Description
If you love the Pillsbury Christmas slice and bake cookies as much as I do, then you need to try these unbelievably vegan holiday slice and bake cookies. Based on my copycat Pillsbury pumpkin cookies, they taste *identical* to the store bought classic, and are super easy to make in just 6 simple ingredients!
Ingredients
Scale
Pillsbury cookie dough:
- 1 cup (226 g) vegan butter, room temperature
- 2 cups (240 g) organic powdered sugar
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp sea salt
- 2 1/2 cups (313 g) all purpose flour*
- 1–2 tbsp dairy free milk
Vegan Food Coloring:
- vegan red food coloring*
- vegan green food coloring
- vegan brown food coloring
- vegan blue food coloring
- vegan black food coloring
Equipment:
- 1.5″ holiday cookie cutters
- large bowl
- 4 small bowls
- Whisk or hand mixer
- Silicone spatula
- Plastic wrap or parchment paper
Instructions
- Prep: Measure out all ingredients, except for the food coloring. Read through all instructions before beginning. If you don’t have a holiday cookie cutters, see below instructions for different designs that don’t require a cookie cutter, as well as reading the blog post. Decide whether you’re making 1 design or more. The below instructions are for 4 designs.
- Make the dough: In a large bowl, use a whisk or hand mixer to cream the vegan butter until fluffy, about 1-2 minutes. Then add in the powdered sugar, vanilla extract, baking powder, and sea salt, and mix again until well combined. It will resemble a buttercream frosting. Then add in the flour, followed by 1 tablespoon dairy free milk. Use a silicone spatula to fold the flour into the wet ingredients, adding another tablespoon of dairy free milk only if you really need it. The flour will take a bit of work to fully incorporate, and that’s okay/normal. It will come together.
- Color the dough: To make 4 designs, you’ll follow the written design for dividing the dough into quarters and then further dividing each quarter of dough. If you’d like to make just one design, divide the dough into thirds. Color the dough accordingly:
- Gingerbread people: To the bowl with a quarter dough, remove 2 thirds of that portion to keep plain to go around the gingerbread cut out. Then color that remaining third brown for the gingerbread cookies.
- Christmas trees: Take your quarter of the dough and divide it into thirds. Take 2 thirds of that dough and leave it plain. Then take the remaining third, and remove 1/4 of the dough from that portion. Color the 1/4 portion brown for the trunk. Then color the remaining dough green.
- Snowman: Take your quarter of the dough, and divide it into thirds. Take 2 thirds of the dough and color it blue. Take the remaining third and remove 3/4 of that portion to remain white for the snowman. Color the 1/4 of that portion black for the hat.
- Stocking: Take your quarter of dough, and divide it into thirds. Take 2 thirds of the dough, and color it green. Then take the remaining third, and remove about 1/4 of that portion to remain that plain white color. Color the remaining red for the stocking.
- Wrap and chill the cookie dough: Wrap each cookie dough in separate plastic wrapped discs. Place the cookie dough into the fridge to chill for 2 hours.
- Form the cut outs: Remove all cookie dough from the fridge. For the gingerbread and christmas tree, you’ll use the cookie cutters. For the snowman and the stocking, you’ll form them yourself.
- Gingerbread: For the gingerbread, we’ll form a log to use our 1.5″ cookie cutter about 1.5″ wide and 1 1/4″ in height (about 10-12 inches in length). It will look long and semi-flat. Use a rolling pin to roll the top to get it smooth (see video here). Take the gingerbread cookie cutter and cut the gingerbread cookies out of the log. Place each gingerbread cookie stacked on top of each other (either stacked up tall or lengthwise, lining up- see photos in blog or video). Any scraps, you can reform into a smaller log, and begin cutting again. Once the cookie dough is used up, carefully wrap the log of gingerbread cookie cut outs in one of the plastic wrap pieces, and place into the freezer to chill for 20 minutes.
- Christmas tree: For the Christmas tree, we’ll form a log to use our 1.5″ cookie cutter about 1.5″ wide and 1 1/4″ in height (about 10-12 inches in length. Take the green cookie dough and shape it into a long log that’s about 1/2″ wide and 1 1/4″ in height (about 10-12 inches in length).It will look long and semi-flat. Use a rolling pin to roll the top to get it smooth (see video here). Then take the brown, and shape the cookie dough into a long log again that’s about 1/2″ thick, and this time, about 1/4-1/2″ in height (about 10-12 inches in length). Line up the green cookie dough along the brown cookie dough, so you have one large log with green and brown cookie dough. Take the Christmas tree cookie cutter and cut the tree cookies out of the log. Place each tree cookie stacked on top of each other (either stacked up tall or lengthwise, lining up- see photos in blog or video). Any scraps, you can reform into a smaller log, and begin cutting again. Once the cookie dough is used up, carefully wrap the log of tree cookie cut outs in one of the plastic wrap pieces, and place into the freezer to chill for 20 minutes.
- Roll out the vanilla cookie dough: While the shaped cookies are chilling and setting together, we’ll roll out the vanilla cookie dough or the encompassing colored dough (as for the snowman and the stocking). Lay the plastic wrap from the vanilla cookie dough flat. You can take one of the extra plastic wrap pieces from the remaining cookie dough discs and place it on top to roll out the vanilla cookie dough. If doing one design, you’ll roll the dough to be about 12″ by 4-5″ long. If doing two designs, the dough should be about 4″ by 4-5″ long. Remove the top plastic wrap piece and discard. We’re going to slice the cookie dough a bit to help mold the pumpkin cookies perfectly into the vanilla.
- Finish shaping the Pillsbury sugar cookies: Remove the shaped sugar cookies from the freezer, and place the log onto the rolled cookie dough right in the middle, aligning the length of the log with the length of the rolled out cookie dough. Pick up each side of the rolled cookie dough, and practice wrap the shaped cookies, seeing where the dough will overlap. Then use a sharp knife, and slice off the overlapping pieces. Take those pieces and roll them to be two long 12″ logs. Place those logs on either side of parts of the design that need protecting of their integrity. Press them into the shaped cookies to shape the cookies into one large cylinder (so that the stem’s integrity is maintained when we roll it into one large cookie dough log). Then wrap the cookie dough over the shaped sugar cookies, gently rolling the log so that the vanilla cookie dough presses into the shaped cookies and forms one large log. Wrap the log again in plastic wrap and chill for 30 minutes to 1 hour in the fridge. It’s even better to slice if chilled overnight
- While the dough is chilling: Preheat the oven to 375, and line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Slice the cookies: Remove the cookie dough from the fridge, and slice the cookie log into 1/4″-1/3″ thick cookie slices. Place the cookies onto the baking sheets, spacing them about 2″ apart.
- Bake: Place the cookie sheets into the oven to bake for 12-14 minutes, or until the edges of the cookie dough are slightly golden. Remove the cookies from the oven, and allow them to cool for 5-10 minutes before enjoying.
- Enjoy! Enjoy your copycat Pillsbury holiday sugar cookies, and store any leftover dough for up to 2 weeks well wrapped in the fridge or 3 months frozen in the freezer!
Notes
Gluten free: Swap in King Arthur Measure for Measure gluten free flour for gluten free.
Please read the entire blog post for full tips and tricks!
