Vegan Pumpkin Sugar Cookies
Easy and delicious vegan pumpkin sugar cookies with a simple vanilla icing! Completely gluten free and dairy free, these cookies are fun to make and perfect for the holidays!
It’s almost cookie season over here, but I’m still hanging on to all things pumpkin (I mean, it’s technically in season until, like, January, right??).
I’ve been dreaming of making a spicier cookie for a while. Don’t get me wrong, I love my vegan snickerdoodle recipe. It really is the best snickerdoodle recipe you’ll ever make.
But I just love pumpkin sooooo I did some testing and these vegan pumpkin sugar cookies were born!
You’re going to love them.
Soft and chewy and sweet, with that beautiful hint of pumpkin spice goodness (not to mention, the benefit of having real pumpkin in there!).
Let me just say that it was hard enough for me to photograph these cookies while eating them…let alone my entire family barging into the set up, trying to sneak a bite!
Like hold on, we can only have one bite shot here 😉 Okay, maybe two!
So without further ado, let’s go over how to make these vegan gluten free pumpkin cookies (and make them taste anything but!)!
Then we’ll go over how to decorate pumpkin shaped cookies and extra tips and tricks for making them 🙂
Making vegan pumpkin sugar cookies
What I love about these pumpkin shaped cookies is that they’re incredibly easy to make, made with simple ingredients, and they whole family will keep going back for more!
I mean, I’m just speaking from experience!
To start, let’s gather our ingredients. For these gluten free pumpkin cookies (which you don’t have to make them gluten free, but you’ll see later!), you’ll need:
- Pumpkin puree
- Gluten free 1-to-1 baking flour (or all-purpose or cassava flour)
- Vegan butter or coconut oil
- Coconut sugar (or regular sugar)
- Vanilla
- Pumpkin pie spice
- Arrowroot powder (or cornstarch)
Now you might be wondering why I chose to use arrowroot powder in here. I found that while testing, arrowroot gave the pumpkin sugar cookies a little more chewiness and did a good job at holding everything together, much like an egg or applesauce would do in another cookie recipe.
I wanted to keep these ingredients simple and friendly to all, so if you don’t feel like using arrowroot powder, don’t sweat it! Simply use cornstarch, and you’ll get that same texture. But I definitely don’t recommend omitting it- your gluten free pumpkin cookies will be wayyyyy more crumbly than soft and chewy, as any cookie should be.
Next, you just make these cookies as you would any other cookie! First start by whisking together the dry ingredients: flour, sugar, spice, and arrowroot powder.
Then fold in the wet, and chill the dough for 30 minutes. Roll it out, cut out the shapes, and bake!
Easy, right?
How to decorate pumpkin shaped cookies
I opted for just a simple icing for these pumpkin cookies! But you could really decorate them any way that you want. For the icing that I used, all you need to do is the following:
- Add 2-3 tablespoons of almond or coconut milk to 2-3 cups of powdered sugar.
- Whisk it together using a spoon until it’s a thick icing. If it’s too drippy, just add more powdered sugar! You want it to be stiff enough that when you pipe it, it won’t spread.
- Spoon into an icing bag and pipe your design!
Now, you can ice them as pumpkins, like I did. Or you can turn these vegan pumpkin cookies into fun jack ‘o lanterns! You can also ice the entire pumpkin sugar cookie with icing and sprinkle colored sugar on top in any design that you want 🙂
Pumpkin Sugar Cookie Tips & Tricks:
- For a thicker cookie, don’t roll the dough out so thin! For thinner cookies, roll it out thin 🙂
- If you want a more orange cookie than brown, use regular sugar!
- These pumpkin sugar cookies store at room temperature for up to a week, and store in the fridge for 2-3 weeks.
- For piping tips and bags, I recommend using a Wilton writing tips. Those are the easiest for making clean lines!
- Store these gluten free pumpkin cookies in the freezer for a crunchier cookie- that one is my mom’s tip, she loves sugar cookies from the freezer haha!
I hope you love these pumpkin sugar cookies as much as I do! They’re so fun to make for kids and adults alike, and they’re great for getting in the holiday spirit!
If you try these cookies out, be sure to let me know how they go in the comments below (as well as any questions I didn’t answer!)! As always, I love seeing your beautiful creations on Instagram and Pinterest, so be sure to tag me there as well so I can share them with the community!
Happy cookie decorating!
More healthy cookie recipes you’ll love:
The BEST Snickerdoodle Cookies
Peanut Butter Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
Want to save this recipe for later? Add it to your favorite recipe board on Pinterest!
Vegan Pumpkin Sugar Cookies
- Prep Time: 5
- Cook Time: 7
- Total Time: 12 minutes
- Yield: 22 1x
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
Easy and delicious vegan pumpkin sugar cookies with a simple vanilla icing! Completely gluten free and dairy free, these cookies are fun to make and perfect for the holidays!
Ingredients
Pumpkin Sugar Cookies
- 1 1/2 cups gluten free 1-to-1 baking flour (swap in all-purpose flour for regular and cassava flour for Paleo, at equal ratios)
- 1/2 cup vegan butter or coconut oil, softened to room temperature
- 1/2 cup pumpkin puree
- 3/4 cup coconut sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tbsp pumpkin pie spice
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 3 tbsp arrowroot powder
Icing:
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 2–3 tbsp almond or coconut milk
Instructions
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, spices, sugar, and arrowroot powder.
- Fold in the remaining wet ingredients and mix until it’s a thick and consistent dough.
- Shape the dough into a flat and thick disk, wrap it with plastic wrap or parchment paper, and place it into the fridge to chill for 30 minutes.
- When the dough is ready, roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface and with a floured rolling pin until it’s about 1/4 of an inch thick.
- Use the pumpkin cookie cutter to cut pumpkin shaped cookies, and place them onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
- Place the cookies into the fridge again to chill while the oven preheats to 350F.
- Place the cookies into the oven and bake for 7-9 minutes, or until set.
- Remove and let cool for 20-30 minutes before icing.
- To make the icing, whisk together the powdered sugar and dairy free milk until thick. It should not be runny.
- Spoon the icing into the piping bags and pipe your designs.
- Enjoy!
Are there any other paleo flours that would work with this recipe?!
Hi Hannah! So I haven’t tried any other Paleo flours with this (i.e. coconut flour/almond flour combo), but one person told me that using Bob’s Red Mill Paleo baking mix is pretty 1-to-1 on several of my other recipes, so I would imagine it would work here as well, but I can’t guarantee it!
Oh these are just so elegant yet comforting! I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of those fall flavors 🙂 De-lish!!
Aw I’m so happy to hear it!! Enjoy, these are some of my FAVE!
These cookies look so cute and delicious. Pinning the recipe to make with my kiddos.
Aw thank you so so much, Adree! I hope your kiddos love them! 🙂
I just made these with my kids in bat shapes for my daughter’s day care Halloween party! However, they’re a very light color. Why is that? The only thing I didn’t stick to exactly was the arrow root (used corn starch) and I used regular flour.
Aw how fun!! That’s wonderful! I’m wondering, did you use granulated sugar instead of coconut sugar? Anytime I make a pumpkin recipe with granulated sugar over coconut sugar, it’s much lighter in color! That would definitely have an effect in these cookies!
Yummy and easy! Perfect to put my pumpkin cookie cutter to use. I used all-purpose flour, cornstarch, and regular sugar. They came out pretty orange. I omitted the icing. The thinner cookies are chewier and the thicker ones are more firm. Both good! I warm them up in my toaster oven before eating.