Vegan Funfetti Sugar Cookies
Soft, chewy and full of sprinkles, these vegan sugar cookies are made in one bowl and are even gluten free! They have perfectly crispy edges with a soft and fluffy center.
I’ve been on a serious funfetti kick lately. You guys have loved my vegan funfetti cupcakes and funfetti blondies so much, and cookies are one of my favorite foods, so this was a recipe I couldn’t resist. I feel like a funfetti cake should be next, yes?!
Cookies from scratch are always best, and my favorite thing about these vegan sugar cookies is that they’re great all year round.
Add lots of sprinkles for a fun birthday dessert, decorate them with icing for the Holidays, or keep them plain if that’s more your thing!
All you need is one bowl, a few simple ingredients like sugar, butter and flour and you’re ready to go! These vegan gluten free cookies are melt in your mouth delicious and I promise they’ll satisfy your sweet tooth as soon as you take a bite.
Plus, the dough is completely edible since there’s no egg! Try my vegan tahini cookies or vegan lemon blueberry cookies next!
Key ingredients
BUTTER. Since these are vegan sugar cookies, we’ll use vegan butter. I like Earth Balance butter sticks for this recipe.
APPLE SAUCE. Apple sauce will replace an egg and help bind all ingredients together.
FLOUR. These are vegan gluten free sugar cookies so we’ll use gluten free all purpose baking flour. I like Bob’s Red Mill here!
CORN STARCH. A little cornstarch will help absorb some more of the wet ingredients without drying out the dough.
SPRINKLES. I used half regular sprinkles and half non-pareils. You can use whatever you like!
How to make vegan sugar cookies
In the bowl of a stand mixer or a large mixing bowl, add the room temperature butter and sugar.
If the butter was previously in the fridge, you can add it to the microwave (without the sugar) for about 20 seconds to soften.
Beat together for about 30 seconds. Beat in the vanilla and apple sauce until combined.
Add in all remaining ingredients aside from the sprinkles and beat just until combined. Use a wooden spoon to fold in the sprinkles until well incorporated. Place the dough in the fridge for 15 minutes.
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Use a medium cookie scoop or about 1 1/2 tbsp and add the dough to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, spaced about 2 inches apart. about 20 minutes.
Bake for 14-18 minutes or until the edges are just golden brown (I generally do about 15-16 minutes in my oven). They will continue to harden as they cool, so take them out a bit earlier than you think is necessary.
Let cool on the baking sheet for about 10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling.
Can you make these into cut out cookies?
While I haven’t tested these as cut out cookies (yet!), I do think it would work really well!
The only thing about the recipe you will want to change is that you’ll need to omit the baking soda, because this will cause the cookies to spread. Keep the baking powder because it will keep them soft/fluffy.
What you’ll want to do is make the dough as usual, but then stick it in the fridge for about 30-45 minutes. Cold dough is much easier to work with when making cut out cookies.
Roll out the dough until it’s about 1/4 inch thick on a floured surface. It also helps to flour your rolling pin so nothing sticks.
Use your favorite cookie cutters to cut out cookies and add to a baking tray lined with parchment paper. Bake for only about 8-10 minutes or until the edges are golden brown. Let cool before decorating!
Storage tips & substitutions
Once prepared, these vegan sugar cookies will store in an air tight container for about 5 days. I like to heat them up in the microwave for about 10 seconds before eating!
I do not recommend subbing the butter for oil, the butter is key for flavor! I like Earth Balance sticks. I used gluten free all purpose flour, but regular all purpose also works.
If you want to frost these cookies, try my vegan vanilla buttercream recipe! You won’t need a full batch to frost the cookies, just about 1/4 of what’s listed.
Note: The original recipe called for non-dairy milk instead of apple sauce. I have re-tested the recipe and prefer it with apple sauce, but either will work!
Try these next!
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Vegan Funfetti Sugar Cookies
by: claire cary
Ingredients
Wet:
- ½ cup vegan butter room temperature
- ¼ cup apple sauce see notes
- ¾ cup granulated cane sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Dry:
- 1 ¾ cups gluten free all purpose baking flour I used Bob’s Red Mill, regular AP flour works too
- 1 teaspoon corn starch
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 4-5 tablespoons sprinkles
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer or a large mixing bowl, add the room temperature butter and sugar.
- Beat together for about 30 seconds.
- Beat in the vanilla and apple sauce until combined.
- Add in all remaining ingredients aside from the sprinkles and beat just until combined. Be sure to spoon and level the flour into the measuring cup, don’t scoop straight from the bag.
- Use a rubber spatula to fold in the sprinkles until well incorporated. Place the dough in the fridge for 15 minutes.
- Use a medium cookie scoop or about 1 1/2 tbsp and add the dough to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
- Bake for 11-15 minutes (mine are perfect at 13) or until the edges are just golden brown. They will continue to firm up as they cool, so take them out a bit earlier than you think is necessary if you want a really chewy center.
- Let cool on the baking sheet for about 10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling. Enjoy!
