Healthy Pumpkin Sugar Cookies (Vegan)
These cute and easy vegan pumpkin sugar cookies are perfect for any Halloween party! Decorated like a jack-o-lantern, these healthy pumpkin cookies are dairy free, gluten free, nut free, and egg free!
The best Healthy Halloween Sugar Cookies
I know many people wait until October 1st to start getting into the Halloween season, but let’s be honest: I get ready starting September 1st!
These healthy pumpkin sugar cookies are the perfect way to kick off your fall season. I’ve been working on these healthier Halloween sugar cookies since the start of the month, and I’m so excited for you to finally try them!
These pumpkin cookies are full of pumpkin spice, have that nice “chewy” texture that you get with snickerdoodle cookies, and have that wonderful subtle vanilla and almond sweetness that you get with a classic sugar cookie cut out.
You really get the best of all worlds with these easy pumpkin cookies! Plus, you can decorate them like jack-o-lantern cookies, like I did, for a fun and special vegan Halloween dessert!
How to make healthy pumpkin sugar cookies
To make these healthy pumpkin cookies, the process will be similar to making any other sugar cookie cut out dough!
We’ll first start by making the pumpkin sugar cookie dough, shaping them into pumpkins using a pumpkin cookie cutter, bake them, and then finally we can frost our pumpkin shaped cookies.
The full instructions to making these Halloween sugar cookies is down below in the recipe card, but here are a few baking tips:
- When making the dough: make sure that the vegan butter or coconut oil is softened before beginning. This will ensure that the sugar will cream into the fat easier, which will make for a more evenly baked pumpkin sugar cookie.
- Use a pumpkin shaped cookie cutter: this pumpkin cookie cutter is the exact one I used, but you can also make them into ghosts, cats, spiders, or any other Halloween shape!
- Need to make these nut-free? Simply omit the almond extract and use coconut oil instead of vegan butter (although some vegan butters are nut-free, they’ll just contain soy though instead).
- The dough might seem hard to mix at first: don’t worry! This might be because the coconut oil wasn’t softened enough. Keep mixing it and the coconut oil will begin to soften and fully mix. You can safely add in 1 tbsp of dairy free milk if the dough is really not mixing.
- Don’t skip the arrowroot powder nor the cream of tartar: this is what makes the cookies so wonderful! The cream of tartar almost makes these vegan pumpkin sugar cookies like a Lofthouse cookie, and the arrowroot powder gives them a bit of chewiness.
Vegan cookie icing
I like to use a simple cookie icing of just powdered sugar and dairy-free milk. You can just mix a few tablespoons of dairy-free milk into the powdered sugar and it will become a thick and spreadable icing.
I have tried making a vegan royal icing using aquafaba and powdered sugar, but in a pinch, I use just powdered sugar and dairy-free milk.
Vegan pumpkin cookie tips:
Of course I have some final cookie baking tips for you! To make sure that these Halloween pumpkin cookies come out the best they can be, here are a few of my favorite tips:
- Don’t ice the pumpkin cookies until they’re fully cool: otherwise the icing will just melt off. If you need to speed up the cooling process after baking, allow the vegan pumpkin cookies to sit at room temperature for 10 minutes, then place them in the freezer for another 10 minutes. The middles should be completely cool.
- Use melted chocolate for the eyes: since most black food coloring is not vegan (I haven’t been able to find any, but if you know of a vegan black food coloring, please let me know down below in the comments section!), I like to use vegan dark chocolate for the eyes! You can melt it and use a toothpick to design the eyes.
- For vegan food coloring: I prefer to use turmeric powder and beet powder to make the orange because I think it’s a richer color, but you can also use a vegan red food coloring (those I have been able to find at Whole Foods!) and a yellow food coloring. For the stem, you can make it green or you can make it brown!
- Allow the icing to set for 20-30 minutes! Don’t rush this step, or else the cookies could end up damaged!
The perfect Halloween sugar cookies for your Halloween party!
I hope you love these vegan pumpkin sugar cookies as much as I do! They’re truly perfect if you’re doing a special Halloween get-together this year or you want to make the spooky season a bit more special.
