Easy Vegan Snickerdoodles

These vegan snickerdoodles are soft, slightly chewy, pillowy, and loaded with cinnamon sugar flavor but no dairy or eggs – A classic holiday cookie vegans and non-vegans can enjoy all year!

What Are Snickerdoodles?

Snickerdoodle cookies taste similar to a sugar cookie rolled in cinnamon sugar (major yum and perfect for the holidays!) but have a distinct cracked surface and are softer, more pillowy, and chewy with a distinctive tang, thanks to the addition of cream of tartar.

However, while a traditional Snickerdoodles recipe requires eggs and dairy, this recipe is 100% vegan, but you’d never guess! With just 9 simple, inexpensive ingredients, you can get this vegan snickerdoodles recipe whipped up with ease.

They’re also fairly easy to adapt in several ways (keep reading for our favorite ideas), require no chilling, and are perfect for vegans and non-vegans to enjoy this holiday season and all year long at potlucks, parties, bake sales, and at home.

Looking for even more holiday-ready vegan cookie recipes? You might enjoy vegan chocolate crinkle cookies, double chocolate chip peppermint cookies, vegan gingersnaps, and vegan raspberry thumbprint cookies. And if you’re all set on cookies, you’ve gotta try vegan gingerbread cake, biscoff brownies, or vegan fruit cake.

The Ingredients in Snickerdoodles

• Flax egg: A combination of ground flax meal (or chia seeds) and water left to thicken and coagulate makes a great vegan egg alternative in eggless snickerdoodle cookies.
• Vegan butter: Use your favorite unsalted vegan butter – like Miyoko’s or Earth Balance – make sure it’s room temperature. Salted vegan butter works in a pinch, but then there’s no need to add extra salt to the cookie dough.
• Sugar: We used organic white sugar (to ensure it is vegan). Raw cane sugar or even coconut sugar would work as a less refined option.
• Vanilla extract: Use natural rather than artificial for the best flavor.
• All-purpose flour: Or, for gluten-free vegan snickerdoodles, experiment with an all-purpose gluten-free blend like King Arthur’s or Bob’s Red Mill.
• Cream of tartar: This ingredient helps control the spread, makes for softer, chewier cookies, and provides the unique, tangy flavor to snickerdoodles cookies.
• Baking soda: To provide some lift and lightness for the best texture.
• Cinnamon: Make sure it’s fresh for the best vegan cinnamon cookies.
• Sea salt: Or kosher salt, not table salt.
• Cinnamon sugar: To coat the homemade snickerdoodles, you’ll need a combination of sugar and ground cinnamon.

Add-ins and Flavor Variations

• Pumpkin spice snickerdoodles: Replace ½-¾ tbsp of cinnamon from the cinnamon sugar coating with storebought or homemade pumpkin pie spice.
• Stuffed snickerdoodles: There are several ways to stuff dairy-free snickerdoodles, including:
  • Vegan cream cheese snickerdoodles (chill the mixture first)
• • Salted caramel snickerdoodles (hard caramels rolled into balls + sprinkle of salt)
• • Peanut butter/Biscoff snickerdoodles (frozen in tsp portions)
  • Vegan chocolate stuffed snickerdoodles (use small vegan chocolate/ squares of choc)

To make stuffed snickerdoodles, flatten two separate tablespoon portions of dough and place a teaspoon of the filling over one. Then, place the other flattened piece over that and pinch the edges to seal. Roll into a ball, roll in the cinnamon sugar, and bake.

How to Make Vegan Snickerdoodles

• First, combine the ground flax meal (or chia seeds) and water in a small bowl, mix, and set aside for 5 minutes. Then, preheat the oven to 350F/177C and line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone mat.

• Then, using a mixer, cream the vegan butter and sugar until light and fluffy (3-4 minutes).

• Then add the flax egg and vanilla and mix for a further minute.

• In a separate bowl, whisk the flour, cream or tartar, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt.

• Add the dry ingredients to the wet ones and mix until fully incorporated.

• Next, in a small bowl or plate, stir ¼ cup sugar and 2 tbsp cinnamon.

• Use a cookie scoop or other measuring tool to scoop 2 tbsp portions of dough into your hand to roll into balls, then coat in the cinnamon sugar.

• Spread the sugar-coated cookie dough balls 2 inches apart on the baking sheet and gently flatten them with a spatula or other flat tool.

For slightly thicker cookies, don’t flatten them at all.

9. Bake in the center of the oven for 10-12 minutes until the edges are slightly golden (the center will still be soft).
10. Then remove them from the oven and leave them to cool on the baking sheet for at least 15 minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack to finish cooling – enjoy!

FAQs

Pro Recipe Tips

• Measure the flour correctly: Fluff it up in the bag, spoon it into the measuring cup, then use the back of a knife to level the measuring cup. This ensures you don’t end up with dense/dry cookies.
• For smaller cookies: Use a tablespoon scoop and bake them for 8-10 minutes.
• Don’t overcrowd the tray: The cookies spread a lot, so require the space to do so without turning into one giant blob.
• Don’t overbake the cookies: They should be slightly under-baked and soft when removed from the oven. The residual heat further bakes them for perfect soft, chewy snickerdoodles. The longer they bake, the crisper they’ll be.

Storage Instructions

Leave the vegan snickerdoodle cookies to fully cool, then store them in an airtight container at room temperature for 4-5 days or in the refrigerator for up to 10 days. Bring them back to room temperature before enjoying, though for the best texture.

You can also freeze the cookies for 2-3 months by flash-freezing them for a couple of hours (to avoid sticking) and then transferring them to a Ziplock/Stasher bag.

More Vegan Cookie Recipes

• Lemon shortbread cookies
• Oatmeal zucchini cookies
• Lemon blueberry cookies
• Peanut butter sandwich cookies
• Oatmeal chocolate chip cookies
• Cinnamon chocolate chip cookies
• Dairy-free chocolate chip cookies

Photos by Alfonso Revilla