These cut-out vegan Christmas cookies are soft, light, and buttery. Decorated with naturally colored vegan royal icing, these easy sugar cookies make a fun Christmas baking project!
Make the cookie dough: Add the butter and sugar to a large bowl and use an electric whisk or stand mixer to whisk for 2-3 minutes until light and airy. Add the vegan yogurt and whisk again to combine. Whisk in the vanilla and almond extract until combined.
Sift the flour, cornstarch, baking soda, and salt into the bowl with the wet ingredients. Bring the mixture together with a rubber spatula to form a dough ball, wrap it in plastic wrap, flatten it into a disc, and place it in the freezer for 2 hours. Alternatively, you can refrigerate the dough overnight.
Roll out the cookies: Preheat your oven to 175°C (350°F). Lightly flour your countertop and roll out the dough to approximately ½ cm in height. Keep a bowl with some flour on the side to coat the cookie cutters before cutting them out to help prevent the dough from sticking. Place the cookies on baking trays lined with parchment paper or a silicone mat.
Bake: Bake for between 8-10 minutes until the cookies are very slightly browned at the edges, they will look underbaked and that's what you want. Allow the cookies to sit on the baking tray to cool for about 5 minutes. Next, carefully slide the sheet of parchment paper with the cookies off of the tray and onto a cooling rack. Cool for another 15-20 minutes until they reach room temperature.
Ice the cookies: Make a batch of vegan royal icing and color to your taste as shown in the post. You can also melt a little dark chocolate to create a bark effect on your Christmas tree cookies.
Transfer the icing to a piping bag. Snip the very tip of the bag with scissors and start by piping an outline on your cookies. If you wish to coat the cookies completely in royal icing you can flood the cookies by continuing to pipe inside the outlines with icing that is a little thinner consistency.Decorate with some gold leaf sheets (if using) to create a tinsel effect!
Storage: Place the iced cookies back on a cooling rack to allow the icing to dry completely for a minimum of 1-2 hours before storing them in an airtight container at room temperature.They will last in a sealed container for around 2 weeks.
Notes
Vegan butter: Take this out of the fridge to sit at room temperature for 30 mins to 1 hour. Use vegan block butter NOT spreadable butter from a tub. I use flora plant butter or Violife Block.