I ate two of these healthy sugar cookies, straight from the oven!
It’s officially December now, which means you have a great excuse to make cookies. Why not go ahead and bake a batch of these to find out if your self-restraint is better than mine?
(As if anyone needed an excuse to bake cookies.)
The perfect sugar cookie should be soft, buttery, and so incredibly delicious it makes you want to polish off the entire batch in a single sitting.
This healthy sugar cookie recipe fulfills all of the above requirements… and yet these cookies are whole-grain, lower in sugar, and cholesterol-free at the same time.
Yes, healthy sugar cookies!
Do you bake cookies during the holidays? My grandmother loved baking Christmas cookies more than anyone else I know. Each year, she’d make at least ten different kinds of cookies. Michelle and I liked to help: she helped by rolling out the dough… and I helped by eating all the finished cookies! My grandfather nicknamed me “Cookie Monster” because, even before my head was tall enough to reach the table, I was stealing cookies off the tray.
Some things haven’t changed much.
Healthy Sugar Cookies
Healthy Sugar Cookies!
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup spelt, ww pastry, or all-purpose flour (Update! Click for Grain Free Sugar Cookies.)
- 1/4 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt (just under level)
- 1/4 tsp plus 1/8 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 cup white sugar, or sucanat, coconut sugar, or evaporated cane juice (or xylitol for a sugar-free version)
- 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1 and 1/2 tablespoons milk of choice
- 1/4 cup butter-type spread, such as Earth Balance (Some readers say you can use coconut oil, but I haven't tried it. I wouldn't recommend using a low-fat buttery spread.)
Instructions
Healthy Sugar Cookies Recipe: Combine dry ingredients and mix very, very well. In a separate bowl, melt the vegan butter, then stir in vanilla and milk. Pour dry into wet and mix again. Form balls or roll out (not too thin), then use a cookie cutter to make shapes. If you want soft cookies, you’ll need to get the dough very cold. (So roll the balls first, then fridge until cold.) Cook in a 325F preheated oven for 9 minutes. They will look very underdone when you take them out, but that’s ok!! Just let them cool for 5 minutes before touching. (I know it’s hard!) These cookies will keep at least four days, in a lidded plastic container. As a general rule, you should store soft cookies in plastic containers and crispy cookies in glass ones.
These are the same vegan sugar cookies I decorated as baby animals and brought to the football party.
More Healthy Cookie Ideas:
Question for you, in recipes (such as this one) that you’re using all-purpose flour, could it be substituted for oat flour? (I have a bunch in my cabinet that I used to make cookies and I wanted to use it up!) Thanks!
Katie, these were sooooo good! I will admit, they are every bit as good as my non-vegan sugar cookie recipe, which includes real butter, eggs, and a touch of brown sugar. I thought nothing could match that recipe. Well this one is right up there and requires less ingredients! I halved your recipe, and then just took the dough and rolled it into two big cookie dough balls. No chilling, just straight into the oven at a about 350 F for about 11 minutes. Took cookies out and once they cooled, they flattened out into perfectly shaped cookies. Just barely crisp on the edges and super soft and tender on the inside. Goooood!
Katie Thank you for this recipe it was soo yummy!!! But I wanted to reduce the fat I have older family members who have heart disease so I try to make treats everyone can enjoy they turned out awesome!!!!! So I used ww pastry flour, sucanat, soy milk, 1/8 c coconut oil and 1/8 c applesauce, everything else was per your recipe They were just a little cake-like and I had to increase the cooking time to 16 minutes and they were awesome!!!!!! Thank you so much everyone loved them!!!
Do you have the recipe for that pink frosting on the cookies in the picture?
What kind of frosting did you use on these??? They look so good!
Wow, SOO YUMMY! I made these AND the sugar cookie milkshakes for fathers day (Sugar daddy shakes?YES PLEASE!).Both recipes were delicous, as for the cookies..I did add only 1 tbsp. extra sugar, and had only regular butter…but I swear, they were THE BEST sugar cookies, I have EVER tasted! And the shake was just HEAVEN…& I don’t even like bananas! 🙂 Thanks Katie, for helping me serve amazing (yet healthy) treats to the ones I love!
I just made these, but I added some canned pumpkin and pumpkin pie spices (I am channeling autumn!!). They turned out AMAZING. I rarely cook with real sugar, but I followed your recipe exactly and it was great. Had to add a little more flour to compensate for the pumpkin…but wow. Thanks for the awesome recipe!
AMAZING! My favorite dessert (the one both my partner and I can’t live without) is fruit pizza. Essentially a giant sugar cookie baked in a cookie sheet, topped with whipped cream (mixed with lemon yogurt), and lots-o-fruit! We have been vegetarians for years but recently switched to a vegan (and sugar free) diet and I have been on the hunt for a way to still make our delicious fruit pizza. YOU HAVE SAVED THE DAY! Between this sugar cookie recipe and your whipped cream recipe we are able to delight ourselves and our families (as they have been missing the sweet treat at BBQs and various functions) in a much healthier version of our favorite dessert. Thank you so much!!
My favorite part of blogging is when someone actually makes one of the recipes. So thank YOU :).
These are amazing! Thank you for the recipie!!
Best sugar cookies ever!! I made the dough and just stick it in the fridge and whenever I want some cookies I just take some dough and stick it in the toaster oven!
Ok, these were delicious. We put a dollop of hot fudge on top. Our variations were..I did use the coconut oil and it worked…but I also used a combo of 1/4 c oat flour and 1/2 ww pastry flour. I used sucanant. So good! My husband even said, these are delicious…they can’t be good for me :0) Our little secret. However, ours turned out a little darker in color than yours appear to be. So far we LOVE everything you have shared with us!
These cookies are AMAZING!! 😀
is there anything vegan i can use to sub the vegan butter? i dont have any
https://lett-trim.today/2012/12/02/cream-cheese-stuffed-cinnamon-sugar-pillow-cookies/%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
where’s the recipe for the frosting? and can i use other flour other then pastry flour?
I used all purpose and it worked just fine.
thank you
have any recipes that use whole wheat flour and agave nectar for a sweetener?
Many of my recipes call for agave :).
As for ww flour… I have a few, but mostly I stick to whole wheat pastry flour or whole-grain spelt flour because they yield lighter-texture baked goods than regular ww flour. I have a ww flour bread recipe I want to post soon, though.
My daughter was very happy with these cookies. She has food allergies. Planning on using the cookie recipe to make a Fruit Pizza for her for her 2nd birthday.