These healthier pumpkin cookies are perfect for all ages and great if there are any allergies as they are dairy free, egg free, gluten free, and can be nut free!
I hope you love these healthy pumpkin cookies as much as I do! If you make them, let me know down below in the comments section below, as well as giving them a rating for how they went for you.
As always, I absolutely love to see your beautiful creations on Instagram and Pinterest, so be sure to tag me there!
Happy Pumpkin Sugar Cookie Decorating!
Want to save this recipe for later? Add it to your favorite recipe board on Pinterest!
Healthy Pumpkin Sugar Cookies (Vegan)
- Prep Time: 30
- Cook Time: 11
- Total Time: 41 minutes
- Yield: 10 1x
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
- Diet: Vegan
Description
These cute and easy vegan pumpkin sugar cookies are perfect for any Halloween party! Decorated like a jack-o-lantern, these healthy pumpkin cookies are dairy free, gluten free, nut free, and egg free!
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup vegan butter or coconut oil, softened
- 1/2 cup coconut sugar
- 1 tbsp pumpkin puree
- 1 tbsp ground flaxseed mixed with 3 tbsp water (let sit for 5 minutes)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp almond extract (omit if nut-free)
- 1 tbsp pumpkin pie spice
- 1/2 tbsp arrowroot powder
- 1/4 tsp cream of tartar
- 1 cup all purpose flour or gluten free 1:1 baking flour
Cookie Icing:
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 2–3 tbsp dairy free milk
- Vegan food coloring (I used turmeric powder and beet powder to make the orange, a vegan green food dye for the green, and melted chocolate for the eyes and mouth).
Instructions
- In a large bowl, use a hand mixer to beat together the vegan butter/coconut oil, coconut sugar, pumpkin puree, flaxseed mixture, vanilla extract, and almond extract until it’s a consistently mixture.
- Add in the pumpkin pie spice, arrowroot powder, and cream of tartar, and beat again until consistently mixed throughout.
- Sift in the flour, and use a rubber spatula to fold the flour into the wet mixture. It will form a thick dough after a few minutes. It might seem a bit dry at first, but keep mixing until the flour is completely mixed in.
- Form the dough into a flat disk and wrap in plastic wrap. Place the disk into the fridge to chill for 15-20 minutes. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper as well.
- Remove the cookie dough from the fridge and lightly flour another piece of parchment paper, as well as the disk and your rolling pin. Roll the dough out to be about 1/2″ thick and use your pumpkin sugar cookie cutter to cut several cookie shapes, carefully removing the scraps of dough (to be re-rolled for the remaining cookies). Carefully transfer the cookies to the parchment paper lined baking sheet using a spatula and repeat until there is no more dough left.
- Place the cookies back into the fridge to chill while you preheat the oven to 350F. Once the oven is preheated, place the cookies into the oven to bake for 10-11 minutes (they will be completely set and slightly tan in color). Remove from the oven and allow the cookies to fully cool before frosting.
- When ready to frost, make the icing by mixing together the powdered sugar and dairy free milk. Separate about 1/8 cup of the icing into a separate bowl and add in the green food coloring to that bowl. Add the orange food coloring to the larger amount of icing and mix.
- Spoon a small amount of icing onto a cookie and lightly spread it around to just meet the edges of the cookie. Repeat for the remaining cookies.
- Use a toothpick or a small spoon to add a dot of green food coloring to each stem, carefully spreading it upwards to cover the stem.
- For the eyes and mouth, I used melted chocolate and a toothpick. Simply melt the chocolate and carefully use the toothpick to dot and spread the melted chocolate onto the cookies.
- Let the cookies sit for 30 minutes before enjoying. You can place them in the fridge to set faster.
- Enjoy!
Notes
This is the pumpkin cookie cutter that I used, but feel free to use any Halloween shape you’d like!
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 cookie no icing
- Calories: 143
- Sugar: 9.8 g
- Sodium: 96 mg
- Fat: 5 g
- Saturated Fat: 0.9 g
- Carbohydrates: 23 g
- Fiber: 0.8 g
- Protein: 1.1 g
- Cholesterol: 0 mg
Keywords: vegan pumpkin cookies, pumpkin sugar cookies, halloween cookies, healthy pumpkin cookies
