These right here, are truly the perfect vegan sugar cookies! Let me explain why:
- They are super easy to prepare. Just 9 easy ingredients to make the cookie dough.
- Unlike most sugar cookies, these actually taste delicious. They are soft, sweet, buttery perfection.
- The dough works perfectly with cookie cutters making them a fun cookie to shape and decorate however you like!
This vegan sugar cookie dough works beautifully for any kind of cookie cutter. If you want to attempt detailed snowflake cookie cutters or simpler kid-friendly Christmas cookie cutters, these cookies will hold up. If it's not the holiday season, you can use any kind of cookie cutter to create whatever shape you like, hearts, animals, letters, or numbers, making them perfect vegan sugar cookie for any time of year!
What I love most about these vegan sugar cookies is that they are not only great for cookie cutters, but they actually taste good. I find so many cut-out cookies are just hard and flavourless. The key that I learned from Sally's Baking Addiction is to use both vanilla extract and almond extract to really enhance the flavours. The result is sweet, light, soft, buttery, and totally addictive (Sally was right about that addiction thing).
To make perfect vegan sugar cookies:
Whisk together all of the dry ingredients.
Mix together the chia or flax with the water in a small bowl and let thicken. Then add that along with the remaining wet ingredients to a bowl, and beat the wet ingredients together until they are soft and fluffy.
Then add the wet into dry and mix until a dough is formed.
For the vegan butter, I used Earth Balance Buttery Spread, but I have found that sometimes the moisture levels in vegan butters are different, so if your dough does not come together, add up to 1 tablespoon of water until the dough just comes together.
Collect the dough into a ball, and place it between two sheets of parchment paper. Roll the dough out until it's ¼ inch thick. Put the parchment paper covered dough on a baking tray and pop it in the freezer for 15 minutes, or in the fridge for 30 minutes. This cools the dough, so the cookies are easy to cut out, and they will hold their shape in the oven.
Once cooled, remove the top piece of parchment and cut out your cookies. Re-roll the remaining dough and cut out more cookies, cooling the dough if needed. Bake the cookies until just lightly golden underneath. Let cool completely before icing.
To make the icing, mix together the powdered sugar and 2 teaspoons of plant-based milk or water. Add more liquid as needed until desired consistency is reached. Mix in vegan food colouring as desired.
Use a piping bag or a plastic bag with the corner cut off to decorate your cookies as you like! Have fun 🙂
ICING TIPS:
- For an extra white icing, I find using full-fat coconut milk as the liquid in the icing works best.
- The icing recipe makes enough to lightly decorate the cookies. If you want to heavily decorate them (like I did), double the recipe.
- Try not to eat them all before you finished icing them!
Bon appetegan!
Sam
Perfect Vegan Sugar Cookies
Ingredients
Dry ingredients:
- 2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
Wet ingredients:
- 1 tablespoons ground chia or ground flax
- 3 tablespoons water
- ¾ cup vegan butter
- ¾ cup white sugar
- 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon almond extract
Icing:
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 2-4 teaspoons plant-based milk or water
- A few drops of food colouring (optional)
Instructions
To make vegan sugar cookies:
- Preheat oven to 350F (180C).
- In a large bowl mix together all the dry ingredients.
- In a small bowl, mix together the flax or chia, and the water and set aside to thicken which will be almost instant if using chia, but take about 10 minutes if using flax.
- In a third bowl beat the vegan butter and sugar together until creamy, about 3 minutes. Add the remaining wet ingredients including the flax or chia mixture, and mix well. Add the wet mixture into dry and combine until a dough is formed. I used Earth Balance vegan butter, but I have found that sometimes the moisture levels in vegan butters are different, so if your dough does not come together, add up to 1 tablespoon of water until the dough just comes together.
- Put the dough between two sheets of parchment paper and roll it out to about ¼ inch thick. Now pop it onto a baking tray and chill the rolled dough in the freezer for 15 minutes or in the fridge for 30 minutes. Once chilled, cut your cookie shapes and lay them on the parchment lined cookie sheet. Re-roll remaining dough until it’s all used up, chilling in between if needed. Bake 8 - 11 minutes.
To make the icing:
- Add the powdered sugar, 2 teaspoons of plant-based milk or water, and food colouring if using, to a bowl. Mix together. Add 1 to 2 teaspoons more plant-based milk or water if needed to reach desired consistency. Let cookies cool completely before decorating.
