Vegan Sugar Cookie Recipe (2024)

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.

Table of contents

Are Classic Sugar Cookies Vegan?

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.

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.

Ingredients

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
• Cornstarch
• Salt
• Almond Milk or any non-dairy milk you love like oat milk, soy milk, or coconut milk.

Preparing The Sugar Cookie Dough

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.

Chilling The Dough

Split the dough into two even batches. Place each dough ball into plastic wrap, wrap tightly, then flatten into a disc.

Chill 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.

Rolling And Cutting Sugar Cookies

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.

Baking The Sugar Cookies

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 in the center rack or below the center rack for 8 to 10 minutes or 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.

Can I Use Coconut Oil Instead Of Vegan Butter?

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.

I Don’t Have Cookie Cutters, How Can I Shape The Cookies?

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.

Are Food Colorings All Vegan?

Most food colorings are vegan and made from plants. except for carmine used in some red food colorings and made out of bugs.

Are Sprinkles Vegan?

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.