Happy Valentine’s Day!
Your pantry is probably stocked with everything you’ll need to make these vegan coconut oil sugar cookies. These cookies are adapted from one of our most popular recipes: Perfect Vegan Gingerbread Cookies. Make sure to pop over to that post for all of our tips and tricks for making perfect rolled cookies.
Baking and decorating sugar cookies is such a simple little Valentine’s Day activity. William and I had a lovely time decorating these together!
If you’re looking for something a little more decadent, make our Fudgy Vegan Walnut Brownies ♥
(Above) Rolling out the sugar cookie dough between parchment paper. This prevents the dough from sticking to your counter without adding more flour.
Vegan royal icing dyed with a combination of beets and red food colouring. To use beets for colouring, peel and slice a beet and gently stir the slices into the royal icing. Once the icing reaches your desired shade, remove the beet slices. Easy peasy!
Before baking, chill the cut-out cookies in the freezer to help them keep their shape.
As with most coconut oil-based baked treats, temperature control is key. If the dough gets sticky, oily, or too soft and difficult to work with, it needs to chill. If it’s hard as a rock and difficult to work with, it needs to warm up a bit. I usually pop the dough and finished cookies in and out of the freezer a couple of times before baking.
Getting ready to decorate!
Happy Baking! ♥
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Easy vegan coconut oil sugar cookies with royal icing!
Ingredients
Sugar Cookies
- 2 cups + 1 tbsp all purpose unbleached flour
- 1/2 tbsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- pinch salt
- 1/2 cup room temperature coconut oil (semi-soft and scoopable)
- 3/4 cup + 2 tbsp granulated sugar
- 1/3 cup water
- 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
Royal Icing
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 3 tbsp soy milk (add more or less for your preferred consistency)
- 4 tsp white corn syrup
Instructions
Sugar Cookies
- In a medium sized bowl combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, cream together the coconut oil and the sugar. Beat for 1-2 minutes until the mixture is nice and light. Add the water and vanilla and beat until the mixture is well combined.
- Gradually add the flour mixture to the creamed sugar mixture, beating to combine.
- Wrap the dough tightly in plastic wrap and freeze for 1 hour.
- Before rolling, let the dough sit at room temperature for 30 minutes to 1 hour.
- Preheat oven to 325F.
- Roll the dough directly onto parchment paper. The dough should be ¼” thick. Use cookie cutters to cut out the dough, use a flat spatula to gently remove the excess dough. Keep re-rolling and cutting out the dough until it’s all used up.
- Transfer cookies to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Leave 1″ space between cookies.
- Pop the unbaked cookies into the freezer to chill for 10 minutes before baking.
- Bake for 8-10 minutes, until the cookies are lightly browned around the edges and barely firm in the center. Let them rest on the baking sheet for a few minutes before transferring to a wire cooling rack.
- Let them cool completely before decorating. (Pop ’em in the freezer if you’re impatient.)
Royal Icing
- In a small bowl, beat together the powdered sugar and soy milk until smooth.
- Add the corn syrup and continue beating until thick and glossy.
- Separate into bowls and add food colouring as desired.
- Immediately transfer icing into piping bags or seal in an airtight container or cover with a damp cloth to prevent the icing from drying out.
Notes
If you don’t like the flavour of coconut, choose a refined (usually one of the cheaper varieties) of coconut oil.
Yes, we did have the fudgy walnut brownies and will try these beautiful sugar cookies next. I love your dessert ideas Brittany!💗
Thank you so much Cheryl! Happy Valentine’s Day ♥
Yes! A vegan sugar cookie AND royal icing recipe! I haven’t made sugar cookies since going vegan and it is one of my favorite things to make. Awesome.
Thanks for commenting Allison – I hope you love these cookies 😀
These sugar cookies are amazing! I made them today and they are the best recipe for vegan cookies I’ve tried. Thank you so much!!
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Yay! That’s wonderful to hear 😀 I’m so glad you enjoyed them!!
does the icing dry hard or stay soft?
I’m about to make weed cookies with this recipe. hope it’s dank :))))))
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Thats what im looking for a good cookie with my honemade dank coconut oil is this one the shiz or no
Hopefully Hugh can answer your question! But in general, sugar cookies are super mild so if you’re trying to mask the weed I’d probably choose something with richer flavours! I think that’s why brownies work so well, the deep chocolate flavour is so strong. If you don’t mind your sugar cookies tasting a lot like weed, you’re probably good to go though!
Knowing I would be adding frosting to the top, I cut the sugar down to only 1/2 cup. These were so delicious!! Thank you for the recipe!
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That’s a very useful tip, to roll dough between parchment paper.
Parchment paper is great—and I learned about it from you, so thanks!
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I made this with a Sigmund Freud cookie cutter. Double the recipe if you are using a large side cutter and it requires thick dough. They come out delicious and stay soft. I did not make the icing. If you run low on coconut oil, add some olive oil (I did half and half), and they still come out amazing.
Thanks for your comment Jennifer, I really appreciate it!!
Hi! I’m going to make these for my daughters b’day party and our vegan guests! Just wondering is there a sub. for corn syrup (i cannot find here in Switzerland) and just wanted to ask do i need to cook the beet first then slice for the natural colouring?
Thank you!
You don’t need to cook the beets for natural colouring! As for the corn syrup you could simply omit it!
