These easy vegan sugar cookies for Easter are soft, buttery, and taste amazing! Includes an easy egg free icing to decorate. Yum!
These Easter Sugar Cookies are so cute with egg shapes, though you can use any springtime cookie shapes you like. They taste sweet and with a subtle vanilla and bake up easily to either a soft and chewy cookie or one sturdy enough to handle extra frosting.
Free from: Dairy, casein, eggs, soy, peanuts, tree nuts, coconut, fish, shellfish, crustaceans, mollusks, celery, corn, sesame, mustard, lupin, sulfites, nightshades, tomatoes, and more
Based on my favorite egg free sugar cookie recipe, these cookies have been adapted for a spring time flavor and decorations.
Perfect for packing in lunch boxes, sharing at cookie swaps, or enjoying as a springtime treat, these sugar cookies are quick to make and totally delicious.
For more springtime desserts, make sure to check out my carrot cake recipe, gluten free sugar sprinkle cookies, or lemon cake!
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Why You’ll Love these Sugar Cookies
- Easy to make cookies
- Hold their shape easily
- Super yummy with lots of vanilla
- Makes about 3 dozen 3-inch cookies
- Dairy free, Egg free, Nut free, vegan recipe!
Ingredients
You only need a few ingredients to make these vegan sugar cookies; no flax eggs here!
- Powdered Sugar: Using powdered sugar in place of granulated sugar makes the cookies softer and the sugar almost melts into the dough. It also has a pinch of cornstarch in the sugar, helping to keep the cookies together.
- Cornstarch: This helps the cookies stay soft and also keeps the dough together. See below for corn free options!
- All purpose flour: Standard all purpose flour works best in this recipe. See below for a gluten free option.
- Vegan Butter: Use a stick vegan butter over a tub of vegan butter if that is available to you. The Fat:Water ratio is different in the tubs and can make your cookies melt. My favorites are "Earth Balance" and “I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter” sticks.
- Dairy free milk: A touch of milk helps the dough come together and provides a little more fat and moisture. Soy milk, coconut milk, and rice milk are my top recommendations, but you can totally use your favorite.
- Baking soda, Cream of Tartar, Salt: These help the cookies stay soft and to rise in the oven.
- Vanilla: I love adding a touch of vanilla to these cookies.
Allergy Substitutions
If you are avoiding corn, make sure that you use a corn free powdered sugar. You’ll also want to make sure that the cream of tartar is corn free. Replace the cornstarch with an equal amount of either tapioca flour or arrowroot powder. For my favorite corn free products, see my shop page!
Want to make these gluten free? Check out my gluten free sugar cookie!
Variations
- Lemon: Replace the vanilla extract with a tablespoon of fresh lemon juice for delicious lemon sugar cookies.
- Chocolate: Add 2 tablespoons of cocoa powder to the dough for chocolate!
Making the Dough
For the full instructions, complete with recipe measurements, please see the recipe card below.
In a medium sized bowl, sift together the dry ingredients of flour, cornstarch, baking soda, cream of tartar, and salt. Set this aside.
Now, in a large bowl with a hand mixer, or in a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, cream the vegan butter and powdered sugar together until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes.
Add the dairy free milk and vanilla extract, scrape the sides of the bowl, and mix again until fluffy.
Next, add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients. Add them slowly and try not to overmix. The dough should just come together.
Rolling the Cookies
This recipe is different because you roll the cookies out and shape them before you chill them!
In my experience, if you chill the cookie dough before you roll it out, it becomes hard as a brick and you have to let it come up to almost room temperature to make it easy to work with again.
By rolling and cutting out the cookies right away, you can chill them in their shapes and then transfer them directly to the oven, making for a cookie that totally holds its shape when baking.
Using a sheet of parchment paper and lots of flour, dust the surface with flour and set half the sugar cookie dough on the parchment. Sprinkle it again with flour and using a rolling pin, gently roll the dough out to about a quarter-inch thick.
With your favorite springtime cookie cutters, cut out the shapes and transfer them to a parchment or silicone lined baking sheet.
Place each filled baking sheet in the fridge to chill for at least 30 minutes, but one hour is best.
Keep rolling and cutting out shapes until no dough remains. I find I typically get about 3 dozen 3-4 inch cookies.
Baking
Place each cookie filled baking sheet into a preheated oven with the cookie tray in the middle of the oven. Try to only bake one sheet at a time for the best results.
Bake them for 11-12 minutes for soft and chewy cookies. Bake them for 13-14 minutes for a more crispy sugar cookie.
The cookies are done when they are slightly golden brown on the edges.
Remove the trays from the oven and let the cookies be on the hot tray for about 10 minutes. Then, you can transfer the cookies to a wire rack to finish cooling.
Let them totally cool before icing!
