Easy Vegan Sugar Cookie Recipe

The BEST Easy Vegan Sugar Cookie Recipe

Step aside, Betty Crocker Sugar Cookie Mix! That I may or may not have eaten dry … with a bit of butter mixed in. It’s delicious, I can’t deny it! Specifically Betty Crocker’s cookie mixes made, hands down, my favourite recipe for cookies EVER. Save for the fact that they started adding milk powder into them. So much for accidentally vegan! So I began the quest to make an easy vegan sugar cookie recipe that could rival my store-bought favorite.

Rather than add the traditional egg and butter, I made her cookie mixes with a stick of vegan butter and a flax egg. A flax egg is just ground flaxseed mixed with water (aka, flaxmeal with water). It worked amazingly well! However, now that I don’t have the bag mixes to turn to anymore, I really did need to come up with a recipe for perfect vegan sugar cookies that didn’t leave me nostalgic for BC. Not to mention, a baker can’t spend the entirety of her cookie craving based on only boxed mixes. Especially not during the pandemic, when even going to the grocery store was off-limits! During that time, I was able to test multiple variations of sugar cookies, to come up with this perfect version. They’re the BEST sugar cookies (vegan or not) that I’ve had!

Why You’ll Love This Easy Vegan Sugar Cookie Recipe

Simple Ingredients: Butter, sugar, flour, vanilla – pretty straightforward ingredients (and vegan butter sticks are in many large grocery stores now). The only extra ingredient is flaxmeal, which is ground flax seeds. So if you have flax seeds (and this could even work with chia seeds), you would grind them in a spice grinder to make a “meal.” The frosting is basically sugar but made into a powder (ground up sugar + cornstarch = confectioners’ sugar) or you can buy a bag of powdered sugar for that too.

Crispy + Chewy: If you ask me what texture constitutes perfect sugar cookies, I would say it’s a combination of having a slightly crispy edges, combined with a chewy middle. Now imagine yourself eating a cookie like that?! And to know that this could be in your hands if you scroll down to the recipe card and run to the kitchen now!

There are so many varieties of GOOD sugar cookies, and I do enjoy the giant, soft sugar cookies with an almost pillowy feel. They just break apart in your mouth before you even sink your teeth into them, and they’re just engulfed in frosting. That type of softness is not what I was going for today, but that’s definitely a runner-up!

No Chilling Required: We’ve all been there. You’re excited to make a batch of cookies, you just bought all the ingredients, they’re set are in your perfectly shaped large bowl, you’ve got that rolling pin, that almond extract for the ~hint~ of flavour … and the recipe says you need to chill your dough for HOURS before using. These vegan cookies are none of that nonsense (although yes, chilling the dough is required for that chewy cookie texture in many recipes, but this one’s not it).

More Reasons to Love These Cookies: Holiday Nostalgia & Gift-Giving

Holiday Gift Giving: Sugar cookies (and shortbread) are some of the easiest cookies to make in bulk, with fewer ingredients required than other cookies. This makes them great for gift giving as holiday cookies – decorate and wrap in beautiful holiday-themed wrapping paper, in a cute gift basket or cookie tin. Opening up a box of homemade Christmas cookies is up there on my list of best things in life!

They’re also great for making a big batch and using cookie cutters to make holiday cut-out cookies. Decorating them makes a fun activity or kids (or adults!) and you can make a variety of different colours and shapes with the basic sugar cookie dough. Not to mention, birthday parties? Kids LOVE decorating cookies at any event, holidays or not. This is now my favorite recipe anytime I need to make a batch of cookies for an event!

Nostalgia: As I mentioned above, I’m a huge fan of Betty Crocker’s bags of cookie mix. That was, until they began adding milk powder into the pre-made mixes. Although I haven’t bought a bag in a while, I can distinctly remember the taste of these cookies – and that’s the flavour I went for with today’s recipe. Even if you aren’t nostalgic for Ms. Crocker and her sugary snacks, traditional sugar cookies are reminiscent of the holiday season!

Substitutions: Butter

Vegan Butter: I love Melt brand of vegan butter. Earth Balance is another big vegan butter brand, but I’m not sure if they make the butter sticks. The texture of these butter sticks are very similar to dairy butter. I do not recommend to use oils in replacement of the butter (or margarine). This is because the texture of sugar cookies is highly reliant on butter and flour!

However, if I were to choose an oil replacement, I would go with refined, room temperature coconut oil and then chill the dough for two hours. By going for melted coconut oil or butter, the dough won’t hold together as it would with room temperature oil or butter. This makes a completely different texture when out of the oven. Oil also makes cookies more crispy instead of chewy. So by chilling the dough, it might lessen the crispiness of the cookies if it’s all oil.

Substitutions: Other

All Purpose Flour: The taste of all purpose flour and vegan butter combined is what makes a melt-in-your-mouth sugar cookie. I haven’t tried using a gluten-free all purpose flour mixture as a 1:1 substitute for white flour yet. It’s definitely something I would be interested to look into for future cookie recipes. Maybe a gluten-free vegan sugar cookie, all inclusive for the gluten-free folks out there? Not quite there yet, but I’ll figure out a substitute soon enough!

Cane Sugar: If you’re looking to substitute one of these items, I rather the white sugar be replaced than with monkfruit or xylitol than to try replacing the flour. I believe these two sugars are close enough that they could work in replacing the white sugar to an extent. Perhaps brown sugar could work as well, but the colour of the cookies won’t remain as white (which isn’t too much of a proble if you’re icing them).

Vanilla Extract: I love a hint of vanilla in a sugar cookie. It’s like adding a pinch of salt into a curry – it adds just that perfect touch of flavour! I do not recommend to omit the vanilla!

Oat Milk: Sub this with a splash of almond milk, cashew milk or other vegan milk. I prefer oat milk for the thicker and creamier texture. It also has a more neutral taste than other milks.

Sugar Cookie Recipe Notes

• Keep the butter at room temperature. This helps it to cream much easier with the sugar.
• You can make your own powdered sugar by grinding xylitol or white sugar into a fine powder with a bit of cornstarch. Check out this link to see how to make your own!
• Make the dough up to two days in advance. Store it in the fridge covered in plastic wrap so it doesn’t dry out. Alternatively, place the dough in an airtight container.
• In replacement of a piping bag, cut a slit in a Ziploc to use when frosting. Check out this link on how to do so!
• To get a natural food coloring in your icing rather than go for a chemical store-bought color, check out this link on making natural icing colors.
• Many brands of sprinkles are not vegan, due to the wax used in the process. Check out this guide to vegan sprinkles.

More Recipes You’ll Love

I love holiday recipes – eggnog, candycane, pies, chocolates, give it all! Here are some sweet holiday recipes to make this winter break:

Peppermint Mocha

Graham Cracker Toffee Bark

Rainbow Sugar Cookies

Butter Raisin Pecan Pie

Peppermint Matcha Nanaimo Bars

Chocolate No-Bake Cookies

Chickpea Chocolate Chip Cookies

If you make this Easy Vegan Sugar Cookie Recipe, leave a comment and star rating! Don’t forget to tag your photos @peanut_palate on Instagram. Enjoy!