4.98 from 108 votes
| 157 Comments
Make these perfect vegan sugar cookies! You only need 9 simple ingredients. They're soft, sweet, buttery, and super yummy. Use cookie cutters to make fun shapes and decorate them however you like! Easy and delicious baking fun. Easy and tasty baking for the holidays!
This vegan sugar cookie dough works beautifully for any kind of cookie cutter. If you want to attempt detailed snowflake cookie cuttersor simpler kid-friendly Christmas cookie cutters, these cookies will hold up.If it's not the holiday season, you can use any kind of cookie cutter to create whatever shape you like, hearts, animals, letters, or numbers, making them perfect vegan sugar cookie for any time of year!
What I love most about these vegan sugar cookies is that they are not only great for cookie cutters, but they actually taste good.I find so many cut-out cookies are just hard and flavourless. The key that I learned from Sally's Baking Addictionis to use both vanilla extract and almond extract to really enhance the flavours. The result is sweet, light, soft, buttery, and totally addictive (Sally was right about that addiction thing).
To make perfect vegan sugar cookies:
Whisk together all of the dry ingredients.
Mix together the chia or flax with the water in a small bowl and let thicken. Then add that along with the remaining wet ingredients to a bowl, and beat the wet ingredients together until they are soft and fluffy.
Then add the wet into dry and mix until a dough is formed.
For the vegan butter, I used Earth Balance Buttery Spread, but I have found that sometimes the moisture levels in vegan butters are different, so if your dough does not come together, add up to 1 tablespoon of water until the dough just comes together.
Collect the dough into a ball, and place it between two sheets of parchment paper. Roll the dough out until it's ¼ inch thick. Put the parchment paper covered dough on a baking tray and pop it in the freezer for 15 minutes, or in the fridge for 30 minutes. This cools the dough, so the cookies are easy to cut out, and they will hold their shape in the oven.
Once cooled, remove the top piece of parchment and cut out your cookies. Re-roll the remaining dough and cut out more cookies, cooling the dough if needed. Bake the cookies until just lightly golden underneath. Let cool completely before icing.
To make the icing, mix together the powdered sugar and 2 teaspoons of plant-based milk or water. Add more liquid as needed until desired consistency is reached. Mix in vegan food colouring as desired.
Use a piping bag or a plastic bag with the corner cut off to decorate your cookiesas you like! Have fun 🙂
ICING TIPS:
- For an extra white icing, I find using full-fat coconut milk as the liquid in the icing works best.
- The icing recipe makes enough to lightly decorate the cookies. If you want to heavily decorate them (like I did), double the recipe.
- Try not to eat them all before you finished icing them!
Common Questions:
- What food coloring is vegan? Most food coloring listed as "natural" is vegan because they are derived from plants. There is an exception though: carmine. Carmine is not vegan as it contains "cochineal", which is derived from bugs. Be sure to read and research the ingredients list before purchasing just to be safe 🙂
- Can I freeze sugar cookies? Yes. The best way to freeze sugar cookies is to wait form them to thaw, then either freeze them wrapped on a baking sheet in a single layer, or in an air-tight container. If stored in the freezer correctly, they should last for about 3 months.
- Are these sugar cookies gluten-free? Unfortunately, this is not as it recipe contains all-purpose flour.
If you try this recipe let us know by leaving a comment, rating it, and don't forget to tag @itdoesnttastelikechicken on Instagram.
Bon appetegan!
Sam Turnbull.
4.98 from 108 votes
(click stars to vote)
Perfect Vegan Sugar Cookies
Easy to make cut-out cookies that taste great! Perfect for any occasion. The holidays, Christmas, Valentines, or anytime you might want to decorate a cookie! A fun activity for kids.
Lightly adapted from Sally's Baking Addiction: Soft Cut-Out Sugar Cookies
Prep: 30 minutes mins
Cook: 11 minutes mins
Total: 41 minutes mins
Prep: 30 minutes mins
Cook: 11 minutes mins
Total: 41 minutes mins
Servings: 24 cookies (approximately)
PRINT PIN COMMENT
Ingredients
Dry ingredients:
- 2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
Wet ingredients:
- 1 tablespoons ground chia or ground flax
- 3 tablespoons water
- ¾ cup vegan butter
- ¾ cup white sugar
- 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon almond extract
Icing:
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 2-4 teaspoons plant-based milk or water
- A few drops of food colouring, (optional)
US Customary - Metric
Instructions
To make vegan sugar cookies:
Preheat oven to 350F (180C).
