The cutest cutout sugar cookie snowmen with frosty faces and candy buttons, plus this healthier Christmas cookie recipe includes an easy method for vegan royal icing too!
SPONSORED BY SUNBUTTER
It’s doesn’t feel like Christmas until I’ve decorated at least ONE sugar cookie cut into a seasonal shape since I grew up helping my mom decorate hundreds every December. But when I keep the quantities under two dozen, I have the patience to hand pipe every snowman nose and to test a new sugar cookie recipe to roll and cut too. We aren’t quite using the classic butter/sugar/flour formula for these sugar cookie snowmen, but they turned out so TENDER and BUTTERY and YUMMY with some nontraditional healthier ingredients in the dough you’d never know.
How To Make Vegan Grain-Free Sugar Cookies
Now I’m a big fan of these adorable frosty fellas, but this recipe can be used to make infinite holiday cookie shapes or even keep it simple with just good ol’ circles. The dough comes together quickly, requires minimal chilling, and is very easy to roll/cut/transfer. Plus the ingredient list happens to be vegan and grain-free. For the cookies, you will need:
- Creamy SunButter. No sticks of butter or even dairy-free butter in this recipe, instead we are using my favorite seed butter for that buttery richness and extra flavor. I opted for their Creamy variety since it is lightly sweetened and felt just right to add a little extra richness to this holiday recipe. Their Organic or Natural varieties would also be great here.
- Coconut oil. A little bit of coconut oil makes the dough firm after just 15 minutes or so in the freezer so you will have no trouble cutting and transferring your cookie shapes.
- Cane sugar. It’s the holidays, this is a SUGAR cookie recipe, so I did not go super light on the cane sugar in this recipe. You can decrease by 1/4 cup if you prefer (although the flavor will be a bit more bland), or use coconut sugar instead.
- Flax eggs. For binding, real eggs will work too if you aren’t vegan.
- Vanilla and almond extracts. Or just vanilla if you aren’t a fan of the almond flavor, personally I like it though.
- Almond flour. Another key to making these cookies buttery without butter, almond flour contains a lot of natural oil and moisture and also keeps these cookies grain-free.
- Coconut flour. Almond alone would be too moist, but the combination of these two is cutout cookie perfection.
- Baking powder and salt.
Easy Vegan Royal Icing Recipe
I don’t know about you, but I don’t feel like breaking out a can of garbanzo beans just to make frosting. So there is no aquafaba in this royal icing recipe. Instead I used a powdered egg replacer in place of the traditional meringue powder used in royal icing, and it worked wonderfully! It’s essentially a blend of starches and psyllium husk, so it thickens up the frosting and prevents it from running off the sides of the cookies. It won’t set quite as quickly as royal icing with egg whites, but it will set if you give it time at room temp to dry.
When making the icing, it is important not to add too much water because your icing can go from too thick to runny real fast. So add it very slowly, mixing for plenty of time in between each addition, and err on the side of too thick because you can always thin it out later if need be.
More Holiday Cutout Cookie Recipes You’ll Love
- Gingerbread Cutout Cookies
- Chocolate Sugar Cookies
- Matcha Sugar Cookies
- Almond Flour Sugar Cookies (maple sweetened!)
SunButter Sugar Cookie Snowmen
- Chiling Time: 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Total Time: 40 minutes
- Yield: 18 large cookies 1x
- Category: cookies
- Method: baking
- Cuisine: american
Description
The cutest cutout sugar cookie snowmen with frosty faces and candy buttons, plus this healthier Christmas cookie recipe includes an easy method for vegan royal icing too!
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup (125g) Creamy SunButter
- 2 tbsp (25g) coconut oil
- 1 cup (200g) cane sugar
- 2 flax eggs (2 tbsp flax meal + 6 tbsp warm water)
- 2 tsps vanilla extract
- 1/4 cup almond extract (optional)
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 2 1/4 cups (252g) almond flour
- 1/3 cup (40g) coconut flour
Vegan Royal Icing*
- 4 cups (480g) powdered sugar
- 3 tbsp egg replacer
- 4–5 tbsp water
Instructions
For the cookies:
- In a stand mixer with the paddle attachment or a bowl with a handheld mixer, combine the SunButter, coconut oil, cane sugar, flax eggs, vanilla extract, and almond extract.
- Beat on medium high speed until well combined.
- Add the flours, baking powder, and salt. Mix on medium low speed to form a dough.
- Roll out between two lightly floured sheets of wax paper to about 1/4 inch thickness. Then freeze flat for about 15 minutes (this makes it easier to cut/transfer).
- Preheat the oven to 350°F and line 2 baking sheets with parchment or silpats.
- Cut your children go into snowmen (or desired shapes), and carefully transfer to the baking pans.
- Bake 9-11 minutes until just golden around the edges.
- Cool 10 minutes on the pan, then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely before frosting.
For the frosting:
- In a stand mixer with the whisk attachment, combine the powder sugar and egg replacer. Slowly add the water one tablespoon at a time until you reach a thick glaze consistency.
- If it gets too runny it won’t harden/set right, so err on the side of too thick. You can always add a bit more water if necessary later.
- Use food colorings, piping bags, squeeze bottles, candies, sprinkles etc to decorate.
- Let the cookies dry until frosting is set (about 2 hours).
Notes
*If you prefer an icing without refined sugar, try this coconut butter glaze instead. Note: it will be a bit trickier to work with as it doesn’t set as fast, so I’d recommend glazing them in white and then using candies or sprinkles to add the eyes, nose, buttons, etc.
Keywords: gluten free, christmas, holiday, baking, easy, dairy free, glaze, royal icing, cutout cookie
CLICK BELOW TO PIN
Do you think it would work to sub tahini for the sunbutter, or would that throw off the texture of the dough too much?
Tahini will work! Since it’s a bit thinner and more oily than SunButter typically. I’d recommend using it in place of the coconut oil and Sunbutter actually. Happy baking!