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    Home » Cookies

    Vegan Butter Cookies

    Published: Dec 15, 2021 Updated: Dec 15, 2021 by Alison Andrews This post may contain affiliate links

    Jump to Recipe
    Vegan Butter Cookies

    These vegan butter cookies are a classic holiday cookie, but you’ll love them so much you’ll make them year-round. They are soft and buttery and melt-in-your-mouth!

    Vegan butter cookies stacked up on a plate.

    These vegan butter cookies are one of our favorite vegan Christmas cookies! Dipped in melted vegan chocolate and topped with sprinkles they are the best holiday treat.

    Of course you can make them all year round though and you’ll want to once you try them!

    They’re also really easy to make. There’s no chilling of the dough or any extra steps so they’re pretty fast too, though you DO need to wait for them to cool before you dip them in melted chocolate.

    The recipe is sort of similar to vegan shortbread cookies, but shortbread cookies tend to have more ‘snap’ to them. These are really soft.

    If you love these Christmas cookies then you’ll also love our vegan snickerdoodles, vegan gingerbread cookies, vegan snowball cookies and vegan frosted sugar cookies too. You’ll also love our vegan biscotti and vegan vanilla wafers.

    Ingredients You’ll Need For These Cookies:

    Photo of the ingredients needed to make vegan butter cookies.

    Ingredient Notes

    • Vegan chocolate – you can use vegan chocolate or vegan chocolate chips. This is to melt down so you can dip the cookies in melted chocolate.
    • All purpose flour – should be measured correctly. If you accidentally over-measure your flour in this recipe, the dough will be too thick. So either weigh it out on a food scale, or use the spoon and level method. Spoon it into your measuring cup (don’t scoop it, and don’t pack it into the cup) and then level it off with a knife.
    • Vegan sprinkles – the sprinkles are optional. Nonpareil sprinkles (the little balls) work best for these cookies.
    • Coconut oil – is melted with the vegan chocolate and just helps thin it out a little so it’s easier to work with.
    • Soy milk – can be switched for a different non-dairy milk.
    Stack of five butter cookies.

    How To Make Vegan Butter Cookies

    You will find full instructions and measurements in the recipe card at the bottom of the post. This is a summary of the process to go along with the process photos.

    • Add vegan butter and white granulated sugar to the bowl of your stand mixer and cream them together until smooth.
    Collage of two photos showing vegan butter and sugar added to stand mixer and creamed together.
    • Add soy milk and vanilla extract and mix them in.
    Two photo collage showing soy milk and vanilla added to stand mixer and mixed in.
    • Add all purpose flour and salt and mix in with a spoon into a cookie dough.
    Two photo collage showing dry ingredients added to wet and mixed into a cookie dough.
    • Place half of the cookie dough into a piping bag with a large piping tip (ideally an Ateco 826, 827 or 849 piping tip) and pipe swirl shaped cookies onto a parchment lined baking sheet.
    • Repeat with the second half of the cookie dough and pipe the cookies onto a second parchment lined baking sheet.
    Two photo collage showing piping the cookie dough onto a parchment lined baking sheet.
    • Bake the cookies at 375°F for 10-12 minutes until lightly golden on top.
    • Let the cookies cool down and firm up directly on the baking trays and when completely cool, add the chocolate topping.
    Two photo collage showing the cookies on a parchment lined baking sheet before and after baking.
    • Add vegan chocolate or chocolate chips and coconut oil to a microwave safe bowl and microwave in 30-second intervals, bringing it out to stir every 30-seconds until melted.
    • Dip the cookies in the melted chocolate and then place them back onto the parchment lined baking tray.
    • Decorate with sprinkles.
    Butter cookies dipped in chocolate and topped with sprinkles on a parchment lined baking tray.
    • Place the cookies into the fridge for around 15 minutes for the chocolate to set.
    • Your cookies are ready to serve!
    Butter cookies dipped in chocolate and topped with sprinkles on a parchment lined baking tray.

    Baker’s Tips

    Piping tip. If your piping tip is too small, it will make piping this thick cookie dough difficult if not impossible. So it’s really important to use a large piping tip. The Ateco 826 or 827 will work great. We used the Ateco 849 which is the largest one we have on hand, and it worked really well.

    Pipe half the cookie dough at a time. Add roughly half the cookie dough to your piping bag at a time. If you add it all, you will put too much strain on your piping bag. It’s also handy because then you can pipe half the cookies on one tray and half on the other, which brings us to our next point:

    Spread the cookies over two baking trays. It’s ideal to spread the cookies over two parchment lined baking sheets. The cookies don’t spread much, but you still want them to be well spaced so that they don’t bump into each other while baking. I prefer to bake one tray of cookies and then bake the next tray, rather than baking both trays at the same time. 

