Vegan Sugar Cookies + VIDEO

There is nothing more cheerful than celebrating the holiday season with a big plate of colorful Christmas cookies. These festive and flavorful vegan sugar cookies are decorated with an easy-to-make eggless royal icing that everyone will love!

vegan sugar cookies with royal icing

Try this Santa-approved vegan sugar cookie recipe for the holidays to get your sleigh bells ringing!

plant based butter, flour, sugar, salt, vanilla

Ingredients for Vegan Sugar Cookies with Royal Icing

My tried-and-true recipe for making the best dairy-free and eggless sugar cookies includes simple, wholesome vegan pantry staples.

Here is everything needed to make vegan sugar cookie dough:

  • All-purpose flour
  • Baking powder
  • Salt
  • Vegan butter – I am a big fan of Earth Balance or Country Crock Plant Butter
  • Cane sugar
  • Unsweetened almond milk
  • Vanilla extract
  • Almond extract

To make vegan royal icing from scratch you need:

  • Powdered sugar
  • Water
  • Light corn syrup
  • Vanilla extract

Plus your choice of food dyes to make different colors of royal icing, if you like. You also can use vegan-friendly sprinkles for an extra pop of fun color!

steps for making dough

How to Make the Best Vegan Sugar Cookies from Scratch

This is the easiest 4-step method for making soft, slightly crumbly sugar cookies at home.

  1. First, sift together the flour, salt, and baking powder in a medium bowl.
  2. In another bowl, use a standing mixer or hand mixer to cream together the plant-based butter and sugar. It should get nice and fluffy.
  3. To the creamed butter add the almond milk, almond extract, and vanilla extract. Stir to combine.
  4. Then, working just a bit at a time slowly add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients. Mix until completely incorporated to form a dough, but do not over-work the dough.

After making the dough, flour a clean work surface and turn the cookie dough out. Form the dough into a ball, cut in half, and then roll each half flat until about 1/4″ thick. Use parchment paper on top of the dough to keep it from sticking to the rolling pin.

Place the rolled out dough onto a cookie sheet covered with a baking mat or parchment, and set in the fridge for at least one hour to chill. Doing this ensures that the dough will keep its shape after cutting and baking, and prevents the dreaded “butter bleed.”

cutout cookies ready to bake

When the dough has chilled for an hour or so, remove from the fridge. Use different cutters to cut out your Christmas cookie shapes, keeping them spread apart on the baking sheets and removing excess dough after cutting. You can use this leftover dough to form and cut cute mini cookies!

Bake the cookies for about 10 minutes in an oven preheated to 350 degrees. Be sure to watch them closely – sugar cookies should turn only slightly golden around the edges but should stay mostly pale.

Keep them on the baking sheet for a couple of minutes before moving to a wire rack to finish cooling completely before decorating.

eggless royal icing in blue, pink, and green

How to Make Easy Eggless Royal Icing

To make a perfectly sweet vegan royal icing you simply whisk together the ingredients as listed in the recipe below. Then, divide into cups for however many individual colors you’ll be making, and add the food coloring a few drops at a time – if using.

You can either choose to slather a bit of the icing directly onto the cookies with a butter knife or spoon; or, transfer the icing into piping bags to do detailed decorating work.

how to fill with royal icing

Tips for Decorating Vegan Christmas Cookies with Royal Icing

This recipe for royal icing makes what is known as a flood consistency. To create my holly jolly holiday cookie look, follow these 2 basic decorating steps:

  1. First, do an outline of the cookie with the icing. Let sit for just a moment to dry.
  2. Then, working quickly, fill in – or “flood” – the sugar cookie with the royal icing. Use a toothpick to carefully swirl the wet icing to fill completely.

Top with sprinkles, if you like, and allow the decorated cookies to sit for at least 8-10 hours to dry before handling.

vegan sugar cookies with royal icing and sprinkles

How to Store Decorated Sugar Cookies

Once the royal icing has completely set for at least 8 hours – or ideally, overnight – sugar cookies can be stored in airtight containers for up to one week. I don’t recommend that you put them in the fridge, as this tends to dry out vegan cookies.

If you plan to stack the cookies I suggest putting a piece of wax or parchment paper between the layers.

christmas trees, stockings, holly, and snowflake cookies

How Do I Make Gluten-Free Vegan Sugar Cookies?

Swap all-purpose flour with your favorite GF-friendly baking substitute to easily make this a gluten-free cookie recipe. I recommend using a mix that contains almond flour for the best texture and cookie taste.

plate of vegan decorated christmas cookies

Can Vegan Sugar Cookies Be Frozen or Made Ahead?

