Cookies with no butter or oil? Yes! These scrumptious Oil-Free Vegan Sugar Cookies are perfect to cut and bake for your holiday treats!
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Sugar Cookies – A Family Tradition
Baking Christmas cookies is a tradition in my family.
As my daughters were growing up, my parents invited my family and my sister’s family over for cookie baking and decorating the day before Christmas Eve each year. My brother would be down from Seattle for the holidays by then, and always joined in on the fun.
This cookie making day was an all day affair!
The kids busily rolled and cut dozens and dozens of cookies, while my dad or I baked. We had about a dozen cookie cutter shapes, and the baked cookies were sorted into piles according to their shape – we had to make sure we had plenty of each shape!
Once the cookies cooled, the decorating would begin. We’d mix up 4 to 6 colors of icing, and the kids would sit around the table creating their works of art. There were always different colored sprinkles, red hot candies, and usually some M&Ms (not vegan – although there are a couple brands of vegan M&M type candies now ).
My daughters and my niece and nephew are grown now, so there’s not as much interest in spending a whole day on cookies. But my extended family are big cookie eaters, so there will always be a need for some great cookie recipes.
Those cookies we made when my daughters were little were not suitable for a vegan diet. So I set out to create a cookie recipe that would be a better fit for an oil free vegan lifestyle. These are also perfect vegan sugar cookies for anyone with dairy and egg allergies.
Ingredients for this vegan sugar cookies recipe
- whole wheat pastry flour
- baking powder
- salt
- Organic cane sugar
- raw cashew butter – this will be your butter substitute. You can make your own, or purchase it
- lite firm silken tofu – this is your egg substitute
- soy milk – feel free to substitute your preferred plant based milk. Almond milk or oat milk would work great in this recipe
- vanilla
And for the icing
- organic powdered sugar
- soy milk
- Vanilla extract
- Food coloring
Not having much experience creating baked goods recipes, I really didn’t know how these Oil-Free Vegan Sugar Cookies would turn out. But I have to say, they’re fantastic!
How to make oil-free vegan sugar cookies
Many vegan sugar cookie recipes call for coconut oil or a vegan butter substitute like Earth Balance. But we don’t need to use these heavy extracted fats in our baking.
My cookie recipe was inspired by Brandi of The Vegan 8, who has several oil free vegan cookie recipes. She uses cashew butter in several of her recipes, so I thought I would give that a try. It makes a great butter substitute in baking.
My daughters also reminded me of a sugar cookie recipe I found and made years ago that had tofu in it. So, why not use a bit of silken tofu as an egg substitute?
When I made my cookies, I followed Brandi’s very detailed instructions for making your own cashew butter. I’ve since found a brand of raw cashew butter that is 100% raw cashews. It is a bit more expensive than making your own, but it’s definitely a time saver.
Here’s how to make the cookies:
Step 1: mix together the cashew butter, sugar, tofu, and vanilla with a hand mixer.
Step 2: stir the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. The dough will be pretty stiff, but the flour will eventually mix in.
Step 3: Chill the dough for at least a couple of hours.
Step 4: Roll the dough to about 1/4″ thickness and cut into your desired shapes with cookie cutters.
Step 5: Bake the cookies on the prepared baking sheets for 7 to 8 minutes at 350° F.
Decorating the Cookies
For the easiest decorating, simply sprinkle some vegan colored sugar on top of the cookies before baking.
If you want to show off your creative side, mix up some simple icing. The icing can be tinted any color you want with Wilton Gel-Based Food Colors, which just happen to be vegan. Natural food coloring can also be used.
To make the icing, mix together the powdered sugar and soy milk. Then stir in the food coloring to achieve the desired colors.
Allow the cookies to cool completely before icing them.
If you’re looking for a vegan royal icing recipe, check out this one from my friend Meggan’s Cooking on Caffeine blog.
Frequently asked questions:
I haven’t tried this recipe with gluten free flour, but I’ve had good results in other baking recipes by substituting the flour with a 1 to 1 gluten free flour blend.
Yes. The cut and baked cookies can be kept in a Ziploc bag or closed container for up to a week. Or store the undecorated sugar cookies in the freezer for up to two months.
Looking for more oil-free vegan desserts? See:
- Oil-free Vegan Gingerbread Cookies
- Blueberry Oat Bars
- Vegan Peppermint Ice Cream
- Vegan Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream
- Chocolate Cupcakes
- Vegan Double Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Chocolate Mug Cake
- Vegan Vanilla Ice Cream
- Vegan Strawberry Ice Cream
- Vegan Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
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Are you new to oil free cooking? Check out my Oil Free Cooking Tips to learn more about oil free baking, roasting, sauteing, and more!
Vegan Sugar Cookies (Oil Free!)
Ingredients
Cookie dough dry ingredients
- 1 ¼ cup whole wheat pastry flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
Cookie dough wet ingredients
- ½ cup organic cane sugar
- ½ cup raw cashew butter
- ¼ cup lite firm silken tofu
- 2 tablespoons soy milk
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
Icing ingredients
- 1 cup organic powdered sugar
- 1 tablespoon soy milk
- ½ teaspoon vanilla
Instructions
- Stir together the dry ingredients in a small bowl.
- Mix together the cashew butter, sugar, tofu, and vanilla with a hand mixer.
- Then stir the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. The dough will be pretty stiff, but the flour will eventually mix in.
- Chill the dough for at least a couple of hours. Then roll the dough and cut into your desired shapes with cookie cutters and and place on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.
- For the easiest decorating, simply sprinkle some vegan colored sugar on top of the cookies before baking.
- Bake the cookies at 350° F for 7 to 8 minutes. Allow the cookies to cool for a few minutes before transfering to a cooling rack.
- If you want to show off your creative side, mix up some simple icing. Stir together the powdered sugar, soy milk, and vanilla. Adjust the consistency of the icing by adding more soy milk or powdered sugar. The icing can be tinted any color you want with Wilton Gel-Based Food Colors.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition calculations are approximate.
