Gluten-Free Vegan Chai Sugar Cookies
Meet your new favorite chewy cookie – these Gluten-Free Vegan Chai Sugar Cookies! These Paleo-friendly cookies have a crispy exterior with a tender, chewy center. They’re the perfect pairing for nut milk, tea, or coffee.
Are you more of a sugar cookie person or a chocolate chip cookie person? Most of us tend to be drawn to either the simpler sugar cookie flavors…or the more ridiculously decadent flavors of chocolate chip cookies. I usually fall into the chocolate chip cookie camp. But, that’s also because chocolate chip cookie dough usually knocks my socks off more than sugar cookie dough ever did.
However…I think I figured out the problem. Most of the sugar cookie experiences in my life have been with store-bought sugar cookies. Which means: dry, mostly flavorless, too crumbly. They tend to be disappointing. And if I’m going to have a disappointing store-bought cookie, I want it to at least have chocolate.
BUT disappointing sugar cookies are NO MORE 🙅 These chai sugar cookies are chewy, rich, flavorful, decadent, and absolutely delicious. They’re everything I ever wanted my sugar cookies to be and MORE. Gone are the days of thin, dry sugar cookies. IN are the days of Turbinado-sugar rolled, chai-spiced sugar cookies.
How to make chai sugar cookies:
To make these chai sugar cookies, we use deliciously rich and wholesome ingredients. We start with a mixture of coconut oil, nut butter, and coconut sugar. These provide a buttery, luscious texture without the butter.
Then, we add flax eggs and vanilla extract. If you aren’t vegan or avoiding eggs, you can regular hen’s eggs instead.
For the dry ingredients, we use blanched almond flour, baking soda, salt, and of course – chai spices! I used the mix of chai spices that I use for my homemade chai latte recipe. I recommend using that mix as well. You’ll have extra, which is perfect for making chai lattes or more chai sugar cookies :D
The final touch on these is to roll the dough around in a chai spice sugar mixture, a la snickerdoodles. I like using turbinado sugar, which is an unrefined type of cane sugar with big crystals that look great on these cookies. To keep the cookies completely Paleo-friendly, I’d recommend using coconut sugar instead.
These Chai Sugar Cookies make a wonderful holiday gift…if you can bear to give them away! They’re perfect for cookie platters, sharing with friends and family, and making all for yourself on a chilly night. Perfect served with a chai latte or a cup of hot cocoa. I hope you adore these as much as I do!
If you like this recipe, try these chai spice recipes too!
- Homemade Vegan Chai Latte + Chai Spice Mix
- Easy Chai Spice Granola
- Paleo Pumpkin Chai Cupcakes with Vegan Chai Cashew Frosting
- Vegan Chai Cheesecake Bars
- Gluten-Free Vegan Chai Muffins from Feasting on Fruit
Gluten-Free Vegan Chai Sugar Cookies
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Total Time: 20 minutes
- Yield: about 12 cookies 1x
- Category: Cookies
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
- Diet: Vegan
Description
Meet your new favorite chewy cookie – these Gluten-Free Vegan Chai Sugar Cookies! These Paleo-friendly cookies have a crispy exterior with a tender, chewy center. They’re the perfect pairing for nut milk, tea, or coffee.
Ingredients
For the cookies
- 3 tablespoons (37g) refined coconut oil, softened with a texture similar to softened butter
- 3 tablespoons (48g) creamy cashew or almond butter, or other creamy nut butter
- ½ cup coconut sugar
- 1 ½ flax eggs, see Notes
- 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 ⅔ cups (160g) blanched almond flour
- 2 teaspoons chai spice mix
- ¾ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
To roll the cookies in
- 3 tablespoons coconut sugar or raw turbinado sugar
- 1 teaspoon chai spice mix
Instructions
- In a large bowl, stir together the coconut oil, nut butter, and coconut sugar until fully combined, about 1 minute.
- Beat in the flax egg, then stir in the vanilla extract.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the blanched almond flour, chai spice mix, baking soda, and salt. Add the dry ingredients 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 oven to 350°F.
- Mix together the sugar and chai spice mix 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 an parchment-lined cookie sheet.
- 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.
