These Vegan and Gluten-Free Sugar Cookies are tender and delicious — and perfect for the season. The dough comes together in one bowl in under 10 minutes.
The holidays are upon us, and if you don’t have the best vegan and gluten-free sugar cookie worked out yet, today is your lucky day.
There aren’t many sugar cookie fans around our home — Jay finds them annoyingly sweet, especially with the frosting — but these cookies are amazing. Not too sugary nor too sweet, with a gentle hint of vanilla, and a buttercream-like frosting that goes on soft and smooth and stays put.
Even better, they take just minutes to put together in one bowl. You throw in the ingredients one after the other and mix them up into a dough that rolls out easily.
You get an armload of cookies from this recipe: I used various size cookie cutters and got about 45 of all shapes and sizes, from 1 1/2-inch rounds to one-inch hearts. And they were so good, they literally turned Jay into the Cookie Monster. Which, maybe, was not the funnest part.
The ingredient list for these gluten-free vegan sugar cookies is wonderfully short. All you need is:
- Almond flour
- Gluten-free all purpose flour
- Confectioners or powdered sugar
- Vanilla extract
- Aquafaba (chickpea brine)
- Vegan butter
- A couple of tablespoons of nondairy milk for frosting
- Sprinkles — of course!
Here are tips on how to make the best vegan and gluten-free sugar cookies without breaking a sweat:
- Make sure your dough holds together when you’ve mixed it up. If it is very crumbly, add a tiny bit more of aquafaba, a few drops at a time, until it does. Keep in mind that the dough will feel fairly supple but it will look a little dry and not as smooth as a dough made with regular flour that has gluten in it. When you roll it out, the edges will be a little rough, like pie dough, but the dough should roll out smooth in the center, making it easy to cut out pretty cookies. You can take those rough scraps, roll them back up in a ball, and roll ’em out again to cut out more cookies.
- Make sure you don’t overbake the cookies which could make them tough. You need no more than 7-8 minutes in the oven. The cookies should be a very light brown at the bottom and very slightly turning color on the sides.
- If you want to add color to your cookies, you can use some food coloring, or — better still — use a natural food coloring, like beet powder, which will add a pretty pink color to the frosting. A teeny pinch of turmeric could work for yellow, but be careful not to add too much because turmeric has a bitter flavor.
- Let your cookies cool thoroughly before frosting. Because the frosting tends to harden the longer it stands, frost your cookies as soon as you’ve made the frosting, and sprinkle on your sprinkles!
I think I’ve covered most of it, but if you have questions feel free to ask them in the comments below.
Hope you’ll bake up these cookies for your holiday cookie platter, and if you do, come back and let me know how they turned out. Or post a photo on Instagram with the tag @holycowvegan.
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More vegan cookie recipes:
Vegan Gingersnap Cookies
Vegan and Gluten-Free Amaretti Cookies
Vegan Pecan Pie Bars, Gluten-Free and No Corn Syrup
Vegan Coconut Almond Macaroons
Best Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies Ever
21 Vegan Cookies for the Holidays
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- 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 4 tbsp vegan butter (softened to room temperature)
- 2 tbsp aquafaba (chickpea brine)
- 1 cup confectioners sugar
- 1 cup almond flour
- 1 cup all purpose gluten-free flour
- 1 cup confectioners sugar
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 2 tbsp vegan butter (softened to room temperature)
- 2 tbsp nondairy milk (I used almond)
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
Place the vanilla extract, vegan butter and aquafaba in a bowl and beat with a hand mixer, or in a stand mixer, until fluffy, about a minute.
Add in the confectioners sugar and mix it in.
Add the two flours and mix in. Your dough should form at this stage. It will look a little dry but will hold together. If it doesn't come together at all, add a few drops of aquafaba until it does, but be careful-- it should not get sticky.
Roll out the dough to 1/4th-inch thickness on the countertop. Dust the countertop, if needed, with cornstarch but you should not really need to if your dough is at the right consistency.
Cut out your cookies using a cookie cutter. Place them at least a couple of centimeters apart on a cookie sheet.
Bake 7-8 minutes or until the cookies just start to brown. Do not overbake. Remove and let them cool for five minutes on the cookie sheet. Then, using a spatula, transfer to a rack to continue cooling.
Place the sugar in a bowl with the butter, nondairy milk, and vanilla extract. Mix well with a fork, then beat with a hand mixer until fluffy and smooth.
Use a knife or an offset spatula to frost your cookies. If you wish, add some natural food coloring, or add some sprinkles!
My son and I both love sugar cookies! My wife, not so much haha I’ll have to make this for us soon, thank you!