Colorful and fun vegan sugar cookies. These soft and chewy sugar cookies are super easy and perfect for any occasion.
You know, I love simple recipes. Whenever I consider any recipe, the first thing I’m thinking of is what ingredients I can remove and how I can simplify it.
When it comes to these vegan sugar cookies, I wanted to make the easiest version I could think of.
And this is it!
Even the frosting decoration is so simple it’s ridiculous.
Sugar cookies are usually soft cookies and these are no exception. But if you prefer more crunch to your cookies, then just bake them a few minutes longer.
Almond Extract
Sugar cookies also often use a little almond extract, just a touch, to bring out the flavors and add just a little hint of something extra.
However, if you use too much you will get a bit of a marzipan vibe. And if you’re not a fan of the marzipan, you will not be charmed.
In fact, even if you use the exact right amount of almond extract there might still be the faintest hint of marzipan that comes through. So again, if you don’t like marzipan, I would just leave this ingredient out.
For everyone else who is happy for that slightest of slightest hints of marzipan to come through, carry right on.
Decorating Frosting
The decorating frosting is just an easy mix of powdered sugar, non-dairy milk and vanilla. I separated it into two bowls and added a drop of food coloring (red and blue) to each.
I used so little that the red food coloring colored the frosting pink instead of red and I was pretty fond of the pink and blue vibe.
This is definitely an occasion where you could use a few drops of beet juice for a natural food coloring if you don’t want to use regular food dye. But of course that will only work for the pink and not the blue. But in that case you could just do pink and white instead.
This kind of frosting is a decorating only frosting, I didn’t add any vegan butter to it, so it ends up with a very gluey kind of texture. It’s not the easily spreadable texture of a regular frosting. It’s perfect for decorating though as it dries quickly and it stays in place. It’s the same frosting I used to paint the eyes and mouths on my vegan gingerbread cookies.
Want To Frost The Whole Cookie?
Sometimes you want to frost your sugar cookies completely, and not just do a decorating drizzle, and if that is the case, then I would suggest you use the frosting from our vegan chocolate sugar cookies.
We frosted those completely, and added decorating sprinkles, and that was fun! And looked cute, if a little messy. Decorating things is not one of my strengths.
So you can do the same with these, frost them completely using that frosting recipe and then add sprinkles and decorations and anything you like!
Tips For The Best Vegan Sugar Cookies
Measure the flour correctly. It’s definitely a good idea to weigh your flour so you make sure you use the right amount.
Flour is a tricky measure to get perfectly accurate so either weigh it, or use the spoon and level method (the correct method for measuring flour when using cups). Spoon the flour into your measuring cup and then level it off with a knife. Don’t scoop it and don’t pack it into the cup.
The cookies puff up a little when baked. You can see this in the pictures above with our before baking and after baking shot. They do puff up a little.
So if you need this to NOT happen, like if you are making very precise shapes and can’t have them puff much (or at all), then cut out the shapes as normal and place onto your parchment lined tray. Then place the whole tray into the freezer for 15 minutes. Then bake them as usual. This prevents them from puffing up when baking.
Recipe FAQ
Can I make these gluten-free? I haven’t tried with these particular cookies, but I have made certain other of my cookie recipes gluten-free with just a simple swap from regular all purpose flour to a gluten-free all purpose flour blend. And it generally works great.
What can I use instead of vegan butter? We have had readers comment that they used coconut oil and it worked well. You could also try making your own homemade vegan butter. I have used that successfully in a couple of my other cookie recipes.
What can I use instead of the almond extract? You can just leave it out.
Can I make these in advance? Sure, you can make up the dough and then leave it in the fridge for 3 days and then roll out as normal and cut out your cookies. You can also freeze the dough and then let it thaw overnight in the fridge and then use it as normal.
Storing and Freezing
Keep your cookies stored in a sealed container at room temperature for up to a week. They can also be stored in the fridge.
They are freezer friendly for up to 3 months. The cookies can be frozen with or without decorating frosting.
More Vegan Cookies
- Vegan Oatmeal Cookies
- Vegan Chocolate Cookies
- Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Vegan Peanut Butter Cookies
- Vegan Shortbread Cookies
- Vegan Thumbprint Cookies
Did you make this recipe? Be sure to leave a comment and rating below!
The Easiest Vegan Sugar Cookies
Ingredients
For the Cookies:
- ½ cup Vegan Butter (112g)
- ¾ cups White Granulated Sugar (150g)
- 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
- ¼ tsp Almond Extract
- 2 cups All Purpose Flour (250g)
- ½ tsp Baking Soda
- ¼ tsp Salt
- 2 Tbsp Soy Milk or other non-dairy milk
For the Decorating Frosting:
- 1 cup Powdered Sugar (120g)
- ½ tsp Vanilla Extract
- 1 Tbsp Soy Milk or other non-dairy milk
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C)
- Cream the vegan butter and sugar together and then add the vanilla extract and almond extract.
