Vegan Shortbread Cookies are buttery, crisp and delicious with a cup of tea! Made with only 4 ingredients, they are perfect for the holiday season or any time of year.
Shortbread cookies are a classic and simple cookie made with very few ingredients. I swapped the dairy butter for vegan butter, and used powdered sugar instead of granulated for a smoother texture.
Then all you need is flour and a little vanilla extract. So easy!
These Vegan Shortbread Cookies make a great base for other cookies that call for shortbread as well, and I have many ideas for the future! My favorite thing to do is mix some colorful sprinkles into the dough (my kids love it, too!).
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How to make Vegan Shortbread Cookies
*The exact amounts and instructions are listed in the recipe card at the bottom of the post, this is a visual overview.
First, preheat your oven to 325 degrees and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
In a large bowl, stir together the flour and powdered sugar.
Now add the softened vegan butter and vanilla to the bowl. Mix with a hand mixer until crumbly and soft.
The dough will look crumbly like this, but if you grab it in your hands and squeeze it, it should hold its shape and be able to be formed into a ball of dough.
Form it into a ball of dough with your hands, and place it on a piece of parchment paper on your countertop. You can also sprinkle the paper with a tiny dusting of flour to prevent sticking. I didn’t the first time, and it stuck a little bit, so the second time I did and it worked well.
Using another piece of parchment paper, roll the dough about 1/3-1/2 inch thick.
Cut into desired shapes. I used a very small round cutter, but you can use anything you desire. Place the cookies on the prepared baking sheets, and continue to re-roll the dough until it is all used.
Bake for 12-15 minutes, until the bottoms are just slightly golden. The tops will look almost not done, but they continue cooking after you remove them, so don’t over bake them. The time will also depend on how large your cookies are.
Special Tips & Substitutions
- Gluten free: I haven’t tested them with gluten free flour, but if you try it let me know!
- What brand of vegan butter? I used Earth Balance sticks, as they make for easier measuring and I can find them at my local store. Melt or Miyoko’s brand would likely work as well.
- Is powdered sugar vegan? If you use organic powdered sugar, it should be vegan. If you are very concerned, you can always make your own from organic sugar by blending it in a high powered blender with some cornstarch ( 2 cups sugar + 2 tablespoons cornstarch).
- Additions: Try adding some colorful sprinkles to the dough before baking, or mini-chocolate chips. You could also frost them with the same icing as my Vegan Sugar Cookies.
Want more Christmas cookies to try this season?
- The Best Vegan Sugar Cookies
- Vegan Snowball Cookies
- Iced Vegan Oatmeal Cookies
- Vegan Ginger Cookies
- Vegan Chocolate Crinkle Cookies
Vegan Shortbread Cookies
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
- 3/4 cup powdered sugar
- 1 1/4 cups vegan butter, softened
- 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl, stir the flour and powdered sugar together. Now add the softened butter and vanilla and mix with a hand mixer on low-medium speed until blended well. The dough will look crumbly and soft but should smush together when squeezed in your hands.
- Place a sheet of parchment paper on your countertop and sprinkle with a little flour, then form the dough into a ball and place in the middle of the parchment paper.
- Use another piece of parchment paper for the top, sprinkling a little flour on top of the dough to prevent sticking, and roll the dough to about 1/3-1/2 of an inch thick. Cut into desired shapes (I used a small rounded cookie cutter) and place on the prepared baking sheets.
- Continue re-rolling the dough until it is all used. Bake in the oven for 12-15 minutes, until the bottom is just slightly golden. Let cool for 10 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack. Store in an airtight container for 5-6 days.
Notes
- I used a very small cookie cutter and got about 42 cookies. If you use a large cookie cutter, you will get less cookies.
- I used Earth Balance brand of vegan butter. I'm sure it would work with another brand as well, but I haven't tested it.
- For fun, consider adding sprinkles to the dough. Mini-chocolate chips would be fun, too. Or consider frosting them with the same icing as my Vegan Sugar Cookies!
We love this recipe, and have been making it for a year now! We prefer using the earth balance bricks, and I’ve added sprinkles of garden treats to the dough based on the season (lavender buds, lemon zest, spruce tips, etc.) So delicious and easy- thank you!
Hi Kelsie. I’m so glad you are enjoying the recipe! Adding the garden treats sounds amazing! What a great idea! Thank you for sharing your fantastic feedback and ideas!
Made this one many times always comes out amazingly light delicious and buttery perfect for decorating and as a kid a really simple recipe ???
Hi Alexis. Thank you for using my cookie recipe! I’m so glad you love the recipe and find it simple to follow! I appreciate you taking time to share your wonderful feedback! Happy cooking!
Sticky dough and impossible to work with. I don’t know how anyone makes these using this recipe.
Sorry you feel that way, Jackie. Shortbread dough typically lacks moisture and turns out dry and crumbly; was your butter too soft/melted or was not enough flour or sugar added?
Love your recipes! I’ve made this one so many times and my favorite topping is a spreading of nut butter then topping with melted dark chocolate chips. The chocolate hardens nicely and the cookies are divine! Also like smearing them with dairy free yogurt and topping with fruit….mmmm. Instead of cutting cookies (unless it’s an occasion), I started just rolling the dough out on a cookie sheet and scoring before baking to make them nice and easy to cut after baking. Initially I made cookie sized squares then started making them Cheez-Its sized! We call them Shobits (shortbread-its!). Geeky, I know, but we love our sweeties and these are great!
Hi Maizie. I love your description of how you bake the cookies! That is so great! I appreciate you taking time to share your fabulous feedback and ideas! Wishing you lots of happy cooking!
