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:
Hi,
Just wanted to say I made these tonight. We got 10 cookies out of this recipe. This will be my go to sugar cookie recipe from now on. Our family of 4 just devoured them!! My husband said he could eat a whole plate of them! Thanks again and buying your cookbook! Merry Christmas!
I just made these because I’m trying really hard to eliminate all white flour and butter from my holiday baking this year. So far so good:) this recipe…although it does APPEAR that they will taste like “biscuits”…IS AWESOME. They truly taste like a sugar cookie. I opted for whole wheat flour, coconut oil (zero coconuty taste) and I also added 1/4 teaspoon of butter extract since I used coconut oil. They turned out perfectly. They might not look like the pretty white sugar cookies you are used to but one bite proves your eyes wrong. Nice job, Katie!
My son and I made these for Santa yesterday! In Gingerbread man and Christmas tree shapes. I wanted to just eat the dough! “Santa” thought the cookies were delicious but was nice enough to leave one for my son to eat as an early morning snack 🙂
Wow! I finally got to try this recipe tonight and this is going to be my new go-to for sugar cookies! I made 3 batches as each one made me about 9 cookies. I used 2 T butter and 2 T coconut oil to equal the 1/4 cup buttery spread called for and thought they turned out fantastic! Katie, I have told so many people about your site! Thanks for creating the recipes that I wish I could invent myself (not possible).
Hi, I just did these, I substituted sugar for honey, and I used coconut oil… delicious!!!
Thanks!! 🙂
I doubled the recipe and replaced half of the oil for avocado and they turned out beautifully with 70 calories per cookie in a 22 cookie double-batch but of course you can refrigerate them and roll them out thinner for more & lower calorie cookies
Made these with my son. His first time making cookies. The recipe was easy to follow and the cookies were so yummy! Might try the coconut oil. I bet that would be delicious too.
Does anyone know nutrition info for these? Look delicious!!!
How many calories are in one of these cookies? Thanks!
Could you substitute agave nectar for a natural sweetener?
these look so yum! I want to make a double batch and am wondering if they be frozen?
how many cookies does this make??
How many cookies does this recipe make?
How would you substitute using agave nectar? I don’t use any sugars… and agave has worked wonders in all the other baking recipes I have tried. I’m nervous about the texture of sugar cookies without sugar though 😛
I haven’t tried so can’t say for sure. Maybe try the grain free sugar cookies recipe linked in this post instead? Or if you experiment, be sure to report back!
OH MY GOSH THIS COOKIE RECIPE IS MY ENTIRE LIFEEEEEEEE!!!!!!! THEY ARE ACTUALLY THE BEST COOKIES I HAVE EVER HAD. I’M ABOUT TO MAKE MY 3RD DOUBLED BATCH! ALL OF MY FRIENDS AND EVERYONE IN MY JAZZ BAND HAS LOVED THEM! This will be my go to cookie recipe for LIFE (unless of course you change it; i would then use that one, because YOU ARE SO AMAZING AT WHAT YOU DO AND I DON’T KNOW WHAT I WOULD DO WITHOUT YOU, BECAUSE I CAN’T HAVE EGGS, AND YOUR RECIPES NOT ONLY DON’T HAVE EGGS, BUT ARE SO INCREDIBLY HEALTHY! THIS HAS BEEN MY FAVORITE BLOG FOR ABOUT 3 YEARS NOW, AND I HAVE BEEN USING YOUR RECIPES SINCE THE MOMENT I SAW IT! Thank you so much for what you do, so many many people, including myself, love you, and what you do! I honestly can’t even think of my life without Chocolate Covered Katie! Thank you so much again!
Hi Katie, I love making sugar cookies. I made christmas cookies, Today i ate 1 cookie. Thanks for sharing the recipe.
Maya
Hi Katie,
My little daughter wrote the above. This was the first time ever that she could make Christmas cookies, thanks to you! Due to health reasons, other recipes have not been okay for her but this was perfect in every way! Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for giving us this experience!