paddle attachment, beat softened vegan butter and sugar until pale and creamy.
- Sift in flour and beat on low speed to incorporate. The dough should look crumbly, but if you press it together with your hand, it will become smooth. If it is too dry, simply mix in 1-2 teaspoons of almond milk or milk of choice until you can gather the crumbly dough into a soft dough.
- Grab tablespoons of dough, roll between hands, and release on the baking sheet, leaving a thumb space between each cookie.
- Use the back of a glass to press down the cookie flat.
- Bake the cookies at 325 °F (160 °C) for 14-16 minutes until the top and sides are dry, they shouldn't get golden and stay white.
- Let the cookies cool down on the baking sheet. Don't touch them for at least 15 minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack. They firm up gently as they cool down.
This recipe looks great, has anyone tried it with gluten-free flour yet?
I still haven’t, but I have a similar recipe with almond flour, my almond flour sugar cookies.
Hi ! Can I decorate these cookies with royal icing? Thanks for sharing your recipe!
You absolutely can!
thank you for sharing
Worked as written, tasted even better than I thought they would