This is a wonderful one-bowl vegan sugar cookie recipe, made with spelt flour, coconut sugar, and coconut oil. If you love cutout cookies but want a more wholesome version, you’ve found it.
I make these every year for Christmas, and most often have them plain without any complicated icing toppings. If you use pretty cookie cutters, there’s no need to pipe patterns on top.
These store very well, so they can be made in advance for gifting or serving closer to the holidays. Make them now and freeze for later. With just 10 ingredients including the spices, it’s incredibly simple, with no chilling time or electric mixer needed.
Ingredients
- Spelt Flour: light or white spelt (type 630). I don’t recommend using whole-grain flour for this recipe.
- Coconut Sugar: this adds a lovely caramel flavour and beautiful colour to the cookies.
- Arrowroot: arrowroot powder or flour acts as a binding agent. Sub half the amount of cornstarch if preferred.
- Coconut Oil: or another light-tasting oil, see substitutions below. Use refined coconut oil to avoid any slight coconut flavour.
- Milk: I always use oat milk, but other non-dairy types like cashew are also good. Mixing milk with the oil imitates butter (which contains water).
- Spices: ginger, cinnamon, and nutmeg.
Step by Step
Add the milk, oil, and sugar to a bowl. Whisk until well mixed. Add dry ingredients to a fine sieve. Sift into the mixing bowl. Mix until a dough forms. Divide in two and flatten into discs. Roll out the dough. Cut into shapes. Carefully place onto a baking sheet. 
Bake, cool, and serve.
Tips and Notes
Bake the cookies one pan at a time, rolling and cutting the next batch while the previous one bakes. Having two pans ready means you can be putting the next one into bake while the previous cools, so everything runs smoothly.
You can use parchment paper several times, so don’t worry about replacing it in between batches. I use mine until it’s completely crispy.
Add more flour when kneading if required to prevent sticking, but don’t go overboard. If you prefer, roll the dough out between two sheets of parchment paper.
These cookies don’t need to be refrigerated before baking. If you want to make the dough ahead of time, it can be refrigerated (well covered, for up to 12 hours) but should be brought back to room temperature before rolling and cutting.
They puff up quite a bit in the oven but shouldn’t spread. If anything you might lose the form slightly when you move them onto the pan to bake – use an offset spatula or knife to lift the cookies onto the baking sheet.
While coconut oil sugar cookies are a bit different from butter and white sugar versions, they have more flavour and are arguably easier to make. You could top them with icing, or drizzled chocolate, but they’re great plain too. If you want the powdered sugar look without using white sugar, sprinkle a little coconut flour on top.
Substitutions
As always, white flour can be substituted for spelt with no change to the amount (though weighing is recommended).
This is a coconut sugar cookie recipe, so I haven’t tried it with other sugar types.
Change the spices based on your personal preference. Cardamom is a delicious addition.
If you don’t want to use coconut oil, an oil that’s liquid at room temperature works just as well. Grapeseed or avocado are ideal as they have almost no flavour, and can be subbed 1:1 for the coconut oil.
More Coconut Sugar Recipes
Double Chocolate Olive Oil Brownies
Vegan Cinnamon Rolls
Apple Crumble Cake
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Coconut Sugar Cookies
These easy vegan coconut sugar cookies are like gingerbread without molasses. Made with 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.
Ingredients
- 60 grams (scant 2/3 cup) coconut sugar
- 45 grams (3 tablespoons) coconut oil
- 3 tablespoons non-dairy milk
- 220 grams (1 1/2 cups) light spelt flour
- 1 tablespoon arrowroot powder
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F) and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl, whisk together 60 grams (2/3 cup) coconut sugar, 45 grams (3 tablespoons) oil, and 3 tablespoons milk until the sugar has dissolved, or at least mostly dissolved. It will look a bit lumpy, that's normal.
- Sift in 220 grams (1 1/2 cups) flour, 1 tablespoon arrowroot, 1 teaspoon ginger, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg, 1/4 teaspoon baking soda, and 1/4 teaspoon salt.
- Stir until combined, and then use your hands to knead the dough a few times until smooth. If it's too dry, add a teaspoon of milk and gently knead again. Don't over mix.
- Flatten the dough slightly between your hands, and then roll out between two sheets of parchment paper to about a 5mm (1/4 inch) thickness. Cut the cookies into your desired shapes.
- Place completed cookies onto one of the prepared baking sheets and bake for 8-10 minutes, or until golden with firm edges. The centre should still be slightly soft.
- Cool the cookies for about 5 minutes on the pans before removing to cool fully on a rack.
- Gather the remaining dough, form it into a ball again, and repeat until all of the dough has been used, alternating pans. While one set of cookies bakes, you can cut the next set and place them on a pan to bake, and so on.
- Store the cookies in an airtight container for up to a week, or freeze for up to three months.
Notes
Bake the cookies one pan at a time, rolling and cutting the next batch while the previous one bakes. Having two pans ready means you can be putting the next one into bake while the previous cools, so everything runs smoothly.
You can use parchment paper several times, so don't worry about replacing it in between batches. I use mine until it's completely crispy.
Add more flour when kneading if required to prevent sticking, but don't go overboard. If you prefer, roll the dough out between two sheets of parchment paper.
These cookies don't need to be refrigerated before baking. If you want to make the dough ahead of time, it can be refrigerated (well covered, for up to 12 hours) but should be brought back to room temperature before rolling and cutting.
They puff up quite a bit in the oven but shouldn't spread. If anything you might lose the form slightly when you move them onto the pan to bake - use an offset spatula or knife to lift the cookies onto the baking sheet.
While coconut oil sugar cookies are a bit different from butter and white sugar versions, they have more flavour and are arguably easier to make. You could top them with icing, or drizzled chocolate, but they're great plain too. If you want the powdered sugar look without using white sugar, sprinkle a little coconut flour on top.
Nutrition Information:
Yield:
25Serving Size:
1 cookieAmount Per Serving: Calories: 63Total Fat: 2gUnsaturated Fat: 2gSodium: 36mgCarbohydrates: 11gFiber: 1gSugar: 5gProtein: 1g
This data is provided by a calculator and is a rough estimation of the nutritional information in this recipe.
This post was first published in December 2018. It has been updated with additional pictures and some slight changes to the recipe as of November 2021.
kristin says
Can I just say you are absolutely one of my favorite food blogs, and one of the best? Not all blogs or recipes are created equal and there’s a lot of bad ones out there. Every single thing I’ve made from you is not only simple but beyond amazing. Hoping you’ll come out with a cookbook soon! ❤️
Alexandra | Occasionally Eggs says
Thank you so much, Kristin, you made my day! I’m so happy to hear that 🙂 I’d love to write a book, fingers crossed!