Vegan Easter Cookies for the whole family!
If there is one thing I learned from making these Vegan Easter Cookies, it's that thankfully I am no surgeon. While there are some people who have a knack for tiny details and keeping their hands steady. I am definitely not one of them.
Reasons being:
1. I have no patience
2. I'm always hungry so I'd rather just finish these Easter cookies and eat them.
3. Having a toddler constantly 6 "accidentally" bump into your elbows doesn't make frosting cookies any easier.
Now, I'm just getting ahead of myself. Before you can even frost these vegan Easter cookies, you need to...wait for it...MAKE THE COOKIES FIRST!
Frosted cookies really don't need a fancy cookie dough. I opted for making simple vegan butter cookies made with a whole wheat flour. The whole wheat flour doesn't miraculously turn these cookies healthy. However, whole grains do keep you feeling full and satiated for longer. So hopefully (fingers crossed!) you'll only eat one of these cookies or two and not the entire batch at once. Oh who am I kidding? They're really good! If it wasn't for my kids being around, I would have probably eaten all of them.
That being said, you can use regular all-purpose flour to make these instead as well.
Just make the dough, roll it out and cut it out with an Easter Egg Cookie Cutter. I used a 5" one but you can also go for smaller Easter eggs or different cookie cutter shapes. If you're feeling extra confident, use a sharp knife to cut out Easter egg shapes out the the dough.
The cookie dough doesn't spread when baked. It will only puff up a little bit. So, now that you have you cookies, you need your frosting AKA the good part ;)
I don't own any food coloring nor do I ever plan on using it. Instead, I decided to make naturally colored icing for these cookies using ingredients I always have at home.
These are the three colored icings I made and used:
- Green = Matcha powder
- Yellow/Orange = ground Turmeric
- Pink = Beet Juice
Those are just the ones that I used. You have lots of options though on how to dye your icing/frosting naturally.
Here are just a few ideas:
- Pink / Red = Beet Powder or Juice, Raspberries, Pomegranate,
- Yellow = Turmeric , Saffron, Mango
- Orange = Carrots, lots of Turmeric, Paprika
- Green = Matcha, Liquid Chlorophyll, Spinach Powder, Parsley Juice
- Blue/ Purple = Blueberries, Blackberries, Red Cabbage, Purple Sweet Potatoes, Purple Carrots
- Brown = Espresso, Cocoa Powder, Cinnamon
- Black = Activated Charcoal Powder, Black Cocoa Powder
So now that you've made your frosting, it's time to put it to work! Remember to allow your cookies to cool COMPLETELY before you even attempt to frost them.
You'll also want to make sure that you have two different types of frosting; one for flooding and one for piping. Flooding icing should be the consistency of honey and it's used to flood your cookies (the base color). Piping icing should have the consistency of toothpaste and that's what you'll want to use to add small details to your cookies. To get the different consistencies you'll have to add more or less powdered sugar or more or less liquid (lemon juice, beet juice, etc.).
It took a lot of tears and frustration to finally figure out that I wasn't born to decorate cookies. I was only placed on this earth to eat them and I'm not ashamed to admit it.
Neither are my boys ;)
Be sure to let me see your Vegan Easter Cookie creations by using #VeganFamilyRecipes on Instagram!
Vegan Easter Cookies w/ Naturally Colored Icing
Ingredients
- 1.25 cup Whole Wheat Flour sifted (can be substituted with equal amount of All-Purpose Flour or Spelt Flour)
- ⅓ cup Whole Cane Sugar or equal amount of white sugar
- ¼ teaspoon Salt
- 4 ounces cold Vegan Butter
- 2 tablespoons of cold Water
Icing
- Powdered Sugar If you are vegan, make sure it IS vegan like this kind
- Fresh Lemon Juice
- Pinch of Salt
- Matcha powderBeet Juice, and ground Turmeric
Toppings
- Sprinkles, ground or chopped nuts, etc.
Instructions
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Sift together flour, sugar and salt.
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Cut butter into small chunks and add to flour along with the water. Use a dough hook or knead with your hands until the cookie dough comes together. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for at least an hour.