In a large bowl mix together all the dry ingredients.
In a small bowl, mix together the flax or chia, and the water and set aside to thicken which will be almost instant if using chia, but take about 10 minutes if using flax.
In a third bowl beat the vegan butter and sugar together until creamy, about 3 minutes. Add the remaining wet ingredients including the flax or chia mixture, and mix well. Add the wet mixture into dry and combine until a dough is formed. I used Earth Balance vegan butter, but I have found that sometimes the moisture levels in vegan butters are different, so if your dough does not come together, add up to 1 tablespoon of water until the dough just comes together.
Put the dough between two sheets of parchment paper and roll it out to about ¼ inch thick. Now pop it onto a baking tray and chill the rolled dough in the freezer for 15 minutes or in the fridge for 30 minutes. Once chilled, cut your cookie shapes and lay them on the parchment lined cookie sheet. Re-roll remaining dough until it’s all used up, chilling in between if needed. Bake 8 - 11 minutes.
To make the icing:
Add the powdered sugar, 2 teaspoons of plant-based milk or water, and food colouring if using, to a bowl. Mix together. Add 1 to 2 teaspoons more plant-based milk or water if needed to reach desired consistency. Let cookies cool completely before decorating.
Notes
ICING TIPS:
- For an extra white icing, I find using full-fat coconut milk as the liquid in the icing works best.
- The icing recipe makes enough to lightly decorate the cookies. If you want to heavily decorate them (like I did), double the recipe.
- Try not to eat them all before you finished icing them!
Nutrition
Serving: 1cookie (recipe makes 24) | Calories: 131kcal | Carbohydrates: 20g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 5g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Sodium: 71mg | Potassium: 25mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 11g | Vitamin A: 270IU | Calcium: 9mg | Iron: 1mg
Did You Make This Recipe?Tag @itdoesnttastelikechicken on Insta and let the world see just how amazing plant-based creations can be!
Author: Sam Turnbull
Cuisine: American, Canadian
Course: Dessert
Author: Sam Turnbull
Cuisine: American, Canadian
Course: Dessert
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Reader Interactions
Comments
Jess says
Giving 5 stars because these biscuits are delicious! But a warning- I had used unicorn, koala and bear cutters and the cookies did spread a bit. The bear was fine but the unicorn was unusable as the horn spread too much.Reply
Emily says
Made these for Christmas, and they turned out amazing! These will definitely be made year round.Reply
Jess @ IDTLC Support says
Fantastic! So many uses for them all year, that's for sure!
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Heather says
Thank you for a wonderful recipe! I used ground chia seeds and the dough was nice and pliable after rolling and chilling--perfect for cookie cutters! I cooked them for a few minutes longer than instructed because they didn't seem quite done yet. Flavour was great, huge hit with the kiddos!Reply
Jess @ IDTLC Support says
Wonderful! We hope you had fun making cookies. 🙂
Reply
Ron says
These cookies are amazing! Perfect for a special time to bake with the grandkidsReply
Sam Turnbull says
So happy you love them Ron!
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Paige says
just sub GF 1:1 flour for amazing GF/Vegan cookies, this is my go to recipe every year as a gluten free person!
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Joanne says
I will definitely try this. I also just made the gingerbread cookie recipe which came out amazing. The flavor is a blast to the taste buds.
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Christiane says
So tasty! They keep their shape too. Definitely a recipe I will use often.Reply
Mary owen says
Growing up, my mom made fruit pizza for us on special occasions. Once I developed allergies 8 years ago, I realized I could no longer eat or make it, until THIS recipe came along. It made the perfect crust and with your vegan cream cheese recipe, I made the TASTIEST fruit pizza! Thank you!!
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Lyndsey says
Would this recipe work if I used an actual egg instead of using the ground flax/quinoa? I'm not vegan but do need a dairy free recipe. Thanks!