Yes and yes! Freeze the raw dough for up to a month by keeping wrapped tightly in plastic wrap, and then sealing inside an airtight freezer-safe bag. Or, freeze the baked and cooled cookies by storing in an airtight freezer bag for up to 2 months.

I do not recommend freezing the cookies after you’ve decorated with royal icing, however. The consistency of the icing tends to breakdown once frozen, and does not thaw well.

snowflake cookie decorated with royal icing

If you tried making these vegan sugar cookies with royal icing, let me know in the comments below and share a photo using #mindfulavocado. I’d love to hear from you! Want to see more recipes? Let’s get social! CONNECT WITH ME on FacebookTwitterInstagram, or Pinterest to see what I’m currently cooking up!

Try these other delicious vegan Christmas cookie recipes:

Vegan Sugar Cookies with Royal Icing

These festive and flavorful vegan sugar cookies are decorated with an easy-to-make eggless royal icing recipe that everyone will love!
Print Pin Rate
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American, Vegan
Keyword: eggless royal icing, royal icing without eggs, sugar cookies with royal icing, vegan christmas cookies, vegan royal icing, vegan sugar cookies, vegan sugar cookies with icing
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 10 minutes
Chill Time: 1 hour
Total Time: 1 hour 30 minutes
Servings: 2 dozen cookies (depending on size of cookie cutters)
Calories: 117kcal
Author: Amanda

Ingredients

Sugar Cookies:

  • 2+1/4 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 3/4 cup (1+1/2 sticks) vegan butter (I like Earth Balance or Country Crock Plant Butter)
  • 3/4 cup cane sugar
  • 1/4 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1/2 teaspoon almond extract

Royal Icing:

  • 4 cups powdered sugar
  • 4 Tablespoons water
  • 4 Tablespoons light corn syrup
  • 1.5 teaspoon vanilla extract

Tools:

Instructions

Sugar Cookies:

  • In a medium bowl sift together the flour, salt, and baking powder.
  • In the bowl of a stand mixer or with a hand mixer and bowl- cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. This will take 2-3 minutes of medium speed mixing.
  • Add in the almond milk and the extracts- then with the mixer running slowly add in the flour mix in 3 separate batches. Just mix until incorporated.   Flour your counter and turn the dough out. Shape it into a ball and divide the dough in half.
  • Using parchment or wax paper- roll the dough out on the parchment or wax paper about 1/4-inch in thickness. Transfer the dough to a cookie sheet (you can layer them because you’ll have wax paper or parchment in between and cover the dough sheets with plastic wrap. Allow to chill in the fridge for 1 hour.
  • Move your dough out of the fridge and use cutters to cut out shapes. Transfer your shapes to a baking sheet lined with a baking mat or parchment paper. Leave 2 inches or so between cookies. These won’t spread much, but they will a little bit.
  • Bake at 350 degrees for 9-14 minutes. Watch them carefully. If you cook them too long your cookies will be less soft. The bottoms should look lightly golden and the tops will be mostly white with a tiny golden edge. 
  • Allow them to cool on the baking sheet for 2 minutes then carefully transfer to a cooling rack. Allow to cool completely before decorating.

Icing:

  • Whisk together all ingredients.  You can simply dip or spread the icing on and add sprinkles or glitter sugar for easy cookie decorating!
  • To decorate more intricately you’ll want to divide your icing into different bowls depending on the colors you want to make and add a few drops of food coloring.  Use piping bags with different tips to create your designs.
  • Allow the cookies to dry for 8-10 hours before attempting to stack and store them.

Video

Notes

You can freeze the raw dough for up to a month by keeping wrapped tightly in plastic wrap, and then sealing inside an airtight freezer-safe bag. Or, freeze the baked and cooled cookies by storing in an airtight freezer bag for up to 2 months.
I do not recommend freezing the cookies after you've decorated with royal icing, however. The consistency of the icing tends to breakdown once frozen, and does not thaw well.

Nutrition

Serving: 1cookie (without icing) | Calories: 117kcal | Carbohydrates: 13.6g | Protein: 1.2g | Fat: 5.6g | Saturated Fat: 2g | Sodium: 85mg | Potassium: 25mg | Fiber: 0.3g | Sugar: 4.6g | Calcium: 11mg | Iron: 1mg

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1 thought on “Vegan Sugar Cookies + VIDEO”

  1. I’m so sorry this recipe didn’t work out for you, Jenny! I’ve made this quite a few times with success. Adding flour is definitely the best way to troubleshoot wet dough so I’m not sure what went wrong without actually being there! Which type of butter did you use by chance?

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