Gluten Free Vegan Sugar Cookies Oil Free Recipes

GLUTEN FREE VEGAN SUGAR COOKIES (OIL-FREE!)

Steps:

• Be sure to bake these cookies shortly after making the dough. Do not store in the fridge for several hours or overnight. Chilling it for a long time causes it to really dry and and break apart. Use it fresh.
• Preheat the oven to 350°F and line 2 sheet pans with parchment paper.
• To a large bowl, add the dry ingredients and whisk until thoroughly mixed and no lumps remain.
• Add the syrup, cashew butter and vanilla to the dry ingredients and stir together until it comes together into a ball. It will be a bit shaggy at first. Pressing the dough together with the back of a spoon will help it come together.
• Once it's in a rough ball, pick it up with your hands and knead, press and mold it together several times so it completely comes together and is smooth and NO more visible flour remains. Form into a very smooth ball. It should not be sticky and be very easy to work with if measured correctly. Refer to photo of dough in post. If for some reason you cannot easily form a ball and it's sticking too much to your hands, scoop the dough into plastic wrap and wrap into a ball and place in the fridge for just 1 hour.
• After forming the ball, if you have time, place the dough wrapped in plastic wrap in the fridge for 30 minutes to make rolling slightly easier. Although, I didn't even do this and found the dough easy enough to work with to bake right away. However, if your cookie cutters are sticking too much, chill it briefly or else you will have messy cookies.
• Place the dough onto a piece of parchment paper and place another sheet of paper on top of the dough. Roll the dough out continuously starting from the middle to ensure even rolling. Roll out the dough to 1/4 inch thick, NO less, or they will bake up really thin and too crispy and become more dry.
• Use desired cookie cutters to make shapes close together using all the dough. Make sure to use similar shaped cookie cutters so they bake evenly. Carefully peel away the unused portion of the dough around the cookie shapes Gently pick up the cookie shapes and place them on the lined pan.
• Form the dough back into a ball and repeat the process until all the dough is used. I got 20-24 cookies using the size of standard cookie cutters. You may get less or more depending on the ones you use. Just keep the cookie cutters to similar size so they bake evenly.
• These cookies are meant to be frosted with the icing, as we all know, that is traditional. You can choose to fully ice like I have in the photos or just do stripes or minimal icing decorations. If you really want to skip icing, then just sprinkle the cookies with sprinkling sugar before baking.
• Bake 1 pan at a time for just 7 minutes (6 minutes if using the no almond flour version) and set your timer! Sugar cut-out cookies bake very fast so stay close. They are done when you look through the oven window and see the bottoms forming a golden brown color and the tips may just beginning to turn golden brown. Obviously, ovens can vary, so yours may take slightly longer, but look for the description noted. The tops won't change much color, but be very light. Do not overbake these or they can really dry out.
• Cool just 5 minutes on the pan and transfer to cool completely on a wire rack before icing.
• Mix the icing ingredients with a whisk until completely smooth. This icing should be the consistency of toothpaste. This is used to outline the cookies so it hardens quickly and doesn't run off the cookie. Test outlining one cookie with a piping tip and if it's not running off, you are good. If it's too runny, add a bit more sugar. Please note that if you don't use a milk listed, yours will be runnier and may require more sugar.
• If just drizzling the cookies, you don't need to divide the icing, but if you want to flood the cookies (fill the outline) you need a bit of runnier icing so it's easy to fill in. You will add a tiny bit of milk, start with a teaspoon and it should be more easily runny, but not watery. Fill in a cookie with another piping tip to test. Don't worry if your icing ever turns too runny, just always add more sugar.
• Do this same process if wanting to use colors. I made several different bowls of icing to do this.
• Place all the cookies on wire racks to cool. The icing will take several hours to fully harden. I let mine sit overnight to harden on the racks uncovered. Don't worry about them drying out. Honestly, it kept them crispier this way and the icing helps to keep them moist!
• If you just did the cookies with sprinkling sugar and no icing, once they are cooled, place them on a plate covered with foil or a glass container to store them. I wouldn't use plastic, as it will make them become soft.