Vegan Pumpkin Sugar Cookies
These vegan pumpkin sugar cookies are soft, buttery, and have just enough pumpkin and cinnamon without being overly spiced. They’re rolled in sugar before baking, which gives the outside a little sparkle while the centers stay nice and soft.
The dough does need to chill for about 30 minutes before you roll the cookies, but don’t skip it. The pumpkin makes the dough pretty soft, and chilling makes it much easier to scoop and roll.
What Makes These Pumpkin Sugar Cookies Different?
A lot of pumpkin cookies turn out really cakey, but these are more like a soft sugar cookie with pumpkin added in. There are no eggs or dairy, and I kept the spices simple with just cinnamon so the pumpkin flavor still comes through.
Rolling the dough in sugar before baking gives them that classic sugar cookie finish and adds a little extra sweetness to the outside.
Ingredients for Vegan Pumpkin Sugar Cookies
The ingredients are pretty simple, and make sure you grab 100% pure pumpkin puree, not pumpkin pie filling.
- Granulated sugar
- All-purpose flour
- Baking powder
- Ground cinnamon
- Salted dairy-free butter
- Vanilla extract
- Unsweetened applesauce
- 100% pure pumpkin puree
How to Correctly Measure Your Flour
One thing I definitely don’t recommend doing is scooping your measuring cup straight into the flour bag. It packs more flour into the cup than you actually need and can leave you with dry cookies.
Instead, fluff up the flour, spoon it into your measuring cup, and level off the top. If you have a kitchen scale, even better. The 2 ½ cups of flour in this recipe should be around 300 grams.
How to Store Vegan Pumpkin Sugar Cookies
Keep the cooled cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days. You can also keep them in the refrigerator if you want them to last a little longer.
You can freeze them too. Place the cooled cookies in a freezer-safe container or bag and freeze for up to 2 months. Let them thaw at room temperature before eating.
Vegan Pumpkin Sugar Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups granulated sugar
- ½ cup granulated sugar for rolling
- 2 ½ cups 300g all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 ¾ cups salted dairy-free butter room temperature
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 tablespoons unsweetened applesauce
- ½ cup 100% pure pumpkin puree
Instructions
- Add the room-temperature dairy-free butter and 1 ½ cups of sugar to a large mixing bowl or stand mixer. Beat together until well combined (about 2 minutes).
- Add the vanilla extract, applesauce, and pumpkin puree. Mix until combined.
- Add the flour, baking powder, and cinnamon. Mix just until the cookie dough comes together. Don’t overmix.
- Cover the dough and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
- When the dough is almost finished chilling, preheat the oven to 350°F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Add the remaining ½ cup of sugar to a small bowl.
- Scoop the chilled cookie dough into balls and roll each one in the sugar until completely coated.
- Place the dough balls on the prepared baking sheet, leaving some space between each one. Gently flatten each cookie a little before baking.
- Bake at 350°F for 13 minutes.
- Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet before moving them.
