These Gluten-Free Vegan Pumpkin Sugar Cookies are soft and chewy, slightly fluffy, fragrantly spiced and covered in a rich, tangy “cream cheese” frosting. They’re also refined sugar free and the dough doesn’t require chilling. They’re perfect for Thanksgiving and Christmas and make excellent edible gifts!
I decided to roll out the dough and cut out shapes because I found the texture of the cookies turned out better that way. However, you can alternatively use your hands to shape the cookie dough into little patties and bake them that way instead. This cookie dough won’t spread out as it bakes as the ingredients are different from traditional cookie dough.
How to make the cookies
Scroll down to the bottom of the post for the full recipe.
- Mix together the ingredients for the cookie dough in a glass mixing bowl.
- Lay out a sheet of greaseproof baking paper on a counter. Sprinkle the surface of the paper and a rolling pin with a generous amount of flour and roll out the dough until about 1cm (½ inch) thick.
- Use a circular cookie cutter to cut shapes out of the dough – you will probably have to roll the dough a few times until you use it all up.
- Transfer the cookies onto two rectangular baking trays.
Tip: Line the baking trays with greased baking paper to make sure the cookies don’t stick.
- Bake in oven for around 10 minutes, until firmer and lightly browned.
- They will be slightly soft when you remove them from the oven – leave to cool completely to let them harden before applying the frosting.
How to make the frosting
- Place the ingredients for the frosting in a food processor.
- Whizz until completely smooth.
- Use a knife to spread a little bit of frosting over each of the cookies.
- Sprinkle over ground cinnamon to decorate, if desired.
How long do these Pumpkin Sugar Cookies keep for?
These Pumpkin Sugar Cookies do taste best when fresh, but keep covered in the fridge for a few days.
Substitutions you can make
- You can replace the coconut oil with coconut butter.
- You can use any type of liquid sweetener: maple syrup, agave syrup, brown rice syrup etc.
- You can replace the gluten-free flour with rice flour.
- If you don’t need the cookies to be gluten-free, you can replace the gluten-free flour with plain flour.
- You can use any type of plant-based milk: almond milk, rice milk, soy milk, cashew milk, oat milk etc.
- The ground almonds can be replaced with ground walnuts, ground pecan nuts or ground sunflower seeds.
- The pumpkin purée can be replaced with sweet potato purée.
More gluten-free vegan cookie recipes
- Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
- Blueberry Breakfast Cookies
- Oatmeal Cookies
- Peanut Butter Cookies
- Coconut Flour Cookies
- Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies
- Snickerdoodles
- Sugar Cookies
- Chocolate Cookies
- Carrot Cake Cookies
- Lemon Cookies
- Orange Cookies
- Lemon Poppy Seed Cookies
Watch how to make this recipe
Gluten-Free Vegan Pumpkin Sugar Cookies
These Gluten-Free Vegan Pumpkin Sugar Cookies are soft and chewy, slightly fluffy, fragrantly spiced and covered in a rich, tangy "cream cheese" frosting.
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Servings: 21 cookies
Calories: 139kcal
Ingredients
For the cookies:
- 30 g (⅛ cup) coconut oil (or sub coconut butter)
- 10 tablespoons maple syrup (or sub any other similar sweetener)
- 225 g (1 cup) pumpkin purée (shop-bought or make your own)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 150 g (1 ¼ cup) ground almonds (almond meal) *
- 150 g (1 ¼ cup) gluten-free flour blend plus more for rolling (or sub rice flour, or plain flour if not gluten-free)
- 1 teaspoon baking powder (ensure gluten-free if necessary)
- 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice to taste (or sub a mixture of cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and ground ginger)
For the frosting:
- 100 g (⅔ cup) cashew nuts soaked in cold water overnight or in hot water for 15 minutes
- 3 tablespoons lemon juice
- 3 tablespoons maple syrup (or sub any other sweetener)
- 2 tablespoons unsweetened almond milk (or sub any other plant-based milk)
Instructions
For the cookies:
- Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius (350 degrees Fahrenheit).
- Place the coconut oil in a large bowl and melt over a saucepan of boiling water or in the microwave.
- Add the maple syrup, pumpkin purée and vanilla and mix well.
- Measure out the ground almonds, gluten-free flour and baking powder and mix well.
- Add these to the other ingredients and mix well.
- Lay out a sheet of greaseproof baking paper on a counter. Sprinkle the surface of the paper and a rolling pin with a generous amount of flour and roll out the cookie dough until about 1cm (½ inch) thick .
- Use a circular cookie cutter to cut shapes out of the dough – you will probably have to roll the dough a few times until you use it all up.
- Transfer the cookies onto two baking trays/baking sheets lined with greased baking paper.
- Bake in oven for around 10 minutes, until firmer and lightly browned.
- They will be slightly soft when you remove them from the oven – leave to cool completely to let them harden before applying the frosting.
For the frosting:
- Drain the soaked cashews and add to a food processor with all the other ingredients.
- Whizz until completely smooth, adding more milk or water if necessary.
- Use a knife to spread a little bit of frosting over each of the cookies.
- Sprinkle over ground cinnamon to decorate, if desired.
- Taste best when fresh, but keep covered in the fridge for up to a few days.
Video
Notes
*You can alternatively use almond flour.
I decided to roll out the dough and cut out shapes because I found the texture of the cookies turned out better that way. However, you can alternatively use your hands to shape the cookie dough into little patties and bake them that way instead. This cookie dough won’t spread out as it bakes as the ingredients are different from traditional cookie dough.
Nutrition Facts
Gluten-Free Vegan Pumpkin Sugar Cookies
Amount Per Serving
Calories 139
Calories from Fat 63
% Daily Value*
Fat 7g11%
Saturated Fat 2g10%
Sodium 4mg0%
Potassium 103mg3%
Carbohydrates 17g6%
Fiber 2g8%
Sugar 9g10%
Protein 3g6%
Vitamin A 1667IU33%
Vitamin C 1mg1%
Calcium 49mg5%
Iron 1mg6%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.
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Sarah
Can i sub the lemon juice in the frosting at all?
Rhian Williams
You can use any type of plant-based milk instead! Though it won’t have a tangy flavour obviously.