Nothing’s better than satisfying a craving for a sweet treat, whether it’s with a decadent slice of cake or a delicious sugar cookie. These easy vegan sugar cookie recipes are sure to hit the spot! The best part? They’re cruelty-free and easy to make!
1. Easiest Vegan Sugar Cookies by Loving it Vegan
Trust the good people at Loving it Vegan to have a sugar cookie recipe that will knock your socks off. The fact that it’s super simple makes it all the better too.
One of the critical things that you need to keep in mind is that each ingredient must be perfectly measured out. Make sure that you use a knife to level your flour or weigh it on a kitchen scale. Baking is a precise art.
Any vegan butter works well in this recipe, and you can add vanilla or almond extract to taste. The two extracts add tons of layers of flavor and depth.
Next, pick up soy or almond milk for the frosting and add it bit by bit to get the right consistency. Don’t frost your cookies until they’re cooled, or else you could have a sticky mess on your hands!
2. Best Ever Vegan Sugar Cookies by The Banana Diaries
These best-ever vegan sugar cookies are easy to make, and they taste just like the real deal. Plus, the frosting is thick and delicious. Although you can enjoy them any time of the year, they taste spectacular around the holidays and make a perfect vegan alternative to Christmas cookies.
This recipe relies on simple substitutions like applesauce instead of eggs. The applesauce cuts down on the sweetness and gives the cookie a lot of heft. It’s a great idea.
Don’t worry if you don’t have vegan butter on hand. Instead, you can use coconut oil. Make sure that you measure out your baking powder carefully. Add too much, and your cookies will taste chalky.
3. Vegan Sugar Cookies by Love and Lemons
Love and Lemons is a tremendous vegan-centric site with excellent recipes for veggie lovers. These vegan sugar cookies are certainly no exception, and they have a fun lemony zing that sets them apart from the pack.
Additionally, they’re nice and soft. The secret is in the mix of flours. Love and Lemons uses both traditional and almond flours to give the cookies a lighter-than-air texture.
The lemon zest does take them to the next level, and if you’re craving a touch more citrus, you can also use a little bit of lemon extract in your cookies. For less lemon flavor, add vanilla instead. If you want to amp up the almond flavor, you can also use almond extract. Just make sure that you taste the dough often to avoid overpowering it.
4. Vegan Coconut Oil Sugar Cookies by I Love Vegan
Coconut oil gives these delicious vegan sugar cookies a tropical kick and makes them perfect for big gatherings. The cookies are also organic, with beet juice lending the frosting its rosy hue. If you don’t have beet juice on hand, simply use a vegan red food coloring.
Beets tend to stain your hands, even after you wash them, so make sure that you use gloves to avoid inky fingers.
It’s also essential to use high-quality coconut oil to give a good consistency and an excellent depth of flavor. You want your coconut oil to be slightly chilled so that it retains its shape but still folds nicely into the dry ingredients.
The vegan milk of your choice thins out the icing, and you can add as much or as little as you like. To complement the coconut flavor of the cookies, try coconut milk.
5. Vegan Sugar Cookies by The Spruce Eats
Cornstarch stands in for eggs in this easy-as-pie vegan sugar cookie recipe, and vegan butter replaces traditional butter. They taste authentic and are super easy to make.
If you’d prefer to dress them up a little bit more, The Spruce Eats offers a super simple icing recipe to crown your delicious cookies with. It’s only three ingredients, but it tastes like you spent all day making it.
The only thing that you need to keep an eye on with the icing is your ratio of confectionary sugar to plant-based milk. You’ll want the icing to be robust enough to stay on the top of the cookie itself but not drippy.
You can add more or less sugar as you need and save any extra icing for another batch of cookies or a delicious vegan cake.
6. Vegan Sugar Cookies by Food Network
Food Network’s vegan sugar cookies are a tried-and-tested recipe that will tempt your tastebuds. For starters, these cookies have a lot of different textures going on at the same time. While the middles are nice and doughy, the edges are crisp and delicious.
They taste just like your favorite childhood cookies, and you can snack on them guilt-free!
If you want to make these cookies memorable, get some different colored sprinkles to put on top of the icing. They’re easy to make and are great for any holiday or special event.
Unlike some of the other cookies on this list, these ones aren’t free-form. Instead, you roll the dough into a log, pop it in the freezer, and slice it into uniform rounds. Make sure they are all the same thickness so that your cookies don’t burn.
