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If you're ready to seriously step up your holiday cookie game, you’re about to be on cloud-friggin’-nine with these vegan Christmas cookies. It’s got no weird ingredients, plus, I’ve included a couple of important tips to get them just how you love them, either crisp or buttery soft!
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This recipe is not only easy-as-heck to whip up, but they take just a short time to bake, and everyone at your Christmas party, or the 10 cookie exchanges you pencil into your busy schedule, is gonna want to pry the recipe out of your cold dead hands.
So, sip on some vegan eggnog, get some vegan royal icing mixed up while these bake, or eat some of the cookie dough when no one's looking—this is a judgment-free safe space, or whatever. You got this!
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🥰 Why you'll adore this vegan Christmas cookie recipe
✊ Easily Made GF AF: This is not only one of the most essential vegan Christmas recipes, it works pretty great with gluten-free flour too. So if you are looking for gluten-free vegan recipes to put out for Jolly ol’ Saint-Allergic-to-Everything-Nick, you are in luck with this one!
🛒 Simple Ingredients, Stellar Results: Some vegan Christmas cookie recipes make you go on a scavenger hunt for obscure ingredients. With super-easy-to-find pantry staples, you'll whip these up in no time.
✅ Tested and Approved Worldwide: Like all of the vegan recipes I share, after tweaking and perfecting it, I shared it with a massive team of recipe testers who replicated it successfully all around the world. You can trust this recipe to slap hard wherever you are!
🎄 Vegan Christmas Cookie Ingredients
Vegan Butter
While you can sorta get away with using either refined coconut oil or vegetable shortening (it will produce a drier, denser crumb, more like shortbread cookies), I really love the richness and traditional flavor that using vegan butter gives this recipe.
My top faves to use in my vegan cookie recipes are Earth Balance buttery sticks (which are conveniently pre-measured), Melt, and the vegan butter from Trader Joe’s, which actually tastes remarkably like dairy butter, and it’s dirt-cheap compared to the others. You can also use the butter I teach in my vegan dairy crash course.
The Starch
In this recipe, cornstarch helps create light, chewy cookies by preventing gluten development in the dough, resulting in cookies that are tender and melt-in-your-mouth.
Arrowroot can be used as a substitute, but I usually have tapioca starch on hand as my alternative non-corn starch. Why, you ask? Well, that stuff is crazy-important for making a bunch of my fave Southeast Asian desserts such as Indonesian Kolak Biji Salak, Filipino Karioka donuts, Vietnamese Che Khoai Mon, and Bubur Cha Cha from Singapore.
The Extracts
You can make this recipe either with vanilla extract or vanilla powder. I love having the powder on hand to make things you want to see little specks of vanilla beans in, like bomboloni, coconut panna cotta, and Filipino tupig.
There are a couple of optional extracts in this recipe. First, almond extract is (in my opinion) only optional if you have an almond allergy; otherwise, have at it! Then, if you are into the classic flavor of cookies from Italian bakeries, a little anise extract is a nice addition.
Otherwise, you can just toss a small sprinkle of anise seeds in. (I’m talking about the tiny little seeds you would use to make picarones, not the big star anise you use to make things like Madras curry powder and bandrek tea.)
The Flour
This recipe works best with regular ol’ all-purpose flour. You can also make it completely GF by using a gluten-free flour mix. Just keep in mind the gluten-free dough will crack more easily, so roll it using more flour on your work surface, and transfer the cookies onto your baking sheet carefully, using a thin metal spatula, or bench scraper to transfer them.
Vegan Icing
The whole fun of Christmas cookies is decorating them! What’s nice about this recipe is that the baked cookies are nice and flat, making them the perfect canvas for designs with vegan buttercream frosting, or as I prefer, vegan royal icing.
My vegan royal icing recipe works amazingly and can be applied with a tiny squeeze bottle or brush. You will generally want to let each color/layer set and harden before applying the next.
*See the recipe card at the bottom of the page for exact quantities, nutritional info, and detailed cooking directions.
🤯Variations
Vegan Lemon Sugar Cookies
Add the zest of one lemon and a tablespoon of lemon juice to the dough, and add yellow-colored sugar to the tops before baking. A little fresh lemon or orange zest is nice on these after they cool. These cookies are perfect for folks who don’t want to bother with decorating or if your Santa Claus is straight-up addicted to my vegan lemon pound cake recipe.
Buttery Vegan Gingerbread Cookies
Mix in plenty of ground ginger, cinnamon, and a touch of molasses into the dough to create warm, spiced gingerbread cookies. You can use these cookies to top my vegan gingerbread cake with vegan cream cheese frosting!