Notes
- For an extra white icing, I find using full-fat coconut milk as the liquid in the icing works best.
- The icing recipe makes enough to lightly decorate the cookies. If you want to heavily decorate them (like I did), double the recipe.
- Try not to eat them all before you finished icing them!
Nutrition
Thank you for this wonderful recipe! Everyone loved the cookies and I was proud of how perfect they looked. I followed your cookie and glaze recipes and used a squeeze bottle for the first time to decorate. Wish I had pics to share!
I’ve made these a few times and they work out well- definitely recommend! Perfect for vegans and non-vegans!
i'm just laughing at the comment that said they tried the recipe SEVEN times and hated it. like if it didn't work the first couple times, why wouldn't you just find a new recipe?? lol
I thought they turned out good for me though.
DO NOT DO THIS RECIPE. I tried literally 7 times, and each time they melted and did not keep their shape. I followed everything exactly. Then I finally had sense to check other sites and there are so many things that that were not included or wrong about this recipe. DO NOT BEAT air into the dough. Don't use baking powder. It adds air. Air causes spreading. The dough needs to be refrigerated for an hour and a half. Also once it comes out, if they are not melted and/or burnt then they must stay on the warm tray for exactly 3 minutes before moving to a cooling rack.
I just made these and they came out perfectly! They're delicious- aromatic and sweet, but not overly so as store-bought sometimes are. I refrigerated mine for a full 30 minutes and used the Earth balance unsalted buttery sticks (and flax, not chia). I'm also at 5k feet and needed no adjustments, if that's helpful to anyone. Mine held together well. Thank you- can't wait for your new cookbook!
Just finished making these!
Thank you, thank you! Needed some cheery holiday cookies, and these are it!
Wonderful!
Hello! Do you offer a high-altitude adjustment? I live at 6k above sea level and I would love to be able to make these cookies! Thanks! 🙂
Terrible. Dough didn’t form at all and followed the recipe.
Hi, Just a note. White granulated sugar is not considered vegan. To get it white, it is processed through bone char.
Organic white cane sugar and white beet sugar are both vegan.
Could I add more vanilla extract and leave out the almond extract?
can I use bananas instead of sugar?
Do you have to use flax or chia? It’s not something easily available where I live!
Yes, I find it is necessary as it helps the cookies not fall apart and replaces the egg. I hear applesauce also works keeping things together in replace of eggs, flax, or chia as a binding agent. I've tried applesauce in other cookies and it works great but I never tried it in sugar cookies before! This is just my experience 🙂
I found out that if the flax seeds and water are boiled for a few seconds they thicken more and instantly.
Hello! Making these tomorrow and wondered if I could just form these into a roll (like I do for many of my Christmas cookies that I don’t cut out) pop in the freezer and just slice and bake the next morning???
Thanks!
Nancy
Yep, that should work just fine 🙂
Hi Sam,
I love your recipes!! I am going to make sugar cookies for my students at school and have them decorate them. I noticed you have 2 slightly different sugar cookie and frosting recipes. Which do you think would be better for the kids for decorating?
Thanks so much!
Suzanne
Hi Suzanne, this recipe is cut out cookies intended for decorating. The soft frosted sugar cookies are more of a cake texture and do not work for cut outs or decorating.
Hello! Is the calories listed per cookie, or per serving size of the recipe (24)?
1 cookie. THe recipe makes 24 cookies
Thank you Sam, the cookies look lovely and delicious ! Greetings from France 🙂
Awesome! Greetings from Canada 😉
These cookies are so delicious! We just made the recipe exactly how you posted with no mods. However, one batch isn't enough for us mad cookie lovers. I know we could just make another batch, but would it change the recipe to double it in one batch?
So thrilled you enjoyed! You can absolutely double the recipe, just make sure to double everything exactly. You can actually just change the serving size number in the recipe and it will adjust all the ingredients for you 🙂
Do I use hand mixer to mix wet and dry ingredients to create the dough or do you suggest forming the dough with hands?
Either way would work but I find by hand easiest.
Hi Sam,
These look amazing.
Can I use a type of oil instead of vegan butter. We don’t get many vegan products here in Zimbabwe.
You could use solid coconut oil. 🙂
Do you use the Earth Balance that comes in a tub or do you use the sticks that come in a cardboard box?
Tub 🙂
Thanks!
My daughter and I made these this weekend as a trial run for Christmas. My husband and I wanted to find a great vegan recipe that we could use for our family tradition of baking and decorating cookies with our kids. We definitely found a winner. Thank you so much for sharing. The cookies are soft, chewy, and delicious!
