Christmas Sugar Cookies Recipe {Plant-Based Option}
With their delicate flavor, soft, chewy texture, and sweet 3-ingredient royal icing, these Christmas sugar cookies are a traditional favorite around the holidays. The best part? They can easily be made plant-based with a couple simple swaps.
Ever since the kids were little it has been a family tradition to make at least one batch of Christmas sugar cookies every holiday season. It is something I did as a kid with my grandmother, aunts, and cousins and always loved those holiday baking sessions.
Those holiday cookies we made weren’t really the best tasting cookies. The dough was meant to withstand many tiny hands rolling and mashing it into many awkward circles to be sliced into with cookie cutters.
I’ve taken the same idea but made them into cookies you can’t stop yourself from eating. They are buttery, crisp on the outside but still soft in the middle with an irresistible tang that comes from not too much sugar.
If you’re looking for plant-based Christmas cookies you can easily make a couple of substitutions: 1 flax egg (1 tablespoon (8 grams) ground flaxseed mixed with 3 tablespoon water, left to sit 5 minutes) for the egg yolks and vegan butter for the butter. To make them dairy-free, just swap the butter for vegan butter and keep the egg yolks.
*BTW! I have a lot more savory vegan recipes, check out my 10 vegan tofu recipes, these 16 easy and delicious vegan lunches, or these 17 vegan pasta recipes.
Christmas Sugar Cookies Recipe Snapshot
- Texture: The texture is a combination of crumbly butter cookie on the outside but with chewy centers.
- Flavor: They are rich and buttery and have a unique tanginess that isn’t overly sweet with soft vanilla notes.
- Ease: As with any cut-out cookie there is some rolling, chilling, and cutting with cookie cutters. This puts them in intermediate cookie territory but not as challenging as my poppy seed kolaches.
- Time: The dough needs to chill for at least an hour before cutting and baking and also in-between rolling.
Perfect for slathering with icing and of course lots and lots of sprinkles.
Key Ingredients You Need & Why:
This is a very basic recipe with only a few simple ingredients.
- Butter: Or use vegan butter like we do for our pear-cranberry crisp for a vegan cookies.
- Sugar & Powdered Sugar: White sugar helps with spread and creates slightly crisp edges, while powdered sugar keeps the center soft and chewy.
- Kosher salt: To balance the sweet.
- Egg yolks: Using only egg yolks makes these cookies rich, flavorful, tender and delicate. They are also less likely to spread, hold their shape well, and have a beautiful golden color. To make vegan Christmas cookie recipes use flax egg.
- Vanilla extract: Classic sugar cookie flavor.
- All purpose flour: For structure.
How Do I Make Plant-Based Christmas Cookies?
Like I mentioned above this recipe can easily become one of your favorite vegan cookie recipes! There are lots of alternatives for the butter. My favorite is vegan butter (I like the Miyoko’s brand best, Violife is also good). Coconut oil and vegetable shortening are other options but the coconut oil will create very crisp cookies and the shortening has the opposite effect, creating very soft cookies.
As for the egg yolks, substitute 1 flax egg for the 2 egg yolks. You don’t want to add too much liquid to the dough or it will be too difficult to roll out. Make a flax egg by combining 1 tablespoon (8 grams) ground flaxseed mixed with 3 tablespoon water, let sit 5 minutes before adding to the dough.
For festive vegan Christmas cookies you’ll want to decorate them! The royal icing recipe does have egg white. To make vegan royal icing omit the egg and just use powder sugar and lemon juice.
Expect A Sticky Dough
Resist the urge to add more flour. The secret to the delicate nature of these cookies is there is just enough flour holding them together but not too much that they turn hard and dry. These are seriously the best cookies, they melt in your mouth.
The best way to help make the cutting and rolling process easier, make sure the dough is cold. If it starts to get sticky, return to the fridge (or even the freezer) to firm it up again.
Roll the dough with a rolling pin between two sheets of parchment paper instead of using flour. This will keep them light and airy instead of tough and chewy. The parchment paper will slide around so it is a bit tricky but if you have a helper in the kitchen they can hold the paper down for you while you roll.
Let the rolled out dough chill in the refrigerator for at least an hour before cutting and baking.
Cut the cookies with your favorite cookie cutters like a Christmas tree, candy canes, gingerbread men and the like. Try to use roughly the same sized cookie cutters so the cookies bake evenly. Remove the excess dough from around the cookies then transfer them to a baking sheet with an offset spatula.
