We all need a vegan sugar cookie recipe that is easy to make and tastes great!
Most importantly these don’t spread in the oven!
Keeping the shape of your cookie cut out is essential!
I was never a big fan of eating decorated cookie!
Since to me the royal icing was just too hard and I just didn’t like that taste so much.
But these just hit different! I totally love this cookie from start to finish!
First of all they don’t dry hard like traditional royal icing cookies.
But they do dry hard enough to layer, package up and transport!
Although these cookies are not made with butter they are still so buttery tasting no one would ever know!
Vegan Butter Extract is a must for that added flavor every sugar cookie is known for!
This website may contain links as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, which means when you click a link and make a purchase through my website I may earn a small commission at no additional cost to you
Notes for Success:
Earth Balance vegan butter is my preference for this recipe *not sponsored
But I’ve used Country Crock Olive Oil Butter with good results as well
Lemon extract and lemon zest is always a must for me but you can totally leave that out
Replacing those flavors with almond extract is also a nice addition!
I like to use vegan chocolate to pipe on the faces to eliminate any risk of color bleed onto the base color below
However if you want to avoid chocolate just save out a bit of that white icing from the start and color it black.
Just be sure to let that base color dry overnight before piping the faces or you will get bleed through
The icing recipe listed below is a perfect amount for 12 large cookies.
The ghosts and pumpkins cookies cutters were approximately 4″ diameter to give you an estimated size.
Here is my new favorite Vegan gel paste food colors!
You will notice I am using EnerG Egg replacer for the icing recipe which I’ll admit is a strange ingredient for an icing, but it is what I believe gives it that “softer” dry
Of course if you want to forgo the egg replacer altogether you can leave it out and substitute aquafaba as a binder instead of water
Like I do here for my 3 ingredient Sprinkles Recipe which is essentially ROYAL ICING!
CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL YOUTUBE VIDEO TUTORIAL FOR HOW TO MAKE THESE COOKIES!
Yield: 12 Large Cookies
Vegan Halloween Sugar Cookies
Prep Time
55 minutes
Cook Time
20 minutes
Total Time
1 hour 15 minutes
Ingredients
For the Sugar Cookie Dough
- All Purpose Flour 3 cups (375g)
- Baking Powder 1½ teaspoons (7g)
- Salt ½ teaspoon (3g)
- Vegan Butter 1 cup (226g)
- Granulated Sugar 1 cup (200g)
- Aquafaba 4 Tablespoons (60ml)
- Vanilla Extract 1 teaspoon (5ml)
- Butter Extract 1 teaspoon (5ml) *see notes
- Lemon Extract *optional ¼ teaspoon
- Lemon Zest 1 lemon *optional
For the Vegan Royal Icing
- EnerG Egg Replacer 4½ teaspoons (20g) *see notes
- Warm Water 6 Tablespoons (90ml)
- Vanilla Extract ½ teaspoon
- Confectioner’s Sugar 4 cups (480g)
Instructions
- For the cookie dough, cream the vegan butter with the sugar until light and fluffy about 3- 5 minutes.
- Add the lemon zest, the aquafaba and the extracts to the creaming butter/sugar mixture and then stop the mixer and scrape the sides of the bowl
- Next sift together the flour, baking powder and salt and add it all at once to the creamed mixture. Mix just until it is all combined.
- Wrap this dough disc in plastic wrap and chill for at least 2 hours or overnight before using this allows the dough to relax and absorb the flour
- At this point you can store it for up to 1 week wrapped in plastic wrap in the refrigerator
- You must re work this dough with some additional flour to a pliable consistency after it has been chilled. Do not skip this step.*see video for visual
- Roll out the dough to ¼” thick or to your desired thickness and cut shapes as desired
- Transfer cookie cutouts to a parchment lined sheet pan and bake in preheated to 350° F oven for approximately 18-22 minutes or until light golden brown.
- Cool the cookies while you prepare the vegan royal icing
- For the Royal Icing, combine the egg replacer with the warm water and whisk smooth
- Place the sifted confectioners sugar in a mixing bowl and then add the vanilla extract and the egg replacer mixture.
- Whip on medium to high speed until it is smooth
- Color as desired with gel paste food colors and decorate as you like
- Allow cookies to dry at room temperature overnight