- Sift the flour into a mixing bowl and add the baking soda and salt.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix in by hand until crumbly. Add soy milk and mix in to create a big ball of dough. If your mix is too crumbly to form a ball of dough, add in a little more soy milk until it does.
- Flour your hands and a baking mat and transfer the ball of dough to the baking mat.
- Use a rolling pin to roll out the dough to around ¼ inch thick, dip a cookie cutter into flour so it doesn't stick and cut out your cookies. Transfer the cookies to a parchment lined baking tray. With the remaining dough, form it into a ball and then roll it out again and repeat.
- If you want round cookies and don’t want to make shapes, then you don’t need to roll out the dough, you can simply tear off pieces of the dough and roll into balls and place the balls onto a parchment lined baking tray. Flour the bottom of a glass and use that to press down on the balls to flatten them neatly before baking.
- Bake in the oven for 10 minutes.
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely before decorating.
- Prepare your decorating frosting by adding the powdered sugar, vanilla and soy milk to an electric mixing bowl. Start on low speed and gradually increase speed until smooth. If you need a little more soy milk then add it a drop at a time so that you don’t use too much. The consistency will be very sticky, almost gluey. Separate into 2 bowls. Add a drop of food coloring into each bowl and mix in.
- Decorate the cookies and allow to set before serving.
Video
Notes
- Almond extract – can be omitted if you prefer.
- Flour – should be measured correctly, either by weighing it on a food scale or using the ‘spoon and level’ method. Spoon the flour into your measuring cup and then level off the top with a knife. Don’t scoop it and don’t pack it into the cup.
- Frosting – the decorating frosting can also just be mixed up by hand in a bowl, you don’t have to use the stand mixer.
- Storing: Keep your cookies stored in a sealed container at room temperature for up to a week. They can also be stored in the fridge.
- Freezing: They are freezer friendly for up to 3 months. The cookies can be frozen with or without decorating frosting.
Lo says
I added cocoa powder to this, maybe 3/4 cups? and used stevia and raw sugar blend. I have just finished a 100 hours fast, and after having the two most beautiful pieces of watermelon i have ever had, i then found this recipe, made it, and ate a tiny bite of one of the cookies, i bloody cried, god damn it was so darn good, i just couldn’t believe it but it’s just such a beautiful recipe, I’m happy to have experienced it with a fresh palette.
Alison Andrews says
Haha, so glad you enjoyed it so much! 🙂 Thanks so much for sharing Lo!
Sarah says
Hi! This recipe looks great. Do you think water would work instead of non-dairy milk? Thanks!
Alison Andrews says
I think it would, it’s a small amount, so I think it might be fine. 🙂
Jen says
Hey :). I want to decorate some biscuits with logos from comic book superheroes, so need to use royal icing & flood it too, in different colours. Will this icing work?
(This recipe looks really yummy, by the way!)
Thanks.
Alison Andrews says
Sorry I really have no idea about that.
Jen says
Ok, no worries. Thanks so much for responding so quickly though!!
If I try it, I’ll let you know whether or not it works :D.
Alison Andrews says
Awesome! Best of luck with it! 🙂
Diana Kisinger says
I love this vegan recipe and I love all of your cookie recipes. My only issue is that I have to scroll through so many pictures of your cookies. I understand your joy in presenting pictures of your baked goods. Perhaps putting the recipe after one picture would be nice and save time for we busy moms. Thank you.
Alison Andrews says
Hi Diana, thanks for your feedback, however, just the hosting on this website that currently serves over half a million views each month costs hundreds of dollars, not to mention all the other costs, so it’s not just about joy in presenting all our pictures so much as longer pages allow more ads to load, which is how we cover the costs of this blog and actually get paid too. If we were to put one picture and then the recipe then advertisers would not be so interested in us and then we would not be able to have all our recipes for free. 🙂 There is also valuable information in the post that might not be mentioned in the recipe, so it’s definitely meant to be read not just scrolled past.
Salma says
Comes out perfectly all the time! Tastes amazing too!
Alison Andrews says
Thanks Salma! ?
Rachel says
Great! We loved them! Thank you 🙂
Alison Andrews says
Awesome Rachel! Thanks for posting! 🙂
Jae says
Just wondering if the dough can sit for a few hours before being baked?
I am wanting to let all the kids make their own shapes before baking them but want to have the dough ready in advance. Will a few hours in the fridge affect the dough?