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SD says
Thank you for this recipe. We love these cookies! I will double the recipe next time because the cookie cutters I use are on the bigger side, and we got around 16 cookies. We like our sugar cookies thin and crunchy, so I rolled them thinner and baked them a little longer. Also, I don't have a lot of refrigerator space, so I made a few dough balls in the bowl and refrigerated them. Only used one ball at a time and kept the rest in frig. Used a little bit of flour on the bottom piece of parchment paper when rolling them out which helped me get the cookie off a little easier. Saw someone mention cutting down a little on the almond extract as a matter of preference, and I think I'll try that as well. The icing recipe is perfect. Tried it with both canned coconut milk and flaxseed milk. Both are great for these cookies.Reply
Sarah says
I don't want to give this a bad rating but I followed the recipe and the dough came out very soft (like the consistency of buttercream icing). I am chilling it currently hoping maybe that might help but I am thinking that if I bake it I will have a cookie puddle. What did I do wrong??
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Sarah says
I wanted to update. Even after chilling the dough was still soft but much improved. I thought it was too soft to use cookie cutters. Upon cooking the dough, the cookies were delicious! So I am updating my rating to 4 stars.....just don't know why my dough was so soft but it was still delicious so I will likely be making it again. I may try a little less almond extract next time (my personal preference), maybe sub a little with lemon or orange extract....sounds yummy! Thank you for the recipe!Reply
Kim says
So I agree with you on the consistency. Though I made this dough a second time as I forgot I had made it previously. This time I used ground chia seed, I was out of flax, and they were so much better. The cookies held up and I was able to ice them and put them in cute bags!! I happened to make them a third time yesterday, as I had forgotten I made them the first time, and used flax (only change) and again they were really soft. The dough was really soft, even after freezing. Maybe try this, the flavor didn’t change, just the consistency.
Bianca says
Maybe it's the butter? Some brands, like Becel Vegan, are extremely soft. Don't think they work for this.
I used the same brand as Sam and it worked out perfectly! Not soft at all... I could even use a stamp to write things on my cookies.Reply
Savannah says
This has been our family go-to recipe for a few years now. Our 4th Christmas, I believe! Vegans and non-vegans in our family love them! We even use the icing recipe and love it!Reply
Sam Turnbull says
Wonderful! So happy it's a fave 🙂
Reply
Alissa says
Made this recipe tonight and it turned out great. So happy I found a ‘go to’ sugar cookie recipe. I also substituted the flax/chia seeds for 3 tablespoons of Just Egg.Reply
Lindsy says
Hello!! Can I omit the almond extract or substitute with anything? It’s the only ingredient I don’t have!
Reply
Samantha Chen says
I have used this recipe to make spiral minty Christmas cookies. Of course if using something as potent as mint, use a smaller amount and build up, but I have subbed it for only vanilla with equal success. I know you asked this 2 years ago, but I hope you see this and it helps.
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Lindsy says
Thanks! I actually left it out and it was just fine! This year I have almond extract so I’ll try it with!
Paige says
I made these day before yesterday, to give some Halloween treats as gifts. I followed the recipe exactly, and they came out just perfectly. For my first batch, I just sprinkled some colored sugar on before they went in the oven, and the result was as delicious as any sugar cookies I remember from before I was vegan. I got a little braver with the next batch, and made aquafaba icing, and everyone I’ve given them as gifts to loves them. Thank you for another dependable recipe! (I was out of Earth balance, so I used Country Crock sticks made from olive oil this time, in case that helps anyone else). Happy Fall!Reply
Lisa says
I've made these several times and they always turn out perfect. My 7 year old hates any cookies with chocolate in them, so I was looking for recipes that are chocolate free for him. We found this recipe, and now these are his FAVOURITE cookies ever!! We use dinosaur cookie cutters, and the dough holds up and keeps the Dino shapes well. I've also made these for my kids friends, and they all love them too. Kid approved! 🙂Reply
Leigh says
Thank you for this wonderful recipe! Everyone loved the cookies and I was proud of how perfect they looked. I followed your cookie and glaze recipes and used a squeeze bottle for the first time to decorate. Wish I had pics to share!Reply
Sherry says
I’ve made these a few times and they work out well- definitely recommend! Perfect for vegans and non-vegans!Reply
Jenna says
i'm just laughing at the comment that said they tried the recipe SEVEN times and hated it. like if it didn't work the first couple times, why wouldn't you just find a new recipe?? lol
I thought they turned out good for me though.
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Sandra P says
I just made these and they came out perfectly! They're delicious- aromatic and sweet, but not overly so as store-bought sometimes are. I refrigerated mine for a full 30 minutes and used the Earth balance unsalted buttery sticks (and flax, not chia). I'm also at 5k feet and needed no adjustments, if that's helpful to anyone. Mine held together well. Thank you- can't wait for your new cookbook!Reply
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