Yay!!! SO happy to hear that 🙂
Hi Sam, I am thinking about using this recipe as a crust for pumpkin pie bars. Do you think these cookies would be too soft to use as a crust or base? would you recommend par baking the cookie crust before adding the filling? if this recipe is not the best fit, do you have a cookie crust recipe?
thanks!!
Just after a tip, i have been asked to make vegan iced cookies for an 18th. After reading these comments i will deffinetly be using this recipe. How do you store them so they stay fresh.In the fridge or just a container?
Once the icing is set, you can store them in an air-tight container at room temperature for up to 4 days or they freeze well too. Enjoy!
These were great. My daughter is alergic to most dairy produts and has always wanted a sugar cookie. We love your recipies so much they sre delicious!
Wonderful!! Thrilled you love it so much, Eve 🙂
I made these last weekend, except with hearts for Valentine’s Day. I’m usually not a sugar cookie person, but they were SO good. My non-vegan family loved them. My sister ate a total of 9 over the course of one day. I recommend these to anyone - will be making again!
Hahaha! Love it!!! So happy they were such a hit, Emily 🙂
I’ve found my new vegan sugar cookie recipe! These cookies were easy to make and delicious. Thanks for sharing.
Wonderful!!! Thrilled you loved them so much, Becky 🙂
I just made these tonight and plan to frost them tomorrow. But the unfrosted cookies taste great! I totally forgot to grind my chia seeds, so you can see them throughout the cookie, but that doesn’t bother me. I like the little crunchies and my 4 year old didn’t seem to mind either! They definitely don’t look as golden as non vegan sugar cookies, so i had to remind myself to pull them out even though My mind kept trying to keep them in longer.
That's awesome!! So very happy you love the recipe so much 🙂
Hi! Can I use coconut oil instead of vegan butter?
Yes, but the cookies won't have that buttery taste. Enjoy!
These were perfect to make with my two-year-old today. So quick and simple.
So happy you enjoyed them! 🙂
Do I need to include the chia seeds and if I don't do I still need the water?
Yes, you need to include the chia seeds and water, they help bind the cookies together. Enjoy!
Can I make the dough, keep it in a ball, put it in the fridge over night then the next day take it out to soften a bit then roll it out and cut my cookies?
Yep! That will work fine. Enjoy!
Should the butter be softened?
No need. Straight from the fridge is fine.
Hi there! Can’t wait to try these!
Is ground chia literally just ground chia seeds? Or is it meant to be mixed with water? Just not sure because it’s listed under wet ingredient. ☺️
Thankyou so much!
Yes, just ground chia seeds. If you read step 3 you will see it is mixed with the water listed in the ingredients 🙂
ummmm...nice ...yummy.....delicious....mouthwatering
Thanks!
Have you tried using aquafaba instead of flax or Chia for the egg replacement?
I haven't in cookies, no. I like the speed and simplicity of chia or flax.
Hi! Thanks so much for your awesome site, I use the recipes a lot! Anyway, I'm baking these sugar cookies right now, and I'm debating using the icing. What I want from the icing is to be like royal icing (hard). Will this icing harden? Thanks!!
How would I make these gluten free?
I'm not gluten-free so I'm not knowledgeable in gluten-free baking. I have heard good things about Bob's Red Mill 1 to 1, but have never tried it myself. Hope that helps!
Thank you so much for posting this, I have been looking for a recipe like this for ages! And all my previous tries with other recipes have ended in failure, but yours is all I wanted 🙂
Haha! Wonderful! You're most welcome, Miriam. 🙂
Can I freeze these iced so I can make them ahead of time for my wedding favors?
Yes, they should freeze fine. Enjoy!
I baked thesecookies for Christmas and LOVED THEM! Have you tried freezing them? I would love to know if I can make them, decorate them and freeze them!
Glad you enjoyed! They freeze very well with frosting and all 🙂
Hi, I came across your website while searching for vegan sugar cookies. Made these tonight and let me just say the cookies held out their shape. Usually with other non-vegan sugar cookies, the shape doesn't hold and I'm left with a blob 🙁 These cookies taste great and my girls love them! Once again, great recipe, which will now be my go to! Merry Christmas!
