Healthy Christmas cookies for the holiday season, with vegan, gluten free, and lower sugar, sometimes altogether sugar free, recipes. These healthy-ish cookies are a great way to celebrate this festive season minus the headache!
From cut outs to simple chocolate cookies, I’m sure you’ll find something you love in this collection. There are so many great options here for healthier versions of both the classics and contemporary flavours to set you up for some fun holiday baking.
I’ve put this together partly as a guideline for baking during a tricky time of year. It can be complicated to bake, especially for others, now that so many people have food preferences, intolerances, or allergies.
While there are several vegan and gluten free options included here, there are also grain and nut free cookies so that you can be fairly certain that most people will be able to enjoy them without feeling like they’re missing out. And as someone who really wants to eat all available cookies at this time of year and usually can’t, I would be so thrilled to see someone else bringing a dairy-free option to a party or cookie swap!
If you’re looking for more, you can find all of the cookie recipes – and bars – on Occasionally Eggs in my recipe archives. I always post a few new ones around the holidays, so look for more coming soon.
These easy vegan spice sugar cookies are like gingerbread without molasses. Made with coconut sugar and ginger, cinnamon, and nutmeg for a holiday worthy flavour without any hard to find ingredients. Easily rolled and cut, these make the prettiest Christmas cutout cookies in any shape you like.
Oat flour, coconut sugar, and date syrup form the base of these gingery cookies. Date syrup is pretty widely available these days, but you can sub maple syrup or runny honey in its place if you can't find any.
These vegan gingerbread cookies don't just taste great - they can also be strung on the tree as decorations! So get the whole family in on it (or enjoy some alone time) and decorate some cookies.
This recipe uses cashew pulp, which I never have around anymore, but you can use the rather more common almond flour in its place. With cocoa, lots of spice and shredded coconut.
Just six ingredients, and completely grain and gluten free, made with almond and coconut flour. These don't include any oil, either, using coconut butter to lend richness.
Not the lebkuchen you may see hanging in the stalls at the Christmas markets, which is gross and stays in the plastic packing year round, this is the lebkuchen that we actually eat. Soft, spicy, and delicious.
With a whole cup of almond butter for a rich flavour and the best texture, these vegan and gluten free cookies are made with lots of wholesome ingredients for Christmas baking that doesn't lack in taste despite their healthier nature.
These egg free and dairy free honey and oat cookies are a healthier spin on a childhood favourite, with whole wheat flour and a little ginger for kick. There's no added sugar here, just honey, and the cookies are chewy and soft.
So I've never had a Samoa cookie, as I'm pretty sure they're only available in the US, but shortbread, (coconut sugar) caramel, coconut, and chocolate? Yes, please.
Flourless chocolate tahini thumbprint cookies, made vegan and sweetened with dates. These easy little sesame seed cookies have a dark chocolate centre and just a handful of ingredients.
I love snickerdoodles, and this is the best vegan version I've every come across. I only ever make snickerdoodles around the holidays because they really need a bit of cane sugar - these make another lovely food gift.
Almond and rye flour make for piles of flavour in these fun chocolate chip cookies, one of my all time favourites. These always go over really well in a cookie box.
With just four main ingredients - but five different spices - these are very simple and easy to pull together, but have an outstanding texture and flavour.
Vegan and gluten free peanut butter cookies, made with coconut flour and maple syrup. These super healthy cookies taste just like standard PB cookies, despite being free from refined sugar and grains, and they're so easy to make. So trick all your friends this Christmas!
Oat and almond flour, maple syrup, and coconut oil make up the bulk of these buttery GF cookies. With a total of just eight ingredients, they're simple enough to make on a weeknight.
Yep, chickpea flour. You can't taste it. Definitely don't eat any of the raw cookie dough, but after baking, the bean is completely hidden and the texture of these is pretty great. It's another grain free recipe, good for gifting to anti-gluten folks.
Wonder Cookies! Vegan, Grain-Free, and Date Sweetened Chocolate Chip Cookies
Everything the recipe name says! Real wonder cookies, and a really nice treat if you're looking to make something for a group and you're not sure of any allergies or food preferences.
Chocolate and olive oil are best friends, and these crisp vegan biscotti are proof of that. Biscotti are a Christmas classic - this simple version is a good one to add to your baking list.
Sweetened with dates, and with cocoa in place of flour, these chocolate PB cookies are the right stuff. Add a little more chocolate on top and you're good to go.
Without a tonne of sugar and made with olive oil, I can really get behind these chocolate chip cookies. If you can't get teff flour, you can use oat instead.
I've been making this recipe for five years, and it is a foolproof, truly excellent graham cracker. Since they can be cut into any shape, you can use a holiday cookie cutter or go for the classic slightly sweet rectangle.
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Heidi | The Simple Green says
These all look amazing *heart eyes* Where do I start and how many cookies are too many in a single day?
Thanks for including a few of my recipes as well : )