7. Vegan Sugar Cookies Easy Shortbread Cookie Recipe by Bianca Zapatka
Is there anything on the planet that’s tastier than shortbread? After you sample these cookies, your answer will be an emphatic “no.” Bianca Zapatka really brings the flavors with these cookies, and the consistency is really on point.
The secret to their smooth success is in the sugar that Bianca Zapatka uses. Powdered sugar lends a creamy and delicious consistency to the end product.
If you want a deeper flavor, you can always use brown sugar or a more exotic type of sugar, like coconut sugar. Additionally, Bianca Zapatka encourages you to spice up your cookies with unconventional flavors, like:
- Citrus zest
- Cinnamon
- Pumpkin spice mix
The result is cookies that taste familiar but have a very interesting and delicious flavor profile.
8. Butterless Vegan Sugar Cookies by Go Dairy Free
With a name like “Go Dairy Free,” you know that they’re going to have some seriously tasty vegan recipes, but these butterless vegan sugar cookies do take the cruelty-free cake. Best of all, they’re very simple to make, and you probably have everything that you need in your pantry. The cookies are soft, fluffy, and extremely tasty.
One other great thing about these cookies is the fact that they use citrus juice for a little extra flavoring and zing. Although you can mix and match to your tastes, the recipe suggests that you match the juice with the flavor of the cookie.
For example, you can use lime or lemon juice for yellow or green cookies, grapefruit juice for pink cookies, and blueberry juice for purple cookies. Add juice into the mix instead of soy or oat milk if you crave a little more flavor.
9. Best Vegan Sugar Cookies by Hanielas
For vegans, aquafaba is the best thing since sliced bread! Aquafaba is the residual liquid left in a can of chickpeas, and you can whip it up into the best egg white substitute that you’ve ever tasted. So next time you toss some chickpeas into your salad, make sure that you reserve the liquid to make these phenomenal cookies by Hanielas.
Since aquafaba is naturally saltier, you don’t need as much seasoning in these cookies. A good idea is to use less than you think that you’ll need and add more to taste. The result is cookies that taste just like the real deal without any dairy or eggs in them.
10. Easy Vegan Sugar Cookies by The Conscientious Eater
This great easy vegan sugar cookie recipe from The Conscientious Eater gives you easy as pie, totally vegan cookies that the whole family can make and enjoy. You don’t need to be a master baker to do it, either.
Essentially, all you need to do is gather up a few pantry essentials and get to work—one of the critical ingredients in powdered sugar. The sugar gives the cookies a light, airy consistency that’s never too grainy.
Vegan butter is another key staple in these cookies. You’ll want to make sure that your butter is at room temperature to keep the consistency nice and smooth.
Additionally, you can put in vanilla extract to taste and even add a little bit of almond extract if you want to make them fancier. Finally, sprinkles make the cookie shine, so don’t be afraid to get colorful and creative with your toppings.
11. The Best Vegan Sugar Cookies by Nora Cooks
One of the trademark qualities of a sublime sugar cookie is consistency. The best sugar cookies have a soft interior and nice crispy edges for a bunch of different textures in every bite. These great sugar cookies by Nora Cooks do all of that and more. Plus you can top them with a nice light icing and some sprinkles.
Nora Cooks advises that you make these cookies into cut-outs, which makes them ideal for any holiday gathering. Ensure that the dough is properly chilled before you cut out the cookies, and keep it from sticking to your baking tray with a little bit of parchment paper.
Once they’re ready to go into the oven, these cookies are done in a flash. You just need about 10 minutes, and they’re ready to cool off, frost, and eat.
12. Vegan Sugar Cookies (Soft & Chewy) by Purely Kaylie
If you love giant, soft, chewy, and flavorful vegan sugar cookies, you should try this recipe by Purely Kaylie. These cookies taste like they’re full of butter, except that they’re totally cruelty-free.
They’re also gluten-free so anyone can enjoy them regardless of their dietary restrictions. Since they taste amazing, even non-vegans will be thrilled to have them at any family event, celebration, or barbeque.
They also look very pretty, making them ideal cookies for giving away as gifts. Purely Kaylie recommends that you roll the cookies in sugar to give them just the slightest crunchy exterior. It complements the soft interior beautifully. Also, you don’t need too much time to prepare these tasty cookies. After 20 minutes, they will be ready to go.
