Vegan Shortbread Cookies Recipe
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Easy vegan shortbread cookies recipe with dark chocolate chunks, vanilla and cultured vegan butter. Also known as European sugar cookies or Christmas biscuits, they make perfect treats to dunk in your coffee or to pack nicely as holiday gifts. Simple, delicious, perfectly crunchy, crumbly, melt-in-your-mouth dairy free treats!
Vegan Shortbread Cookies
Only 4 ingredients, not counting the pinch of salt and optional chocolate, these old world Christmas cookies aka Biscuits are everything!
Shortbread Ingredients
- The Flour: all purpose flour is the standard but If you are looking for a gluten free alternative or just trying to stay away from all purpose flour you can replace it with almond, oat, or rice flour.
- Vegan Butter: Miyoko’s cultured European butter is the absolute best on the market. If you can’t find that one any vegan butter sticks will do here.
- Sugars: a mix of granulated, coconut or brown sugars is my favorite way to go, that being said nothing wrong with just using granulated sugar if that’s what you have in the pantry.
- Vanilla: extract or seeds, it’s optional but gives your cookies a really nice flavor.
- Chocolate Chunks: totally optional but makes your shortbread a little nicer in my opinion, if you like chocolate of course. Remember this vegan pumpkin bread?
- Fleur de Sel: a few flakes of this sea salt sprinkled over the top as soon as the cookies come out of the oven makes them extra special. Use it if you have some but don’t stress over it.
Cookie Flavor Variations
- Nuts – You can swap the chocolate chunks in the recipe with equal parts chopped nuts: pistachios, pecans or walnuts are great additions.
- Dried Fruit – Use 1/2 cup of dried cranberries or peanut butter chips.
- Fancy – add in one teaspoon of lemon zest or orange peel, chopped rosemary or dried lavender flowers.
Topping Ideas
- homemade jam
- salted caramel sauce
- creamy nut butter
- chocolate drizzle
- icing sugar.
How to Make Perfect Vegan Shortbread Cookies
- Use the best Vegan Butter you can find and make sure it is at room temperature. I’m obsessed with Miyoko’s cultured European style butter, absolute perfection for baking goods.
- Cream the butter and sugar together until incorporated well. This is why it’s super important that the butter is softened.
- Vanilla – add the extract if using, if vanilla bean is available that’s even a better option.
- Mix – use the paddle attachment to mix in the flour + chocolate chunks (if using) but take good care not to overdo this. We just want to make sure the dough comes together nicely.
- Chill the Dough! Form the dough into a log, wrap in parchment paper and refrigerate until completely chilled and set. This step is crucial to the final texture so please don’t skip it.
Vegan Shortbread Cookies
Easy vegan shortbread cookies recipe with dark chocolate chunks, vanilla and cultured vegan butter. Also known as European sugar cookies or Christmas biscuits they make perfect treats to dunk in your coffee or to pack nicely as holiday gifts.
Print Recipe
Ingredients
- 8 oz cultured vegan butter (I used Miyoko’s European)
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 2.5 cups all purpose flour
- 1.5 tsp vanilla extract
- 3.5 oz dark chocolate bar chopped (optional)
- 1/4 tsp sea salt
- Fleur de Sel sea salt flakes for garnish (optional)
Instructions
- Bring the butter to room temperature until softened.8 oz cultured vegan butter
- In the bowl of your stand mixer add the sugars and butter and cream together until incorporated using the paddle attachment. Start on low speed and gradually move up to medium.1/2 cup brown sugar, 1/2 cup granulated sugar, 8 oz cultured vegan butter
- Add the vanilla extract then sprinkle in the flour, salt and chocolate chunks. Continue mixing until everything is incorporated.2.5 cups all purpose flour, 1.5 tsp vanilla extract, 3.5 oz dark chocolate bar, 1/4 tsp sea salt
- Transfer the dough to a sheet of parchment paper and using your hands shape it into a long log. Roll it in the parchment paper to the size of a medium rolling pin. Twist the ends and refrigerate until set, about 20 minutes or so. (Alternatively you can place the dough between two large sheets of parchment paper and roll it out to 1/3 inch thickness. Chill 20 minutes then use a favorite cookie cutter to cut out the cookies. This method is recommended if you are doing a mix of dried fruit and nuts with the chocolate chunks).
- Once the dough is set use a serrated knife (or cookies cutter ) and slice the dough into 1/3 inch slices. It should yield approximately 24 cookies. Place the cookies on a parchment lined cookie sheet without touching one another. (Use two cookie sheets or work in batches if necessary.)
- Meanwhile preheat your oven to 350”F. Bake your shortbread cookies for 15 to 17 minutes until lightly golden around the edges or done to your liking.
- Transfer the cookies to a cooling rack and sprinkle with a pinch of Fleur de Sel (sea salt flakes) if available. Allow to cool off completely before serving or drizzling with chocolate.Fleur de Sel sea salt flakes
Notes
- Nuts - You can swap the chocolate chunks in the recipe with equal parts chopped nuts: pistachios, pecans or walnuts are great additions.
- Dried Fruit - Use 1/2 cup of dried cranberries or peanut butter chips.
- Fancy - add in one teaspoon of lemon zest or orange peel, chopped rosemary or dried lavender flowers.
Nutrition
Calories: 168kcal | Carbohydrates: 19g | Protein: 2g | Fat: 10g | Saturated Fat: 2g | Cholesterol: 1mg | Sodium: 94mg | Potassium: 45mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 7g | Calcium: 5mg | Iron: 1mg
Servings: 24 cookies
Calories: 168kcal
I just wanted to say Really awesome shortbread cookies and good luck not eating them all in one day 😂
Such crumbly dough
Yes it’s supposed to be, that’s why we chill it well before baking. So delicious 🙂
I left mine in the fridge for hours. It got too hard to cut. I let it sit out for hours and then cut the pieces and shaped them back into cookie shapes. Pretty good. Addicting even though the flavour isn’t strong.
Hi Elizabeth, the reason for refrigeration is for the butter to set again so it can melt during baking creating heavenly little buttery pockets throughout the cookies. If the dough was refrigerated even overnight all you need is maybe 15 – 20 minutes at room temperature for it to soften enough so you cane easily cut through with a serrated knife. If any pieces crumble off just give it a gentle squeeze enough to stick back together into the original cookie. Glad you still enjoyed the cookies and hope next time it will be a smoother process ~ Florentina Xo’s
I’m going to sub almond flour, but can I sub Stevia for the white sugar? Also, I don’t own a stand mixer. Guess I’ll build up arm muscles mixing this.
You can mix it all in a bowl with a little elbow grease 😉 I have never made these with stevia instead of sugar so i can’t recommend this swap. Let me know how it goes!
Do these freeze well?
Yes they do!