Chewy Gluten-Free Vegan Sugar Cookies
These Chewy Gluten-Free Vegan Sugar Cookies are quick and easy to make with just eight ingredients! They’re soft, chewy, and absolutely delightful. Perfect for the holidays, or whenever a sugar cookie craving strikes. Thanks to Bob’s Red Mill for sponsoring this post!

As I sit here writing this, my house is filled with the smell of vegan sugar cookies baking: the scents of sugar and vanilla weaving their way through my home and perfuming it with their delicious sweetness. Who needs candles when you have cookies? You all know I’m a friend for all things gluten-free cookies!
Psst…if you love these, you also need to try these chai sugar cookies & these super chewy snickerdoodle cookies!
These fabulously easy and delicious sugar cookies are a new all-time champion around here. I’ve shared them with plenty of people — those who eat gluten-free and vegan, those who eat everything, those who love sugar cookies, and those who don’t. These have been a hit all around, garnering me lots of compliments, and the only complaints being that I hadn’t made enough.

We make these cookies with special ingredients that make them so good. For the flour, I use one of my favorites from Bob’s Red Mill: their paleo baking flour! It’s made with a combination of almond flour, arrowroot starch, coconut flour, and tapioca flour. The result is a cookie that is super chewy, soft, and completely delicious. However, I also tested with Bob’s Red Mill blanched almond flour, and that works fabulously as well! Cookies for everyone :D let’s get baking!!
What you need for these vegan sugar cookies:
- Coconut Oil: I like used refined for this to avoid any coconut flavor. If you prefer, virgin coconut oil works just as well.
- Cashew Butter: I find cashew butter to have the most neutral, buttery flavor and the lightest color, but any nut or seed butter will work here. Use sunflower seed butter or tahini for a nut-free option.
- Coconut or Cane Sugar: I tested with a blonde coconut sugar and raw cane sugar and both are delicious! If you use regular coconut sugar, you’ll have a slightly darker color than pictured. You’ll want a bit more sugar to roll the cookies in at the end, as well.
- Flax Eggs: made with a mix of flax meal and water. Use golden flax to avoid darker specks, if you care about that. You can also use one egg plus one yolk if you’re not worried about these being vegan/egg-free.
- Vanilla Extract: for flavor! A pinch of vanilla bean extract is wonderful in these too if you want to amp up the vanilla flavor.
- Bob’s Red Mill Paleo Baking Flour: this baking flour by Bob’s Red Mill gives these such a chewy and delicious texture! If you can’t find it, you can use Bob’s Red Mill Blanched Almond Flour in it’s place, but you’ll need a bit extra, so notice the quantity difference in the recipe below!
- Baking Soda & Salt: always cookie must-haves, for the best flavor and texture!

Making the best gluten-free vegan cookies:
We love a recipe that’s easy to put together, and these are just that! They come together super easily, and if you’ve made cookies before, you know how this goes:
- Mix together the coconut oil, cashew butter, and sugar until well combined, then stir in the flax eggs and vanilla.
- Add in the Paleo Baking Flour, baking soda, and salt and stir until a smooth dough forms. Cover, and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes to firm up.
- Roll the cookies into balls and roll each ball in sugar. Place on the baking sheet, press down with the palm of your hand, and bake!
- Let cool for a few minutes, and enjoy!
How to store sugar cookies: These cookies store well and stay chewy for days! I keep them in an airtight container at room temperature. If you want to freeze them, put them wrapped well in an airtight container and freeze for up to 6 months. You can also freeze the cookie dough balls.

Want more gluten-free vegan holiday cookies?
- Peppermint Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Soft Gingerbread Cookies
- Chewy Chai Sugar Cookies
- Seriously Good Gluten-Free Cookies

Chewy Gluten-Free Vegan Sugar Cookies
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Total Time: 20 minutes
- Yield: 12 to 14 cookies 1x
- Category: Cookies
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
- Diet: Vegan
Description
These Chewy Gluten-Free Vegan Sugar Cookies are quick and easy to make with just eight ingredients! They’re soft, chewy, and absolutely delightful. Perfect for the holidays, or whenever a sugar cookie craving strikes.
Ingredients
For the cookies
- 3 tablespoons (37g) refined coconut oil, softened with a texture similar to softened butter
- 3 tablespoons (48g) creamy cashew butter, or other creamy nut butter, I recommend avoiding peanut butter unless you want a peanut butter cookie
- ½ cup coconut sugar or raw cane sugar, use raw cane sugar or light coconut sugar for a light color
- 1 ½ flax eggs, see Notes
- 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 cup + 2 tbsp (104g) Bob’s Red Mill Paleo Baking Flour, or 1½ cups (148g) blanched almond flour
- ¾ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
To roll the cookies in
- 3 tablespoons raw cane sugar or turbinado sugar
Instructions
- In a large bowl, stir together the coconut oil, nut butter, and sugar until fully combined.
- Beat in the flax egg, then stir in the vanilla extract.
- Add the dry ingredients, the flour, baking soda, and salt, to the wet ingredients and stir together until completely combined.
- Place dough in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes before forming balls to make it easier to work with – you can leave the dough in the fridge (covered) for up to 48 hours.
- When you’re ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350°F.
- Place the sugar in a small bowl to roll the cookies in.
- Use a cookie scoop to make cookie dough balls, roll into a ball with your hands, and then roll each dough ball in the sugar mixture. Place the cookies 2 inches apart onto a parchment-lined cookie sheet. Press down slightly with the palm of your hand.
- Bake for about 9 to 11 minutes in the preheated oven, depending on the size of your cookies, or until they’ve puffed and cracked. Let cool completely on the cookie sheet.
- Store in an airtight container for up to 5 days.
This recipe was exactly as she describes, chewy and yummy, just as a cookies should be! I was surprised with how much it tastes like a real sugar cookie. I didn’t wait the length of time to cook them because, well, I couldn’t wait to try them! They still cooked up great. They were a little flatter, but still yummy and chewy! My daughter and I love making any of her recipes because they always turn out as pictured and how she describes them. Oh and they are always so deliscous!
So so thrilled you loved them, Renee! thanks so much for the feedback :D
These are amazing! Some of the best sugar cookies I’ve ever had, much less made! I had almond flour on hand, so I used that and regular granulated sugar (didn’t have any cane sugar), other than that followed the recipe exactly as written, and it was perfect and so easy. Thanks!
Woohoo!! I’m so happy you loved them, Fran. Thanks so much for the feedback!
Are you able to roll the dough out and use cookie cutters?
I’ve never tried, but this dough puffs so it likely wouldn’t stay the exact shape.
I love your site- have really enjoyed several cookies recipes from you. Thanks for making all this available! Wanted to mention that the nut filter is not filtering out desserts with nuts in them. FYI
So happy to hear this, Joy! Will check this out – thanks for pointing it out.
We love this recipe too!!! For some crazy reason we can’t find the pre heat temp this time. Could you please tell us where to find it?
Hi ELF, you can see the preheat temp to 350 in step 5!
These cookies are my go to! They are super easy and so chewy and yummy! If u wanna add a little extra, dip half in melted dark chocolate
Sounds fabulous! So glad you’re loving them.
This cookies turned out great and not too sweet!! Thanks so much for a great recipe.
Can I roll them in coconut sugar?
Yes for sure!
Hi, instead of using flax egg, can I use Bob’s Red Mill’s egg replacer (vegan)?
That should be fine. Enjoy!