Easy Sugar Cookie Icing
For these cookies, I love to do a simple powdered sugar + water icing. It isn’t anything fancy but I honestly love the sweetness on top of the cookie.
Sometimes, I add a touch of light corn syrup to keep the icing glossy and to help with the thickness of the icing when frosting. You can use this or not, it’s totally up to you.
The icing will set completely in about 24 hours at room temperature. After that, you can stack them in cookie boxes or a freezer safe container to save for anytime you like!
Recommended Tools
While not totally necessary for making these vegan sugar cookies, they are super helpful to have!
- Electric mixer: Either a handheld mixer or a stand mixer to really mix the ingredients together.
- Parchment paper: I prefer parchment paper for an easy clean up.
- Dye free food coloring: As someone with a lot of allergies and sensitivities, I only use dye free food coloring on things I am going to eat.
- Sprinkles: I love the vegan sprinkles and dye free sprinkles from Sweetopolita!
Want to know my favorite products? I've curated a list of all my favorite cooking and baking essentials. Everything from baking sheet to corn free baking powder and more. Shop my favorites!
Top Tips
- Room temperature vegan butter and vegan milk are essential. Cold butter won’t mix properly with the sugar, resulting in a cookie not fully mixed. Cold milk can curdle the dough. Let the butter and milk sit out for an hour before you’re ready to bake.
- Don’t over mix the dough. Mix until the flour is just incorporated. More flour will be added as you roll the dough out so don’t worry, it will come together!
How to Store
Countertop: You can keep unfrosted and frosted cookies on the countertop for up to 3 days in an airtight container.
Freezer: Store fully cooked and cooled cookies only. You can store both frosted and unfrosted. Just make sure that the frosting has fully set. Freeze layers of cookies with parchment paper in between each layer in a freezer safe container. They will keep for up to 3 months. Let them thaw at room temperature before serving after freezing.
More Spring Recipes to Love
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Recipe
Equipment
- mixing bowls
- mixing spoons
- measuring cups
- measuring spoons
- Rolling Pin
- Cookie shapes
- baking trays
- parchment paper
- Electric mixer or hand mixer (optional but recommended)
Ingredients
Cookie Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups powdered sugar
- 1 cup vegan butter
- ¼ cup dairy free milk coconut, soy, or rice recommended
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 ½ cups flour plus more for rolling
- 2 tablespoons cornstarch
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon cream of tartar
- ¼ teaspoon salt
Frosting Ingredients
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 1 tablespoon corn syrup optional
- 1 tablespoon water
- Splash vanilla extract
- Pinch salt
- Food dyes optional
Instructions
- Prepare 3 to 4 baking trays with parchment paper. Set aside.
- Sift dry ingredients. In a medium sized bowl, sift together the dry ingredients of flour, cornstarch, baking soda, cream of tartar, and the salt. Set this aside.
- Mix wet ingredients. In a large bowl with a hand mixer, or in a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, cream together the room temperature vegan butter with the powdered sugar, dairy free milk, and vanilla extract. This may look a little lumpy depending on how cool the milk was when adding to the butter. Don’t worry, it will come together in the next step.
- Combine ingredients. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix together on low to medium speed until all the dough is combined.
- Roll out and cut out shapes. When the dough is still warm, right after mixing it together, begin to roll out the dough onto a floured surface with a floured rolling pin. Roll the cookies to about a ¼ inch thick, or however thick or thin you prefer your cookies. Use your favorite cookie cutters to cut out shapes. With a spatula, carefully place them on the prepared baking trays. Repeat until all the dough is used.
- Chill. Let the cookies chill on the baking trays for at least 1 hour and up to overnight. This is what helps them keep their shape while baking so don’t skip this step!
- Preheat the oven to 350°F/177°C.
- Bake. Bake the cookies on their baking trays for 14-16 minutes. The cookies are done when they are slightly golden brown on the edges and they look set. Remove them from the oven and let them rest on the trays until cooled.
- Frost. In a large bowl, combine all the ingredients for the frosting, adding more or less sugar as needed to get the viscosity you prefer. Frost and decorate the fully cooled cookies. Enjoy!
Notes
- How to Store
- Countertop: You can keep unfrosted and frosted cookies on the countertop for up to 3 days in an airtight container.
- Freezer: Store fully cooked and cooled cookies only. You can store both frosted and unfrosted. Just make sure that the frosting has fully set. Freeze layers of cookies with parchment paper in between each layer in a freezer safe container. They will keep for up to 3 months. Let them thaw at room temperature before serving after freezing.
- Variations
- Lemon: Replace the vanilla extract with a tablespoon of fresh lemon juice for delicious lemon sugar cookies.
- Chocolate: Add 2 tablespoons of cocoa powder to the dough for chocolate!
Nutrition
The nutritional information on this website is only an estimate and is provided for convenience and as a courtesy only. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed.
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