Yay! Thrilled you love the cookies so much, Kristina! Merry Christmas 🙂
I made these for the first time last weekend and they were delicious! I was wondering how long they lasted if I wanted to make them in advance for Christmas
I would say about 3 - 4 days... but they never last that long in my house! Haha. Enjoy!
And sorry, My rating didn’t go through the first time. Thanks!!
Hi, great recipe. Thanks! I aspire to your brilliant colors. I made a bunch of icing but plan to decorate over the next couple of days. Should the icing be stored in the fridge? It’s in the sealed plastic piping bag. How long can the cookies be stored once iced? Can they be left out in Tupperware or similar container?
Hi Suzanne, the icing can be stored in the fridge and once warmed to room temperature should work just fine. If it does get a little firm, just mix in a tiny amount of water until desired consistency is reached. I would keep the cookies for 3-4 days in an airtight container. Enjoy!
I see. So the cookies alone are good for 3-4 weeks, but once iced only 3-4 days. Thanks for clarifying! Can you freeze the cookies after they are iced?
Either or, I would say. But they never last that long in my house!
Sam, these tasted great but mine came out really hard. I want to attempt to make them again but I’m not sure what I did wrong. I may have rolled them out a little too thin. I baked them an extra 2 minutes because when I checked on them at the 11 min mark they looked really gooey.
Hi Kat! The hardness could either be from overworking the dough, or more likely from baking them too long. The cookies will look underdone when you take them out of the oven but they will set as they cool. If you try the recipe again, be gentle with the dough, and try baking just one test cookie first to see how it bakes and sets. Hope that helps!
These are exactly what they claim to be: perfect! I have been searching for the best vegan sugar cookie for years. Came across these as I have only been following you for about a year. Had to try them out. Very easy to follow directions and the dough came together perfectly without me having to add more milk. (I used earth balance soy free in the red tub). The kids enjoyed decorating them with me and these also got their seal of approval! These will be added to my yearly Christmas cookie rotation!
Yay!! Wonderful! Thrilled you love them so much, Jenn 😀
Hi, what kind of sugar are you using? I’ve been told regular white sugar isn’t vegan.
Thanks in advance!
Hi Chervonne,good question! A lot of brands of white sugar are totally vegan. Using bone char to refine sugar isn’t very common anywhere other than the US as far as I know, but I do check the sugar I buy to make sure. The standard brand I use here in Canada is Redpath and they say on their site that the sugar is indeed vegan-friendly. So you just want to check the brand you’re purchasing. And a helpful tip is that all organic sugar is always vegan-friendly! Hope that helps
Also all organic sugar is vegan, so if you don’t want to reset h the brand just buy organic.
Hi Sam,
Would it work to make this dough, wrap it tightly in cling film to freeze for use later? I was planning on doing that this evening, but maybe it wouldn't suit this recipe? Thanks for any advice.
Hi Sueanne, yes, I think that should work fine. Enjoy!
Hi, Sam! I plan on making these tomorrow and I’m on my way to the store to pick up ingredients. Is food coloring vegan? I’ve read that the red one uses bugs. Please let me know at your earliest convenience. I really look forward to trying these!
Hi Kat, some food colouring is vegan while others aren't. Some contain carmine, which also goes by the names Crimson Lake, Cochineal, Carminic Acid, and Natural Red #4. Carmine is code for beetles! Ew! Wilton brand doesn't use carmine in their food colouring. Enjoy!
Can I use another type of oil instead of vegan butter?
You can use coconut oil when it's in the firm state, but the cookies won't have that buttery flavour, and they may be a bit trickier to work with as coconut oil melts so easily.
Hi! I just tried these but they were a little crispy. Are they supposed to be? I've made the non-vegan recipe and they weren't crispy. These tasted delicious!
Thanks!
Hi Pareeta, they should be crispy on the outside and chewy in the middle. There are lots of different versions of sugar cookies. I will add a not to make soft sugar cookies this upcoming winter season 🙂
Could I use egg replacer instead of the chia or flax?
I haven't tried it myself, but it should work just fine 🙂
Does the batter need to be chilled, or can that be skipped? How influential is that step in the overall process?
I clicked too soon; I meant to rate the recipe 5 stars. They looks so good!
And thanks for the rating 🙂
You roll out the dough between parchment paper then chill it in the fridge before using the cookie cutters. Enjoy!
Hey! We did these as a last minute thing and they were given to seven non-vegans who all loved them, complimented them, and didn't have the faintest idea they were vegan. I really appreciate your clear instructions and the simplicity of the recipe--the first couple Google results wanted to sub in a whole bunch of stuff (pumpkin???) that isn't in regular sugar cookies, but this was really perfect and exactly what I was hoping to find! Thank you so much!
