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:
Oooh, yes! My family bakes LOTS of Christmas cookies (and other goodies) during Christmas time! It is the time of year when we pull out all the baking stops and pull out every family cookie recipe from old cookbooks and pour out every bit of love and joy in our creations! Rolled out and cut sugar cookies, using my great grandmother’s tin shaped cookie cutters and wooden rolling pins, and decorated with frosting, sprinkles, and little candies, are the number #1 cookie of the season, and our freezer is always filled with them (for a little while…. we end up baking these guys once every few days because we eat them faster than anything!).
I also like baking gun cookies (the cookie dough is pressed out of a cookie gun to form a spritz cookie, which is doused in colored sugar or sprinkles).
Just finished making these (and cooling them! 😉 and they are absolutely delicious! This is our first holiday season while following a vegan diet, so it’s a whole new baking experience for me. Thanks for helping make it both fun and delicious! 🙂
Mmm I’m not that into sugar cookies (I’d rather have chocolate!) but when you add on frosting and sprinkles, I’m all about them! My favorites are those cheap ones from the grocery store that they have for all the holidays? I find them delectable so this is a good replacement! My Grandma goes all out when it comes to Christmas cookies too! She makes tons of different kinds!
What beautiful cookies! They resemble a certain soft, sugary, delicious (but not nutritious) frosted cookie sold at grocery stores…(*hint, it starts with ‘loft’)…will definitely try these cookies! I usually make a sugar cookie from an old Double Day cookbook of my mother’s because they are the perfect combination of firm and soft. They aren’t too sweet and the dough works very well for cutting shapes and then frosting. At Christmas, my sister and I always make gingerbread cookies! I have also made candy cane twists, chocolate with peppermint sprinkles, and various others for parties. Thank you for making a healthy recipe!
So festive! These would be fun for a decorating party. I don’t do much baking over the holidays, I’m more into the cooking thing!
Mmm these look heavenly! I will come up with any excuse to bake cookies. I love baking cookies in general, but Christmas cookies and Christmas baking in general is my favorite! Also, good to know about storing soft vs. crispy cookies – I never knew that!
those cookies look so bright at pink, just like the smoothie next to me that is cherry based.
I have a question: what happens if you don’t follow those storage rules with the cookies? I usually just store everything in glass because I don’t care for plastic.
I haven’t tried it, so I’m not sure! I hear you on the plastic thing. I make sure to get bpa-free containers.
Also, someone must’ve seen my post a long time ago about the bake sale… this girl (Rebecca) asked me for the recipe for your cookies! She asked how to contact you, but I don’t want to give your email address out without your consent so I thought you could contact her if you wish. Here’s her profile if you’re interested in getting in touch with her: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1224767111
So these are soft cookies? I know you mentioned they are soft,I just want to make sure they’re what I’m looking for.I’ve been searching for a vegan recipe for soft,chewy sugar cookies. All I’ve found are the hard cut-out kind.
Yes, these are very, VERY soft! But make sure the dough is nice and cold before cooking! And also make sure you don’t overcook them. Otherwise they’ll get hard and crispy.
I ♥ baking christmas cookies!! I am like your granny 🙂
These pics are absolutely gorgeous!!!!
My colleagues and I are having a bake off before winter break. They’re choosing 3 types of cookies and I’m going to make them the healthy way, and they are going to make them the normal way. Sugar cookies are going to be one of the cookies! I’m totally going to use your recipe! Generally I’m gluten-free, but I won’t be doing the judging, so this will be great!
Oh wow, that sounds so fun! What a good idea!
Hehe, I go crazy baking our family’s favorite Christmas cookies every year! Cookies are the one thing I can afford to give people as gifts that they can’t get anywhere else, or buy for themselves.
I am happy to have discovered your blog-this year I can sneak some healthy options in the mix:)
I am totally like your grandma! I love baking tons of different things at Christmas and making platters for people.
Katie I have a totally random question for you! What is your system for storing ingredients? I love buying different types of flour, sweeteners, etc. etc. but it’s hard to keep them organized. maybe because my pantry is deep rather than wide/shallow, but things seem to get lost in there! Do you have containers you’ve found that work really well?
I’m definitely not a good person to ask lol. I guess you could say that I’m organized in that I know where everything is… but it certainly doesn’t LOOK organized! 😕
Haha I am totally the same way. I do know where everything is, but it is just one big mess in there. I’d like to count myself as a “organized mess” but I secretly think it’s just because I have a good memory.
