The holiday season is here, and I am all into baking delicious cookies to share with family and friends. I recently shared with you my gingerbread cookies and almond flour chocolate chips cookies. Now, time for more shortbread recipes to add to the Christmas cookie platter.
Ingredients
Since Classic Shortbread Cookies are almost vegan, all you need to make vegan-friendly shortbread is to use vegan butter as a butter replacement. Plus, a good shortbread cookie should use less sugar than regular cookies and powdered sugar instead of crystal sugar to get the signature shortbread texture.
All-Purpose Flour – I didn’t try gluten-free all-purpose flour in this recipe, but I am confident that an all-purpose gluten-free flour blend containing gums will work pretty well in this recipe. This recipe doesn’t work with coconut or almond flour. Use my coconut flour shortbread recipe or almond flour shortbread recipe if you don’t want to use all-purpose wheat flour. Softened Vegan Butter – don’t use a vegetable shortening or vegan spread. These two options stay soft and creamy even refrigerated, and therefore, your cookie dough will be way too soft and spread. You need a vegan block from brands like Earth Balance butter or Naturli vegan block. Also, coconut oil won’t make a good shortbread at all, the cookies will end up very tough and hard, and it’s not recommended in this recipe. Vanilla Extract – For the perfect classic taste. Powdered Sugar– that’s the secret of any shortbread recipe. Icing sugar is what makes the cookies softer, crumbly, and not hard as regular cookies.
How To Make Vegan Shortbread Cookies
Let me walk you through how to make these lovely vanilla shortbread cookies.
Shortbread Texture
A shortbread cookie shouldn’t be hard or crunchy. Instead, it’s a soft, crumbly, melt-in-your-mouth holiday cookie recipe. If your cookies are too hard, it can be because you:
Over-baked them. Use coconut oil instead of a plant-based butter. Used granulated sugar instead of powdered sugar.
Decoration
Most classic shortbread cookies are served plain, but of course, some decoration is always fun and delicious. You can dip half the shortbread cookies into melted dark chocolate chips or add a pinch of powdered sugar on top. You can also dip them into my Vegan Whipped Cream or Peanut Butter Dip.