Vegan Chocolate Peppermint Cookies
Amp up that holiday cheer by putting chopped dark chocolate, a smear of vegan Nutella, or mini semi-sweet vegan chocolate chips onto the cookies while they are fresh and hot from the oven. Once the chocolate melts, add crushed candy canes. These are legit so much more fun than boring ol' gingerbread men...
📖 How to make vegan Christmas cookies
Make Santa want to do something completely inappropriate with you under the mistletoe this holiday season by following these step-by-step photos with helpful tips. Or scroll down to the bottom of this page for the easy-to-print recipe card.
Step One
Santa in the Streets, Claus in the Sheets:
Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C) and line a baking sheet with parchment paper to make removing your baked cookies and the after-baking cleanup a snap.
Step Two
C.R.E.A.M. (Claus rules everything around me):
In a stand mixer with a whisk attachment or a large bowl with a hand mixer, combine the vegan butter, cornstarch, and sugar. Mix until the mixture is mostly smooth and fluffy.
Step Three
North Pole-Dancers:
Add the plant-based milk, vanilla extract, and any other extracts you may want to use to the butter mixture. Mix for another 90 seconds until everything is fully blended and there are no lumps in sight.
Step Four
Your Sifter from Another Mister:
In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture, mixing with the paddle attachment until you have a soft dough that’s ready for rolling.
✅ For neater cookies with cleaner edges, chill the dough in an airtight container for at least 30 minutes before rolling it. The cold fats will not let the cookies spread as much when baked.
Step Five
Santa’s Got a Cutter, and Boy, He Loves Vegan Butter:
On a clean, lightly floured surface, roll out the dough to ⅛ inch (3 millimeters) thick for crispier cookies, or ¼ inch (6 millimeters) thick for softies. Sprinkle a little flour over the dough and your rolling pin to keep things from sticking.
Use your favorite cookie cutters to create festive shapes from the dough. Re-roll and cut the scraps until you’ve used up all that delicious dough.
✅ Dip each cookie cutter into a little plain flour (or you can apply some on with a pastry brush). This will help to prevent dough from sticking.
✅ You can also use alphabet cutters to write out holiday messages or freakish nonsense out of Santa’s favorite font: cookie.
Step Six
These Cookies Totally Sleigh:
Transfer the cookies to the prepared baking sheet, making sure to leave about 1 inch (2.5 cm) between them so they can spread out without touching one another.
Bake cookies for 11-13 minutes, keeping an eye on them until the edges start to turn golden brown.
✅ If your oven has uneven heat, make sure to rotate your cookie sheets as they bake at the halfway point. If you multiplied the batch and have pans on each oven rack, change their order as well to make sure everything bakes as evenly as you can get them to in your janky ol’ oven.
Step Seven
Resting Grinch Face:
Once baked, let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for a few minutes. Then, transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely and prepare for decoration.
Step Eight
But Wait—There’s Myrrh:
Once these golden vegan cookies are completely cooled, grab your prepared royal icing or vegan buttercream, divide and color it, and unleash your creativity as you decorate them with all kinds of cuteness.
👉Top tips
- Don't Overwork the Dough: Don’t go crazy, my weird ol' elf. Mix the dough just until combined. Overworking the dough develops too much gluten, which leads to tough cookies instead of crispy, tender, and delightfully buttery ones.
- Chill the Dough for Clean Shapes: After rolling out the dough, refrigerate it for at least 30 minutes before cutting shapes. This solidifies the fat and prevents the cookies from spreading too much during baking.
- Rotate Your Baking Sheets: If you’re baking multiple trays, rotate them halfway through the baking time to ensure the cookies brown evenly, especially if your oven is a straight-up piece of yuletide junk and has hot spots.
- Don’t Skip the Paper: Always line your baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone mat. This not only makes cleanup a lot easier, but also prevents your cookies from sticking. Plus, most baking sheets are aluminum, which isn't great to have food in direct contact with for health reasons. This is what I always do when I bake vegan oatmeal cookies and eggless chocolate chip cookies.
- Check for Doneness Early: Keep a close eye on the cookies as they bake. Ovens can vary, so check them at the lower end of the baking time range. The cookies should look set and slightly golden around the edges but still soft in the center.
- Cool Completely Before Icing: Allow the cookies to cool completely before decorating with icing. If they’re still warm, the icing will melt and slide off, making Santa angry at your sloppy holiday cookies with their garish, dripping designs. He will scream “HO HO HO” (like, in a bad way), and it will be somewhat terrifying.