    Decorating. We love dipping them in chocolate and topping with sprinkles, but you can of course do different things! Leave them plain or dip them in chocolate and then sprinkle with chopped nuts, or simply decorate them by adding maraschino cherries to the middle of the cookies.

    Vegan butter cookies stacked up on a plate.

    Make Ahead Option

    If you’d like to make these cookies ahead of time, then you can make them up to the point that you pipe the dough onto your baking sheets, then simply cover and refrigerate them on the baking sheets for up to 2 days. Then bake as usual.

    Alternatively, pipe the cookies onto the baking sheets and then freeze them for 2-3 months. You can bake directly from frozen, just allow an extra couple of minutes of baking time.

    Stack of five vegan butter cookies.

    Storing and Freezing

    Keep your cookies stored in an airtight container at room temperature for 3 days or in the fridge for up to a week.

    Baked cookies (with or without chocolate) freeze very well for up to 3 months.

    Vegan butter cookies in a stack of five.

    More Delicious Vegan Cookie Recipes

    1. Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies
    2. Vegan Ginger Cookies
    3. Vegan Chocolate Cookies
    4. Vegan Oatmeal Cookies
    5. Vegan Peanut Butter Cookies
    6. Vegan Sugar Cookies
    Vegan butter cookie broken in half.

    Did you make this recipe? Be sure to leave a comment and rating below!

    Vegan butter cookies in a stack.

    Vegan Butter Cookies

    These vegan butter cookies are a classic holiday cookie, but you'll love them so much you'll make them year-round. They are soft and buttery and melt-in-your-mouth!
    5 from 6 votes
    Print Pin Rate
    Course: Cookies, Dessert
    Cuisine: American
    Diet: Vegan
    Prep Time: 25 minutes
    Cook Time: 10 minutes
    Total Time: 35 minutes
    Servings: 20
    Calories: 193kcal
    Author: Alison Andrews

    Ingredients

    • 1 cup Vegan Butter (225g)
    • ¾ cup White Granulated Sugar (150g)
    • 5 Tablespoons Soy Milk or other non-dairy milk
    • 2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract
    • 2 ¼ cups All Purpose Flour (281g)
    • ½ teaspoon Salt

    Decorating (Optional):

    • 6 ounces Vegan Chocolate (170g) or 1 cup Vegan Chocolate Chips
    • 1 teaspoon Coconut Oil
    • Vegan Sprinkles Nonpareil
    Prevent your screen from going dark

    Instructions

    • Preheat oven to 375°F (190°C). Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
    • Add vegan butter and white granulated sugar to the bowl of your stand mixer and cream them together until smooth.
    • Add soy milk and vanilla extract and mix them in.
    • Add all purpose flour and salt and mix in with a spoon into a cookie dough.
    • Place half of the cookie dough into a piping bag with a large piping tip (ideally an Ateco 826, 827 or 849 piping tip) and pipe swirl shaped cookies onto a parchment lined baking sheet.
    • Repeat with the second half of the cookie dough and pipe the cookies onto a second parchment lined baking sheet.
    • Bake the cookies at 375°F for 10-12 minutes until lightly golden on top.
    • Let the cookies cool down and firm up directly on the baking trays and when completely cool, add the chocolate topping.
    • Add vegan chocolate or chocolate chips and coconut oil to a microwave safe bowl and microwave in 30-second intervals, bringing it out to stir every 30-seconds until melted.
    • Dip the cookies in the melted chocolate and then place them back onto the parchment lined baking tray.
    • Decorate with sprinkles.
    • Place the cookies into the fridge for around 15 minutes for the chocolate to set.

