These Gluten-Free & Vegan Sugar Cookies are perfect for the holidays. Easy to make, healthy, nut-free and topped with a naturally colored green icing!
Welcome to our first annual cookie week here on SQ!
I've done a few other themed weeks in the past (Whole Grain Week was probably my favorite), and this week I'm so excited to be bringing you an entire week dedicated to healthy holiday cookie recipes! I know it can be hard to avoid sweets this time of year, so rather than overindulging in refined sugar and flour filled treats, now you will have a variety of healthy holiday cookie recipes at your disposal!
First up? Gluten-Free and Vegan Sugar Cookies topped with a simple matcha icing!
This dough is actually based on a really old recipe from the archives with a few twists. I'm making them vegan (so no honey or eggs like the original called for) and I swapped out some of the other flours for oat flour.
It took a few attempts, but I'm thrilled with the final result and I think you're going to love them too!
Just like classic roll out sugar cookies, it's important to let the dough chill. This helps to firm up the fat (in this case coconut oil) and helps make them easier to roll.
One thing to note about coconut oil though is that it gets very solid when chilled, so you'll want to let the dough sit at room temperate for at least 30 minutes before rolling it out.
Now this dough can be a tiny bit temperamental, so I have a few tips for you:
- Make sure your maple syrup is fully at room temperature before beating it with the coconut oil because that will cause the coconut oil to harden and not distribute evenly in the dough
- Just before rolling, knead it with your hands a little. You want it to be moldable in your hands, so it needs to be fairly warm.
- Be gentle when you roll it out. Too much pressure on your rolling pin might cause the dough to crack
- If the dough does crack, just mold it back together with your fingers
- And finally…spray your cookie cutters with a little cooking spray to help them slide out of the dough easily
Otherwise, they're pretty darn easy!
Before I let you go make this lovely little vegan sugar cookies, we need to chat about the ICING!
This is a very standard icing recipe, but with one little twist. Instead of food coloring, we're using matcha to make it green!
Just whisk together your organic powdered sugar, matcha and a little almond milk and you have a vibrant green icing that is naturally colored and super delish!
Want red? Try mixing in beet powder, strawberry powder or raspberry powder!
More Holiday Cookies to Try:
- Chewy Ginger Molasses Cookies
- Gingerbread Cookies
- Dark Chocolate Peppermint Cookies
- Chocolate Peppermint Macaroons
- Raspberry Thumbprint Cookies
- Chewy Chocolate Orange Cookies
- Orange Cardamom Sugar Cookies
- Pumpkin Cookies
Gluten-Free & Vegan Sugar Cookies with Matcha Icing
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup coconut oil
- 1/2 cup maple syrup
- 1 flax egg
- 3/4 cup gluten-free oat flour
- 1/2 cup coconut flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
for the icing
- 1/2 cup organic powdered sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon matcha powder
- 3/4 tablespoon almond milk
Instructions
- Beat together the coconut oil and maple syrup with an electric mixer until fluffy. Add the flax egg and beat until smooth.
- Add the dry ingredients and mix until the dough sticks together. Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, preferably overnight.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
- Line a flat surface with parchment paper, sprinkle with a little flour. Turn the chilled dough onto the surface and allow it to sit for 30 minutes.
- Gently knead it with your hands until it's pliable, then roll the dough to ¼” thick and cut out with cookie cutters. Remove the extra dough and transfer the cut cookies onto the baking sheet. Repeat with the rest of the dough until you don’t have any left.
- Bake the cookies for 9 – 11 minutes until they’re nicely golden brown.
- Cool on a wire rack.
- When ready to ice, whisk together the icing ingredients, pour into a piping bag and pipe onto the cookies!
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