These No-Chill Vegan Sugar Cookies are the perfect treat for parties or school treats! They are easy to make (no more chilling dough!) and have no eggs, dairy, soy, tree nuts, peanuts, or coconut
Hey all! It has been a little while since I have posted a real dessert recipe. I’m not talking about the healthy kind, I’m talking about the cakes, cookies, and brownies. Since I merged my two blogs, I have done a lot more workouts and fitness posts on here lately, and not so many sugary treat recipes.
I figured as a health/fitness blogger I didn’t want to post too many sweet treat recipes, but I really still love baking traditional (but allergy-friendly) goodies. And I still enjoy treats 🙂 If you miss those sweet recipes, then you’re in luck today!
My daughter volunteered me to make some cookies for her class for their Halloween celebration today, so I decided to make sugar cookies that everyone in her class could eat and enjoy. Since no one in her class is gluten-intolerant or celiac, using wheat wasn’t a problem. But my daughter can’t have eggs, dairy, or nuts, so I decided to come up with my own sugar cookie recipe that she could have, but a recipe that everyone else in her class would love, too. So the No-Chill Vegan Sugar Cookies were born!
This recipe reminds me a lot of my recipe for Vegan Vanilla Cupcakes. It is one of the very few wheat-based recipes on my blog and but they are made to be allergy-friendly (no soy, nuts, eggs, dairy, coconut, etc). I am going to work on making a gluten-free version of this recipe, but until that is finished, you can try my Slice and Bake Sugar Cookie recipe (those are gluten-free).
I decided to make these no-chill because frankly, I’m a little lazy that way and I don’t like chilling cookie dough. When I make cookies, I want to make (and eat) them pronto, so I would rather cut that step. That also makes these fast to make if you’re time crunched, too.
This batch of cookies is a smaller one (it makes a little over 1 dozen cookies), but if you’re making bigger batches for schools or parties, you can easily double and triple the recipe and bake them in batches. Don’t put the cookies too close together on the cookie sheets or they will spread into each other. It’s not the end of the world if that happens, they just look as nice 🙂
These cookies made and baked as-is are a bit thinner, but still chewy in the middle and not too crispy. I personally love chewy/soft cookies rather than crispy ones, but if you want crispier cookies, cook them a little bit longer (maybe just another 3 minutes) until they are just turning golden around the edges. As they cool, they will become a little crispier. If you want soft cookies, store them in an airtight container as soon as they are cooled. If you want them to stay crispy, leave them on the rack for a few hours before storing them.
Frosted, sprinkled, and ready to go to school! I rarely follow a recipe for frosting, I just whip it up and go with it, but you can follow my recipe for Non-Dairy Buttercream frosting to make your own.
No Chill Vegan Sugar Cookies (Nut Free)
Ingredients
- 1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ⅓ cup solid palm oil I use Spectrum brand
- ½ cup unbleached cane sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 3 Tablespoons rice milk
- 2 Tablespoons sugar for rolling, optional
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350° F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside
- In another medium sized bowl, cream together the palm oil and sugar using a hand mixer, then add in the vanilla and rice milk and cream together until creamy and a little fluffy
- Add the flour mixture to the palm oil mixture and blend together using a hand mixer until a thick dough forms. The dough should be thick and not too sticky
- Roll the dough into 1-inch balls and roll the cookie dough balls in more sugar if you like
- Place the cookies on the prepared baking sheet at least 1-inch apart and slightly flatten the cookie balls
- Bake for about 12-15 minutes in the preheated oven: 12 minutes for chewy cookies and a little more for crispy cookies. When they begin to turn slightly golden brown on the edges they will be crispy
- Allow to cool on the cookie sheet for about 5 minutes before moving to a cooling rack
- Store in an airtight container for up to 4 days. Leave these on a wire rack for a couple of hours before storing if you want them crispier
- Enjoy!
Nutrition
Sarah Jane Parker is the founder, recipe creator, and photographer behind The Fit Cookie. She’s a food allergy mom and allergy friendly food blogger of 12 years based in Wyoming. Sarah is also an ACSM Certified Personal Trainer, ACE Certified Health Coach, Revolution Running certified running coach, and an ACE Certified Fitness Nutrition Specialist
Could I just use water? I don’t want to buy rice milk (or any “milk”) just for 3 tbsp.
Absolutely! I often use water in place of rice milk if I run out
Why palm oil? The only oil I have in is coconut oil. Any reason I shouldn’t use that? Thanks.
Palm oil is more heat stable and doesn’t melt as readily as coconut oil. You can try making this recipe with coconut oil, but I can’t guarantee the results since I haven’t made this recipe with it.
These look great! Can I roll the dough in sprinkles instead of the sugar, or with the sugar? I don’t like frosting on sugar cookies but I think red and green sprinkles would look great. Thanks!
Hi Margaret, you could definitely try that! I would press the top of the cookie in sprinkles before baking, you probably wouldn’t need to roll the entire ball of dough in sprinkles unless you wanted to have them on the bottom too. Let me know how they turn out!
Can I use melted vegan butter instead of palm oil? Or even vegetable oil? Thanks!
Hi Jordan, you could probably use vegan butter in this recipe, but don’t melt it, just blend it in with the sugar as-is according to the recipe. The texture might be a bit different but it should still turn out ok (I haven’t tried it with vegan butter so I can’t guarantee the results).
I’m wouldn’t use vegetable oil in this recipe since this works best with a solid fat like palm oil. Vegetable oil won’t give the same results so I would avoid using that in place of palm oil
Can the palm oil be replace with coconut oil? It’s a bit difficult to get palm oil where I am is all. Thanks
Hi Kevin! You can try subbing the coconut oil for the palm oil, but I honestly don’t know how that would turn out since it has a lower melting point than palm oil. You can give it a try and see – you may need to reduce the amount of coconut oil a bit. I don’t think they will look quite the same, but the taste should be the same
Hi Sarah Jane,
Thanks so much for this recipe. These cookies are easy to make, super delicious and perfect for my little one with food allergies 🙂
Thank you Bonnie! I’m so glad you like them, these are a big hit with my kids too 🙂
I still live off the cookie recipe you created for me! You opened my doors to the world of sweets!!
I need to make some more of those! I have been thinking about making some variations of those, like chocolate and ginger 🙂
These look amazing! I will definitely have to keep them on my holiday baking list!
Thanks Rachel! These would make a perfect Christmas cookie. I should make some of these into cookie mixes for gifts 🙂
Those look SO perfect! I could go for one right about now!
Thanks Liz! They are pretty delicious – hopefully my daughter’s class will love them!