Notes
For the flax egg, combine 1.5 tablespoons flax meal + 4 tablespoons water in a small bowl. Whisk and let set for 10 minutes, until thickened. If you prefer, you can use a regular egg + one egg yolk.
Keywords: chai, cookies, sugar cookies, gluten free, vegan, paleo
Can I make these cookies with erythritol instead of coconut sugar? If so should I make adjustments to the quantity? And, obviously won’t have the nice little chunks of turbinado sugar on top, but if I use granulated erythritol to roll the cookies do you think it would work? And can I freeze the finished cookies, and if so for how long and how do you recommend thawing out?
Hi RP, I don’t use erythritol so I can’t make guarantees, but I’ve heard from other readers who have had success with substituting it in my recipes. Quantity wise, it should stay the same. I have no idea how it would work to roll it in the erythritol, but you can play around with it! As for freezing, yes you can. Store the cooled cookies in an airtight container or zip bag and simply thaw at room temperature. They should last a few months if frozen.
First, thank you for the recipe; the cookies are very tasty! Mine were extremely soft at 10 minutes (though cracked on top), so I may increase the oven temperature a bit or bake them longer next time. Out of curiosity, I am wondering if there is a particular reason for stirring the ingredients in every step except for the eggs, in which it, instead, is noted to beat in the eggs. Does using a mixer for the remaining steps impact the final outcome in some way? I’m interested in doubling the recipe, but I’d rather use a mixer than stir by hand. If you’ve found that a mixer impacts the final product, though, I’d like to know. Thank you!
Hi Stephanie, you can absolutely use a mixer for this recipe! I usually do it by hand and haven’t tried making this particular with a mixer, but it shouldn’t. negatively impact anything. As for the softness, every oven runs a little differently, so yours might need a few more minutes than my oven needs!
These are delicious! I have the same chai mix that you use in the am. Added some ginger and cinnamon because we love the fall flavors. I used homemade roasted cashew butter and added included 1 egg and 1 egg yolk as recommended if not using a Flax egg. Thanks for always posting such tasty gF treats.
★★★★★
Sounds fabulous, thank you so much for the feedback! So glad you’re loving the cookies.
Such a wonderful recipe, the texture came out perfectly, but at I needed to bake it for 25 minutes at 350 degrees. I also used a bit more spice than was called for in the recipe. Thank you Rachel for your delicious and gf/p/v friendly creations!
★★★★
Thanks so much for the feedback Stacie!!
This is a new favorite in our house! We made them very close to the recipe, just substituting in a little gf flour since we didn’t have quite enough almonds and some vegan butter for the coconut oil. We also added just a little garam masala into the spice mixture. They came out so delicious! Thank you so much for these—we’ll definitely be doubling the recipe from now on :).
★★★★★
Thanks so much for the feedback – garam masala sounds like an amazing addition! So glad you’re enjoying them.
The best GF vegan ever!!! Thank you for this wonderful yummy recipe!! Every time I bake them and share everyone wants the recipe. So soft and delicious!!
★★★★★
So glad you love them, Donna!! Thanks for the feedback :)
Followed the recipe to the T. Used coconut sugar for the rolling as well since my friend cannot have cane sugar. I bet the large sugar crystals make the cookies look extra sparkly! Chilled for 30, scooped the dough out into balls & rolled, chilled for another 15 min in the freezer before baking. Surprisingly these cookies didn’t run. At 5 minutes, they were inflated in size but no running here. I pressed them down a little with a fork giving them the look of the classic pb cookie. This recipe delivered 100% on soft & chewy. Thank you so much for this recipe! I look forward to trying more!
★★★★★
Mmm making me miss these cookies! Hope you love all the cookies you try, Joyce.
Hello I just made these cookies last night and they were delicious. I followed the recipe exactly. I was just wondering how many calories would you say there are in each cookie and also once again, they are delicious.
★★★★★
Hi Denise, thanks for the review, so glad you’re loving them! I just updated the recipe with nutrition facts. You can see them at the bottom of the recipe card!
Hi Rachel! I’m wondering if you have ideas for non-vegans when it comes to the butter. Would I replace the coconut oil and nut butter with regular butter, or just the coconut oil? Thanks! :)
Hi KC, keep the nut butter and replace the coconut oil with regular butter. Enjoy! :)