Notes
Comments
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Since this recipe does not have eggs, I assume the cookie dough can be eaten raw. Have you ever tried mixing the batter and freezing it raw in “cookie-sized” balls? And then taking out to bake individually as needed? I’m curious how the raw cookie dough would freeze and if it would still bake okay… Looks like a delicious recipe!
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Yes that should be fine! Just bake at 325 and for a few minutes longer than originally indicated to account for the frozen dough.
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Have you ever tried this as a cookie cake? Looking for a vegan cookie cake and your recipe looks great.
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I have not, but let me know if you give it a try!
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Hi I am about to make this in large quantity for a religious gathering can I make the dough and refrigerate? I need to make the dough 24 hrs ahead, will this be okay?
Can’t wait to here from you. Thank you!-
Yes, that should be fine! but let the dough sit out at room temperature for about an hour before baking.
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Hi. I want to try making these but i do not have any corn starch. Is it necessary? Any alternatives? Just wondering what it does in this recipe. Thanks
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It helps absorb excess moisture and prevent the cookies from spreading too much. You can try tapioca or arrowroot!
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I ruined these because it doesn’t call for milk with the rest of the ingredients as I read the recipe it called for milk but I could not find a measurements that was provided until I came to this comment section. So sad will not even bother using this recipe to risk wasting time again.
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The recipe very clearly states that it calls for 1/4 cup of milk and to add it after creaming the butter and sugar. Sorry for any confusion!
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Hi, I’m going to try these for my daughters unicorn themed party.
What is 0.75 cup almond milk in ml please?
Thanks
Charlotte
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This recipe calls for 1/4 cup (.25) of almond milk, which is about 59 mL.
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Made this recipe for a friend’s birthday party and WOW these cookies were perfection!! They’re soft, flavorful, and have the perfect amount of salt. Easy to make with no difficult-to-find substitutes and it results in a delicious sweet treat. Highly, highly recommend!
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Awesome recipe! My kid loved them. I also rolled them in a ball and covered with sugar then flattened on tray for cooking! Thanks for a cute easy recipe!
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Love that idea!
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I’m not gluten free but I am a vegan who had an unnecessarily large bag of gluten free flour. I was looking for a delicious Christmas cookie recipe and these cookies absolutely blew me away. They’re by far my favorite cookies I’ve ever had, so I immediately had my parents try them. I think we found a family favorite recipe!! I wish I could give these cookies more than five stars.
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Thank you Gabby! So glad they were a hit 🙂
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These cookies are wonderful! My daughter has an egg and milk allergy, so I home bake vegan goodies for her. These cookies are soft, fluffy, and delicious! This is definitely the best vegan sugar cookie recipe I have found.
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That makes me so happy to hear! Thank you Nina 🙂
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These were a crowd favorite!!! Can you also freeze to store them after they are baked?
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Yes that should work! They might be a little more crumbly when you re-heat them, but if you just let them cool before eating they should be fine!
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I made these and the turned out really hard, they’re still delicious but not soft and gooey. What did I do wrong? Just over baked?
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Most likely over baked! You can also try lowering the temperature to 325 Fahrenheit and see if that helps.
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I’m low on vegan butter and the store was out. Any ideas on what will work to make up for 1/4 cup? I have grapeseed oil and coconut oil on hand.
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Coconut oil! Refined coconut oil is best if that’s what you have, virgin will have a slight coconut flavor, but will still work if you’re in a pinch!
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Thanks! I’ve got regular. Will try to let you know how it goes with half vegan butter and half CO. Had to go on a mission to get a mixer and then I was worn out.
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Update! My batch made 16 cookies. I had an issue with some of them spreading too thin but I think the problem was complex. Not sure if the CO making up for some butter was part of it, but also I had to use two cookie sheets so the ones at the bottom cooked differently (I rotated them part way through to try to even it up). I also might have put them in before my oven had reached full temp. I did need 1Tbs extra of milk, but that kind of adjustment is pretty normal. Next time I will give it a go with only vegan butter and I will cook one sheet at a time on the middle rack. They are yummy!
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It’s possible the coconut oil contributed to the excess spreading because it’s a bit harder to measure so you may have ended up with a bit more than needed, just a thought! Your cookies were also probably smaller than mine which is why you had more, but I always recommend doing one sheet at a time! Even if you bake on convect, they won’t bake evenly if you have two sheets in there. overall, glad you enjoyed them and thanks for the feedback!
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I made these for the grandsons as a special treat. They (and everyone else!) loved them.
Thank you for the delicious recipe! It’s a keeper!!-
Thank you Nina! So happy everyone loved them!
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These are perfect! I was having a funfetti sugar cookie craving, but didn’t want to pay so much to have some delivered from a local shop😂 these were so simple, the longest thing was me waiting for my butter to defrost from the freezer lol, they were super quick and so so good, definitely keeping this recipe in my back pocket!
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I so feel you!! Homemade is always better anyway 🙂 so happy you enjoyed these!
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