Description
This super fun and festive Christmas cookie tree is undetectably vegan, dairy free, and gluten free, yet makes the most elegant holiday centerpiece! Made with sugar cookies for the perfect complement to your vegan gingerbread house!
Ingredients
Scale
- 1 1/2 cup vegan butter, softened to room temperature
- 1 1/2 cup sugar or coconut sugar*
- 6 tbsp ground flaxseed with 1/3 cup water (set for 5 minutes)
- 3 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 tsp almond extract (optional, omit if nut-free)
- 6 cup all purpose flour or gluten free 1:1 baking flour*
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
Vegan buttercream:
- 1/2 cup vegan butter, softened to room temperature
- 3 cups powdered sugar
- vegan food coloring
Instructions
- In a large bowl, cream together the vegan butter and sugar with a hand mixer or stand mixer.
- Once the sugar is slightly dissolved into the vegan butter, add in the flaxseed “eggs,” vanilla extract and almond extract if desired. Beat again until incorporated.
- Sift in the almond flour, 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 two flat disks, 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 one disk of 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 the star cookie cutter set to cut two of each cookie. You should have 20 cookies total. Roll out the second disk when you need more dough.
- Carefully place all cookies onto 3 baking sheets lined with parchment paper. Try to place the larger cookies together on one baking sheet and the smaller ones on another. This is because the different sized cookies will bake at different times. Place them into the fridge or freezer to chill for 10-20 minutes (shorter for the freezer).
- While the cookies are chilling, preheat the oven to 375F.
- Once the cookies have chilled, bake the cookies in the oven. The smaller cookies will need about 8-10 minutes (or until lightly golden on the edges) and the large cookies will need about 15 minutes (or until edges are lightly golden.
- Remove from the oven and allow the cookies to fully cool before assembling.
- Once ready to assemble, prepare the vegan buttercream. Beat together the vegan butter with a hand mixer or stand mixer until fluffy. Then, sift in the powdered sugar as you continue to cream the butter. Once the powdered sugar is fully incorporated (use the dairy free milk here if you need help achieving a creamy consistency), add in the vegan green food coloring and cream until the color is fully mixed.
- Spoon the frosting into a piping bag with a star tip (I used a Wilton #30).
- Assembly: place the largest star on the bottom and pipe a dot into the middle. Place the second largest star on top, and place another dot. Repeat this process, going from largest to smallest stars, saving the smallest star for the star on top of the tree. With the remaining green frosting, pipe little dots on each star tip around the cookie tree.
- For the smallest star as the tree topper, you can make a simple glaze and pipe a design on top, then place the star on top.
- Dust with powdered sugar and enjoy! Store in the fridge or freezer for a holiday centerpiece.
Notes
Recommended Equipment:
* 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
* If you’re nut-free or prefer not to use almond flour, you can simply swap in another cup of all purpose or gluten free 1:1 baking flour
* For completely Paleo vegan sugar cookies, please see these Paleo Vegan Sugar Cookies.