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Preheat oven to 400 F (200C) and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
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Roll out dough on a lightly floured surface and cut out using a 5" easter egg cookie cutter. If you don't have a easter egg cookie cutter then feel free to use a sharp knife to cut out oval shapes. Place cut out cookies on parchment paper and bake for 10 to 12 minutes. If your cookies are smaller than the large 5" cookies I made, then the bake time will be shorter (roughly 8 minutes).
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Remove cookies from oven and transfer to a cooling rack.
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While cookies are cooling, prepare the icing.
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Sift powdered sugar and add lemon juice slowly to it until desired consistency is reached. Add a pinch of matcha powder for a green icing, a teaspoon of beet juice for a pink icing, and a pinch of turmeric for a yellow icing. (Note. the more turmeric you add to the icing the more orange it will appear). The consistency of the icing will depend on what you want to do with it. The consistency of a piping icing should be similar to toothpaste while an icing for flooding cookies should be similar to honey.
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Decorate cookies with icing, allowing plenty of time to dry before stacking.
If you're looking for some more wonderful Easter recipes to try, check these out!
Strength and Sunshine says
What a cute cookie! Fun Easter idea!
Jacqueline Meldrum says
So cute! I like your suggestions for natural food colouring. I remember at art college people stewing onion skins and beetroot to dye fabric. Your cookies look fab. The chick has to be my favourite.
Nicole Dawson says
I'm also not a fan of decorating, mostly because if it doesn't look perfect, I don't want to try. But yours turned out great! I also love the cute little chick!
Natalie | Feasting on Fruit says
These are dainty and adorable and spring-perfect! I love that you kept it all natural with the frosting too, the colors came out beautiful. Haha why is it that frosting cookies always seems like 100 times easier when watching someone do it in a video then it actually is in real life!? But now I kinda want to try anyways :)
Sharon @ Bit of the Good Stuff says
How cute is that chick cookie? 😍 I think you've done an amazing job with the icing! I've never been any good at icing but, to be honest, I kind of prefer cookies and cakes with imperfect icing. They have character (or that's what I tell myself anyway!) If they're too perfect, they look like they've been made by a machine.
Looks like you're going to have a tasty, fun Easter in your house! Happy Hols! xx
Linda from Veganosity says
I don't have a toddler bumping my elbow while I frost cookies, and mine would never look as good as yours! Love the frosting color ideas. Thanks!
Choclete says
Well I reckon you've iced your cookies most beautifully. I really am too impatient to do anything so fiddly. Love that you've used natural foods as colourings. One of my pet hates is food dyes.
Vanessa Croessmann says
Aww thanks so much! I tried! It's definitely not so easy ;)
Nayna Kanabar says
These cookies are adorable and I love the look of them and the advise about natural coloring. Did you find that you could taste the turmeric in the yellow icing ? Also does the icing dry fairly hard as I am planning on making some vegan cookies for my nieces wedding flavors and I was thinking of using an icing that's egg free..
Vanessa Croessmann says
Hi Nayna, Depending on how much turmeric you add, you will be able to taste it. It didn't bother me though. The icing also dries hard so you can stack them easily on top of each other ;) Sounds like a great idea for your niece's wedding favors ;)
Uma says
These cookies are adorable and the little one too :) The natural color frosting is best part in this ! Love it :)
Manju | Cooking Curries says
I love the natural colors you have used and how beautifully they have come out!
Barbara Whitney says
It's very colorful! These cookies are gorgeous! Thanks again for another delicious vegan dessert. Hope all is well with you and your loved ones :-)
Vanessa Croessmann says
Thanks, Barbara! I hope you get a chance to try them out ;)
Sabrina says
What did you use to ice these lovelies with (specialty icing tip or cut baggie corner)?
They are SO precious.
Vanessa Croessmann says
Hi Sabrina,
Thanks for your comment! i found that the cut baggie corners worked the best. That way I was able to cut them just the right size ;)
Kirrali says
Hi! I'd love to try these cookies, but just checking - can I replace the flour with gluten free flour? Will any other changes need to be made to the recipe?