13. Bowl Vegan Sugar Cookies by Minimalist Baker
Although Minimalist Baker has a few more steps in these vegan sugar cookies, they’re totally worth it. These cookies taste just like ones that your grandmother used to make, full of several different kinds of sugars and soft and tasty in every bite. One of the best things about this recipe is that the Minimalist Baker gives you several various alternatives for eggs.
You can use applesauce or pumpkin puree in place of the eggs. Either of these ingredients will lend your cookies a different flavor and contribute to their soft and tasty consistency.
You’ll also need a few different types of sugars, including brown sugar, for a deeper level of flavor. Finally, top them with vegan royal icing, a robust treat made with vegan butter, plenty of sugar, and just a little bit of non-dairy milk.
14. Perfect Vegan Sugar Cookies by Allrecipes
Allrecipes perfected the vegan sugar cookie by adding a nice light tropical twist in the form of coconut milk.
Make sure that you use full-fat coconut milk in this recipe to add to the flavor and give the inside of the cookies a velvety consistency. You’ll also need the following ingredients:
- Vegan margarine
- Flour
- Baking soda
- Salt
- Vanilla extract to taste
As with many of the other vegan sugar cookie recipes on our list, you can add in different flavors if you’d like. Experiment with cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, or almond extract. You can even add a little bit of orange extract into them and then top them with a light, zesty, citrus glaze.
One of the most incredible things about sugar cookies is that they’re incredibly versatile, so feel free to make them your own!
15. Vegan Sugar Cookies by Chocolate Covered Katie
If you love Lofthouse cookies but you can’t eat them because you’re vegan, Chocolate Covered Katie has the perfect recipe for you.
These vegan sugar cookies taste just like Lofthouse cookies that you can buy from the store, and nobody will ever know that they don’t have eggs or dairy in them. The secret is vegan cream cheese. You can buy it at specialty stores or make your own with vegan butter, vanilla extract, and some powdered sugar.
The cream cheese gives the cookies a dense but still light consistency that melts in your mouth. If you don’t want to use vegan butter, you can always use coconut butter instead. The latter will give your cookies a straight-from-the-tropics taste that goes well with citrus icing.
If you use coconut oil in place of butter, your cookies will be a little harder and crisper. This will make them taste more like vegan shortbread.
16. Vegan Sugar Cookies by Food With Feeling
Try these vegan sugar cookies by Food With Feeling if you want traditional cut-out cookies with a vegan spin. They’re exceptionally easy to make. As with a lot of the recipes on our list, these cookies get their boost and weight from vegan butter. You probably have everything you need right in your pantry too.
These sugar cookies have a very classic flavor that you can bump up with different spices or toppings or just enjoy plain. They’re a good canvas for all of your culinary adventures.
Food With Feeling calls for a mixture of vanilla and almond extract, although you can use whatever you’d like to taste. Just make sure that you add a little bit at a time to not overwhelm the cookies. The cornstarch gives your cookies an airy consistency too.
17. Vegan Sugar Cookies (Refined Sugar-Free) by Secretly Healthy Home
Not only are these cookies vegan, but they don’t have any refined sugars in them, so you can snack away guilt-free.
Additionally, they have whole wheat flour in them and coconut oil for a luxe, creamy consistency. Coconut oil and whole wheat flour are both very healthy for you in small quantities, and it’s good to have them in your diet, so you can almost consider these cookies a health food.
Instead of eggs, Secretly Healthy Home uses chia seeds and water. “Chia eggs” mimic the consistency of eggs and keep the cookies airy. Plus, you can whip up a batch of chia eggs in a matter of seconds.
Alternatively, you can use aquafaba. Decorate your sugar cookies with a nice light icing and a few sprinkles for the best results. Of course, nobody will know that they’re refined sugar, dairy, and egg-free.
If you’re craving sugar cookies, any of these great recipes will fit the bill. You can also adjust them to taste and experiment with different flavors and styles.
Easy Vegan Sugar Cookie Recipes, Final Thoughts
Although you can make tasty vegan food for any meal of the day, there’s something super sublime about vegan desserts like these delicious sugar cookies. Try one or more of these easy vegan sugar cookie recipes today. They’re fun to make with kids, and you’ll have tasty treats in no time.