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:
Those sugar cookies look amazing – I would have eaten seven straight from the oven!
How many cookies does this recipe make?? I’m trying to plan. =)
It depends on how you roll them (balls, shapes, etc). I rolled some balls and some circle cookie cutters, so I really don’t know how many it made!
yes! xmas is my fav time of year for the cookie baking!
and these look scrumptious 🙂
So cute and festive! Can’t wait to make these 🙂
I am baking lots of cookies this year! I am posting 12 days of Christmas cookies (1st recipe today!), and in addition, I bake 12 different kinds of cookies for cookie trays. I buy flour 25 pounds at a time…and my house smells wonderful!!
December definitely means Christmas cookies! These look yummy.
Made these today for the kids! Fantastic recipe! Put the balls in the freezer for about 15 min., then baked. They came out soft and scrumptious!
I am so excited you tried them!
(P.S. great name! I’m a Kathryn, too :).)
Um…I JUST made these…and they are amazing! So addicting! You are right, you need quite the self restraint around these bad boys.
I am so so excited you made them!
Sel-restraint… yeah, I wish I had that. I burned my tongue on one, and I have such a hard time waiting for them to cool. It’s the same with things like banana bread. I hate that you have to wait 45 minutes for the bread to cook, but it starts to make the house smell good after only ten. Torture! 😉
these look delicious katie! totally adding them to my “cookies to bake this holiday season” list! 🙂
Omg! Soooo darn good! Best cookie recipe I’ve ever used. I added rum extract as well as vanilla… Yummmmmmy!
I have to make these this weekend!
Those cookies are too cute! But then again, everything you make looks cute, and tastes great! Might be making these!!
Do you bake cookies during the holidays? = Is the sky blue?
🙂
These look so good and love the pink!! frosting and sprinkles. They look like they would melt in my mouth and soooo good!
SHUGS COOKAAAAYS
Hi! I read your blog alot and appreictae your healthy takes on desserts…but I feel like if you are going to show something with frosting there should be a frosting recipe! Im not trying to troll or anything, just saying… (kind of like thet latte the other day being shown with whipped cream). Frosting is pretty easy to make if you use earth balance instead of butter! and homemade frosting is wayyy better than anything store bought (plus you can crontol what goes into it!)
Hi Mari,
For the latte, there WAS a whipped cream recipe. I used my coconut cool whip, which I posted awhile back. As for these sugar cookies, I was in a hurry and need to save time where I can. I usually make at least 2 desserts a day, so I appreciate shortcuts sometimes :).
oh my GOSH these look good… I will be baking them soon!
Beautiful cookies, Katie. 🙂 Your photos are gorgeous 😀