Alison Andrews says
Should be fine! A lot of recipes chill the dough for a few hours in the fridge anyway, I don’t do that, because of impatience, but it definitely shouldn’t do any damage to it. 🙂
Neza says
Nice texture, but sadly I can taste the baking soda. I’ll use less next time!
Alison Andrews says
Ah, that’s a pity! Glad the textures good though! Thanks for your review Neza. 🙂
Kenzi says
About how many cookies does this recipe make?
Alison Andrews says
It depends really, if you roll the dough a bit thicker you’ll get a few less cookies. Usually you’ll get in the region of 30 cookies, but I have found that when I’ve rolled the dough a bit thicker (quite unintentionally), I’ve come out with around 24 before as well.
Erica says
They turned out really good! We ended up having to use quite a bit more soy milk (like an additional 5 tablespoons), but that may just be a result of the butter we were using. Will be making again!
Alison Andrews says
Good stuff! Yes, you have to be flexible with the amount of non-dairy milk added to get that dough just right, different brands of ingredients will often have slightly different outcomes. Glad to hear they turned out well! Thanks for posting.
Carrie says
Tried this recipe for my daughter who has a severe dairy allergy. It was so easy and the cookies were very tasty! My daughter was eating them before we could even decorate them.
Alison Andrews says
That’s just wonderful! So glad your daughter enjoyed them so much! Thanks for posting! 🙂
Christine says
Found this recipe after another failed me; only one I’ll use now! Thank you 🙂
Alison Andrews says
Yay! That’s awesome to hear that this has worked out for you! Thanks for posting! 🙂
Maggy Pollicino says
First bite: texture was great and so was the taste. But then aftertaste was exactly like I had eaten a package of sweet n low. It wasn’t good. I asked my mom to try them and she said the same thing, sweet n low! I followed the recipe to a T, not really sure what happened, anyone else have this problem? They did keep their shape and the texture was good it was just that strange taste..
Alison Andrews says
The almond extract definitely gives an aftertaste, to me it’s a marzipan taste which is quite pleasant but that could just be my association whereas yours is sweet and low. This is why I mentioned in the post that this is an ingredient that can be left out. Some love it, some hate it, but it’s a common ingredient with sugar cookies. It’s the only thing that gives an aftertaste in this recipe, unless you used too much baking soda but I presume you didn’t, even then it would be a baking soda aftertaste and not artificial sweetener (presumably). So if you make it without the almond extract I think it should sort that out for you.
Amanda says
Any experience in freezing this dough for later use?
Alison Andrews says
You definitely can do it, there are tips for freezing cookie dough in this article here.
Suzie says
Hello – I am completely new to vegan baking (this will be the first time) so I was actually curious about nothing to replace the egg in your recipe? I of course am very happy about this because I have been looking at so many recipes and could NOT decide which egg replacer to use (coconut milk, flax, sour cream, pumpkin, cashew cream etc…) so I came across your recipe that looks SO easy and I am excited to make it tomorrow. So just a curiosity question regarding the batter and no need for an egg replacer? Does the butter somehow do that? This is more for my vegan education than anything else. I am happy to make this very simple recipe! Thank you in advance. I will post a comment about my first vegan baking experience tomorrow!
Alison Andrews says
Hey Suzie, this recipe just doesn’t need it, I often don’t use one in my cookies, and they turn out great! In terms of binding, the gluten in the flour binds pretty well on its own. I can’t exactly tell you all the reasons why some recipes will need it and others don’t, since I don’t necessarily understand it from a food science perspective, even in my cakes sometimes I use a flax egg, sometimes not! All I can say is I experiment and if something works great it makes it to the blog, if it doesn’t, well… then it doesn’t, hahaa! Anyway I am sure you will enjoy these cookies! Let us know how you go! 🙂
Suzie says
Hi Alison – SO sorry for the delay in commenting. Thank you for the egg information, 🙂 These cookies were awesome. I told my daughter not to tell her soccer teammates that the cookies were vegan due to the response I anticipated getting. Eventually we had to because we made them specifically for the coach and his daughter who are vegan. the girls didn’t care what they were because they were fabulous! SO easy to make!!! I just need to master my rolling to the appropriate thickness because some were really fat and some much thinner but that was my fault. Regardless they were really good and I will make them again. Thanks for letting me have a huge success in my very first vegan baked good.
Alison Andrews says
Hi Suzie, I am thrilled to hear that! Hahaha, yes I’m the same with my rolling I must admit, some end up quite fat and others thinner, but it still seems to work out. Thanks so much for posting, I’m soooo happy that your first vegan baking experience worked out so well! 🙂