Vegan Sugar Cookies – super easy and perfect for any occasion.
These Vegan Sugar Cookies! Small crunchy delicious cookies perfect for the holidays, without any gluten or gum, soy or palm oil.
Last week was quite cloudy and dreary and my motivation was slipping. I was wondering about what to do in the new year and was coming up empty. So I was trying to veganize a few more Indian holiday sweets to keep the brain cells going.
I was working with coconut flour last week on some other Indian sweets recipes for next year’s festivals(there are so many different desserts from different parts of India!). The coconut flour was sitting out on the counter, and I had a feeling that it would work beautifully in gluten-free vegan sugar cookies.
And it did work amazingly to reduce the quantity and hence the stronger taste of brown rice flour.
These sugar cookies are crunchy, crumbly, sweet, flavored with vanilla and coated up in chocolate.
Use your favorite frosting, add sprinkles to the dough, make fun shapes!
I took a few to the Bake sale at Vegan Haven in Seattle, along with some Jar gifts and some Chewy Chocolate Chip cookies. If you picked up any of my goodies from the sale, do drop me a line:)
Pretty, small vegan sugar cookies, perfect for gifting or your holiday cookie exchange.
Ingredients for this Vegan Sugar Cookies recipe:
- Brown and white rice flour: rice flour gives the vegan sugar cookies that crumbly melt in the mouth texture very similar to what cornstarch does.
- Cornstarch: these starches are used for thickening and binding.
- Coconut flour: the best flour to use for all cookies that need to be scooped and shaped. Coconut based flour soaks up quite a lot of liquid and expands. It’s also why more flax eggs and liquid need to be used with coconut flour recipes. Keep that in mind if substituting another flour.
- Flax meal: I use golden flax meal for more even-looking sugar cookies.
Tips and Substitutions for this Vegan Sugar Cookies recipe:
- Flour is a tricky measure to get perfectly accurate but very important when it comes to baking! If using cups, use the spoon and level method.
- For decoration, dip them into melted dark chocolate or make a natural food coloring by mixing icing sugar and beet juice!
- Along with the vanilla extract, you could also add a little almond extract. Just a touch! If you use too much you will get a bit of a marzipan flavor and not everybody loves that.
- You can use arrowroot starch instead of cornstarch
- If you do not have coconut flour, you can use cashew flour or oat flour instead.
How to make this Vegan Sugar Cookies recipe:
1. Whisk all the dry ingredients.
2. Mix the wet ingredients in a separate bowl to combine.
3. Add to the dry ingredients and knead everything into a stiff dough. This dough can be refrigerated for 2 days. It probably can also be frozen.
4. Pat the dough down, roll out and cut the cookies into the desired shapes. Gather remaining dough and pat it down again to cut up cookies or shape some into balls and flatten them.
5. Chill the shaped cookies for 15 minutes in the refrigerator or 10 minutes in the freezer.
6. Bake at pre-heated 375 degrees F for 12-13 minutes. Cool completely then frost or dip in melted chocolate.
How to store vegan sugar cookies?
Should there be leftover cookies, keep them in a sealed container or cookie tin at room temperature and consume within a few days. Alternatively, store them in a sealed container in the fridge where they will stay good for up to a week.
Can these cookies be made in advance?
This dough can be refrigerated for 2 days. You can probably also freeze the cookie dough and then let it thaw overnight in the fridge and then use it as normal.
You can also freeze the baked cookies. Freeze them before frosting and then thaw them overnight in the fridge and then frost them.
More gluten-free holiday recipes from the blog:
- Coconut Macaroons
- Single Serving Gingerbread cake Mix in a Jar
- No Bake Candy Cane Truffles
- Sweet Potato Blondies with chocolate chips
- Creme Brulee
- Molten Lava Cakes
- Amaranth Coconut Fudge Candy
- Chocolate and Blueberry Creme Whoopie pies
Gluten-free Vegan Sugar Cookies - Chocolate Dipped
Makes 34 small 1 inch cookies, probably 16-18 medium sized.
Ingredients
Dry:
- 1/4 cup (1.39 oz) brown rice flour
- 1/4 cup (1.41 oz) white rice flour
- 1/4 cup (1.13 oz) cornstarch or use other starch like arrowroot
- 1/4 cup (1.06 oz) coconut flour or use cashew flour or oat flour
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 cup (3.53 oz) ground raw sugar or any other finely ground sweetener
Wet:
- 1/4 cup (1.98 oz) oil I used organic canola
- 3 Tbsp almond milk or other non-dairy milk
- 1 Tbsp flax meal
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
- In a bowl, add all the dry ingredients and mix well. In another bowl, mix the flax meal with non-dairy milk and let sit for 2 minutes. Add in the vanilla and oil and whisk to combine. Add to dry and mix. Knead well for 2-4 minutes to form a smooth dough. Spray water on the dough if it does not come together easily(not more than 2-4 sprays).
- Pat the dough down and use cookie cutters to cut desired shapes. I only have rounds :). I used 1 inch round cutter as it looked cute, and got about 34 cookies. Gather remaining dough, pat down and cut more cookies or shape into balls and flatten. Place the cookies on a parchment-lined baking sheet, cover with another parchment and refrigerate for 15-30 minutes(or 10 minutes in the freezer).
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Bake for 13-14 minutes(a few minutes longer for larger cookies) until the edges just about start to get golden. Move the cookies around from outside to inside at the 11-minute mark and bake for 2-5 minutes more depending on the cookie size. Let cool completely. Serve as is or dip in melted chocolate or top with favorite frosting.