HI ,
Thanks for your reply. I just did a test batch using Gluten-free flour (no frosting yet!) and they are delicious! will def. be serving these more often now 🙂
Yay! I’m so glad you like them 😀
DId you use the same amount of gluten free flour?
What kind or brand of GF flour did you use ?
Can these be made with a different oil than coconut, I’ve made them as is and they were a hit, but my son didn’t really care for the coconut aroma and slight taste.
You could use vegan butter instead! For best results I’d pick up a refined coconut oil, it performs the same but there’s no coconut flavour.
My girls and I made these this weekend and I thought they had way too much sugar. The flavor was nice, but if I make them again, I will reduce the sugar quite a bit so that I can fathom using icing. They were not like shortbread at all. Way too much sugar.
Thanks for the input Peg! Just a note, this recipe is for sugar cookies not shortbread! If you expected them to be like shortbread these would definitely be a disappointment.
I made thiese with my son last night! He has so many allergies that vegan recipes are the best for him. Have been searching for a good Christmas cookie one and we’ve now found it!! These were amazing!
But because of his allergies we used canola oil and water and they worked great!!! Just FYI! Same amounts as called for…
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Oh great! Thanks so much for the comment and the tip about using canola oil! I’m so glad you enjoyed the cookies!!
Just wondering if this cookies are crispy or chewy? If its Chewy – can we make it crispier?
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Chewy if stored in a sealed container, crispy if stored with air flow (and crispier if you cook them a little longer!)
I wanted to try these but I was afraid that 1/2 tablespoon was an error. Shouldn’t it be 1/2 a teaspoon?
Hi Sharon, I just took these out of the oven, followed recipe exactly, and they are delicious!
How long can these be stored for? I have to make about 150 for my nieces hens party and want to make them over about a week or two as I also work full time.
Incredible! I’ve been searching for a vegan option in a land where vegan butter doesn’t exist (Bali!). We’ve just moved and I am trying to keep some Christmas traditions with my little one. Without simple alternatives and with super hot weather, where coconut oil is always a liquid, I have struggled with options. These are PERFECT! We used whole grain flour and they are insanely delicious. You’ve made a three year old and his mama very happy!
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That’s so wonderful 🙂 I’m happy to hear you both enjoyed these cookies and that you were able to make them with what you have available! Thanks for commenting!
These turned out AMAZING!! I used Bobs Red Mill 1-1 Gluten Free Baking Flour, Truvia Baking Sugar in place of regular sugar (cuts the sugar amount in half, and keeps the sweetness) and almond extract in place of the vanilla. My coconut oil was completely liquified, and I did not freeze the dough at all, and they set up like perfect sugar cookies! My FAVORITE recipe ever!! Thank you!
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I’m glad your substitutions worked out well Katie! Thanks for commenting with your experience, I really appreciate it 🙂
My dough is very wet and isn’t working when I tried to roll it and use cookie cutters.. help!
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Not enough flour! All of my more recent baking recipes include ingredient weights, but this one is a little older and does not. Measuring flour by volume is really inaccurate. Add enough flour for the dough to be firm but not stiff. I’m so sorry for the inconvenience!
I am so glad I came across your recipe! I am not a fan of vegan butter, I made these for my nephew. He has a lot of allergies but thankful not allergic to coconut. These are soo good!
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That’s wonderful Stacey, I’m really glad you enjoyed them!
Loved this recipe, and I’m not even a vegan! I used Masa flour, because I am gluten intolerant and wheat allergic. The second time I used cold lavender tea instead of water. Next time, I”use two tea bags for more flavor.
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Oh that sounds lovely! I’m happy to hear that a gluten-free flour worked well in this recipe, that’s very helpful. Thank you for commenting!
Can I make the icing ahead of time? If so, I’m wondering if i can store it by putting the icing into freezer bags and put in the freezer?
This vegan recipe turned out well but the icing is a definite must because without icing there was a slight after taste when tasting plain cookies. I will make these again.
Jan
On their own they are quite plain. I supposed you could dip them in chocolate or something? What was the aftertaste like? I wonder if the amount of leavener is too high…
As my family is quarantined, we are not cooking with fresh products since we’re not going out. And these cookies turned out great, so my teenaged son was particularly happy. Some is in the freezer for later. Smart thinking with the recipe.
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Thanks so much Michelle! We’re doing the same right now and it can be a challenge for sure. Stay safe and healthy!
I’m making these right now and would like to know the reasoning and howl essential all the freezing and leaving at room temp is?
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Hi there!
So chilling or freezing does two things, it allows more time for the moisture in the dough to hydrate the flour, making the dough less crumbly and easier to work with without adding extra moisture (which can make for a tougher cookie). Chilling makes to coconut oil switch from very soft (or liquid) to very firm/solid. It’s really important that the coconut oil is cold when you roll out the dough or else the dough will become oily, very soft, sticky, and difficult to work with.
Frozen or very cold coconut oil is almost rock solid. Leaving the dough out at room temperature softens it just enough to make it a workable texture, not too hard but not too soft.
The reason for freezing the dough instead of chilling in the refrigerator is just to save time. If you weren’t going to use the dough for a few hours or overnight, you’d just chill it in the refrigerator.
Hi,
I made the dough yesterday and after an hour in the freezer it was really crubly and hard to roll out. It just broke into bits. Any tips? My son is so excited to try these. I left the dough in the fridge overnight, hoping that might help. Would love some advice. Thank you very much 🙂
Can I make the cookies with milk instead of water?