Cut out sugar cookies with no eggs or dairy! This vegan sugar cookies recipe holds its shape for rolling and cutting – perfect for decorating! A great sugar cookie recipe with no eggs or dairy.
Darlings, I am a firm believer that food shouldn’t complicate life. There’s almost always an alternative for every ingredient in a recipe. In this case, a few little tweaks to my cut out sugar cookie dough recipe made them safe for a friend’s kid who can’t have dairy or eggs. Which in this case, makes them vegan. And delicious… because cookies should be delicious! Did I mention these sugar cookies hold their shape? All sorts of wonderful here, my dears.
Because this vegan sugar cookie recipe bakes up as nicely as it does, it’s a good basic cookie recipe to store in your recipe files. If you host a lot, or like to give food gifts, it’s nice to have a variety of recipes. I’m just glad to have finally found a cut out sugar cookie recipe I can share with my vegan friends too. And you can decorate it!
Don’t use meringue powder royal icing – meringue powder contains dehydrated egg whites. That’s neither vegan nor egg-free. BUT, you can hop over to my doughnut sugar cookie tutorial for a great glaze recipe that can be made thick enough for piping. Just use a dairy-free milk. Cookie glaze frosting is very forgiving, and you have the option to dip or pipe your frosting on, which makes the process easy. I usually dip my base layer, let it dry a few hours, then come back and pipe on details with a thicker glaze. To make the glaze thicker, just add powdered sugar.
A few tips for perfect vegan sugar cookies…
Don’t over beat the sugar. For this recipe, I like using the vegan stick butter/plant butter. I find the consistency works really well. I’m sure any vegan butter substitute would work though. Just beat the sugar and your “butter” until it’s mixed. You shouldn’t see butter streaks, but you don’t want to make the mixture super light and fluffy either.
Don’t make a flax egg! Most of us are very used to making flax eggs for egg free baking. Here, just trust me and follow the instructions to add the ground flax to the mixture dry. You’ll need it to act as a binder to help your dough reach the right consistency. I do not think an alternative like applesauce or oil would work alone to replace the egg here. Great for most vegan cake recipes, not in cut out vegan sugar cookies. You’ll have too much liquid and not enough structure.
Plan enough time for chilling the dough! At least 2 hours is ideal. You can even wait overnight. This dough is much softer than cut out sugar cookie dough made with eggs and dairy butter. Cold dough means less spreading. You also want to allow a little time for the flax to dry out the dough a bit and give it structure.
Feel free to flavor the dough as you wish! I used vanilla extract for the recipe, but include the amounts for a blend of vanilla and almond extract. That extract blend is super popular, but pure almond extract isn’t nut free. And so if you’re looking at this recipe for allergy friendly sugar cookies and not just vegan friendly sugar cookies, I find this is important to note.
If you’ve been looking for an egg free dairy free cut out sugar cookie recipe, I hope you love this one as much as I do. Happy baking, darlings!
Vegan Sugar Cookies
Cut out sugar cookies with no eggs or dairy! This vegan sugar cookies recipe holds its shape for rolling and cutting - perfect for decorating! A great sugar cookie recipe with no eggs or dairy.
Ingredients
- 16 tablespoons non-dairy butter (sticks are best)
- 3/4 cups granulated sugar
- 1/3 cup brown sugar. packed
- 2 tablespoons ground flax
- 1 teaspoon neutral-flavored oil
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract (or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract and 1 teaspoon almond extract)
Instructions
- Cream together the butter and sugars in the bowl of a stand mixer until just combined. This takes about 45 seconds on medium speed.
- Add the ground flax, oil, and extracts. Stir to combine. Scrape the sides of the bowl.
- In another bowl, mix together the salt, baking powder, and flour.
- Add the flour mixture in 2 batches to the butter and mix just until all the flour has been incorporated.
- Turn the dough onto a piece of parchment paper or plastic wrap and roll out to about 1/2 inch thick. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 2 hours, up to overnight. The dough must be well chilled to hold its shape.
- Preheat your oven to 375 F. Remove the cookie dough from the refrigerator.
- Cut out your shapes and lay them on ungreased parchment paper lined baking sheets. If you have the time, placing the cut cookies in the freezer for 10-15 minutes will help hold shape as well, especially for detailed cutters. You can also cut shapes and freeze for baking later.
- Re-roll and refrigerate any remaining cookie dough.
- Bake for 10-12 minutes until the edges are a very light golden brown. Watch the cookies carefully towards the end of the baking time as they can burn quickly if left unattended.
- Remove from the oven and allow to set on the sheet for 5-10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. Cookies must be completely cool before decorating.
Notes
To decorate the cookies, use either a dairy free buttercream made with powdered sugar, the plant butter, and the extract of your choice, or a cookie glaze.
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