Notes
Nutrition
Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in December 2013 and has been updated for accuracy and comprehensiveness in November 2019.
These vegan sugar cookies are being shared at ricki’s wellness weekend.
ethnic food says
December 23, 2013 at 9:13 amI like the cookies, however if you add pili nuts to them, they will become more tastier and healthier. Philippine pili nuts from the Bicol region in the Philippines is a great Filipino or Pinoy food or snack. Pili nuts are very healthy and nutritious indeed, being a source of energy, potassium and iron. They also have protein, dietary fiber / fibre, and calcium as well as monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats.
Sapana Behl says
December 23, 2013 at 11:46 amCookies looks perfectly baked Richard , bookmarked !
Vimitha Anand says
December 23, 2013 at 5:44 pmCookies look so yum
wrappedinnewspaper says
December 23, 2013 at 6:49 pmThese cookies look delicious! I’ve never really used other flours before but there are just so many different types it seems I might be missing out. I’ll have to give these a try. Amy
Indigo Moon BC says
December 24, 2013 at 12:43 amYummy! I want to make them…now 🙂 Is there something I can use instead of coconut flour – I have coconut flakes but no flour. Thanks!
Richa says
December 24, 2013 at 12:51 amthanks! you can use ground up cashews or oat flour.
coconutandberries says
December 24, 2013 at 2:29 pmThese look so wonderful Richa. I’m always on the lookout for more vegan recipes that use coconut flour. I use it in my raw brownies but that’s pretty much it.
Going on the must-make list once I’m back on the sweet stuff 😀
Richa says
January 8, 2014 at 3:30 amI just started baking with coconut flour and am loving it. It gives everything a great texture and also isnt as strong tasting as coconut flakes.
Annie says
December 24, 2013 at 8:11 pmSuch sweet little cookies! Love coconut flour (and chocolate)!
Purabi Naha | Cosmopolitan Currymania says
December 31, 2013 at 6:49 amI loved this gluten-free recipe. And this really looks YUM! Wish you a happy New Year. Hope we stay in touch through the wonderful world of blogging!
Anonymous says
July 4, 2014 at 6:14 pmThese were awesome! I didnt make them thick enough so they were a bit crunchy, but still super yummy!
Richa says
July 5, 2014 at 6:21 pmawesome! bake them a minute or 2 less if the cookies are too thin. bake just till they start to get golden on the edges.
KRISTEL says
June 17, 2015 at 10:16 pmCan i use all brown rice flour?
Richa says
June 18, 2015 at 12:23 amyes
abc says
July 31, 2015 at 4:45 pmCan I use chia seeds instead of flax meal? If yes, should be same amount?
Richa says
July 31, 2015 at 4:46 pmyes, you can use chia seeds, use the same amount.
Mae says
December 3, 2015 at 11:57 pmThis may be a silly question, but is there any special trick or technique to dipping them in chocolate? Is it just straight up melted chocolate, or do you add anything like milk to the melted chocolate? Any advice on how to then make the chocolate layer look pretty, and not all globby? Thanks Richa!
Richa says
December 4, 2015 at 10:59 amit depends on the chocolate brand. you can use a little coconut oil or vegan butter with the chocolate and whisk over double boiler until the chocolate is shiny. its about whisking and whisking to make it smooth.
Mae says
December 4, 2015 at 8:54 pmThanks for the tips! I plan on making these for Christmas. I’ll let you know how they come out!
Mans says
April 25, 2018 at 8:25 amI made the recipe as stated with only one alteration. I added chia instead of flax. It is still cooling down but Im finding them not crispy at all. Not sure why?
Richa says
April 25, 2018 at 11:08 pmchia seeds absorb moisture and soften. That texture does not bake into crispy but stays soft or gets chewy. that might be causing the cookies to be soft.
Kirsten says
June 13, 2018 at 6:12 amHi, The first batch I made It came out chewy and baffled me until I realized I forgot to add in the coconut flour. This time I added the coconut flour and it is delicious. Thank you. Enjoying it with a cuppa tea right now.
Richa says
June 13, 2018 at 8:53 amso glad it worked out!
Ashley Morgan says
December 4, 2018 at 6:25 pmHow long do these cookies keep for? Thank you!
Richa says
December 4, 2018 at 6:34 pmupto a week
Amanda G says
December 7, 2018 at 5:25 pmCan I substitute the gluten free flours for white flour?
Richa says
December 29, 2018 at 1:45 amthat might make a crunchy cookies.Try a mix of regular flour and almond flour
Jan says
December 9, 2018 at 5:51 pmCan I use all purpose flour instead of all the different flours?
Richa says
December 9, 2018 at 7:53 pmtry these instead https://www.veganricha.com/2015/09/vegan-coconut-oil-shortbread-cookies-with-pumpkin-pie-spice.html
Jennifer Swanson says
December 2, 2019 at 4:24 pmJust made two batches of these. I used coconut oil (melted) and all white rice flour. I put mini chocolate chips in the second batch and dipped the first batch in chocolate. These are excellent! I also didn’t bother to refrigerate the dough because it’s cold in here anyway. Thank you…great recipe!
Richa says
December 2, 2019 at 4:27 pmyay!!
vaedit says
December 6, 2019 at 11:41 amThese looks amazing and I love that you dipped them in chocolate – it’s the holiday season after all! I bet my family would devour them.
Navneet.jodhka says
July 22, 2020 at 11:42 amHi tried this. Aftertaste was of raw gritty rice. Can you please tell me how to fix this for next time.
Richa says
July 22, 2020 at 12:11 pmProbably the brand of rice flour or the rice flour was a bit coarse rather than fine. Use oat flour instead