Description
These are the absolute best vegan sugar cookies I’ve ever tasted. It’s a really simple dough and the vegan royal icing is perfect for decorating classic Christmas cookies!
Ingredients
Units
Scale
- 3/4 cup vegan butter, room temperature
- 3/4 cup sugar or coconut sugar*
- 1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce, room temperature
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp almond extract (optional, omit if nut-free)
- 2 1/4 cups all purpose flour or gluten free 1:1 baking flour*
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1 batch vegan royal icing
Instructions
- In a large bowl, cream together the vegan butter and sugar with a hand mixer or stand mixer. Cream together until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
- Once the sugar is slightly dissolved into the vegan butter, add in the applesauce, vanilla extract and almond extract if desired. Mix again until incorporated.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Preheat the oven to 350F. Once the oven is fully preheated, place the cookie sheet into the oven and bake the cookies for 7 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.
- 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.
- Allow the cookies to set for 15 minutes, then enjoy!
- 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
* For completely Paleo vegan sugar cookies, please see these Paleo Vegan Sugar Cookies.
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
Keywords: vegan sugar cookies, easy sugar cookies, vegan gluten free sugar cookies, vegan Christmas cookies