The Best Vegan Shortbread Cookies
These cookies are buttery and delicious! Serve them as-is, or decorate them with vegan royal icing. The amount of cookies you get out of this recipe will depend on what size cutters you use.
Equipment
- Stand mixer (optional but recommended)
- Cookie cutters
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup vegan butter, softened see recipe notes
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup brown sugar packed
- 2 tbsp vegan egg replacer such as Just Egg or aquafaba
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 3/4 tsp baking powder
- 1/8 tsp salt
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
Instructions
- In the bowl of your stand mixer, cream together the vegan butter, granulated sugar and brown sugar.
- On low speed, add in the vegan egg, vanilla extract, baking powder and salt. Mix until combined.
- Gradually add the flour until the dough comes together nicely--it should start to form into a ball and pull away from the sides of the bowl. Form your dough into a disk and wrap with plastic wrap. Refrigerate the dough for at least an hour until slightly hardened, but optimally overnight.
- After you refrigerate your dough, you can roll it into cookies! I usually do this by putting the unwrapped dough disk between two sheets of wax paper, and rolling it with a rolling pin until the dough is 1/3-1/2 inch thick. Cut the dough with your desired cookie cutters, and place them on a baking sheet.
- Bake your cookies at 350F for 14-16 minutes, until the edges of the cookies start to become golden brown. Allow the cookies to cool on the tray for a minute or two (but not too long!) before transferring them to a cooling rack. Allow to cool completely before decorating with desired icing.
Notes
As far as vegan butter goes, I tried this with a few different kinds (pictured in post). I'm sure it would also work with Earth Balance, as it is similar to the Land O' Lakes pictured. I tried it once with this Shoprite brand vegetable oil spread, but the dough was too wet to form into a disk (though perfect for a cookie press).