This one bowl dairy free sugar cookie recipe is all you need! Super easy dairy free sugar cookies make a great base for royal icing, frosting, sprinkles & more!
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Whether you grew up decorating cookies with your family or you didn’t start until you had a family of your own, it’s such a sweet memory to create. These dairy free sugar cookies help create even with food preferences and allergies.
Maybe it’s not a family tradition and you just want a dairy free sugar cookie recipe to hand out as gifts or keep for yourself.
No matter the reason this easy vegan sugar cookie recipe is what you’ve been looking for!
Pair our dairy free sugar cookies with either dairy free vanilla frosting or royal icing to decorate for any holiday season. You could even pair these dairy free cookies with a dairy free chocolate frosting if you’d prefer.
These dairy free sugar cookies are:
- dairy free
- egg free
- corn free
- vegan
- nut free option
- gluten free option
- soy free option
As you can see they can be made to be Top 8 Allergen Free Sugar Cookies if you need that.
They also are completely vegan cookies as are the frostings we recommend using with them.
What ingredients do you need for dairy free sugar cookies?
For this dairy free sugar cookie recipe, you can make everything in one bowl. This is great because it makes cleaning up so much easier. The ingredients that you need for these dairy free cookies are:
- Vegan Butter (ensure soy free if you need soy free cookies)
- Cane Sugar
- Unsweetened Almond Milk (Can sub for another dairy free milk as needed for your allergies)
- Arrowroot Powder
- Vanilla Extract
- Almond Extract
- Flour (Gluten Free version)
- Baking Powder
- Salt
If you are decorating the dairy free sugar cookies, you will also need either royal icing, vanilla frosting or chocolate frosting.
What other products do I need to make these cut out dairy free sugar cookies?
Beyond the actual dairy free cookie ingredients that you will need to make these dairy free sugar cookies, you’ll want to grab a few things to make these dairy free sugar cookies perfectly.
You’ll need:
- Sifter
- Baking Sheets
- Rolling Pin
- Cooling Racks
- Parchment Paper
- Cookie Cutters
- Royal Icing (recipe coming soon), Vanilla Frosting or Chocolate Frosting
- Piping Bag and Tips
- Sprinkles or Other Decorations
- Cookie Tin
How do I make dairy free sugar cookies?
Cut out sugar cookies are notoriously known for being a touch finicky; however, if you follow these instructions, then you’ll be on your way to delicious vegan sugar cookies in no time.
To start, you’ll want to beat your vegan butter until it’s really creamy. Then, you’ll add in both sugars and cream together again until very well incorporated.
Next, add in the milk, arrowroot powder, and both extracts. Beat again.
Sift in 1 cup of the flour, baking powder and salt and beat once again. Finally, sift in the rest of the flour and mix just until incorporated.
Do not over mix.
Form a large ball. Break dough into half. Lay a piece of parchment paper down on a cookie sheet that is large enough to fit into your fridge.
Sprinkle a bit of flour and place one of the halves on top. Sprinkle a little more flour on top and then place another piece of parchment paper on top.
Using a rolling pin, roll out dough to ¼ inch thick. Repeat with remaining dough. Stack both pieces inside their parchment paper and place in fridge for a minimum of one hour.
We prefer to leave it in for 4-6 hours. Alternatively, you can leave this in overnight and make the next day.
Remove from fridge and let sit out for 5 minutes. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Remove the top layer of parchment paper and use cookie cutters to make shapes. Place on parchment lined cookie sheet.
Get as many cut outs as you can and then shape dough back into a ball, roll out to ¼″ thick and repeat until no dough remains.
Cook these dairy free sugar cookies in a preheated oven for 8-10 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool to touch on the cookie sheet.
Then, remove to a cookie rack to cool completely before icing or decorating the cookies in any way.
Decorate, eat, and enjoy!
How do I make these Top 8 Allergen Free cookies?
These dairy free sugar cookies are already vegan sugar cookies also, which means there’s no eggs. Naturally, there’s not fish or shellfish, and there’s also no peanuts involved.
In order to make these dairy free sugar cookies completely Top 8 free, you can swap the flour for Cup 4 Cup Gluten Free Flour to eliminate wheat/gluten allergies.
Then, you’ll want to use all vanilla extract to replace the almond extract. You’ll also want to use an alternative non-dairy milk in place of the almond milk we used. Ensure it’s unsweetened for these dairy free sugar cookies.
Lastly, we also use Earth Balance soy free butter in our recipes, so you’ll want to make sure you also do that to make these cookies soy free as well.
Additionally, since we use arrowroot powder, instead of cornstarch in these dairy free sugar cookies, these cookies are also corn free.
As always, double check the ingredients you are using to make sure that they don’t contain the allergens.
How do I make sure my dairy free sugar cookies don’t burn?