    Notes

    1. All purpose flour – should be measured correctly. If you accidentally over-measure your flour in this recipe, the dough will be too thick to pipe. So either weigh it out on a food scale, or use the spoon and level method. Spoon it into your measuring cup (don’t scoop it, and don’t pack it into the cup) and then level it off with a knife.
    2. Piping tip. If your piping tip is too small, it will make piping this thick cookie dough difficult if not impossible. So it’s really important to use a large piping tip. The Ateco 826 or 827 will work great. We used the Ateco 849 which is the largest one we have on hand, and it worked really well.
    3. Pipe half the cookie dough at a time. Add roughly half the cookie dough to your piping bag at a time. If you add it all, you will put too much strain on your piping bag.
    4. If you don’t have any suitable piping tips then the best method would be to scoop the cookie dough using a small cookie scoop (roughly 1 ½ tablespoons per cookie) onto your baking sheets and then flatten with a fork before baking. 
    5. Spread the cookies over two baking trays. It’s ideal to spread the cookies over two parchment lined baking sheets. The cookies don’t spread much, but you still want them to be well spaced so that they don’t bump into each other while baking. I prefer to bake one tray of cookies and then bake the next tray, rather than baking both trays at the same time. 
    6. Decorating. We love dipping them in chocolate and topping with sprinkles, but you can of course do different things. Leave them plain or dip them in chocolate and then sprinkle with chopped nuts, or simply decorate them by adding maraschino cherries to the middle of the cookies.
    7. Make Ahead: If you’d like to make these cookies ahead of time, then you can make them up to the point that you pipe the dough onto your baking sheets, then simply cover and refrigerate them on the baking sheets for up to 2 days. Then bake as usual. Alternatively, pipe the cookies onto the baking sheet and then freeze them for 2-3 months. You can bake directly from frozen, just allow an extra couple of minutes of baking time.
    8. Storing: Keep your cookies stored in an airtight container at room temperature for 3 days or in the fridge for up to a week.
    9. Freezing: Baked cookies (with or without chocolate) freeze very well for up to 3 months.
    10. Nutritional information includes chocolate and sprinkles. 

    Nutrition

    Serving: 1Cookie | Calories: 193kcal | Carbohydrates: 24g | Protein: 2g | Fat: 11g | Saturated Fat: 4g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 2g | Monounsaturated Fat: 3g | Trans Fat: 1g | Sodium: 133mg | Potassium: 24mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 12g | Vitamin A: 446IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 19mg | Iron: 1mg
    DID YOU MAKE THIS RECIPE? Rate it & leave your feedback in the comments section below, or tag @lovingitvegan on Instagram and hashtag #lovingitvegan
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    About the Author

    Hi I'm Alison Andrews, I'm the voice and cook behind Loving It Vegan. I love making delicious vegan food and creating vegan versions of all your old favorites, so that you’ll never feel like you’re missing out. Find out more about me here.

    Loving It Vegan is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. This site may contain some of these links to Amazon.com. If you make a purchase through one of those links, Loving It Vegan will receive a small commission from the purchase at no additional cost to you.

    Reader Interactions

    Comments

    1. Carol says

      December 27, 2022 at 1:23 am

      Christmas cut-out butter Cookies were always our family favorite. This recipe fairly replicates the flavor for vegans. We used 3 cups flour and the rest of the ingredients as stated in the recipe.5 stars

      Reply
    2. Talia says

      December 15, 2022 at 3:38 am

      Is the butter added cold? Room temp? Melted? Thank you!

      Reply
      • Alison Andrews says

        December 20, 2022 at 11:08 am

        Straight from the fridge if it’s a tub style butter, slightly softened if it’s a stick style butter.

        Reply
    3. Dominique says

      December 22, 2021 at 4:17 pm

      Can these be made gluten free?

      Reply
      • Alison Andrews says

        December 23, 2021 at 12:09 pm

        I haven’t tried it but I think a gluten free all purpose blend should work great. 🙂

        Reply
    4. Andrea says

      December 21, 2021 at 10:38 pm

      I made these cookies today to try out for possible Christmas dinner treats with friends. They were awesomely delicious. They will work as spritz cookies too. I made 1/2 batch and it worked great. I’ll make a full batch Friday to bring to our gathering.5 stars

      Reply
      • Alison Andrews says

        December 22, 2021 at 10:31 am

        Awesome! Thanks so much for the great review Andrea!

        Reply
    5. Honey Williams says

      December 19, 2021 at 10:57 am

      When I saw the email for this recipe I wanted to make these cookies right away! The recipe was so easy to follow and the cookies were a huge hit at our holiday party last night. I only wish I had doubled the recipe!5 stars

      Reply
      • Alison Andrews says

        December 21, 2021 at 9:04 am

        Fantastic! Thanks so much for the awesome review!

        Reply
    6. Natalie says

      December 17, 2021 at 3:56 pm

      Hi there is it possible to roll this kind of dough and cut cookies with Christmas cookie cutters? My little boy insists on doing some.

      Reply
      • Alison Andrews says

        December 18, 2021 at 12:27 pm

        Hi Natalie, sure, but in that case I would recommend reducing the non dairy milk a bit (I would start with 2 tablespoons non dairy milk and see how you go, if you need more add it 1 tablespoon at a time) so that you have a drier dough that will roll out better. Since we pipe this we make the dough fairly wet. Otherwise check out our vegan sugar cookies that are meant to be rolled out.

        Reply

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