Soft Frosted Sugar Cookies (gluten-free & vegan!)

These melt-in-your-mouth Soft Frosted Sugar Cookies are both gluten-free and vegan friendly! They’re made with gluten-free 1:1 baking flour and almond flour and flavored with vanilla and a hint of almond. These cakey sugar cookies are topped with a naturally colored, dairy-free creamy vanilla buttercream frosting and sprinkles.

Today’s Soft Frosted Sugar Cookies have what it takes to satisfy your soft and sweet sugar cookie cravings! While I have a great selection of gluten-free, vegan cookie recipes, a cookie that is light, cakey, tender, and melt-in-your-mouth was something this blog was missing! Until today
😏. Which is actually kind of surprising because I prefer soft cookies over crunchy cookies any day!

Why You’ll Love These Soft Gluten-Free, Vegan Frosted Sugar Cookies!

Taste. These soft sugar cookies are buttery and sweet, with a hint of vanilla and almond.

Texture. It has been a very long time since I’ve had the popular soft Lofthouse cookies that you can find on grocery store shelves, but if my memory serves me right, these soft frosted sugar cookies remind me of those. While not identical, for being gluten-free and vegan I think it’s pretty darn close! Never did I dream of the day where I would have light, airy and tender gluten-free sugar cookies on the Healthy Little Vittles blog, but here we are! They’re sweet, but not overly sweet. They’re incredibly soft and fluffy.

Time. The cookie dough comes together easily, and other than chill time, it’s a very quick and simple sugar cookie recipe to make. You’ll need 10 minutes to make the cookie dough (if that), 1 hour to chill the dough, and then 10 minutes of baking time. Allow the cookies to cool completely before frosting.

Cookie Ingredients

Dry Ingredients

Gluten-Free 1:1 Baking Flour. I am so grateful that there is a really great gluten-free 1:1 baking flour (not sponsored) to use as a replacement for wheat flour in my gluten-free baking recipes! I find it truly is a 1:1 replacement for regular all purpose flour and works wonderfully in these sugar cookies. You will need 2 cups of gluten-free 1:1 baking flour (affiliate link) for this cookie recipe.

Almond flour. I also really love baking with almond flour! I find the combination of the gluten-free 1:1 baking flour mixed with blanched (skin off) almond flour is such a perfect combination for light and airy cookies. If you’re not familiar with almond flour, you can read more about in this post.

Baking powder. This recipe calls for 4 teaspoons of baking powder and no that is not a typo! I know it seems like a lot but it really does make these cookies so soft and fluffy! I’ve never really added more than 2 teaspoons of baking powder to my baking recipes, until I recreated my grandma’s Soft Italian Biscotti and her recipe called for 4 teaspoons, so I went with it and they turned out so buttery and soft that I might be doing that in all my soft baked goods from now on!

Sugar. I typically try to use natural sweeteners, like maple syrup, coconut sugar, date sugar or syrup, but in this recipe I am using cane sugar to keep these soft sugar cookies light in color. You will need 1 cup of cane sugar.

Salt. Adding just ¼ teaspoon of salt to a cookie recipe will enhance the sweetness!

Wet Ingredients

Butter. You will need to purchase dairy-free butter for both the cookies as well as the frosting. For the sugar cookies, you will need ½ cup of plant-based butter. I used Miyoko’s stick butter.

Oat milk. To help moisten the cookie dough you will need ½ cup of oat milk, preferably unsweetened. You may use another plant-based milk if you prefer, such as coconut milk, almond milk, cashew milk, soy milk, etc., however I have not tested this cookie recipe with another milk other than oat milk so the texture may vary. If you do try another milk, I’d love for you to leave a comment below and let me know how it goes!

Yogurt. You will need to add ⅓ cup dairy-free yogurt to the cookie dough. I used Kite Hill Unsweetened Greek Style Yogurt. Read below why yogurt is the secret ingredient yielding the softest cookies! You may also use vegan sour cream instead of yogurt, but I find that dairy-free yogurt is more commonly kept in supermarkets and easier to find.

Vanilla extract. Make sure you use pure vanilla extract and not imitation vanilla flavoring!

Almond extract. Also make sure to use pure almond extract.

Buttercream Frosting Ingredients

Butter. You will need 1 cup of dairy-free butter to make this non-dairy buttercream frosting. Again, I recommend Miyoko’s stick butter.

Powdered sugar. To make the frosting stiff but not too stiff, you will need 3-4 cups of powdered sugar. For me, any more than that makes the frosting too sweet, but if you need more for the frosting texture add more ¼ cup at a time.

Oat milk. Just a splash of oat milk, or other plant-based milk, helps to make this frosting smooth and creamy and easier to spread. Try to use unsweetened milk.

Vanilla. Again, use pure vanilla extract to give this frosting a nice vanilla flavor.

