These vegan Christmas cookies are thick, soft, and perfectly chewy. Plus they are packed with gooey chocolate chips and holiday flavor in each delicious bite!
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What makes these the best vegan Christmas cookies
Simple ingredients, and a classic Toll House chocolate chip cookie taste.
Great for adding to dessert trays, alongside Vegan Peppermint Bark and Vegan Toffee.
If you want to be the most popular guest at your next cookie exchange or holiday party, bring a large batch of these decorated egg free treats, and watch everyone’s eyes light up.
Or set out a plate for Santa to enjoy on Christmas Eve.
Not just for Christmas. The homemade vegan cookies are also a welcome addition at Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, New Year’s, or any other way you celebrate this winter!
You may also like these Vegan Peanut Butter Cookies
Vegan Christmas chocolate chip cookies
Growing up, my family would bake a non vegan version of these festive chocolate chip cookies every December.
With chewy centers, crispy edges, and colorful presentation, they were always my favorite holiday cookies and one of the first to disappear from cookie trays.
This Christmas season, I wanted to create a dairy free and eggless version to pack up as gifts for all my friends and neighbors. The vegan Christmas cookies turned out even better than I remember!
Try them baked hot from the oven. Chances are, they will quickly become one of your new favorite cookies too.
The recipe was adapted from my Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies.
Step by step recipe video
The recipe video tutorial above shows just how effortlessly you can whip up a batch of beautiful, soft, chewy vegan chocolate chip Christmas cookies in your own kitchen.
You need just a few basic ingredients, with no flax eggs, chia eggs, or expensive specialty flours.
Key ingredients
Flour – The cookies work best with all purpose flour, whole grain spelt flour, or oat flour. I’ve also made them successfully with all purpose gluten free flour.
Using another option, such as almond flour or coconut flour, will require making other changes to achieve good results.
Chocolate chips – Look for nondairy semi sweet or dark chocolate chips in the baking aisle of most traditional grocery stores. Or as a fun variation, try vegan white chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, cinnamon chips, or Peanut Butter Chips.
Sugar – White sugar will yield the softest, chewiest texture. Substituting brown sugar, coconut sugar, or sugar free xylitol works if you follow the listed gram measurement instead of cups.
Vegan butter – The recipe calls for unsalted plant based butter. Thankfully, many brands now sell unsalted vegan butter sticks or tubs. Either will work here. Or use coconut oil to make cookies without butter. Melt the butter or oil before adding it to the dough.
Other ingredients – You will also need baking soda, salt, water, and half a teaspoon of pure vanilla extract to make up the vegan cookie base. No eggs required.
Decorating dairy free Christmas cookies
Vegan M&Ms – Multiple companies now offer plant based M&M alternatives. These include Justin’s, No Whey, Unreal, YumEarth, and Mummy Meegz. You can also find vegan M&Ms, often called chocolate lentils, online at retailers like OhNuts or Etsy.
A simple alternative is to omit the M&Ms and simply increase the chocolate chips instead. The recipe is incredibly versatile.
Sprinkles – I love decorating the cookies with red, white, and green sprinkles to give them a magical holiday appearance. You can also use colorful snowflake, gold ball, candy cane, edible glitter, or fancy Christmas tree sprinkles.
Look out for terms such as confectioner’s glaze, carmine, or beeswax on the ingredient list. Many brands make it easy to find vegan sprinkles by including a V symbol directly on the label.
How to make the recipe
You can either bake the cookies right away, or prepare the dough the night before so it is ready to go when you want a batch of warm, freshly baked chocolate chip cookies.
- Unless you are making the dough in advance, start by preheating the oven to 325° Fahrenheit, or 165° Celsius.
- Combine the flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt in a large mixing bowl or a stand mixer.
- Stir in the sprinkles, nondairy M&Ms candies, and chocolate chips. Or you can reserve some or all of these ingredients to decorate the cookies just before baking.
- Stir in the melted vegan butter, vanilla extract, and water to form a cookie dough texture. The mixture will seem dry at first and should be stirred for about one to two minutes.
- Use a small cookie scoop or clean hands to roll the vegan cookie dough into balls.
- Place unbaked balls on a greased or nonstick cookie tray, leaving space between each ball because they will spread as they cook.
- For chewier cookies, refrigerate until chilled or covered overnight. Or for crispy cookies, proceed to the next step immediately.
- Bake the tray on the center rack of the preheated oven for eleven minutes.
- Remove carefully, and let cool before handling the dairy free Christmas cookies. They will continue to firm up as they cool.
- Store leftovers in a covered cookie jar on the counter for up to five days. Or freeze in an airtight container for long term storage up to three months.
While the oven is hot, make vegan Chocolate Crinkle Cookies
Easy vegan Christmas cookie recipes
(Plus a homemade easy vegan frosting recipe included)
Healthy Chocolate Chip Cookies
Vegan Christmas Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup flour (120g)
- 1/2 cup sugar (100g)
- 1/3 cup chocolate chips (55g)
- 12 vegan M&Ms (see brand options above) or additional chocolate chips
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/3 cup unsalted vegan butter or coconut oil, melted (80g)
- 1 1/2 tbsp water (22g)
- 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract (3g)
- 2 tbsp vegan red and green sprinkles or holiday sprinkles of choice (5g)
Instructions
- The vegan Christmas cookies work best with spelt flour, all purpose flour, oat flour, or all purpose gluten free flour.
- 1. If baking right away, preheat the oven to 325° Fahrenheit (165° Celsius).
- 2. In a large mixing bowl or a stand mixer, stir all dry ingredients well. It is your choice whether to stir the sprinkles and M&Ms in or to add them on top of each cookie just before baking.
- 3. Stir in liquid ingredients to form a cookie dough texture. It will seem dry at first, so keep mixing for 1-2 minutes. For best results, do not add additional liquid.
- 4. Using a cookie scoop or your hands, roll the dough into cookie balls.
- 5. For chewy cookies, chill the balls in the refrigerator for one hour (or overnight). Or for crispier cookies, proceed to the next step immediately.
- 6. Place the dough balls on a large greased or nonstick cookie sheet, leaving space between each because the chocolate chip cookies spread while baking.
- 7. Bake on the oven's center rack for 11 minutes.
- 8. Remove from the oven and let cool, during which time their texture will continue to firm up.
- 9. Serve and enjoy! Store cooled leftovers in a covered container for up to five days. Or freeze for long term storage.
Video
Notes
More vegan holiday cookie ideas
Healthy Girl Scout Cookie Tagalongs
Flourless Chocolate Chip Cookies
3 Ingredient Peanut Butter Balls
Which brand of vegan m&ms did you use to grt the red and green ones?