Meet my favourite holiday cookie of 2014 – the vegan and gluten-free Snickerdoodle! I’ve been testing all kinds of Christmas cookies this year and I decided to pick the best of the bunch and share that recipe with you before the holidays. The humble-looking Snickerdoodle doesn’t get enough respect in my opinion; it’s often overshadowed by spicy gingerbread, decorated sugar cookies, and fancy flavoured shortbread, but I think that needs to end today! My favourite kind of Snickerdoodle is chewy with a crisp edge, craggy/textured/crinkly, and of course, rolled in cinnamon sugar. Oh yea. I can’t get enough of the doughy, cinnamon-y simplicity.
It’s been a goal of mine to make my vegan Snickerdoodle recipe gluten-free. I actually found that I prefer this version over the one with wheat flour that I posted on the blog 4 years ago; there’s just something so flavourful about the nutty, sweet, and buttery combo of oat flour and almond flour that I adore! Whenever you want your cookies to have a lovely chewiness to them (and light buttery flavour), add a bit of almond flour into the mix. A little bit goes a long way though. I made the mistake of making a shortbread cookie entirely out of almond flour and it was way too chewy/tacky (and stuck to the teeth!) – lesson learned. I’ll nail that shortbread recipe some day, but for now…snickerdoodles!
Other exciting things about this recipe:
1) Prep time = 15 minutes, Bake time = 10 minutes
Yes, that means you can be eating these bad boys in under a half hour!! Isn’t that what it’s all about?
2) Snickerdoodles make your house smell amazing. This is the perfect recipe to pop into the oven before guests arrive.
3) For the fat component, I used virgin coconut oil instead of vegan butter. I’m happy to say it worked great and meshed with the flavours so well! Thumbs up for healthier fat swaps.
One last thing. I experimented baking the dough as balls (image left, below) and also flattening with a fork (image right). When I flattened with a fork, the cookies came out quite flat and spread out (as you’ll see in most of the photos), but when I left the dough as balls they had a bit more thickness and lift to them and weren’t as spread out. I think I prefer not flattening them out – plus it saves an extra step too. Just an FYI. You can always try some rolled and some pressed with a fork and see which you prefer!
Snickerdoodles (vegan + gluten-free)
Yield
10-12 cookies
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
Classic Snickerdoodles made vegan and gluten-free! These cookies are crispy around the edge, chewy in the middle, and coated in a cinnamon sugar. I KNOW. For a non-gf version, try my other Snickerdoodle recipe made with whole wheat pastry flour.
Ingredients
Wet ingredients:
- 1/2 tablespoon ground flax seed + 1 1/2 tablespoons water
- 1/3 cup cane sugar (see note)
- 1/4 cup virgin coconut oil, melted
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1/2 tablespoon almond milk (optional, see directions)
Dry ingredients:
- 1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon gluten-free oat flour*
- 1/4 cup + 3 tablespoons almond flour (not almond meal)
- 1/4 cup sorghum flour
- 2 1/2 tablespoons arrowroot powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
- 1/4 teaspoon fine grain sea salt
- Pinch of cinnamon
Cinnamon sugar topping:
- 1 tablespoon cane sugar
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
Directions
- Preheat oven to 375°F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. In a small bowl or mug, mix the flax and water to make the flax egg. Set aside.
- In a medium sized bowl stir together the sugar, melted coconut oil, and vanilla until incorporated. Add in the flax egg and stir until combined.
- In another bowl, whisk the dry ingredients together (oat flour, almond flour, sorghum flour, arrowroot powder, baking soda, cream of tartar, salt, and pinch of cinnamon). Add the wet mixture to the dry mixture and stir well. The dough will be very dry at first, but it will come together if you get in there with your hands and knead it a few times. Add the optional almond milk if your dough is too dry. You need to be able to form balls of the dough without it cracking, but you don't want it super wet either (or it will spread out too much when baking).
- Mix the cinnamon and sugar together in a small bowl. Take about 1.5 tablespoons of dough and roll into a ball. Roll in cinnamon sugar and place on baking sheet at least a couple inches apart. Repeat for the rest.
- Bake for 10-11 minutes. (I baked for 10 minutes and the edges were slightly crispy after cooling.) For a soft cookie, bake less time. For a crispy cookie bake longer. Cool for about 3 minutes on the baking sheet and then transfer to a cooling rack until completely cool.
Tip:
- If you don't have store-bought oat flour you can make it at home. Simply add rolled oats into a high speed blender and blend on the highest speed until a fine flour forms.
- I don't recommend subbing the cane sugar for coconut or Sucanat sugar - in my previous trials it came out too dry.
Nutrition Information
(click to expand)PS – See all my cookie and square recipes here!
Contest Winner:
Congrats to Elicia K. for winning the big OSG Holiday Giveaway!! We have sent you an email to collect your info. Thank you for everyone who participated and gave us all kind of awesome flavour ideas for our tea! I would like one of each please.
We are gearing up for Adriana’s first Christmas and I can’t wait to experience it as a family of 3! I’m looking forward to a bit of downtime over the holidays too. While it’s been a great year, it hasn’t left me with much free time and I’m hoping to wind down and chill out with friends and family as much as possible to close out the year. And hockey, LOTS of hockey!!! hah. I’m not sure when I will be posting a recipe next, but if you’d like to see what we’re up to you can follow my weekly posts on the Baby blog until then (you can also follow @theglowspot and @ohsheglows on Instagram). And of course, take a peek at my recipe archives – there are about 500 vegan recipes to chose from.