Pink pitaya powder. To keep this sugar cookie recipe dye-free, I used pink pitaya powder! Pink pitaya powder is made from dried red dragon fruit and ground into a very fine powder. It is very vibrant, and you can add more or less according to what hue of pink you’d like! I used 1 teaspoon for a light pink colored frosting. The key is to start small and add more as needed, a little bit goes a long way!

The Secret To Making The Softest Gluten-Free, Vegan Cookies

Buttery soft gluten-free sugar cookies may be hard to come by- but take out the eggs and dairy as well and that’s darn near impossible… until now! 😉 The secret to making my incredibly soft cakey sugar cookies is creating a very soft, moist (sorry all you moist word haters! lol) cookie dough. In this recipe, I achieve that by using melted butter and dairy-free yogurt! You could also use a vegan sour cream, but I think that vegan yogurt is much more common and easy to find in grocery stores. I used Kite Hill Unsweetened Greek Style Yogurt. I also use yogurt in my Buttery Soft Italian Sprinkle Biscotti Cookies too! In fact, this soft sugar cookie recipe is very similar to that recipe, but instead we’re rolling out the dough and using a cookie cutter to make them round cookies instead.

How To Make These Soft Sugar Cookies

To make the cookie dough, whisk together the gluten-free 1:1 baking flour (affiliate link), almond flour, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl. Melt the butter in a medium bowl and allow it to cool slightly, then add the sugar, milk, yogurt, and vanilla. Stir to combine and then pour the mixture into the bowl with the flour. 

Using a spatula, mix the dough together until a cookie dough forms and there’s no dry flour left. The cookie dough will be very soft. Form the cookie dough into a ball and wrap the dough in plastic wrap. Chill the dough in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour.

💡 Don’t skip the chilling step! Chilled cookie dough helps the cookies to keep their shape in the oven as well as allowing for fluffier cookies.

When you’re ready to bake the cookies, preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Divide the cookie dough in half, wrapping one half back up in the plastic wrap and placing it back in the refrigerator while you work with the other half.

Lightly flour a large piece of parchment paper and a rolling pin, then place the cookie dough on top of the parchment paper and roll the cookie dough out until it is about 3/4 inch thick. Cut the dough into shapes with cookie cutters (I used a circle cookie cutter), or you can use a round drinking glass if you don’t have one! * If the dough is sticking to the rolling pin you can roll the dough out between two pieces of parchment paper.

Very carefully place the cookies on the parchment-lined baking sheets and bake the cookies in the oven for 10 minutes. * To help all of the cookies bake evenly and to avoid cracking, I suggest placing the baking sheets in the center of the baking rack in a horizontal direction.

The cookies will look very light and a bit under baked, but they will set up a bit as they cool so don’t over bake them to enjoy their super soft texture. Allow the cookies to cool completely before frosting and adding sprinkles.

Dye-Free Pink Buttercream Frosting

I decided to make a light pink buttercream frosting for these sugar cookies and color the frosting naturally with pink pitaya powder! That’s right, no artificial dyes here! You’ll need vegan butter, powdered sugar, oat milk (or another plant-based milk), and pure vanilla extract.

🌈 If you’re looking for more dye-free recipes, I have a whole section of them here!

To make the frosting, add the softened butter to a mixing bowl and beat until smooth and creamy. Add the vanilla, ½ cup of powdered sugar at a time until the frosting is smooth and thick, and then add the milk. Lastly, add the pink pitaya powder until you achieve the desired color. If the frosting is too thick, add a splash more milk. If it’s too runny, add ¼ cup more powdered sugar at a time. You want the frosting thick but not so thick that it’s hard to spread or you might break the cookies.

Spread the frosting generously on each cookie, being careful to not break the cookies, and then add your favorite sprinkles!

The Sprinkles

Cookies are wayyyy more fun with sprinkles if you ask me! Especially if you’re making these sugar cookies for a birthday party! I used these dye-free sprinkles on top and they turned out so festive and cute!

Storage Instructions

I suggest keeping these cookies stored on your counter lightly covered, not in an airtight container, for the first day. If they are stored in an airtight container they will be too soft. After a day, you can store them in an airtight container on your counter.

Can I Freeze These Cookies?

Yes! These cookies freeze amazingly well! I tested it out and I wrapped them individually in plastic wrap, frosted and sprinkled! You freeze them for 3-6 months. When you’re ready to enjoy them, let them soften at room temperature.

More Soft Cookie Recipes To Try

Let me know what you think about these buttery soft gluten-free, vegan Soft Frosted Sugar Cookies down below in the comments section as well as giving them a five rating ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ so that others can discover a cakey, indulgent, easy soft sugar cookie recipe. Be sure to tag me on Instagram, Facebook, or Pinterest if you make them!

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