This Vegan Sugar Cookie Recipe is the best vegan cut-out cookie recipe to make decorated holiday cookies. They are naturally egg-free, dairy-free, and super easy and fun to make with the kids.
Classic sugar cookies are not vegan. They are made with butter and eggs. Luckily, I am here to share with you how easy you can make a vegan version of these lovely cut-out sugar cookies. It’s a very simple cookie recipe, similar to my Vegan Shortbread Cookies, Almond Flour Shortbread Cookies, or Almond Flour Sugar Cookies.
Ingredients and Substitutions
All you need to make vegan sugar cookies are a few simple ingredients:
- Vegan Butter or margarine.
- All-Purpose Flour or white spelt flour.
- Granulated Sugar – White sugar works best, but you can try healthier sugar like coconut sugar or sugar-free granulated erythritol. Avoid xylitol which can make cookies soft, not crunchy.
- Vanilla Extract – or almond extract depending on the flavor you want to add to the cookies.
- Baking Powder – for the perfect texture.
- Cornstarch – or arrowroot flour.
- Almond Milk or any non-dairy milk you love like oat milk, soy milk, or coconut milk.
How To Make Vegan Sugar Cookies
These vegan sugar cookies are crunchy, buttery, and sweet cut-out cookies perfect for Christmas or Halloween. Let me show you how easily you can bake a batch of these at home with only a bunch of plant-based ingredients.
- First, bring the vegan butter to room temperature for about 30 minutes. This softened the butter and make it easier to cream with sugar in the next step.
- Place the softened vegan butter and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer or in a large bowl.
- Then, using the paddle attachment of the stand mixer or an electric beater beat both ingredients on medium-high speed until creamy, fluffy, and smooth.
- Stop beating, add cornstarch, almond milk, vanilla, baking powder, and salt, and sift in the flour.
- Start the stand mixer or beater on low then increase to medium speed. Beat until the dough forms a crumble-like texture. You should be able to squeeze the cookie dough in your hands and stick the crumbly pieces together in a dough. If too dry, add a bit more almond milk adding gradually, 1 tablespoon at a time, beating after each addition. If too wet, add more flour, proceeding the same way adding only 1 or 2 tablespoons at a time. The dough is ready when it’s soft, consistent, and easy to shape into a ball that doesn’t stick to your finger.
- Split the dough into two even batches. Place each dough ball into plastic wrap, wrap tightly, then flatten into a disc.
- Chill the dough for 1 hour or overnight before rolling
- Meanwhile, prepare 2 large baking sheets. Cover them with parchment paper and use an olive oil spray to lightly oil the paper. Set it aside.
- Before rolling the dough, preheat the oven to 350 °F (180 °C).
- Remove the dough disc one at a time from the fridge. Unwrap and place on a lightly floured surface in front of you.
- Then, using a rolling pin, roll the dough into a 1/4-inch thickness. Use any cookie cutter shape you like to cut out cookies from the rolled dough.
- Next, use a flat tool or knife to slide under each cutout cookie and unstick it from the bench. Transfer to the prepared baking sheets.
- Leave half a thumb of space between each sugar cookie. Even if vegan sugar cookies don’t expand in the oven, it makes it easier to release them from the sheet if they are spaced out.
- Bake the sugar cookies in the center rack or below the center rack for 8 to 10 minutes at 350 °F (180 °C) until the edges of the sugar cookies just start to turn golden brown. Don’t over bake or they get ultra hard.
- Let the cookies cool down on the baking sheets for 5 minutes then transfer them to a cooling rack.
- Cool completely before decorating the vegan cookies.
Decorating Vegan Sugar Cookies
You can serve the vegan sugar cookies plain or with my vegan royal icing recipe. This is basically a mix of powdered sugar and dairy-free milk plus some liquid food coloring. Make sure you pick some vegan food coloring, some colors like red or green food coloring can be derivate from animal sources.
To decorate the cookies, make a batch of white vegan cookie icing. Then, split the batch into small bowls if you intend to make different colors. Add liquid food coloring drops to each bowl and stir to combine.
Sometimes the icing thins out with the addition of liquid food coloring so you may have to add extra powdered sugar to thicken the icing. Place the icing in a piping bag or use a spoon and a toothpick to spread it on top of the cookies and decorate. You can also use vegan sprinkles to add a touch of color to the vegan cookies.
Allergy Swaps
If you have some allergies to the ingredients used in this vegan recipe, pick one or two of the food alternatives below
- Gluten-Free – I didn’t try gluten-free all-purpose flour blends, but it usually works well in any of my vegan baked recipes. Otherwise, try my almond flour sugar cookie recipe for a 100% vegan gluten-free cookie recipe.