Yay!!! Thrilled everyone loved them 🙂 Yes, I try to keep my recipes as simple as possible with easy for find ingredients and no weird stuff. Haha. So happy you appreciated that!
What type of nondairy milk do you recommend do you recommend unsweetened nondairy milk? Would sweetened nondairy milk be ok? I am considering using soy milk. Thoughts?
I am looking forward to making these with our daughters. We have a cookie baking tradition for Christmas Eve.
Please reply ASAP as I am shopping today.
Unsweetened. While sweetened may work it would make the cookies sweeter than intended. My go to is Silk Unsweetened Soy Milk. I hope you and your daughter enjoy them!
I really enjoy your fun ideas and recipes, but it is a little off-putting to see adds for Oscar Meyer bacon and other meats pop up while on a vegan site.
Hi Maggie, glad you enjoy my site! When it comes to ads, I do have blocks on animal-product ads but sometimes they manage to sneak through. It's difficult to catch the ones that sneak through because everyone sees different ads depending on their device, location and search history. I put in a notice to block Oscar Meyer ads to my ad manager, and if any other offensive ads come up, please feel free to contact me and send me the link the ad takes you to when clicked so I can have it properly blocked. Thanks!
These look delicious! And the perfect little intro to vegan goodies for my family this holiday season. And that watch? GORGEOUS!
I know right? I thought the watch was so cute. 🙂 I hope you and your fam enjoy them!
Oh Sam! These are great. I'm saving it for next year. You're amazing with a plastic baggie and some icing. I've never gotten such vibrant colors out of natural food coloring. I'll check out yours.
Haha well thank you Bethery. The colours I used weren't labled as natural, but they just happened to be vegan. I couldn't find them on Amazon, but I wanted to link to a vegan food colouring to help people find something suitable. Also, I worked as a paint colour mixer at one point in my life, so mixing colours is a bit of a skill I have. None of these colours came straight from the bottle like that... a little bit of colour sorcery was involved! Muhahahaaha.
Holy schmoly, I bought the one you linked to at our Co-op, but I'll try my best with it. You're a wicked colorist. Hahaha.
Haha thank you 🙂
Do you think it would be possible to do this recipe with just a whisk since I don't have a mixer or hand beater?
Yes! You might just want to let the vegan butter soften at room temperature for a bit so it's easier to beat together. Softened, not melted! Enjoy!
These turned out great thanks for the recipe. Rolled out well and cut out well. I made some for my son's first birthday and will make more next week for Christmas!
That was fast! So happy you loved them Wendy 🙂
Do you think bobs red mill 1to1 would translate well in this recipe?
Hi Mariana,
I've heard good things about Bob's Red Mill 1 to 1, but never actually tried baking with it myself, so I'm not sure. That said these cookies are fairly simple, so I would think it would likely work. If you give it a go, let us know how it works for you 🙂
Does the icing go hard?
Not rock solid, but yes it hardens. 🙂
Hi Sam!
The "groud flax" and "chia" are supposed to be seeds or more like grinded? I can't wait to try this recipe :p
Thanks, you're awesome 😀
The seeds that are then ground. White chia is my preference (just because it gels faster), and you can either grind it yourself or buy it pre-ground, like here on amazon. 🙂
Awwwww...more sugar! I'm sure it's possible to be a vegan without stuffing your food full of sugar, but maybe not here.
Well written, good photography, but the recipes always seem full of sugar, even the "savoury" ones.. Bad news for health. Maybe think about The health risks? DIabetes? Major killer.
Hi Lynne,
There are lots of health-focused vegan recipe blogs, but that's not the focus of this blog. I just like to make scrumptious recipes that are just like the original animal product based recipes... except better!
SOOOOO gorgeous. You make everything look easy. It is except for the amazing creativity. How about those chocolate and vanilla square cookies you once made!
Haha, I guess the art degrees paid off. Haha, I'll keep those in mind 🙂
Just in the nick of time! I just bought a giant assortment of cookie cutters and a triple tray of cookie racks to bake up some Christmas cookie goodness with my son - hopefully this weekend.
Thank you! I really look forward to making them with the vanilla and almond extracts.
Yay! Perfect. I really hope you enjoy them 🙂
Is the ground chia/ flax suppose to be like an egg
Yep!