Bake cookies until they are lightly golden brown on the edges.
After baking decorate them with royal icing and let dry then stack in an airtight container.
3 Success Tips
- Use proper room temperature butter. For perfect cookies make sure your butter is at the right temperature. If the butter is too hard it won’t get fluffy and combine properly with the other ingredients. If it is too soft it won’t provide a sturdy base for the cookies.
- Roll out the dough before chilling. The dough will be much easier to roll when it is still soft so roll out the dough first, then chill.
- Again, chilling is your friend. If the dough is giving you trouble, just stick it back in the refrigerator until it is stiff then continue with the recipe.
Christmas Sugar Cookie Variations
This sweet treat is simple and classic, but if you want to play around with this recipe, here are a few ideas you could try:
- Citrus Zest: Add the zest of an orange, lemon, or lime for a bright, fresh flavor.
- Spices: Experiment with warm spices like cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, or cardamom like those in these divine iced pumpkin molasses cookie ice cream sandwiches.
- Extracts: Try almond extract, peppermint extract, or maple extract for different flavor profiles.
- Chocolate: Substitute 1/4 cup cocoa powder for the flour in the dough for chocolate sugar cookies, or dip half of each baked cookie in melted dark chocolate.
- Vegan recipe: See the notes above about using vegan butter and flax eggs.
More Ideas For Your Christmas Cookie Tray
This is the time of year for cookie exchanges
I hope you get a chance to make these this Christmas holiday or even better make them a holiday tradition like we do!
Christmas Sugar Cookies (with plant-based options)
Ingredients
- 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup powdered sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 2 large egg yolks, at room temperature
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 recipe Royal Icing, for decorating
Instructions
- Place butter in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and beat on medium speed until smooth and very creamy, about 1 minute.
- Add both sugars and the salt and beat on medium speed until smooth and velvety, about 1 minute.
- Reduce the speed to low and add the egg yolks and extract, beating until incorporated, about 1 minute. Stop the mixer scrape down the sides of the bowl and the paddle with a rubber spatula.*Save the egg whites for making the royal icing
- Add the flour to the bowl. Drape a kitchen towel over the mixer and make 5 (2-second) pulses on low speed to start to incorporate the flour. Remove the towel and mix on low speed just until the flour disappears into the dough and the dough looks soft, clumpy, and moist, about 30 seconds. (If you still have some flour in the bottom of the bowl, stop the mixer and use a rubber spatula to work it into the dough.)
- Scrape the dough onto a work surface, gather it into a ball, and divide it in half.
- Place a ball of dough between 2 large pieces of parchment paper. Flatten the ball with our your hands into a disk, then use a rolling pin to roll the dough, turning it over frequently, until it's 1/4 inch thick. Transfer dough (paper and all) to a baking sheet; set aside. Repeat with the second ball and place on top of the first. Refrigerate until the dough is very firm, about 1 hour.
- Heat oven to 350°F. Remove a sheet of dough from the refrigerator and place on work surface. Remove top sheet of parchment and place on a clean baking sheet. Using a cookie cutter, stamp out as many cookies as possible.
- Transfer cookies to the parchment-covered baking sheet, spacing them 1 inch apart. Use an offset spatula to remove the cookies if needed. If the dough is getting too soft, return to the refrigerator to chill.
- Save the scraps and re-roll between two new pieces of parchment paper and return to the refrigerator to chill until solid. The cut and repeat.
- Bake until cookies are light brown on the bottom, lightly golden around the edges and pale on top, about 10-12 minutes. Let cookies rest 1 or 2 minutes before carefully transferring them to a wire rack with a wide metal spatula.
- Repeat cutting, baking, and cooling with the remaining dough.
- Once cool, decorate cookies with royal icing.
Notes
- Egg yolks: Save the egg whites for making the royal icing.
- Freezing Instructions (Baked Cookies): Freeze decorated cookies (icing fully set) between parchment paper in an airtight container for up to 3 months. Thaw in the fridge or at room temperature.
- Freezing Instructions (Cookie Dough): Mix dough, divide, flatten into discs, wrap, and freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw in the fridge, then bring to room temperature for 1 hour before rolling. Chill rolled dough 45-60 minutes before cutting.
- Yield: The dough will seem like it won’t make very many cookies but it makes 2-3 dozen cookies depending on the size of the cookie cutters you use.
