We have a brand of shortbread cookie in South Africa called ‘Eat Sum More’. Cool name right? Not vegan though, sadly.
I knew I had to nail down a good recipe for vegan shortbread cookies because shortbread is the basis of all sorts of other cool desserts that I absolutely want to make! Like vegan twix bars (update: this is now made!) and millionaire shortbread! Yum yum yum!
And this folks – is it! This small batch recipe for vegan shortbread cookies is the bomb diggity.
I love that it’s a small batch too because recipes that make like 3 dozen cookies are just not for me.
Considering the fact that it’s just me and Jaye and our two cat babies (who funnily enough don’t like cookies), it would be a bit crazy to go making huge batches of things.
I even got adorable heart shaped cookie cutters for the job.
On the day of baking these our air conditioner died and since it was hot as heck, this was quite a big deal.
As I was working with this cookie dough, the vegan butter that forms quite a large part of this recipe was melting inside the dough and making it really rather hard to keep the nice little heart shapes I was going for!
So if my heart shaped cookies look a little rough around the edges – this is why! It was about 100 degrees (or more) in my kitchen!
Nonetheless the end result was awesome. This recipe is super simple, being just 4 ingredients.
You simply add some flour, sugar and salt to a mixing bowl, and then you add in the vegan butter and rub it in with your fingers. Then your form it into a ball, and then flatten it out on a flour dusted surface and cut out the cookies, and then bake on low heat for 45 minutes (don’t worry, I’ll provide a few more details in the actual recipe section 
)
The result? The crunchiest, most satisfying vegan shortbread cookies. Just about 8 or 9 of them.
I think you’re going to love these shortbread cookies, they’re:
- Perfectly crunchy
- An ideal small batch
- Just 4-ingredients
- Super easy
- Insanely good!
Absolutely ideal to have with a cup of tea or coffee for an afternoon snack or as dessert.
So what do you think of these vegan shortbread cookies? Let me know in the comments and please rate the recipe too! Thank you.
For more awesome cookie recipes, check these out!
- Vegan Oatmeal Cookies
- Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Vegan Thin Mint Cookies
- Vegan Chocolate Cookies
- Vegan Peanut Butter Cookies
And loads more! Type ‘cookies’ into the search bar to find all the cookie recipes we’ve done.
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Small Batch Vegan Shortbread Cookies
- Prep Time: 15 mins
- Cook Time: 45 mins
- Total Time: 1 hour
- Yield: 9
Print Recipe
Pin RecipeDescription
Perfectly crunchy vegan shortbread cookies. This small batch recipe contains just 4-ingredients and makes 8-9 shortbread cookies. Super easy and insanely good!
Ingredients
- 1 cup (125g) All Purpose Flour
- 1/4 cup (50g) Sugar
- 1/4 tsp Salt
- 1/2 cup (112g) Vegan Butter/Margarine
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 300°F (149°C).
- Sift the flour and add it to a mixing bowl. Add the sugar and salt and mix together.
- Then add the vegan butter, rubbing it in with your fingers. It will first be crumbly and then gradually will form into cookie dough.
- Form the cookie dough into a ball and then flatten it out on a flour dusted surface and cut out some cookies. You can either use a rolling pin or your hands to flatten it out. The dough is quite fragile, so if you use a rolling pin, you can roll and sort of press at the same time. Dust the top of the dough with flour so that the rolling pin doesn’t stick. Roll the cookies in sugar and place onto a parchment lined baking tray.
- Roll the remaining dough into a ball again and flatten out again, cutting out more cookies and then repeat.
- At the end you’ll cut out your final cookie, and whatever’s left won’t be enough for a last cookie, so just roll into a small ball, roll it in sugar and add it to the baking tray as a bonus cookie.
- You should have around 8-9 cookies.
- Bake in the oven for 45 minutes.
- After 45 minutes, remove from the oven and allow them to cool for around 30 minutes before eating.
Notes
*Recipe adapted from Epicurious.
- Category: Dessert, Cookies, Baking
- Cuisine: Vegan
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 Cookie
- Calories: 124
- Sugar: 5.5g
- Sodium: 146mg
- Fat: 6g
- Saturated Fat: 1.1g
- Carbohydrates: 16.2g
- Fiber: 0.4g
- Protein: 1.4g
Keywords: vegan shortbread cookies
Hi, I made these last night with the vegan becel. The family loves them. I want to make more, can I sub with vegetable shortening?
Thanks for the great recipe!
Brittney
★★★★★
Great recipe! This is my first year making all vegan Christmas cookies and this a keeper. I doubled the recipe and baked for 40 minutes. The smaller cutouts were done after 35minutes.
★★★★★
Thanks for sharing Anne! So glad it worked out. Thanks for the wonderful review! 🙂
Hello! I can’t wait to make these! Are you using the vegan butter cold or softened? Thanks! Amy
Hi Amy, I use it straight from the fridge, since you rub it into the dough with your fingers, even if it’s very firm to start, it still works out just fine. 🙂
I used rice flour & caster sugar vegan margarine – rolled into balls did finger well & placed cherry and or chocolate chips in middle- baked only 25 minutes – Delicious!