The biggest tip when make cut out dairy free sugar cookies is to ensure that all the cookies are roughly the same size when baking in the oven. For example, you shouldn’t try to bake a 1″ cookie with a 5″ cookie on the same tray. Try to make sure they are within the same range, give or take ½″ or so.
If you want different sizes, it’s best to make different batches of them and only put similar sized dairy free sugar cookies together on the same baking sheet.
The second tip is to ensure your cookie dough isn’t rolled out thinner than ¼″. The thinner you make then, the more likely they are to burn along the edge. Use a ruler if necessary.
How do I make my vegan sugar cookies crunchy?
Now, sometimes people prefer their cookies have a slight crunch to them. If this is you, then you will want to cook them a little longer. Another option you could do for crunchy dairy free sugar cookies is to make them slightly thinner than ¼″ and reduce the cooking time to 6 minutes.
How do I make my vegan sugar cookies chewy?
On the other hand, some people want their dairy free sugar cookies more on the chewy side. If your preference is to have your vegan sugar cookies this way, then you will want to cooked them a little shorter. Start by reducing time by 2 minutes and then watch them. As soon as they get any golden brown, you can remove them from the oven.
The other option would be to make the dairy free cookies slightly thicker than ¼″.
How can I make my dairy free Valentine cookies?
With Valentine’s Day approaching, you may be looking for dairy free Valentine cookies. Whether you have a class party to prep for or your, you’re going to love having these around. In order to make the dairy free Valentine cookies too, simply follow the steps below that you did for the Christmas/winter cookies, but instead of the snowflakes, you’re going to use heart shaped cookie cutters. That’s literally the only you have to do.
How can I make my dairy free St Patrick’s Day cookies?
With St. Patrick’s Day approaching, you may be looking for dairy free St. Patrick’s Day cookies. Whether you have a class party to prep for or your, you’re going to love having these around. In order to make the dairy free St. Patrick’s Day cookies too, simply follow the steps below that you did for the Christmas/winter cookies, but instead of the snowflakes, you’re going to use shamrock cookie cutters.
The way we made the chocolate to dip was to place a glass bowl over a double broiler and place 1 cup of dairy free chocolate in the bowl. Heat over medium and stir until all chocolate is melted. Then, dipped half the cookies in the chocolate, let almost harden, and then sprinkled green sprinkles on top.
What are other dairy free cookies that I can make?
You may be looking for other cookie ideas. Here are a few! We will update the list after the 12 days of cookies is finished.
- Dairy Free Chocolate Chip Cookies (vegan)
- Dairy Free Snickerdoodles (vegan)
- Vegan Triple Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Vegan Salted Caramel Cookies
🥳 Get the Full Recipe
Dairy Free Sugar Cookies
Ingredients
- ¾ cup vegan butter, softened
- ½ cup vegan sugar
- ¼ cup brown sugar, packed
- 2 tablespoon unsweetened almond milk
- 1 tablespoon arrowroot powder
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon almond extract
- 2 ¼ cup flour
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ tsp salt
Optional Toppings
- Vegan Royal Icing
- Dairy Free Vanilla Frosting
- Dairy Free Chocolate Frosting
- Sprinkles, or other decorations
Instructions
- In a large bowl, add the butter and beat until creamy.
- Add in both sugars and cream together again until very well incorporated.
- Add in the milk, arrowroot powder, and both extracts. Beat again.
- Sift in 1 cup of the flour, baking powder and salt and beat once again.
- Sift in the rest of the flour and mix just until incorporated. Do not over mix.
- Form a large ball. Break dough into half.
- Lay a piece of parchment paper down on a cookie sheet that is large enough to fit into your fridge. sprinkle a bit of flour and place one of the halves on top. Sprinkle a little more flour on top and then place another piece of parchment paper on top.
- Using a rolling pin, roll out dough to ¼ inch thick. Repeat with remaining dough.
- Stack both pieces inside their parchment paper and place in fridge for a minimum of one hour. We prefer to leave it in for 4-6 hours. Alternatively, you can leave this in overnight and make the next day.
- Remove from fridge and let sit out for 5 minutes. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Remove the top layer of parchment paper and use cookie cutters to make shapes. Place on parchment lined cookie sheet. Get as many cut outs as you can and then shape dough back into a ball, roll out to ¼″ thick and repeat until no dough remains.
- Cook 8-10 minutes.
- Remove from the oven and let cool to touch on the cookie sheet. Then, remove to a cookie rack to cool completely before icing or decorating the cookies in any way.
- Decorate, eat, and enjoy!
Notes
Video
Nutrition
Pin these dairy free sugar cookies for later:
Originally published 12/3/18. Update 2/13/19 with Valentine’s photos. Update 3/13/19 with St. Patrick’s photos. Updated again 12/1/19.
Do we have to use arrowroot powder? Is there a replacement we can use for this ingredient?
cornstarch
This vegan cookie recipe looks delicious!! i cant wait to make these for Santa 😀
Thank you! They are a huge hit around here! Enjoy!