Skip to recipe

Making Vegan Snickerdoodles

When we’ve been in situations where we need to make something that everyone imaginable can eat—from celiacs, to people with nut allergies, to vegans—we’ve come to find that there are some recipes that almost anyone can eat. These vegan snickerdoodles (i.e. vanilla cookies rolled in cinnamon sugar) have become a big staple for us because they are really, really inclusive. Seriously, so many food allergies and dietary restrictions can be accounted for with these cookies. On top of that, they taste amazing and they’re easy enough to whip up.

Because we’re used to adapting to celiac disease, a corn allergy, a soy allergy, a dairy allergy, and a chocolate allergy, making a vegan recipe wasn’t totally out of the box for us. However, making a dessert (or other baked good) that’s both vegan and gluten free can be a challenge. This isn’t an issue of flavor, but rather one of consistency. Because gluten-free foods don’t often tend to hold together very easily, making them without eggs can be really hard because these are such a good binder.

We will cover how we make these cookies non-vegan (in case you don’t need an egg-free recipe), but there’s a reason that we keep coming back to these cookies. We’ve learned some tricks along the way that make these so good—including adding spices to the dough and to the sugar roll. We’ve also learned that using a gluten free flour blend is better than using one type of gluten free flour. The first time that Isabelle made these, she only used rice flour. This made the cookies hard and cement-like, even though the cinnamon sugar taste was there. Working together, we’ve really perfected this recipe. Peter’s addition of nutmeg and allspice really seals the deal with these vegan snickerdoodles.

One thing that we like to do is to make a bunch of this cookie dough and then only bake what we want at a time. We then freeze the rest and take it out when we want more. We also tend to make other kinds of cookies using this dough, since it really lends itself well to other recipes (like chocolate chip—or carob chip—cookies).

These vegan snickerdoodles have really become a go-to recipe for us when it comes to any social gathering. We’ve made them during the holiday season, for our housewarming party, and Isabelle even makes them each semester for her students during finals week.

If you want to know how we make these vegan snickerdoodles, then read on.

How to Make Vegan Snickerdoodles

Ingredients

1. 2 1/4 cups vegan butter (we recommend Earth Balance Soy Free for this recipe since it’s the least “salty” out of the vegan butters and it accounts for soy allergies)
2. 1 1/4 cup white sugar
3. 3 cups gluten free flour (we use Pamela’s Gluten Free)
4. 1 tsp vanilla extract
5. 1 tsp baking soda
6. 1 tsp cinnamon
7. 1/2 tsp nutmeg
8. 1/2 tsp allspice
9. 2 tbsp water

Directions

1. Combine softened vegan butter, vanilla, and 1 cup of the sugar in a mixer. Adding water as needed, mix on low until the vegan butter and sugar are fully combined. (If you are making these non-vegan, then add the egg at this point.)
2. In a separate bowl, combine baking soda, flour, 1/2 tsp cinnamon, 1/4 tsp nutmeg, and 1/4 tsp allspice.
3. Slowly add 1/4 of the dry mixture to the vegan butter and sugar, mixing on low. Stop the mixer periodically to push any dry ingredients down with a rubber spatula.
4. When everything is thoroughly combined, form the cookie dough into a ball and wrap in plastic wrap.
5. Refrigerate this dough for at least 1 hour.
6. Take the dough out of the fridge and preheat your oven to 350°F.
7. Combine the remaining 1/4 cup sugar, 1/2 tsp cinnamon, 1/4 tsp allspice, and 1/4 tsp nutmeg in a bowl.
8. Form the dough into appropriately 1″ diameter balls and roll each one in the spiced sugar mixture. Place onto a parchment-lined baking sheet at least 2″ apart.
9. Gently press the cookies down with a fork, creating a cross-hatch pattern on the top.
10. Bake the cookies in the oven for 10 minutes. Remove and allow to cool when done.

To Make Non-Vegan Snickerdoodles

When we are making these snickerdoodles for ourselves, or we’re making them for people who are not vegan and do not have egg allergies, then we usually change up this recipe a bit. In our case, we replace 1/4 cup of the vegan butter with one egg. Because this recipe is gluten free, we find this consistency comes together more easily than our classic vegan version.

This isn’t to say that our vegan snickerdoodles aren’t great in and of themselves! They’re very inclusive cookies, and if you just take your time making sure that everything is mixed and at a good temperature, then they’ll come together just fine.