Oh my! Every recipe you share is amazing! I just made these and yum! I had to add a smidge more butter, as my dough was a bit too dry…and they turned out amazing! Haven’t had shortbread since becoming Vegan 5 years ago, so what a treat indeed! (Only baked for about 40 mins…so keep an eye on them!) I make both your Chocolate Chip and Oatmeal Raisin cookies all the time! Thank you so much….on the the Vegan Gingerbread Cookies next! Love you!
★★★★★
Awesome! So glad you loved the cookies! Thanks so much for the amazing review! xo
Used King Arthur Unbleached all purpose flour (I store it in my fridge, so it’s usually pretty dry), Miyoko’s cultured vegan butter and Dominos fine granulated sugar. I made a big square of the dough, about half inch thick and cut into 9 squares. Pressed each individual cookie to about ⅝ thick and rounded the corners and edges. Use ⅛ teaspoon salt because butter already contains salt. Baked 45 Minutes at sea level (Savannah, GA). Perfectly crunchy all the way through. Nice thin browned crust on bottom … absolutely divine. PS. Yep, taste exactly like ‘Eat some more”! Made me miss home in SA.
★★★★★
Yay! So happy to hear they worked out great and reminded you of Eat Sum More too! Thanks so much for sharing and the wonderful review!
We made them as per the recipe and I liked them, but strangely my daughter rejected them! Not good enough for Christmas she said! Fussy pants! I used Nuttelex Buttery for the Butter substitute which worked quite well. They had a soft crumbly temperature; but I wasn’t sure how accurate the cooking time was. I am definitely going to persist with a second batch and am thinking that almond essence might enhance these enough to make the cut … I would certainly recommend these to others, as I think these are a good starting point, and then you may want to tweak them slightly as desired.
★★★★
Hahaha, well you can’t please everyone! I definitely think you could tweak them more to your liking, thanks for sharing! 🙂
¡Pura vida! Made the recipe with yuca flour and raw sugar. I baked them in a firewood stove at my volcano cabin. Served them with coconut yogurt. Loving it vegan from Costa Rica!
★★★★★
Awesome! So glad you enjoyed the recipe! Thanks for sharing and the great review! 🙂
These worked so well! I used whole wheat flour because it was what I had, which gave them a slight WeetBix-ish flavour, but not in a bad way. They disappeared immediately.
Thanks for sharing Rob! So happy they worked out well! 🙂
Can’t wait to try the cookies tonight! But more importantly… That drink in the background looks delicious, like drinkable condensed milk. Do you have a recipe for the drink? Thanks!
Hi! It’s just a glass of soy milk in the background. 🙂 But we do have a recipe for vegan condensed milk if you want to check it out. 🙂
Mine spread a lot in the oven. Is there something I could do differently please. Kind regards.
You can chill the cookies in the fridge for an hour or so before baking if you don’t want any spread. I don’t really mind if they spread so to me it’s not needed, but if you want them to hold their shape very well, then chilling the dough (after you have already cut out your cookies) is the best way to do that.
I love shortbread and buy lorna doones. I used coconut oil instead of vegan butter and they came out delicious!
★★★★
Could you use anything as a substitute for vegan butter or margarine?
★★★★★
Hi Cara, if you read the other comments, some have used coconut oil successfully. 🙂
This really works
★★★★★
Yay! Thanks Samaya! 🙂
Followed the recipe but for some reason my cookies almost burnt. They did not taste good at all. I made them a second time, this time only baking them for 30 minutes.
★★
Ovens can vary quite a lot, I would imagine that would have been the reason for the difference.
Dear Alison,
Can I baked these with a Gluten Free All Purpose Flour?
Yes! I haven’t tried it myself, but other readers have noted that it worked great with gluten-free all purpose flour. All the best! 🙂
Mine came out like something we eat here in the Philippines. We call it polvoron, but it still taste good so I guess it’s kind of a success.
★★★
If I were to add cocoa powder, would I need to reduce the amount of flour or would it not affect anything?
Depending on how much you used you might need to reduce the flour slightly to compensate. It’s not something I’ve tried with this recipe, so it would be an experiment. All the best! 🙂
Absolutely awesome recipe, thank you. I made these last night to take to work today, and they are delicious and were very popular with everyone.
★★★★★
So happy to hear that! Thanks so much Denise! 🙂
Made it for my vegan friend and she loved it! Thank you for the recipe. Going to make the peanut butter cookie next.
★★★★★
Awesome! So glad to hear that! Thanks for the great review. 🙂
Quick easy. Made it with powdered sugar, next time I’ll add a tablespoon more. Also added 1/2 tsp lemon zest and went the super easy route and just pressed it into an 8×8 pan. Very happy with the results. Thanks for the great recipe.
★★★★★
Wonderful! Thanks so much for sharing and the awesome review! 🙂