The Best Vegan Sugar Cookies With Just 5 Ingredients!
Skip the store-bought sugar cookies and grab your holiday cookie cutters and decorations instead! This 5-ingredient vegan sugar cookie recipe will have all your family and friends baking in the kitchen.
Vegan sugar cookies are easy to make and will have everyone at your holiday gatherings asking for the recipe. Each bite is sweet, buttery, and melt-in-your-mouth soft. Once you try this recipe, you will never buy store-bought cookies again.
What’s the Difference Between Vegan Shortbread Cookies, Butter Cookies and Sugar Cookies?
- Sugar cookies have the highest ratio of flour to fat. Sugar cookies hold shape well making them the perfect cookie for decorative work. Cookie cutters work best on sugar cookies.
- Shortbread cookies have the highest ratio of vegan butter to flour. The higher ratio of butter leads to a shortbread cookie that is tender and crumbly.
- Butter cookies have a high proportion of vegan butter, but more flour and sugar. Butter cookies hold shape better than shortbread cookies and are great for rolling and cutting into shapes.
Vegan Sugar Cookie Ingredients
- Flour
- Powdered sugar
- Vegan butter, room temperature
- Vanilla extract
- Salt
How Does Vegan Butter Affect Sugar Cookies?
Using vegan butter has little to no effect on sugar cookie recipes. The biggest difference between using dairy butter and vegan butter in sugar cookies is that the flavor may be slightly different.
Vegan butter brands are made out of different ingredients such as coconut oil, cashew milk, vegetable oil and palm oil. Try the vegan butter to ensure the flavor of the butter doesn't overwhelm your palette or recipe.
Some of our favorite brands of vegan butter to bake with are:
- Miyoko's European Style Cultured Vegan Butter
- I Can’t Believe it’s Not Butter… It’s Vegan
- Earth Balance Original Buttery Spread
Before using any vegan butter, make sure to check out whether it is salted or unsalted. This will have a huge impact on the saltiness of the vegan sugar cookie. Make sure to decrease the amount of salt you add to the vegan cookie dough if using salted vegan butter.
How to Make Vegan Sugar Cookies in 3 Easy Steps
- Mix together flour, sugar and salt.
- Add butter and vanilla extract, and using an electric whisk start to mix on low. Increase speed and mix until dough is completely combined.
- Form dough into a log, and wrap it in a foil, twisting the ends. Place in the fridge for at least 2 hours.
Is It Necessary to Chill the Vegan Sugar Cookie Dough?
Freezing cookie dough solidifies the butter and allows it to cool. Skipping this step can cause the cookies to spread apart while baking. This simple step also impacts the texture of a cookie drastically and guarantees a soft, chewy cookie.
Another benefit of chilling the cookies is that it helps the dough firm up. This makes it easier to roll out the dough and use a cookie cutter. The cookie dough will be easier to handle the more chilled it is.
Customize This Vegan Sugar Cookie Recipe For Any Occasion
- Add food colorings to color the vegan sugar cookie dough. Use beet powder for a pink color or turmeric for a yellow color
- Combine different colored doughs to create a checkered pattern, mini hearts, or fun circles
- Flavor these vegan sugar cookies in different ways. Instead of vanilla extract try orange extract, cinnamon, rum aroma or mint drops
- These cookies are great all year round. Cut out hearts for valentine’s day, stars or Christmas trees for the winter season, or little socks for a baby shower
How to Avoid a Hard Sugar Cookie
The perfect vegan sugar cookie is soft, buttery and tender. The best way to achieve the perfect vegan sugar cookie is to mix the dry ingredients until they're just incorporated. The more you mix or overwork the gluten in this dough, the harder the cookie will be.
Another way to ensure you get a soft vegan sugar cookie is to measure all your ingredients precisely, especially the flour. Too much will flour can lead to a dry and crumbly dough. Pack the measuring cups tight with the ingredients and use a knife to get rid of any excess.
The Quickest Way to Fix Crumbly or Dry Vegan Sugar Cookie Dough
Is the dough crumbly or dry? If so, it may be because the dough was overmixed or it contains too much of one ingredient, such as flour.
Luckily, there is an easy fix: Add one to two tablespoons of water, plant-based milk or vegan butter. Adding liquid will help bring the dough together and form a smooth consistency. Make sure to slowly add the liquid to avoid making the dough too wet.
Is Frosting Vegan? How to Make Vegan Frosting
Frosting is not vegan because it is usually made with dairy, such as milk or heavy cream. All you have to do is swap dairy milk or heavy cream for dairy-free milk and you have vegan frosting! Add your favorite nut milk, oat milk or soy milk.
To make the frosting, mix together sugar and dairy-free milk. Spread frosting on top of the cookies, and add sprinkles on top. Make sure to let the frosting harden before serving.
6 Simple Ways to Decorate Cookies
- Add food coloring to royal icing for a colorful cookie
- Spread the icing over the cookies, or pipe them to create beautiful patterns.
- Make a frosting out of vegan cream cheese and powdered sugar
- Decorate your cookies with sprinkles, edible glitter, chocolate chip, or colored sugar
- Try something unique using dried flowers, herbs, or edible gold
- You can also dip the cookies in melted chocolate or cinnamon sugar
Can You Freeze Vegan Sugar Cookies?
Yes, you can freeze vegan sugar cookies. Double or triple the recipe so you always have vegan sugar cookies handy in the freezer at all times.
Make sure to wrap the dough tightly in plastic wrap before baking. Vegan sugar cookie dough can be stored for up to a couple of months in the freezer. You can also freeze pre-baked cookies.
Soft Vegan Sugar Cookies
20 Cookies
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Chilling Time: 2 hours
Baking Time: 10 minutes
Ingredients
Vegan Sugar Cookie Dough
- 150 g flour
- 60 g powdered sugar
- pinch of salt
- 100 g vegan butter, room temperature
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Vegan Frosting
- 1 cup of powdered sugar
- 1 tbsp plant milk
- Sprinkles
Instructions
- Mix together flour, sugar and salt.
- Add butter and vanilla extract, and using an electric whisk start to mix on low. Increase speed and mix until dough is completely combined.
- Form dough into a log, and Wrap in a foil, twisting the ends. Place in the fridge for at least 2 hours.
- Preheat oven to 360 F/180 C.
- Slice log into 1/3 inch / 1 cm slices, and place onto a parchment paper lined baking tray.
- If using a cookie cutter, roll the dough out on a floured surface, then cut out shapes of your choice.
- Bake cookies for 8-10 minutes. Let cookies cool completely.
- For the frosting mix together sugar and dairy-free milk. Spread frosting on top of the cookies, and sprinkle with sprinkles. Let the frosting harden before serving.
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