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The best vegan sugar cookies recipe for Christmas! Those Christmas cookies are super easy to make, have a crispy edge, and the most delicious flavor!
Baking vegan sugar cookies without egg and dairy is, in fact, super easy. It’s such a straightforward 1-bowl recipe with minimal dough chilling time and fun to make with or without kids.
I love to use a snowflake cookie cutter to cut out the dough. Snowflakes fit wonderfully in the winter Christmas time, are very easy to decorate with a white powdered sugar icing, and look so pretty! ❄️😉
Vegan frosted sugar cookies are more beautiful than plain cookies, but they taste delicious even without the icing.
Feel free to go crazy when decorating them with kids. Guess they love colorful icing and lots of sprinkles. 😉
Best Taste
Let’s be totally clear. Nobody will notice that those sugar cookies are vegan. Use plant-based buttery sticks, and you are good to go. They do taste like granny’s.
But the real secret between good and outstanding sugar cookies lies in one ingredient: Almond extract!
Just a few drops of almond extract gives sugar cookies an incredibly delicious flavor, so good that you can’t stop eating them once started! And isn’t that what we are longing for in home-baked vegan Christmas cookies?
Let’s get started, and let me show you how to prepare this simple recipe at home cause these vegan sugar cookies are a must-know recipe for the annual Christmas cookies baking season.
Since the dough is easy to handle, this recipe is excellent for baking with kids. And with an eggless dough, worrying and watching out if kids snack some raw dough is unnecessary!
Easy Vegan Sugar Cookies Recipe
This step-by-step guide will help you along the way – definitely recommended if you’re a baking beginner!
The exact quantities and everything else you need to know for the recipe can be found in the recipe card below.
Cookies
- Mix vegan butter, sugar, vanilla, and almond extract until creamy (2-3 minutes) in a large bowl using a stand or hand mixer.
- Whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix for another minute until you have a smooth dough.
- Form it into a ball or disc, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 30 minutes. → The dough can be refrigerated for up to two days. If so, let it sit for 15 minutes at room temperature before rolling it out.
- Preheat your oven to 355°F (180°C).
- Place the dough on a floured surface and roll it out, using a rolling pin, to about ¼-inch (½ cm) thickness.
- Using a cookie cutter, cut the dough into shapes. Re-roll the remaining dough and continue cutting until all dough is used.
- Transfer the cookies to a parchment paper-lined baking sheet.
- Bake for 10-12 minutes in the preheated oven. → You know they are done when the edges start turning into a light golden brown.
- Remove from the oven, allow cookies to cool for 5 minutes on the baking sheet, and then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely before decorating.
Icing
- Whisk powdered sugar, dairy-free milk, and vanilla extract in a small bowl. → It should be quite thick! Add more powdered sugar if it’s too thin or more dairy-free milk if it’s too thick.
- Transfer in a piping bag and decorate the cookies to your liking. Don’t have a piping bag? Use a Ziploc bag and snip a small corner of the bag off. It’s not ideal but works just fine.
- Let the icing dry for a few hours before storing the cookies in a cookie tin.
Recipe FAQ & Tips
How long do they stay fresh? They are best freshly baked. However, you can store them for one week in a cookie tin or airtight container at room temperature.
Can I freeze those cookies? Once cool, transfer them into a freezer bag and freeze for a maximum of 3 months. Defrost them one by one at room temperature (takes 15-30 minutes) or rebake them for a few minutes in the oven.
Do you love colorful cookies? Divide the icing between different small bowls and add to each a different food coloring.
Can I make the dough ahead of time? Absolutely! Store the raw cookie dough after step 3 for up to 2 days in the refrigerator. Let it sit for 15 minutes at room temperature, then continue with step 4.
Almond Extract is optional to use in this recipe, but gives the cookies such a delicious flavor. Skip if you don’t like it.
More Vegan Cookie Recipes You’ll Love:
- Hazelnut Slice & Bake Cookies
- Almond Crescent Cookies (German Vanillekipferl)
- Cinnamon Star Cookies (German Zimtsterne) → these are gluten-free
- Vegan Linzer Cookies
Did You Try This Recipe?
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📖 Recipe
Vegan Sugar Cookies
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Ingredients
- ¾ cup (1 ½ sticks) (170 g) vegan butter room temperature
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- ¼ tsp almond extract
- ¾ cup (150 g) white sugar
- 2 cups (250 g) all-purpose flour
- ½ tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp salt
Icing
- 1 cup (120 g) powdered sugar
- 1-2 tbsp dairy-free milk of choice or water
- ½ tsp vanilla extract optional
- food coloring optional
Instructions
- Mix vegan butter, sugar, vanilla and almond extract until creamy (2-3 minutes) in a bowl using a stand or hand mixer.
- Whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl. Add it to the wet ingredients and mix for another minute until you have a smooth dough.
- Form it into a ball or disc, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 30 minutes. → The dough can be refrigerated for up to two days. If so, let it sit for 15 minutes at room temperature before rolling it out.
- Preheat your oven to 355°F (180°C).
- Place the dough on a floured surface and roll it out, using a rolling pin, to about ¼-inch (½ cm) thickness.
- Using a cookie cutter, cut the dough into shapes. Re-roll the remaining dough and continue cutting until all dough is used.
- Transfer the cookies to a parchment paper-lined baking sheet.
- Bake for 10-12 minutes in the preheated oven. → You know they are done when the edges start turning into a light golden brown.
- Remove from the oven, allow cookies to cool for 5 minutes on the baking sheet, and then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely before decorating.
Icing
- Whisk powdered sugar, dairy-free milk, and vanilla extract in a small bowl. → It should be quite thick! Add more powdered sugar if it’s too thin or more dairy-free milk if it’s too thick.
- Transfer in a piping bag and decorate the cookies to your liking.
- Let the icing dry for a few hours before storing the cookies in a cookie tin.
The mixture kept crumbling. I had to add oat milk. Great recipe, very delicious
Thank you for your Feedback, Kat! ❤️
Hii, can I use the gluten free flour and what i can change for white sugar?
Hi Sandra, I never tried the recipe with gluten-free flour and therefore can’t give you a guarantee that it works, but feel free to try it (sub all-purpose flour 1:1 with gluten-free baking flour). White sugar can’t be replaced.