Ingredients
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1/2 cup vegan butter
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1/2 cup nonhydrogenated vegetable shortening
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1 cup granulated sugar
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1/4 cup almond milk
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1 tablespoon vanilla extract
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1/4 teaspoon almond extract
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2 1/3 cups all purpose flour
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2 tablespoons cornstarch
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1/4 teaspoon baking powder
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1/4 teaspoon salt
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1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
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1/2 cup vegan butter
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1/2 cup nonhydrogenated vegetable shortening
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3 1/2 cups powdered sugar
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1/4 teaspoon almond extract
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2 teaspoons vanilla extract
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1/4 cup almond milk
Directions
These cookies have been a staple of holiday celebrations in my life for over 30 years. In that time, I’ve made this recipe countless ways and it always comes out excellent. The real secret to these cookies is in the baking details, which I will walk you through so even if you choose another recipe, your method should produce something approaching perfect.
This recipe calls for cardamom as the main flavor but you can absolutely omit it if you prefer a traditional almond/vanilla profile. You could also substitute it with lemon or orange zest for a brighter, citrus sugar cookie. I tend to default to almond/vanilla as that is what I grew up with, but my love of all things cardamom inspired this recipe.
If you are not dairy-free, you can absolutely use all butter, or a blend of half butter, half vegetable shortening, although all butter will promote early browning, making baking times more variable. It will also produce a harder set to your buttercream icing.
These cookies are rolled very thick, which is part of what keeps them soft, so this recipe yields approximately 2 dozen medium sized cookies, 1 dozen larger cookies, and up to 3 dozen small cookies, depending on the shape of your cut out.
Steps
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1
Done
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Prepare the doughPut room temperature butter and shortening into a large bowl and beat on high until fluffy and the color turns very light. This will properly aerate the fats to produce a light structure. Add the granulated sugar and beat on high 3-5 minutes until very fluffy, then add the almond and vanilla extract and milk and beat to combine. |
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2
Done
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Sift in all dry ingredients on top of the butter mixture and then carefully fold them in. Use a large spatula to drag the dry ingredients around the bowl and down the middle until it just begins to form a ball. It's very important not to over mix your dough or you will both lose the air beat into it and activate the gluten in the flour that will produce a tough, stiff cookie. |
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3
Done
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Split your ball of dough in half and pat into a disc to fully wrap in plastic and chill in the fridge until it feels quite solid. Ideally, you want to chill overnight, but 3 hours is usually enough. You want it solid enough to resist leaving a finger print when you gently press the top. Place the discs directly on the shelves of your fridge to speed up chilling. |
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4
Done
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Rolling and Baking CookiesPreheat your oven to 350 degrees and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Lightly flour your work area, your rolling pin, and the top of your unwrapped dough and begin to roll it out in gentle, short strokes. For the softest cookies, you need to keep the dough quite thick, as the thinner it is, the crispier the cookie will turn out. See image reference. Try to keep your dough the same thickness throughout by lifting up your rolling pin as you come towards the edges of the dough, or else you may thin out the edges too much. Check to see if the dough is level by softly brushing your hand around the dough to feel for any higher or lower spots. Once rolled, use your favorite cut outs and place them an inch apart on your cookie sheet. Properly chilled, this dough will not spread very much at all and only puff up slightly while baking. Any scraps you have left over from a batch, you can squish them together, wrap in plastic, and refrigerate until you are done with all fresh batches, then you can rotate through scraps. As you'll need to re-roll them a little bit, you'll come to a point of diminishing returns where you'll have had to add so much flour to roll them out or work them so much that the gluten will activate too much, turning them in to a much tougher, crunchy cookie. If you're okay with a few at the end like this, bake on! But since these are plant based, I tend to sneak a little raw cookie dough along the way. |
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5
Done
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Baking times will vary depending on the size of your cutouts, the thickness of your cookie, and the type of butters used. Start with 8 minutes but it may be as much as 12 with a very large, thick cookie. I only bake one batch at a time on the center level of my oven, but you may be able to support more cookies if you have a larger oven with even heating. The key to knowing these are done is to watch the tops turn from shiny to dry and very small air pockets will appear. For soft cookies, you want to avoid as much browning as possible, so if you see even a hit of golden brown around the edge, take them out. These cookies are always better under done rather than over done, and since they are eggless, you don't have to worry about them not being thoroughly cooked. Once you've perfected your oven time, allow cookies to fully cool on a rack while you prepare your icing. You'll know they are ready to be iced with you can place the back of your hand on the cookie and feel no heat. Don't trust your fingertips here or you might end up with melted buttercream. |
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6
Done
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Make the buttercreamUnlike the more temperamental dough, you can quickly whip up this frosting while your cookies cool. Beat the butter and shortening until lightly and fluffy, add in powdered sugar one cup at a time, alternating with the extracts and milks. This is so you fully incorporate all ingredients and maintain a good consistency of your buttercream. Too dry? Add more milk. Too soft? Add more powdered sugar. Too sweet? Well, this is a very sweet American style buttercream, so you don't have much wiggle room here. I have found the best way to mute the sweetness is by beating in a few tablespoons of heavy whipping cream. If you're making the dairy free version and you find it too sweet, reduce the powdered sugar by 1/2 cup and do not add any almond milk unless needed for consistency. |
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7
Done
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Frost your glorious creations and put them in the fridge to set! Allow them to come to room temperature before serving. With strong extracts, these cookies are actually better on the second day, having had the time to breath in the fridge overnight, making them perfect for gatherings or for Santa on Christmas morning. I love using trees and stars because they can be beautiful and just be plain white frosting, but obviously you can dye the buttercream however you wish! |
