Description
These soft and buttery vegan sugar cookies easily come together with a 6 ingredient simple cookie dough that bake into the perfectly sweet, thick and chewy cut-out cookies! Perfect for decorating or enjoying with a smear of buttercream frosting- this is a tried and true family favorite recipe!
Ingredients
Scale
- 3/4 cup (185 g) unsalted vegan butter, room temperature
- 1 1/2 cup (250 g) organic powdered sugar or coconut sugar*
- 1/3 cup (87 g) dairy free yogurt, room temperature
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp almond extract (optional, omit if nut-free)
- 2 1/2 cups (315 g) all purpose flour or gluten free 1:1 baking flour*
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/8 tsp sea salt (omit if using salted butter)
- 1 batch vegan royal icing
Instructions
- Mix: In a large bowl, cream together the vegan butter and powdered sugar with a hand mixer or stand mixer. Cream together until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. It will seem very much like buttercream. Once the sugar is mixed with the vegan butter, add in the dairy free yogurt, vanilla extract and almond extract if desired. Mix again until incorporated.
- Fold: Sift in the flour, and baking powder, and use a rubber spatula to gently fold the flours into the creamed butter. This will take about 3-4 minutes to fully incorporate.
- Chill: Once the dough is made, form the dough into a flat disk and wrap with plastic wrap or parchment paper, and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes. While the dough is chilling, prepare a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Shape: Once chilled, lightly flour a clean surface as well as a rolling pin. Place the dough onto the floured surface. If the dough is not at all soft (i.e. it’s hard to touch), allow the dough to soften for 10 minutes. Then roll the dough out to be about 1/4″ thick. Use your desired cookie cutters and cut the cookie shapes into the dough. Remove any scraps and use a thin spatula to transfer the sugar cookies to the baking sheet. Repeat for the remaining dough, then chill the cookie sheet in the freezer for while the oven preheats.
- Bake: Preheat the oven to 350F. Once the oven is fully preheated, place the cookie sheet into the oven and bake the cookies for 12 minutes or until the edges are just beginning to turn lightly golden. Remove from the oven and allow the cookies to fully cool before making the vegan royal icing. There should be absolutely no warmth to the cookies.
- Make the royal icing according to the post instructions: Divide the royal icing into separate bowls if using vegan food coloring and add in the colors. Be sure to cover any bowl of icing that you’re not using with a damp paper towel. This prevents the royal icing from hardening. Mix the colors, and place the icing into a piping bag with tip. Decorate the cookies as desired.
- Set: Allow the cookies to set for 15 minutes, then enjoy!
- To fully set the cookies: Allow for 8 hours- this is standard for even royal icing made with egg whites. Store the cookies in the freezer for up to 3 months.
Notes
* coconut sugar will give these cookies a slightly tanner color. If you want traditional looking sugar cookies, use a vegan-friendly granulated sugar, such as Woodstock Organics
Flaxseed: You can swap in 2 tbsp ground flaxseed mixed with 1/3 cup water for a replacement for the applesauce/yogurt.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 cookie no icing
- Calories: 82
- Sugar: 3.6 g
- Sodium: 3.1 mg
- Fat: 4 g
- Saturated Fat: 2.1 g
- Trans Fat:
- Carbohydrates: 7.6 g
- Fiber: 0.3 g
- Protein: 1.1 g
- Cholesterol: 8.7 mg
