Look no further! Your Christmas Cookie baking just got a whole lot easier!
Honestly the best Christmas sugar cookie dough recipe
A neutral dough recipe with just a touch of lemon & vanilla extract and I like to add the zest of a lemon as well.
This recipe makes quite a large amount for about 2 dz small to medium sized cookies
Although for some of you, I have a feeling that may not be enough!
You can easily cut the recipe in half or even double it, just check your math if you do because many times it is poor math and measuring that causes recipe failures!
Notes for Success:
A traditional Sucre dough like this one is great not only for cookies
But I you can use this dough as a tart shell for tarts like Fruit Tarts, Chocolate Tarts, Lemon Meringue Tarts etc…
Using a stand mixer is recommended since this is a hefty recipe and once you add the flour a hand mixer will not be up for that task!
You can of course mix the flour in by hand if you don’t have a stand mixer though.
In the video tutorial you will see that is is necessary to knead the dough back to a pliable consistency after chilling and before rolling it out or it may seem crumbly
I know in the video I am making Halloween Cookies but it is the same dough for the Christmas cutouts too!
Christmas Sugar Cookie Dough Recipe
Ingredients
For the Sugar Cookie Dough
- All Purpose Flour 3 cups 375g
- Baking Powder 1½ teaspoons 7g
- Salt 1 teaspoon 6g
- Vegan Butter 1 cup 226g
- Granulated Sugar 1 cup 200g
- Aquafaba 4 Tablespoons 60ml
- Vanilla Extract 2 teaspoon 10ml
- Lemon Extract *optional ½ teaspoon
- Lemon Zest 1 lemon approximately 2 teaspoons
For the Vegan Royal Icing
- 4½ teaspoons 20g EnerG Egg Replacer
- Warm Water 6 Tablespoons 90ml
- Vanilla Extract ½ teaspoon
- Confectioner's Sugar 4 cups 480g
Instructions
- For the cookie dough
- Cream the slightly softened vegan butter with the sugar until light and fluffy, about 3- 5 minutes.
- Add the lemon zest, the aquafaba and the extracts to the creaming butter/sugar mixture and then stop the mixer and scrape the sides of the bowl
- Next sift together the flour baking powder and salt and add it all at once to the creamed mixture. Mix just until it is all combined.
- Wrap this dough disc in plastic wrap and chill for at least 2 hours or overnight before using or you can store it for up to 1 week wrapped in plastic wrap in the refrigerator, or in the freezer for 2 months.
- You must re work this dough with some additional flour to a pliable consistency after it has been chilled. Do not skip this step. *see video
- Knead it with a bit of flour until it is no longer a crumbly mass, but a soft pliable dough
- Roll out the dough to ¼" thick and cut shapes as desired
- If you are dipping in crystal sugar, spritz each cookie with water and then sprinkle with the sugar.
- Transfer cookie cutouts to a parchment lined sheet pan and bake in preheated to 350° F oven for approximately 18-22 minutes or until light golden brown.
- For the Royal Icing
- Combine the egg replacer with the warm water and whisk smooth
- Place the sifted confectioners sugar in a mixing bowl and then add the vanilla extract and the egg replacer mixture.
- Mix on medium to high speed until it is smooth
- Color as desired with food colors and decorate as you like on baked and cooled cookies.
- Allow cookies to dry slightly at room temperature
Video
Notes
Hi Gretchen! Thank you for all the amazing recipes! And sharing your knowledge!
In the recipe it calls to cream sugar with shortening but the ingredient list calls for butter. Does that matter? (Not even sure there is a difference)
Thank you!! I’m super excited to make these with my grandson for Christmas!!
Hi Marcia! thanks for noticing that I will update, honestly vegan butter is essentially shortening, so no, no difference. I DO use vegan butter now though! Thanks!
Hi Gretchen, I haven’t been on the site in a while what happened to all the non vegan recipes?
Hi Nick, my non vegan blog is shut down
I couldn’t keep up the cost to host it on the internet and maintain it monthly anymore
The cost to host such a huge database was close to $400 a month (with the maintenance cost, I needed to hire a tech guy to help keep it running smoothly)
So that cost was severely outweighing any small profits I had been making though running ads on the videos & blogsite.
I have not kept any of the non vegan recipes, since for over 4 years now I have been strictly vegan;
so for me they are of no use. They were all housed in the database and that has shut down.
Here is a video explanation I recently uploaded in response to the many emails I have been getting https://youtu.be/ghHVqNZuNaA
Thanks for your support and encouragement though the ages!
~Gretchen
Hi Gretchen! I was wondering if these cookies can be made with gluten free flour?
Hi Terri, while I am not a GF baker, I am pretty sure it could work with a 1:1 ratio GF flour. Worth a try in a small test batch!
These are the best vegan sugar cookies! If they were any sweeter with the icing it would be too much! And the vegan royal icing is amazing! Also you could easily build on flavor with different extracts. You could
Make
Almond flavor
Or extra lemon. But a great foundational recipe!
Hey Gretchen. I was just curious to see if you remember the amount of butter and eggs in your non vegan sugar cookies. They were amazing and my whole family is hooked!! Problem is I always made more than 1 batch so I can’t exactly remember the amounts of the non vegan products in the recipe.
I did take a look at the vegan recipe. It seems to be the same besides those exceptions. I would be willing to try the vegan ones however I am unfamiliar with the products being used and/or where to purchase them.
Hope you can help me out, otherwise I’m gonna have some very unhappy family and friends haha.
I appreciate your time. Thank you
Hi Melissa, I did not save any of the old NON vegan recipes. I hope you try this recipe!
Vegan butter is basically margarine & aquafaba is a great egg replacement option for vegan cookie recipes. If you don’t have that (it’s essentially the liquid from a can of chickpeas) you can use plant milk instead
🙂
Great thanks so much! I will try it with some liquid from chickpeas or plant based milk. Appreciate the help!
Hi Gretchen! I am going to attempt this recipe for a friends son’s advent calendar cookies as he is allergic to eggs. How well does this raw dough freeze and does the baked cookies freeze ok also? How long after baking will these still taste good? 24 advent cookies and hopefully baking and decorating (with aquafaba RI- yay) the last cookies will be at least 3-4 weeks old(I will heatseal them) so I would like to make sure they will still taste yummy…
hi! yes to all! this recipe is a dream!
Raw dough freezes BEST when cut out into shapes and then frozen, not as a solid block of dough.
They stay fresh for up to 3-4 weeks in an airtight container to keep from staling, they will stale before they actually “go bad”
So your idea to heat seal is GREAT!
These are so good! The non-vegans love them, I don’t think they know that they’ re vegan. 😉