Hello Katie and THANK YOU!!!!! AND a BIG THANKS to WFAA Chanel 8 for bringing your story to the public. I work in a highschool setting and needless to say there is no lack of “goodies” that teachers/staff bring to share. Well my personal motto this year is “I want to bake the cake and eat it too in a healthier way”. I’ve always been conscious of how I bake and cook leaving just a little sugar or butter that is normally called for and it really doesn’t change the taste or texture but thanks to you I’m omitting/exchanging alot more than that. With that in mind I made the chocolate chip/garbanzo cookie and brought it to work. I’ve let everyone taste it and they LOVED it!!! When I told them the ingredients the mouths dropped and wanted the recipe. Thanks again and I’ll be “having my cake and eating it too” and sharing it with family and friends.
Aww thanks for such a sweet comment! I’m so glad you found my site :).
I always cook (or don’t cook? Unbaked cookie dough counts as cookies, right?) cookies during the holidays! And bars….
Hey Katie! I’m a 19-year-old college student who has been following your blog for a decidedly lengthy period of time without coming out and introducing myself (not because finding desserts whimsical, merry, and childhood memory-inducing is shameful, but because most people attach a bit of stigma to those who strive to be healthy). I so appreciate your offering healthier dessert alternatives, not because I think indulging in them disguises an attempt to deprive myself (I have no problem with your desserts’ full-fat, full-calorie counterparts, in moderation), but because it’s fantastic to be able to feel good about treating myself on a more semi-regular basis. Not to throw stones or name names (ah, the age where it’s socially acceptable to hide behind screen-names), but I’ve heard that certain people online like to accuse your recipes of being triggering to those with eating disorders. Whether this is or isn’t the case for some (really anything can be triggering to different people, I’ve found, including cookbooks full of comfort food . . . you can’t win), I can attest to the fact that I find your writing charming, your recipes sweet, indulgent, and delicious, and your weakness for chocolate something that I can certainly sympathize with. Please continue to do what you’re doing. The naysayers need to jump in a vat of chocolate of something.
Hi Avery,
Thank you so much for your sweet comment! Yeah, I think I probably know the forum you’re talking about. When I first found it, I did check it sometimes out of curiosity. But they were basically saying the same things over and over(most of which was completely untrue and some of which was seriously ridiculous), so I got bored and I actually don’t even bother to check it anymore. I know the people there must be going through their own issues. Normal, happy people don’t spend their day writing mean things about people, and I only wish they could see that they’re hurting themselves by wasting so much of thier own time putting others down.
(Also lol I agree with you about eating normal desserts. I actually want to do a post about it sometime in the near future. My blog is based on healthy treats, but that doesn’t mean I always only eat healthy treats! If my friend makes me vegan brownies, with white flour and lotsa sugar, those suckers are GONE! ;))
Wow…really? There’s a forum out there with CCK haters? How is that possible?! You’re like…the sweetest (pun intended 🙂 ) blogger in the dessert blogging world!!! I have never found any of your posts to be triggering…. But your right, everyone is different, and as Avery said, you can’t win with everyone. It’s much like when we get a new president. We vote him in to office, yet there’s ALWAYS someone who ends up hating him 🙂 lol
Keep it up Katie….99.99999% of the people who come across your blog LOVE it….that’s what matters.
Yeah, there is :(.
Thank you so much, Anna. Your kind comment really means a ton to me. I can’t even tell you how much!!
Wow I can’t believe I’m reading that there’s haters on a blog just for CCK. Lol. That’s just pitiful.
I’m thankful for your blog. I’m a breastfeeding mother of a 15 mo old boy and I love sweets and love to make them for my family. Unfortunately my son and I are allergic to gluten/wheat and dairy and eggs. Although I (sometimes) use quail eggs with no reaction. I also stay away from refined sugars for health reasons for my family. My husbands side of the family has a high incident of diabetes and he’s reforming from being addicted to white flour and white sugar.
So it’s a blessing to have recipes for sweets to lovingly feed my family, myself and friends that I don’t feel guilty about loading them up with poisonous white refined sugar and I can eat them and not be tortured bc they’re gluten free
And I’m excited to try this sugar cookie recipe!!
I love the fact you are totally cool with eating actual ‘naughty’ things too! It could be very easy to feel as though you should keep up a constant ‘example to others’ as you have become such a role model in many ways, and i imagine that would just get you down. it’s simply about stricking a balance for yourself and you seem to do that so well.Getting that balance is what i also aspire to…..keep going!!
I love baking cookies any time of year, but there’s just something special about baking Christmas cookies. It makes me feel all warm and fuzzy 🙂
Ok, how did this happen? that I, who checks your blog 10 am and counting, am checking at 4:30? well all i have to say is… OH. NO. YOU. DIDN’T. I am makin these stat. Perfect with a gingerbread latte, no? Done and done 🙂