Anyway, I’m really excited for 2015 and have some fun news coming your way in the New Year! I’m so thankful for your support this year, and every year. It’s definitely been a year I will never forget. I hope you all have an amazing holiday surrounded by family, friends, great food, and good cheer!
The cinnamon sugar combo will always have my heart… probably because I grew up loving Cinnamon Toast Crunch :D These loon amazing, Angela! And I’m totally with you — snickerdoodles don’t get nearly enough love around the holidays.
Angela, I know we haven’t met in person, but we are BFFs ;D. Your recipes do NOT disappoint! I am a busy mom of 3, training to be a health coach, and have fallen so in love with your blog and cookbook. Every meat and dairy loving friend or family member who has eaten your recipes that I make just love them! I have never been able to execute recipes like you do using all whole food ingredients and NO DAIRY on my own and have always been unhappy with other cookbooks, recipes, blogs, ect. So, thank you;). I cannot wait to make these cookies!
Thank you Audrey! You are too kind. And I’m so happy that you all enjoy the recipes so much. Good luck with your health coach training!
I love love LOVE snickerdoodles! I can’t believe these only have 1/4 cup of coconut oil in them. As soon as I stock up on some sorghum flour and arrowroot powder, I will be making these :)
Vegan snickerdoodles!?! Total game changer! These cookies look fabulous!
These snicker doodles look better than the regular ones!
Yum! These look delicious! I love the craggy tops dusted with cinnamon…. I’ll be making these soon!
Yeah for for Christmas celebrations as a family a three, so special!!
One can never go wrong with a Snickerdoodle…Mmmm!
Oh my goodness these look and sound so delicious! Snickerdoodles have never really been a “thing” in our house… might have to make this a new tradition ;)
I’m having a difficult time finding almond flour. Is there almond big difference between this and almond meal?
Almond meal tends to be courser than almond flour, but in a cookie recipe they usually sub okay 1:1 (cakes would not turn out as well though). You could also try grinding up the almond meal to make it more fine.
I’m having some difficulties finding almond flour. Is there a big difference between this and almond meal? Any suggestions on where to find almond flour? I live in Toronto.
Almond meal tends to be courser than almond flour, but in a cookie recipe they usually sub okay 1:1 (cakes would not turn out as well though). You could also try grinding up the almond meal to make it more fine.
(Same reply I gave to you above :) )
These look scrumptious! I also appreciate you linking to your non-gf version, as I do not follow a gluten-free diet and prefer baking with wheat flour. I’ve noticed a lot of your recipes are gf now, which I am sure benefit many readers, but I am sure there are also readers like me out there who still like to use whole wheat / spelt flour. I don’t mean this as a criticism, but just wanted to give my feedback that you at least have one reader out there who enjoys baking with wheat flour!
I agree! I love your recipes; however most of the GF flours you use are not easily found in certain stores depending on where one lives or if they are they are super pricey!
thank you for sharing your hard work with us :)
For just one cookie recipe over the holidays, you certainly picked an awesome one!! I can’t wait to try these out and I’ve got a ridiculous amount of coconut oil so there just might be multiple batches. :) I hope you, Eric, Adriana and the rest of your family have a fabulous Christmas, Ange! xo
Just made these with my brother to try them out for our Christmas cookie lineup. My Dad loves snickerdoodles but we have never attempted them GF/vegan before. Used sunflower seed flour instead of almond because of tree nut allergies, and these are OUT OF THIS WORLD AMAZING. Thank you so much for always having recipes that I want without even knowing that I want them, and stretching the limits of my diet in new and exciting ways all the time :)
yay so glad it worked!
Yum I love snickerdoodles! Its so true that everyone goes gaga for gingerbread but I too am a snickeedoodle lover for life!! I will have to try the different flours you suggest just need to put in an iherb order :) happy holidays xo C
Wow! These look absolutely UNREAL. Is there an alternative to sorghum flour? Also I need your advice…I was sucked into buying a locally made vegan honey mustard dressing yesterday but I have absolutely no idea what to eat it with! Any ideas? Thank you :)
Two ideas for the dressing:
1. Use as a dip for crispy tofu: http://ohsheglows.com/2012/01/18/easy-weeknight-dinner-crispy-breaded-tofu-strips-sweet-potato-fries/
2. Make wraps: http://ohsheglows.com/2012/01/16/lunch-this-week-chickpea-salad-wraps/ or http://ohsheglows.com/2014/04/14/easiest-5-ingredient-spelt-flatbread/
As for the sorghum, check out some of the responses above since you last commented.
These look lovely!! I love how quick and easy there are. If I need a last minute cookie, this will be my go-to. Thanks!
These vegan, gluten free snickerdoodles sound out of this world delicious, Angela!! They are one of my favourite cookies this time of year and can’t wait to try your version! They look stunning :)
Wishing you, Eric and Adriana a wonderful Christmas!!! <3
Those look amazing! It’s been far too long since I’ve made snickerdoodles! I love that this recipe comes together in less than a half hour!
Hi Angela!
Is there something I can use in place of cream of tartar if I don’t have any on hand? Thanks!
I also did not have cream of tartar on hand, so I substituted 3/4 tsp baking powder for the cream of tartar and omitted the baking soda. Delicious!
Thanks for posting. I read thru to see if anyone asked this.
Do you have any substitution recommendations for the coconut oil that won’t have a noticible flavor?I have an oil free diet.