Soft & chewy Vegan Candy Cane Sugar Cookies! These peppermint cookies are eggless, dairy-free, and easy to make in one bowl for a perfect holiday dessert.
2020 was a tough year, but one of the great things that came from this year was a whole lot of SGTO vegan sugar cookies! It all started with my super popular Vegan Lemon Cookies and Vegan Funfetti Cookies. Since then we've had 12 new delicious vegan cookie recipes with 8 unique & fun sugar cookies.
To finish off a year full of delicious cookies, we are ending with these absolutely amazing & festive peppermint candy cookies!
Ingredients
While the full list is in the recipe card below, here's a quick recap of the 9 ingredients you need to make these cookies:
- Vegan butter (I like Earth Balance, Miyokos, or Country Crock)
- Organic cane sugar
- Peppermint extract/paste (I used Taylor & Colledge)
- 1 flax egg (using a mix of ground flaxseed and water)
- All-purpose flour
- Baking powder
- Baking soda
- Salt
- Peppermint Candy (I used Brach's Crushed Peppermints)
Tips to make candy cane cookies
These cookies are super easy to make, but here are a few crucial tips & tricks to make sure you get the perfect chewy peppermint candy cane cookies every time!
Always cream butter & sugar
Creaming vegan butter & sugar together is very important because it helps to add some extra volume to the dough. As you beat the butter and sugar together, the air is incorporated into the dough and this adds structure to sugar cookies.
My most important tip? Always use room temperature butter aka vegan butter that is still cold, but easy to indent with a finger.
Measure flour in grams
You will notice I really stress this with all of my sugar cookie recipes. That is because, when baking cookies, 1-2 Tbsp of extra flour can truly affect the end result! Too much flour leads to cakey cookies that don't spread enough- which no one wants. That's why I always suggest using a scale & measuring flour in grams!
Chill dough before baking
This is another MUST for perfect vegan peppermint cookies. Chilling the dough for just 30 minutes- 1 hour not only makes these cookies easy to scoop and roll into a ball, but it also makes the dough sweeter.
As the dough sits in the fridge the sugar absorbs moisture from the dough and this leads to a better cookie flavor.
P.S- you can totally chill the dough overnight and bake the cookies in the morning or even freeze it and bake later!
Some peppermint in the dough, some on top
This tip is unique to this recipe and one that I discovered after a few tests. Since peppermint candies melt in the oven, you really don't want to add too much to the dough. That is why I recommend only mixing in about 3 Tbsp of chopped-up candy canes into the dough.
For the remaining 2 Tbsp of peppermint candy, it's best to roll the cookies into balls, roll in a bowl of sugar, and then press additional candy cane pieces on top of the dough before baking.
Always *slightly* under-bake cookies
Wondering how to get perfectly chewy vegan cookies? Well, the trick really lies in the baking time! Believe it or not, 1-2 minutes of extra cooking time can bring these cookies from soft & chewy to crispy.
Since every oven is different, I always recommend a cooking range, For this recipe, 10-12 minutes seems to be the trick. I pretty much never let my sugar cookies cook longer than 11 minutes in my oven, but some ovens may run a bit cooler and need up to 12.
FAQ & Substitutions:
I personally haven't tried it, but I have heard from many readers that my sugar cookie recipes work really well with Bob's Red Mill Gluten-Free 1:1 Baking mix.
I've personally used it in other recipes and can confirm it changes the texture slightly (less chewy and softer), but is just as delicious!
I do not recommend making these peppermint candy cane sugar cookies refined sugar-free. I've heard from many of you they don't work great with coconut sugar. Also, the candy cane pieces are not refined sugar-free and I do not know of a good alternative.
Yes, many are! I can't speak for all brands, but I always use Brach's crushed candy canes which are 100% vegan.
I also love Wholesome Brand Candy canes which are organic too and can be crushed up to work in these cookies.
Yes! I recommend chilling the dough for 30 minutes, then shaping it into balls and rolling in sugar before freezing.
Freezing individual cookies is the best so you always have a stash in the freezer! You will likely have to add 1-3 minutes of additional baking time with frozen cookie dough, so just keep that in mind.
I truly hope you love these Vegan Candy Cane Sugar Cookies for the holidays. They make the perfect festive & easy candy cane Christmas cookies!
-TSG
More vegan cookie recipes for the Holidays:
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Vegan Candy Cane Sugar Cookies
Ingredients
- ½ cup vegan butter
- ½ cup+ 2 Tablespoons sugar ½ cup for dough, 2 Tbsp for rolling before baking
- 1 flax egg 1 Tbsp (8 grams) ground flaxseed mixed with 3 Tbsp water
- 1 teaspoon peppermint extract/paste
- 1 cup+ 3 Tablespoons all-purpose flour
- ¼ teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt *only use if unsalted butter, otherwise omit
- 5 Tablespoons crushed peppermint candy
Instructions
- First add the butter and ½ cup of the sugar to a bowl and cream together until light and fluffy, about 1 minute. Then, add in the flax egg and peppermint extract/ paste and whip together about 10 more seconds.
- Next, add in sifted flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt to the mixing bowl. Mix JUST until a smooth and thick cookie batter forms and no streaks of flour remain. Do not overmix or else you will form too much gluten and the cookies will not spread as much and be tough.
- Add 3 Tbsp of the crushed peppermint candies to the mixing bowl and mix in.
- Cover the bowl with plastic wrap, add to the fridge, and let chill for 30 minutes- 1 hour.
- Cover a baking sheet in parchment paper and preheat the oven to 350F. Next, remove the dough from the fridge and use a 2 Tbsp cookie scoop to form your cookie dough (40 grams per cookie of dough).
- Roll into balls between your palms and then roll in the 2 Tbsp of sugar that was set aside so that each dough ball is coated. Then, press a few pieces of the remaining crushed peppermint candies onto the top of each dough ball.
- Place the candy cane cookie dough balls onto the baking sheet at least 2 inches apart since they will spread while baking.
- Bake for 10-13 minutes until bottoms are lightly browned and the cookie is cooked through but has slightly soft centers. The cookies will continue baking after they are removed from the oven so the centers should still be soft, but not glossy or raw, when they are removed from the oven.
- Remove the cookie tray from the oven and immediately tap the tray on the counter to produce a more “wrinkly” cookie. Then, let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for 5-10 minutes. The cookies will be soft and puffy out of the oven and will naturally deflate a little while cooling.
- Move the cookies to a wire rack to finish cooling. Serve and enjoy!
Cris says
Can I chill these overnight instead of an hour? I want to make these for our Christmas party and I would like to prep as much as possible the day before.
Thank you!
Megan says
You definitely can! I would recommend baking them and then storing them in the freezer to prep in advance if you want too- they really just need about 30 minutes- 1 hour to defrost and be perfect 🙂
Alli G says
It’s really not even funny how ridiculously amazing these cookies are. I made these for a big dessert bar party last night, and EVERYONE was commenting on how they’re perfect and how they loved the soft, doughy texture. I am regretting hiding a few so they wouldn’t disappear in goodie bags because now I have no self control. These are a MUST bake. Thank you so so much for this recipe, and I literally cannot wait to try so many more from your Christmas list. Lemon? Orange cardamom? Chai?? Chamomile?? Earl grey?? Just stop. I can’t. It’s too much. (But really, how do I decide which one to try next?)
Megan says
Thank you so much for the absolute kindest review! It's hard to pick the next flavor to try, but the lemon tends to be a crowd favorite 🙂 Either way you won't go wrong!