- Nut-Free – Replace the almond milk with oat milk, hemp milk, or soy milk.
- Corn-Free – You can use the same amount of tapioca flour or arrowroot flour instead of cornstarch.
- Sugar-Free – Some granulated sugar-free sweeteners like erythritol or allulose work well in cookie recipes. Don’t use xylitol, it will keep the cookies too soft, they won’t harden, and xylitol is not safe for dogs.
Storage Instructions
These sugar cookies have no eggs or dairy, therefore they last up to 2 weeks at room temperature in a sealed cookie jar. Place the jar in a cool, dark place. You can also keep the cookies in the fridge on hot days.
Finally, you can freeze sugar cookies, decorated or not up to 3 months in a sealed bag or airtight container.
Frequently Asked Questions
Below are some answers to your most common questions about baking vegan sugar cookies.
No, you can’t use coconut oil in sugar cookies. The texture of the cookies is very oily and the cookie shrink in the oven with coconut oil. I don’t recommend that option, the best choices are margarine, vegan butter, or even vegetable shortening.
You don’t need cookie cutters to make delicious sugar cookies. You can simply roll the dough into a cylinder and slice as you would slice a breadstick into 1/4-inch slices. Place the slices of dough on the prepared baking sheets and bake as for cut-out cookies.
Most food colorings are vegan and made from plants. except for carmine used in some red food colorings and made out of bugs.
Not all sprinkles are vegan, some contain beeswax or red food coloring made from bugs (e.g. carmine is made from cochineal). Always pick sprinkles that are labeled vegan.
More Vegan Cookie Recipes
Below are some more plant-based cookie recipes for you to try.
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Vegan Sugar Cookie Recipe
Ingredients
- ½ cup Softened Vegan Butter (Unsalted) - softened at room temperature for 30 minutes
- ¾ cup Sugar
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
- 1 ¾ – 2 cups All-Purpose Flour
- ½ teaspoon Salt
- 1 teaspoon Baking Powder
- 1 tablespoon Cornstarch
- 2 tablespoons Almond Milk
- 1 batch Vegan Royal Icing
Instructions
- In a stand mixer, using the paddle attachment, beat the vegan butter and sugar for 1 minute until smooth, creamy, and fluffy. You can also use a hand beater and beat ingredients into a mixing bowl.
- Fold in vanilla, cornstarch, salt, and almond milk. Keep beating on the low-speed setting few seconds – it won't incorporate very well and look lumpy as milk doesn't incorporate well to butter and that's ok.
- Still on the low-speed setting, gradually add the flour, baking powder, and salt until the dough forms. Scrape the sides of the bowl to bring all the ingredients together and combine until the dough is soft and crumbly but holds well if pressed in your hand. If too wet, add more flour 1 tablespoon at a time. If too dry, add 1 tablespoon of almond milk.
- Shape the dough into two discs of the same size and wrap them into a piece of plastic wrap or parchment paper. Chill for 1 hour in the fridge.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper. Oil the paper with coconut oil or vegan butter. Set aside.
- Remove the discs from the fridge and roll the dough into about 1/4-inch (0.6 cm) thick.
- Use cookie cutters to shape vegan sugar cookies and slide a flat tool under the cut cookie to transfer to the baking sheet. leave half a thumb of space between each cookie. Reform a dough ball with the remaining cookie dough, roll again, and reshape more cookies.
- Bake at 350°F (180°C) for 8-10 minutes in the center rack of the oven or until the cookies are set on top but slightly golden brown.
- Cool down on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring onto a wire rack and cool down for an extra 20 minutes.
Decoration
- Cool completely before decorating. Use my vegan royal icing recipe to decorate the vegan sugar cookies.
- Add liquid food coloring to the icing if desired. Make sure the icing is thick and difficult to stir, if it spread too fast when you drop it on the cookies, it will run away. Simply add more powdered sugar if needed to make an ultra-thick and dense icing. Place the icing in a piping bag to decorate on top of the cookies.
Storage
- Store in a sealed cookie jar at room temperature for up to 2 weeks, or freeze and thaw them the day before at room temperature.
Thanks for your recipe. I cannot wait to try it. I want to make these cookies for a gift but I’d like to add chocolate chips to it do you think that would be okay should I not use as much sugar
I wouldn’t add chocolate chips in sugar cookies because they are cut-out cookies, therefore the chocolate chips will might and spread