These vegan sugar cookies are egg-free and dairy free plus they are easy to make, don’t require chilling, and taste DELICIOUS.  And, they hold their shape without much spreading while baking.  It’s our go-to sugar cookie recipe and the boys love being able to help roll out the dough and press their favorite shapes for cookies.

Back in October, when we discovered that our littlest had a severe egg allergy, I immediately began researching substitutions we could make in our cooking – and especially in our baking.  I knew that I wanted him to be able to enjoy the treats we have around here – especially for holidays and birthdays!

If you have been around here for a while, you know that I have a major sweet tooth as does our oldest (we call ourselves the treat masters around here).  And while we try to reserve yummy baked goods as “sometimes foods”, we definitely indulge for special days.

Sugar cookies are one of my favorite things to make for parties.  I love that I can make them ahead of time and store them in the fridge or freezer depending on when I need them, and they still taste delicious.  And Little had the best time helping me press the shapes with our cookie cutters.

For the last few years, I’ve been using an adaptation of this recipe – but with our food allergies, I’ve adapted it even more to make it safe for everyone in our family to enjoy.

And I’m glad to report that they still taste just as good as they always have!  But, an added bonus of vegan cookies (or any baked good) – being able to lick the spoon without salmonella risk.  Always looking for the silver lining over here.

The Best Vegan Sugar Cookies (Egg-free and dairy-free)

*Note, this recipe is for vegan sugar cookies, so there aren’t any dairy or egg products, but you can also use regular butter if you don’t have dairy allergies – we use regular, unsalted butter for this recipe, too, but for a while, we didn’t because I wanted to be sure we didn’t have any dairy allergies or intolerance. 

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Ingredients

• 1 cup of dairy free (vegan) butter, softened, but not melted
  • We use Earth Balance when making these dairy free
• 1 cup of sugar
• 1 1/4 teaspoon of vanilla extract
  • I always do 1 teaspoon plus a little more.
• 2 teaspoons of baking powder
• 3 cups flour
• 1 flax egg
  • Mix 1 Tablespoon of flaxseed meal + 3 Tablespoons of water and let it sit for about 5 minutes.
• Handful of rainbow sprinkles (totally optional, but we love sprinkles around here so…)

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• In a small bowl, mix flax seed meal and water to make your flax egg.
• Mix softened butter and sugar until smooth.
  • As a reminder – don’t melt the butter.  It changes the consistency and will require that the dough need to be chilled.  So, just save yourself sometime.  Don’t melt it and you don’t need to chill the dough.
• Mix in vanilla extract and flax egg until smooth.
• In a separate bowl, whisk together flour and baking powder.
• Add a little at a time (I usually add about 1/2 cup at a time) to wet ingredients.
• Add in your rainbow sprinkles.
• Once dough becomes solid, knead with your hands into a workable ball.
  • If the dough seems too wet and sticky, add flour to your hands.
  • If it’s too dry and crumbly, wet your hands a little before kneading.
• Roll out your dough to about 1/4 inch thickness and cut into desired shapes.
  • I roll our dough out on parchment paper because it’s less messy, but you can also roll it out on a floured surface to prevent it from sticking.
  • Another option, is to roll it out on a silicone rolling mat.  This is on my wish list since it’s reusable so I don’t have to buy parchment paper as often.
  • You may also try flouring your roller to prevent sticking.
• Round up the extra dough, roll and repeat until you’ve used all the dough.
• Bake on a non-stick pan (or parchment paper or silicone baking sheets…we use these and love them) for about 8 minutes until the bottoms start to look lightly golden.
  • The tops will still look soft – and that’s perfect.  Allow them to cool completely on the pan before transferring to a cooling rack or platter.

We’ve made these cookies for our Christmas cookies, for parties, and most recently for Valentine’s Day (hence the heart shape in these photos).  We also add in rainbow sprinkles, because they’re our favorite – but they are totally not necessary. 

While these sugar cookies won’t work for someone with a wheat allergy, they are great for egg and dairy allergies and we have been thankful to have found something we can all enjoy!

A Few Notes

• You can make these cookies (or even the dough) ahead of time if you need.  The dough should keep for a day or two in the fridge, tightly wrapped, but you’ll need to let it sit out and get back to room temperature for it to easily roll out.  I’ve made the cookies about a week and once even two weeks ahead of time and stored them in the fridge and freezer, respectively in an airtight container until I was ready to ice them.
• Prior to our food allergies, I used a basic royal icing recipe to frost our sugar cookies, but have avoided it since it requires meringue powder.  We actually really like these sugar cookies as they are, too, even without the icing.