Dairy-Free Sugar Cookies
Dairy-free sugar cookies are like the jeans of the cookie world, they are versatile, low maintenance, practical, you can dress them up or down, and are perfect for almost every occasion.
This sugar cookie recipe has been modified to use coconut oil instead of butter, giving these babies a coconutty taste. If you want to kick the fruitiness up a notch, you can invite a little lemon zest to party! These cookies are bright in flavor and perfect for the winter months.
For other holiday inspired dairy-free cookies, check out a few of our favorites like this dairy-free ginger cookies or our vegan chocolate ginger cookies .
Dairy-Free Sugar Cookies = Coconut Oil
If you have never baked with coconut oil, there are a couple of things to know. Coconut oil can replace butter in a lot of things, but the consistency is less soft and chewy. Coconut oil comes in a solid form and can harden the dough quickly.
Often the key to a good cookie is mixing the sugar and butter together for a long time to make it light and fluffy. This doesn’t happen with coconut oil as easily or pretty much at all.
In my mind, you could probably beat the coconut oil and sugar together like you would with butter. I’m not sure if that’s true because I don’t own any beaters! What I do is melt the oil. It doesn’t take a lot of heat to turn the oil into a liquid, I just pop it over a double boiler and leave it for a minute or so.
You can probably microwave it, but I don’t have one of those either. My kitchen is seriously old fashion that way! Once the oil has liquified, you have to work pretty quickly until you add the egg because you don’t want the oil to harden.
Most sugar cookie dough is refrigerated for a couple of hours before rolling it out, you still need to do that with this dough, just not as long. This sugar cookie dough is harder to work with when cold than regular dough and it may be a bit crumbly when first rolling it out.
Once the dough warms, rolling and cutting gets easier. I recommend working in smaller batches to have better dough control.
Dairy-Free Icing
We made these cookies over Easter and they were a hit. So much so we had to hide them because my one nephew was eating them like they were popcorn! I think this in part due to the icing.
The icing was inspired by EBL Food Allergies’ dye-free icing, which is ridiculously easy to make. We made ours with coconut milk, icing sugar, and raspberries. Swapping fruit for food colouring keeps it natural and brings a bonus flavour to the cookies. Win-win, baby!
Whether it’s Easter or you are in need of a weekend activity for the kids, these cookies are fun to make and, even more, fun to eat!
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Dairy-Free Sugar Cookies
- Prep Time: 35 minutes
- Cook Time: 7 minutes
- Total Time: 42 minutes
- Yield: 48 1x
Description
Dairy-free Sugar Cookies uses coconut oil instead of butter bringing a fruity and bright flavour to this classic cookie. The dairy-free icing is inspired by EBL Allergies’ Dye-Free Icing.
Ingredients
For the Cookies:
- 2/3 cup Coconut oil
- 3/4 cup Sugar
- 1 tsp Baking powder
- 1 egg
- Zest of one lemon (optional)
- 2 cups All purpose flour
For the Icing:
- 1 1/2 cup Icing sugar
- 1 tbsp Coconut milk
- 7 Raspberries (or more for a darker colour)
Instructions
For the Cookies:
- Liquify the coconut oil by lightly heating it. The best way is to place it in a metal bowl over boiling water.
- Add sugar to the coconut oil, whisk or beat to combine.
- Add the baking powder, egg, and lemon zest, whisk or beat to combine.
- Add flour, whisk or beat in the first 1 1/2 cups. Stir the last 1/2 cup of flour in with a wooden spoon.
- Divide the dough into 2 pieces, wrap with plastic wrap.
- Chill for 45 minutes.
- Roll out dough to 1/8″ think. You may need to lightly flour the surface you are working on, so the dough won’t stick. The warmer the dough, the easier it is to roll out.
- Cut into desired pieces.
- Preheat oven to 375°.
- Bake for roughly 5-7 minutes, or until golden.
For the Icing:
- Pureé or smash the raspberries until liquid-like.
- Add icing sugar and coconut milk to raspberries, stir until everything is combined.
- Transfer the icing into a ziplock bag or icing bag.
- Have fun!
- Category: Cookie
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1
Cute and Scrumptious. A great way to celebrate Easter. That raspberry icing sounds really good!
The natural icing is such a great idea, and a super pretty color! Does it stay soft, or is it more like royal icing? BTW I’m now really impressed that you make such beautiful foods without beaters or a microwave!
Thanks Liz! The icing is almost like royal icing because it is a little soft, but you can add more sugar and it will be harder. 😀
I love using coconut oil and coconut milk! And I bet the addition of the lemon zest to the cookie batter gives a really nice brightness. Adorable!
The lemon adds a freshness that is just perfect for the spring 😀
Hi, I am wondering how long does it take for the icing to dry? How do you recommend storing these? Would it be ok storing them room temperature? Thanks! Would love to try making these
Hi Evie,
The icing takes about 20 minutes to set, but it may be effected by the heat. If it’s to soft you can always add in more sugar. I store them in room temperature 😀 Hope you enjoy them!
– Kortney