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:
How are these cookies healthy?????????????????????????
Hi, Im currently in a yeast-free diet and I want to bake some cookies that I am able to eat not just my family or friends (because I cant stop myself from baking). How could I incorporate stevia and stone ground white rice flour into this (or any other non-chocolate/peanut) cookie recipe? please help!!
WOW!!! Just made these!!! BIG, SOFT, CHEWY, PERFECT for after dinner on a Friday night!!! YAY!!! I LOVE your website!!!! 😀
I love these and have made them many times. I usually form balls and cook them that way and they turn out really soft and pillowy in shape. Are the photographs of cookies that you refrigerated and rolled? My cookies come out super soft even without the refrigeration but the photo makes them look slightly crispy. How do I get mine to be flatter and browner? Even if I can’t get them to look like the photo, thank you for the recipe! I love them and I will keep making them!
Hi Ashli,
Mine are definitely soft as well… maybe not like pillows but certainly not crispy. However to make them more crispy, just flatten the balls before baking. Bake a little longer. And also store in a glass container as opposed to plastic. Not sure why that last one works, but it does.
Me and my boyfriend’s anniversary is next week, and I really want to try making these for him – he’s a big fan of the sugar, so I’m including sprinkles…. approx how much should I put in? How sweet are these on their own (in the opinion of someone who loves their soda and candies)?
FYI…. I’ve been getting him to eat much more healthy, and he’s transitioning to vegetarianism c: . But, for things like these…. well, I’ll give him the sugar c;
They taste like regular snickerdoodles sweetness-wise.
Im going to make these with my 4 yr old preschool class.. how do you make the frosting on top???
Making these with my 4 yr old preschool class.. how do I make the frosting on top???
Great basic recipe! I made these last week (with coconut butter), and they were great! They didn’t last long in this house. I will be making another batch this afternoon, and experimenting with Fall colors…
These were so good! I used all natural, no sugar added applesauce instead of butter spread, and 3 tablespoons of brown sugar instead of white sugar, and they tasted like molasses in a cookie. Wonderful, thanks for sharing the recipe!
Thank you, thank you, thank you for including nutrition facts on your recipes. I have a (vegan) 6 yr old boy with type one diabetes, who would like to have a treat on occasion and having the carb counts makes it just a little easier for this family.
Hi! Just wondering if anyone knows how many cookies this recipe makes?? Thanks
I double the recipe and cut out circles. We got about 12. They are thicker just because I like my sugar cookies thick! Hah. Hope this helps.
I used a 1-tbsp cookie dough scoop and got a perfect dozen.
Amazing! 😀 easy and so delicious! We used coconut oil instead of earth balance only because I was out and wanted to make these ASAP for Halloween! Best sugar cookies I’ve ever had! Thanks for this great recipe! We put some trader joes cocoa cookie butter on some and sprinkles on some. Delicious! Perfect Halloween treat! Thanks again!
Mmmm…Cannot wait to get started making these….You are a very smart young lady to have these recipes spreading all over…..WE are mostly vegetarians and some of us ae vegans and these sound like they will be our favorites…thank you again…Lee
Hi Katie,
I have these cookies in the oven now, but I am fearful that they won’t turn out well. The dough was extremely greasy and barely held together. I had wanted to do roll-out cookies (for my son’s first time to bake cookies), but there was not way these would roll-out. I thought followed the recipe exactly, including melting the butter-type spread, which seemed odd to me. Any thoughts on what I did wrong?
I am still hoping these turn out. The dough tasted yummy, so I suspect that they will. But I am a bit disappointed that we didn’t get to use the cookie cutters.
Thanks,
Rachel
You may want to check out the troubleshoot segment in Katie’s recipe section at the following link:
https://lett-trim.today/faq-page/recipe-questions-and-troubleshooting/%3C/a%3E%3Cbr /> I’ve never had a problem making these cookies.
I also found that the dough seemed oily/greasy while I was forming balls, but they still baked up perfectly!
These were so delicious! I kind of turned them into pb cookies though but they still came out great .After putting them the balls in the freezer for 10 to 15 min they came out super soft. I couldn’t help my self and I eat FIVE!
What is the recipe for the frosting?