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!
Hi there,
Just wondering, if you wanted to replace the flax egg with an egg would that work?
Thanks! :)
These look great! I can’t wait to make them! I haven’t had snickerdoodle cookies in ages.
These look absolutely amazing, Angela! I hope you enjoy some down time with your family and that gorgeous baby girl. You have worked so hard and you definitely deserve it. Cheers to 2015!!
I have yet to find a vegan Snickerdoodle that I’m a fan of. Can’t wait to try this one!
These cookies look awesome! – I can’t have almonds, is there a good substitute for the almond milk & flour?
I love Snickerdoodles!
Oh yeah! I gluten free vegan snicker doodle! I’m so excited. I’m going to make them right now. :)
Amazingly good!
Hi Angela! I’m going to make your graham crackers with my daughter for the joy of cutting out Christmas cookies with less sugar. What do you think we could do about decorating in a low-sugar way? I know that frosting gets its consistency from sugar ….. so … thoughts? :-) Thanks for all of your amazing recipes!
These look so awesome ! I love how they are so puffy. Last recipe I tried they came out like pancakes :(. Also, I’m doing a 12 Days of Vegan Christmas cookies on my blog…. a review of these may just have to be one of my upcoming days! Today’s post was Raw Cocoa-Date truffles if you wanna check it out !
freerunvegan.com/12-days-of-vegan-christmas-cookies-day-6-cocoa-date-truffles/
Ok, officially printing this recipe!!! I love snicker doodles!!!
Hi Angela!
The Snickerdoodles are the best cookies ever.
Vegan and gluten free, amazing!
Angie! You read my sister’s mind! She’s been asking me, “Is there a gluten-free snickerdoodle recipe on ohsheglows?” for weeks! Every time either of us wants to cook anything now I say, “let me check to see what Angela has to say about it…”
You are the best. Have a joyous, wonderful Christmas with your new baby!
I’m so excited about these! Snickerdoodles are actually my favorite kinds of cookies!! I’m making this today and am gonna give them to all my friendssss! You’re awesome!
Thank you so much for sharing this! I have spent the past hour scouring cookbooks and the internet for a holiday cookie recipe for a party I am hosting tomorrow night. Should have known better and just checked your website first.
I’m also making your Nacho Dip from the cookbook :) A fun day of vegan cooking lies ahead!
Just made these last night and they were absolutely epic out of the oven. The one thing that did puzzle me was they were pretty hard after they dried. I am wondering if I kept them in the oven even for just a minute too long or maybe I overdid one ingredient just a tiny bit. Any thoughts?
I am about to go make my second batch, take them out just a tad bit earlier to see if they will be a little bit softer once cooled down.
Hi Morgan, Yes they do firm up quite a bit once cooled. I think you have a good idea baking them a bit less time. I always prefer a nice crunch to my cookies, but you can certainly tweak it as you see fit. Also, oven temps do vary quite a bit.
Glad you enjoyed them! :)
I just found your website today that is very stunning. I love this recipe too.
Is it possible to print recipes in recipe card (ie, index card-sized) format? Thanks and happy holidays!
I just made these tonight and YUM! I am not vegan so I used a chicken egg. I had to add an extra tbls of almond flour (because of the moisture in the egg) and let it sit in the fridge for 10 min to firm up before rolling but otherwise left everything else the same. The cookies baked up beautifully, crisp on the edges and soft and a little bit cakey on the inside. They were delicious… even my non-gf husband thought they were great.
Hey,
I made your almond chocolate chip cookies from the oh she glows cookbook and I just used cane sugar instead of the brown sugar. They came out super crispy and stayed crispy for days on the kitchen counter. I am sure you are aware of this though, but if not, I just wanted to pass it on.