This is my favorite sugar cookie recipe
It keeps the shape of whatever you are cutting out and doesn’t spread in the oven!
Not to mention they taste amazing!
I was never a big fan of eating decorated cookies; since to me the royal icing was just too hard and I don’t care for that taste so much.
But these are different!
First of all they don’t dry hard like traditional royal icing cookies.
But they do dry hard enough to stack, package up and transport
The sugar doesn’t get super hard like the traditional egg white royal icing from our past lives.
Although the cookies are not made with butter, are so buttery tasting it is really deceiving!
Notes for Success:
I use Earth Balance vegan butter for the best results *not sponsored
I have also used Country Crock Olive Oil Butter as well with good results
Lemon extract and lemon zest in my cut out cookie dough is always a must for me, but you can leave that out
Just replace it with a different extract like almond or butter extract or more vanilla
I like to use vegan chocolate to pipe on the faces to eliminate any risk of color bleed onto the base color below
Or if you want to avoid chocolate just save out a bit of that white icing from the start and color it black.
But be sure to let that base color dry overnight before piping the faces
The icing recipe listed below is a perfect amount for 12 large cookies.
The ghosts and pumpkins cookies cutters were approximately 4″ diameter to give you an estimated size.
Ok now I’m going to get all salesman like here for a quick minute, not something I typically do, but you will notice in the video I am using the Dough EZ Pastry Rolling Mat.
If you guys know me, you know I typically do not get on board with extra gadgets in the kitchen, but this has become a lifesaver for me!
For perfectly even rolled cookies you may want to give this thing a try! *not sponsored
You will notice I am using EnerG Egg replacer for the icing recipe which is what I believe gives it that “softer” dry
But if you want to forgo the egg replacer altogether you can leave it out and substitute aquafaba for the water
CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL YOUTUBE VIDEO TUTORIAL FOR HOW TO MAKE THESE COOKIES!
For more awesome bakery style cookies click the links below!
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- Black & White Cookies
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- Christmas Cut Out Cookies
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- Linzer Cookies
Halloween Black and White Cookies in 30 minutes!
Christmas Cookies The Best Sugar Cookie Dough Recipe
- For the Sugar Cookie Dough
- All Purpose Flour 3 cups (375g)
- Baking Powder 1½ teaspoons (7g)
- Salt ½ teaspoon (3g)
- Hi Ratio Vegetable Shortening or Earth Balance Buttery Sticks 1 cup (226g)
- Granulated Sugar 1 cup (200g)
- Aquafaba 4 Tablespoons (60ml)
- Vanilla Extract 1 teaspoon (5ml)
- Lemon Extract *optional ¼ teaspoon
- Lemon Zest 1 lemon
- For the Vegan Royal Icing
- EnerG Egg Replacer 4½ teaspoons (20g)
- Warm Water 6 Tablespoons (90ml)
- Vanilla Extract ½ teaspoon
- Confectioner's Sugar 4 cups (480g)
- For the cookie dough
- Cream the shortening 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.
- Knead it with some 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
- 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.
- Cool the cookies while you prepare the vegan royal icing
- 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 gel paste food colors and decorate as you like
- Allow cookies to dry slightly at room temperature
Awesome royal icing recipe. Would corn syrup work instead of Ener-G egg replacer? Thanks.
No corn syrup will not allow it to dry as it needs to for a royal icing. You can use this recipe here though if you want to avoid buying EnerG CLICK HERE for sprinkles, but essentially it is the same type of recipe
What brand of gel paste food coloring did you use that’s vegan ?
I am still using up the last of my giant bottles of Chefmaster gel Paste colors I had from a couple years ago, but Americolor is supposed to be Vegan CLICK HERE for more lists and brands
I will be making this recipe for Halloween and was wondering if the cookies would spread a lot if I do 1/2 cup of vegan butter and 1/2 cup of shortening? Or is it better just to do shortening? Because I’ve noticed that vegan butter is softer than dairy butter.
half and half would be great! Yes you are right vegan butter is definitely softer! But the half/half will eliminate any spreading that may occur!
How long will the cookies stay fresh if stored in air tight container?
at least a week
Hi! I don’t have Ener-G, but I do have the Neat Egg. Are you familiar with it? I’ve heard of royal icing success using Bob’s Red Mill egg replacer, so I’m thinking any of these products would work. Neat Egg is chia seeds and chickpeas (only 2 ingredients) which is quite different from Ener-G but they are intended for the same usage(s). Any thoughts to share? Thanks for the recipe.
Yes I am familiar with it, but you will not want to use that type here, I would suggest to just use this simple recipe for royal icing instead CLICK HERE
Hello Gretchen, thank you for sharing your cookie recipe, I was wondering if you could make the dough in advance and freeze unbaked cookies?
Yes you can! It works great!
Thanks, I’m baking for my granddaughters christening/1st birthday and trying to get as much done in advance for I can focus on her cakes Xx
Hey Gretchen,
I followed the recipe and video exactly, and I’m having trouble with the dough. I made sure to let it refrigerate for over 2 hours, and then I kneaded it back together. But no matter how much I worked with it, the dough was just so crumbly I couldn’t even roll it out. I used the shortening version because I find that earth balance sometimes dominates flavors. What can I do to make it work?
Hmmm, I hope you weren’t heavy handed in measuring the flour- that would be the only thing I can think that would make it to the point that you describe (too much flour) CLICK HERE for more
I would suggest to bring to room temperature and then try to re-knead to get it pliable. Unfortunately dding in liquid at this point just makes for a sticky mess.
When you say the icing doesnt dry hard… Would it still be suitable for stacking the cookies in a container or individually wrapping them without the design smearing? Thanks
yes!
I’m sorry I cant find the chocolate cookie variation on this page am I just missing it?? lol Thanks for the help!
NVM I found it lol !!!
YAY! thanks!
I have it listed in the NOTES section above the ingredients list in the recipe : For chocolate dough, take out ¾ cup of the flour and replace with ¾ cup of natural cocoa powder
I’ve used Aquafaba in place of meringue powder in royal icing and it works great, dries hard. Just a tip in case others are looking for a substitute.
Hi Brooke, what’s the ratio aquafaba to sugar? I haven’t tried it yet, I’m scared to mess it up, but I’m working up to it!
What happened to your non vegan alternative? I am
Having difficulty finding it. Thanks.
Hi Brandice, my non vegan blog is shut down
I just couldn’t keep up the cost to host it on the internet and maintain it monthly anymore
I had always said I would continue to share my recipes for free & give free tutorials on YouTube for as long as I could afford to do so, and well.. I just can’t 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. Not to mention I am not comfortable sharing non vegan recipes anymore,
as it promotes animal abuse and torture not to mention animal agriculture is a disease on the earth as well as human health.
Thanks for your support and encouragement though the ages!
~Gretchen
Hi Gretchen!
Again, thank you so much, your recipes are always wonderful and reliable, I love them. One question about vegan butter… you prefer Earth Balance, but have you tried Costco’s vegan margarine! If so what do you think? How does it compare to Earth Balance? I tried to compare the ingredients, to me, they seemed similar, but who knows. But I always get good result… but eh! You are an expert at this, and this is why I asked the question. Thank you in advance! Happy baking!