Nora, do you think this recipe would work if I were to mold it into jumbo muffin tins so I could make a vegan pastry cream and fresh fruit? Or do you feel another one of your recipes would be better suited? Thank you!
I think that’s a great idea! This shortbread dough should work well for mini tartlets.
Such a great recipe! I use self raising flour if I want a softer biscuit and always add 3 lemons worth of lemon zest. Love all your recipes ?
HI Samantha. Thanks for your great feedback and ideas! I’m glad you love the cookies! I appreciate you using my recipes! Happy cooking!
Could you use this dough to make fruit filled cookies such as hamentashen? Is it strong enough to be folded and worked with in that way?
I don’t think the dough would be malleable enough to make that. My sugar cookies or Lofthouse cookies might be a better fit.
Your recipes never fail. I’ve been craving an almond flavored shortbread cookie for days and decided to search for a basic recipe I could adjust. When I saw YOUR recipe, using it was a no-brainer. I used a bit of both vanilla and almond extracts, and a few drops of natural pink food coloring (because Valentine’s Day is soon and why not!) and they were delicious and easy and so fun to make with my toddler. I came into it knowing I was making a slight adjustment to the flavoring, but your foundation was PERFECTION.
Hi Abigail, thanks so much for using my recipe and sharing your wonderful feedback! I love the idea of pink shortbread for Valentine’s 🙂 What a perfect treat!
I did the recipe x2, and the dough didn’t turn crumbly. it was really wet with the butter so I had to add extra flour a bunch of times (although it never become crumbly either). it still tasted really good so i will try adding more flour than it says on the recipe next time!
Hi I’m really interested to try this recipe out by I unfortunately do not have a hand mixer. Is there any other way to go about this?
They might work if you just mix the cookie dough by hand, with a strong wooden spoon. Hope that helps!
Great non-dairy shortbread recipe! I added allergy-free kind chocolate chips and orange zest…yum!
Excellent! I grew up eating shortbread at Christmas in Ireland and am so happy to have a vegan version that tastes exactly the same as I remember.
I used Country Crock vegan butter sticks as the store was out of Earth Balance sticks – they tasted great, super buttery.
After the cookies had cooled, I left half of them as regular shortbread cookies and half of them I added some melted chocolate. I melted 5oz vegan chocolate chips (Enjoy Life branch) and 1 tsp of vegetable shortening and then used a pastry brush to paint one side of the cookies with the melted chocolate (then let the chocolate harden before eating). Both the chocolate-covered and regular recipe are so so good, I’m truly happy to have this recipe!
Hi Nora do you think you could use the shortbread cookies for Christmas cookies?
Yes, absolutely!
This is probably my 20th time making these! I used Becel Vegan, and used an old David’s Tea loose tea tin (mini one) to make 2.5” cookies. I got 32 out of this recipe, and it never fails. ?
Caitlin
@realswanky
It sounds like you are well acquainted with the shortbread cookies! Thank you for sharing your wonderful comments, and for using my recipe! I am so glad you are loving it!
These turned out fabulous. I didn’t roll them out, just made them into balls. I added cranberries and pistachios. Will definitely add these to my Christmas cookie list! Thank you!
I’m so glad the cookies turned out fabulous for you! I love the cranberry/pistachio combination! They must be beautiful! Thank you for sharing your fabulous review and comments! How fun these will be added to your Christmas cookies list! Thank you!
Hi Nora,
Do you think a soft vegan butter (such as the Becel tub) would work? I have the brick vegan baking butter but not a cup and 1/4, so I have to supplement.
I’m not familiar with that particular brand, but I think it will work okay, especially if you just need to supplement a little bit. Hope you enjoy the cookies!
Yum! My mom loves these but we haven’t added them to the Christmas rotation. Maybe we should this year.
I’m glad you guys are loving the cookies! Happy holiday cooking!
Needs more sugar, mixture was a little bland so I added a cup, but probably needed more.
I also added cinnamon and nutmeg for Christmas! Will make again with 1 1/2 cups! So easy!
I’ve made these twice in 2 days because my partner couldn’t get enough. I thought it would be a walk in the park based on the pics, but they turned out very sticky both times. I had to “dust” with a large amount of powdered sugar and flour multiple times to even get them of the parchment paper. They were also very soft, so larger shapes weren’t really possible to unstick.
However, once they are baked, they are addictive. Not to sweet, even the onces that absorbed the dusting. Melt in your mouth. Buttery. Really good.
I want to make espresso shortbread cookies. Other non vegan recipes add 1-2 t of espresso powder. Would I have to increase the vegan butter to keep the texture correct?
That sounds so good! I wouldn’t increase the butter, just add the espresso powder. If anything take away the amount of flour you add in espresso powder, if that makes sense. Thanks!
OMG!! SO easy and SO good. The whole family loved them. I used half of the batch to make vegan Samosas, and the other half just ate as is. Was great for both purposes.
Thank you for sharing your great review and comments! I’m glad you loved the cookies! Samosas, that’s an interesting idea! Thank you!
Very fun to make with my almost 3 year old!
I love that you are making cookies with your 3 year old! What fun! Thanks so much for taking your time to share your review!
I used All Purpose Gluten Free Flour instead of regular flour and they turned out oh-so crumbly. I bet they’d be great with regular flour, because they were still tasty, so I’ll try that next time.
Hi! How can I substitute the vegan butter?
thanks 🙂
Maybe coconut oil but I haven’t tried it to know for sure.
Hi; how are you? Can I use regular butter instead of the vegan butter? Also, can I use gluten-free all-purpose flour?
Thank you!
I’m not sure as I haven’t tried it, but it might work. I haven’t attempted these gluten free yet either. Thanks!
I actually use salted butter and all-purpose gluten-free flour and they came out really well! Thanks so much!