More sugar cookie-themed desserts you’ll love: Vegan Lofthouse Cookies, Vegan Sugar Cookie Bars and Chocolate Sugar Cookies! My Vegan Sugar Cookies are a holiday staple and for good reason! These cookies are soft and buttery with delicate flavors and elaborate icing decoration. My family and I have a ton of fun every holiday season cutting them out with different cookie cutters and playing around with the easy vegan icing and sprinkles! They’re truly the vegan Christmas cookies of my dreams not only because they’re too sweet and delicious to resist, but also because they’re easy to make. The cookie dough comes together in a pinch and stays soft from beginning to end. Say goodbye to dry and crumbly cookies! Saving the best for last, the easy vegan icing in this vegan sugar cookie recipe is as shimmery and sweet as traditional royal icing. Customize it with as much food coloring as you like, then pipe it onto the cookies. Just like me and my family, I know you’ll have a ton of fun and make new memories with all of the fun decorations you like.
Why these are the best vegan frosted sugar cookies
The ultimate vegan Christmas cookie recipe – Just like classic sugar cookies, my vegan sugar cookies are delicate, soft, and a must-have treat for the holiday season. Plus, they keep their shape in the oven. Fun to decorate with icing – Make the easy royal icing dupe, add food coloring, and pipe it onto the cookies to make each one more eye-catching than the last. Easy to make – This vegan sugar cookies recipe comes together easily using less than 10 ingredients! 200+ 5-star ratings! It’s official–these cookies are a hit! Here’s what my readers have been saying…
“I absolutely LOVE this recipe & have made it again & again & again. The cookies are so buttery & delicious, almost like a shortbread, but better!” – Julianne “I’ve made this recipe now for two years – Holiday cookies, Halloween cookies, Easter cookies … you name it. Perfect. It’s the best Vegan sugar cookie adaptation I’ve found. THANK YOU NORA! Huge for us!” – Karin ”I’ve made these a few years in a row now and they’re so soft and delicious every time! Best sugar cookie ever!” – Sarah
How to make vegan sugar cookies
Find the complete recipe with measurements in the recipe card below. Beat the butter in the bowl of a stand mixer until creamy and smooth. Beat in the sugar until the mixture is fluffy. Next, mix in the plant milk, cornstarch, vanilla, and almond extract until combined. Slowly mix 1 cup of flour along with the baking powder and salt into the wet ingredients. Add 1 more cup of flour and continue to mix until the dough feels like play dough in your hands (it will still look crumbly). If the dough feels too wet to roll, mix in another 1/4 cup of flour. I always end up using the full 2 1/4 cups of flour. Scoop the dough out of the bowl and push it together with your hands. Divide it into two balls. Place a sheet of parchment paper on a flat surface and sprinkle a little flour on top. Add one dough ball to the parchment paper, sprinkle some flour on top, and roll it out with a rolling pin to ¼-inch thickness. Cover with another sheet of parchment on top. Repeat this step with the second ball of dough, then chill the flattened dough in the fridge. After chilling, use your favorite cookie cutters to cut fun shapes out of the sugar cookie dough. Lay the cookies onto the lined baking sheets. Continue re-rolling the scrap dough and cutting it into shapes! Nothing goes to waste here. Bake the cookies until they’re just starting to turn golden. Set them aside to cool on the baking sheets for a few minutes before transferring them to a wire rack. Make sure they’re completely cool before decorating with icing.
How to decorate sugar cookies
You can either get really fancy and pipe the icing onto the cookies with a piping bag and fine tip or keep things simple by spreading my Vegan Buttercream or another frosting on the cookies with a spatula! Below, I’ll show you how to decorate the prettiest sugar cookies:
Make a thick batch of icing by only using 1 tablespoon of milk so the icing doesn’t spill over the cookie edges. Scoop the icing into several bowls and stir 1 to 3 drops of gel food coloring into each portion. Transfer the colorful sugar cookie icing to one or multiple piping bags (I used Wilton Bags) fitted with a fine tip. Trace the cookie edges with your icing, wait for it to set, then fill in the center with more icing. Add some sprinkles as well and have fun!
Check out this helpful video for more guidance and sugar cookie decorating tips. They will look like this when they come out of the oven. See how they don’t puff up a bunch or spread like some sugar cookie recipes do? Cookie perfection.
Frequently asked questions
Want more vegan Christmas cookies?
Ginger Crinkle Cookies or Vegan Ginger Cookies Vegan Peanut Butter Cookies Perfect Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies Vegan Shortbread Cookies Vegan Chocolate Peppermint Cookies Vegan Snowball Cookies
