Soft and Chewy Cut-Out Vegan Sugar Cookies

• servings: 32 servings
• active time: 10 minutes
• total time: 22 minutes

Ingredients

3/4 cup (185 g) unsalted vegan butter, room temperature

1 1/2 cup (250 g) organic powdered sugar or coconut sugar*

1/3 cup (87 g) dairy free yogurt, room temperature

2 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp almond extract (optional, omit if nut-free)

2 1/2 cups (315 g) all purpose flour or gluten free 1:1 baking flour*

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/8 tsp sea salt (omit if using salted butter)

1 batch vegan royal icing

Directions

Mix

In a large bowl, cream together the vegan butter and powdered sugar with a hand mixer or stand mixer. Cream together until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. It will seem very much like buttercream. Once the sugar is mixed with the vegan butter, add in the dairy free yogurt, vanilla extract and almond extract if desired. Mix again until incorporated.

Fold

Sift in the flour, and baking powder, and use a rubber spatula to gently fold the flours into the creamed butter. This will take about 3-4 minutes to fully incorporate.

Chill

Once the dough is made, form the dough into a flat disk and wrap with plastic wrap or parchment paper, and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes. While the dough is chilling, prepare a large baking sheet with parchment paper.

Shape

Once chilled, lightly flour a clean surface as well as a rolling pin. Place the dough onto the floured surface. If the dough is not at all soft (i.e. it’s hard to touch), allow the dough to soften for 10 minutes. Then roll the dough out to be about 1/4″ thick. Use your desired cookie cutters and cut the cookie shapes into the dough. Remove any scraps and use a thin spatula to transfer the sugar cookies to the baking sheet. Repeat for the remaining dough, then chill the cookie sheet in the freezer for while the oven preheats.

Bake

Preheat the oven to 350F. Once the oven is fully preheated, place the cookie sheet into the oven and bake the cookies for 12 minutes or until the edges are just beginning to turn lightly golden. Remove from the oven and allow the cookies to fully cool before making the vegan royal icing. There should be absolutely no warmth to the cookies.

Make the royal icing according to the post instructions

Divide the royal icing into separate bowls if using vegan food coloring and add in the colors. Be sure to cover any bowl of icing that you’re not using with a damp paper towel. This prevents the royal icing from hardening. Mix the colors, and place the icing into a piping bag with tip. Decorate the cookies as desired.

Set

Allow the cookies to set for 15 minutes, then enjoy!

To fully set the cookies

Allow for 8 hours- this is standard for even royal icing made with egg whites. Store the cookies in the freezer for up to 3 months.

Nutrition

• Serving Size: 1 cookie no icing
• Calories: 82
• Total Fat: 4 g
• Saturated Fat: 2.1 g
• Cholesterol: 8.7 mg
• Sodium: 3.1 mg
• Total Carbohydrate: 7.6 g
• Dietary Fiber: 0.3 g
• Total Sugars: 3.6 g
• Protein: 1.1 g