🤷♀️ Recipe FAQs
Store undecorated cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to one week. Before decorating older cookies, toast them up for a few minutes in a hot oven or toaster oven and then let them return to room temperature first. This sorta brings them back to life.
For already decorated cookies, keep them in a container at room temperature for up to 3 days. If you refrigerate or freeze them, when returning them to room temperature, place them in a cardboard box. Otherwise, excess condensation on the cold cookies can cause your royal icing designs to bleed.
Yes, you can freeze both undecorated and decorated cookies! Just make sure they’re completely cool, then layer them between parchment paper in an airtight container and freeze for up to three months.
You can also freeze the unbaked vegan sugar cookie dough for up to 2 months, which is what I do with my vegan ladyfinger recipe so that I can always whip up some vegan tiramisu any ol' time my wife gets a craving.
Gel food coloring is ideal for royal icing since it provides vibrant colors without altering the icing's consistency, making it easier to pipe and flood. I really like some of the natural plant-based colors out there, but they can get mighty expensive. Edible mica dust can be used for glittering snow-type designs or gold details, which can be really rad-looking.
The best way to decorate is to outline with a thicker royal icing and then flood the center with a slightly thinner icing, allowing for a smooth finish. For applying that, you'll need tiny squeeze bottle or a pastry bag with a small tip.
Always make sure you whisk the royal icing before using it, especially if it’s been sitting, to avoid clogs from clumps of powdered sugar.
✌️You'll love these vegan holiday desserts too
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For just $1: Take a fun vegan dessert cooking class with Cinnamon Snail’s Chef Adam Sobel and Chef Amanda Bankert from Boneshaker, Paris.
Vegan Christmas Cookies (The Easiest Holiday Sugar Cookie)
Equipment
- cookie cutters
Ingredients
- ½ cup vegan butter room temperature
- 2 teaspoons cornstarch or arrowroot
- ¾ cup sugar
- 2 tablespoons unsweetened plant-based milk
- ¾ teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon almond extract optional
- ½ teaspoon anise extract optional for Italian bakery flavor
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- ¼ teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 cups vegan royal icing (1 batch)
- Natural plant-based food colors optional
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C) and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Either in a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, or in a large bowl with a hand mixer, cream the vegan butter, cornstarch, and sugar together until mostly smooth and fluffy.
- Add the plant-based milk, vanilla extract, and other extracts if you are using them. Mix for another 90 seconds, until fully combined.
- In a separate bowl, sift, or whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture, mixing until a soft dough forms.
- Optionally, for neater cookies that don’t spread as much, chill the dough in a sealed container for at least 30 minutes before rolling it.
- On a clean, lightly floured surface, roll the dough out to ⅛" (3 mm.) for thinner, crispier cookies, or ¼" (6 mm.) for thicker, softer cookies. Sprinkle flour lightly over the top of the dough and on your rolling pin to prevent sticking.
- Use cookie cutters to create shapes. Re-roll and cut the scraps to use up all of the dough.
- Transfer the cookies to the prepared baking sheet, leaving a 1 inch (2.5 cm) gap between them.
- Bake for 11-14 minutes (depending on the size and thickness of your cookies) at 350°F (175°C), or until the edges are just starting to turn golden.
- Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for a few minutes, then transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Once the cookies are fully cooled, decorate them with your prepared royal icing, or vegan buttercream.
Notes
- ❄️Cool Runnings
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KRB says
I made these cookies, among others, for a holiday party and these were everyone's favorite! Great taste and consistency, and they rolled out easily. We decorated them and they looked so pretty. I made these in advance and froze them (undecorated) with parchment paper in between - took them out the morning of the party, and iced them once they had defrosted (which did not take long). Will definitely make these again!
Adam Sobel says
So glad to hear they were a hit!
Paige Davis says
Made these today and we are enjoying them very much! Used the vanilla and the almond extract combo, and the flavor was perfect. The dough is easy to work with, and it baked up nicely.
Very reliable recipe!
Rachel says
These are delicious!!! My nephew and I tried them out and they were amazing. The dough is good too.
Can these be made with one of those sugar alternatives?
Adam Sobel says
I bet granulated palm sugar would work great. I haven't tested it with others, so if you do, please report back with how it went!
Kate Tucker says
The recipe couldn’t have been easier or tastier! The dough was perfectly pliable and didn’t miss a beat with the classic sugar cookie flavors. It was super easy to roll, and my seven year old daughter absolutely loved stealing bites of it and making her classic dinosaur shaped Christmas cookies. Thanks, Adam!