These homemade Gluten-Free Vegan Flourless Snickerdoodle Cookies are an easy and healthy recipe made with only 7 clean, real food ingredients. They're ready in under 20 minutes and are a plant-based dessert treat you can feel good about eating!
Nothing could be easier than making a batch of these Gluten-Free Vegan Flourless Snickerdoodle Cookies that you can mix in one bowl, needs only 7 clean ingredients and less than 20 minutes to make.
The BEST Vegan Snickerdoodle Cookies Recipe
Here's why this recipe works - my top 3 reasons:
- Made without traditional baking ingredients
- They're gluten-free and vegan
- Made with clean, real food ingredients
Made Without Traditional Baking Ingredients
Why is this the BEST Gluten-Free Vegan Flourless Snickerdoodle Cookie recipe?
They're made without the following ingredients:
- white flour
- white sugar
- butter
- shortening
- eggs
And, there is no need to use a mixer or to refrigerate and chill the dough!
They're Gluten-Free And Vegan
You can still enjoy the classic snickerdoodle flavor by making them with clean, real food ingredients and keeping them vegan + gluten-free with my healthy recipe.
I've created this recipe without using typical non-vegan ingredients like eggs, butter or milk.
And, my Gluten-Free Vegan Flourless Snickerdoodle recipe is not only vegan, but it's a healthy vegan recipe.
Why?
Because there's no white flour or processed vegan butter which is often used to make vegan cookies.
Made With Clean, Real Food Ingredients
Are these Gluten-Free Vegan Flourless Snickerdoodle Cookies healthy?
In my opinion, yes!
Store-bought Snickerdoodle Cookies are made with a long list of unhealthy ingredients:
S.A.D. (Standard American Diet) Mrs. Field's Snickerdoodle Cookie Ingredients: Enriched Bleached Wheat Flour (Wheat Flour, Niacin, Reduced Iron, Thiamine Mononitrate, Riboflavin, Folate), Sugar, Fructose, Unbleached Wheat Flour, Butter, Margarine (Palm Oil, Water, Salt, Whey, Monoglycerides, Soy Lecithin, Sodium Benzoate and Citric Acid [Preservatives], Artificial Flavor, Beta Carotene [Color], Vitamin A Palmitate), Whole Eggs, Canola Oil, Water, Cinnamon Sugar (Sugar, Cinnamon, Extractives of Cinnamon), Contains 2% Or Less Of Mono and Diglycerides, Baking Soda, Food Starch, Salt, Datem, Lemon Juice Powder, Natural Flavors, Sodium Stearoyl Lactylate, Xanthan Gum.
And, homemade versions aren't any better with ingredients like white flour, refined white sugar, shortening, butter, and eggs.
In this recipe, I used ingredients only 7 ingredients such as cashews, coconut flour, coconut sugar, coconut oil, ground cinnamon, vanilla bean powder, and Himalayan pink salt.
My healthier plant-based version is made with clean, real food ingredients and is organic, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, egg-free, grain-free, flourless, paleo-friendly, contains no refined sugar and are Medical Medium compliant.
How To Make The BEST Vegan Snickerdoodle Cookies: Step-by-Step Instructions
Here is how to make this recipe and I'll show you with step-by-step instructions below.
You'll love this easy vegan cookie recipe that you can make with only a food processor and a mixing bowl.
Before beginning, preheat the oven to 350 degrees and prepare a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.
Then, set aside and begin making the cookies.
Step 1: Prepare the Cinnamon-Sugar Topping
Firstly, add all the ingredients for the cinnamon-sugar topping to a small bowl.
Stir until everything is well combined.
Set aside until the cookies are ready to be dipped.
Step 2: Prepare the Homemade Cashew Butter
Secondly, in this recipe, we will use homemade cashew butter instead of store-bought cashew butter.
This is an important step that will only take a few extra minutes.
For example, using store-bought cashew butter will not work with the recipe because the consistency is much thinner than making it homemade in a food processor.
In addition, the mixture will not be thick enough to form the shape of a cookie.
It only takes a few minutes to make it from scratch and it's really easy to do!
Add the raw cashews to a food processor and process for about 3-5 minutes, or until the cashews turn into thick nut butter.
It will go through a couple of different stages - cashews to cashew flour, and then cashew flour to cashew nut butter.
You may have to stop every minute or so to scrape down the sides and help it along.
Step 3: Prepare the cookies
Thirdly, transfer the homemade cashew butter to a medium-sized bowl.
Add the remaining ingredients for the cookies and stir until everything is well combined.
Step 4: Assembly
Fourthly, take out a spoonful at a time of the cookie mixture and roll it into a ball shape.
Next, flatten it into a small round cookie shape about 2-inches in diameter.
Dip the top of each cookie into the cinnamon-sugar topping then place the cookies on the prepared cookie sheet.
Bake at 350 degrees for about 12 minutes or until the edges are golden.
How To Store the Cookies
Lastly, store the cookies in an air-tight BPA-free container at room temperature.
If you prefer a more dense cookie, store them in the refrigerator.
Karielyn's Expert Tips + Ingredient Substitutions for The BEST Gluten-Free Vegan Flourless Snickerdoodle Cookies
Here are some of my expert tips to make this recipe perfectly:
Cashews. It's very important in this recipe to use the raw cashews to make homemade cashew butter. For example, store-bought cashew butter is usually thin and runny and will not hold the cookies together. Homemade cashew butter will result in a thick paste-type consistency which is the base of the recipe. It's an extra step but only takes a few minutes to make.
Coconut Sugar. Feel free to substitute with your favorite organic unrefined granular sweetener.
Coconut Flour. I have not tested the recipe using another flour substitute.
Vanilla Bean Powder. 100% pure vanilla extract would not work as a substitute in this recipe. Therefore, if you can't find organic vanilla bean powder, you can omit it.
Coconut Oil. If you don't like the taste and flavor of coconut oil, use organic refined coconut oil which has zero coconut taste or flavor.
Himalayan Pink Salt. This is the salt of my preference but you can always substitute it with sea salt.
Gluten-Free Vegan Flourless Snickerdoodle Cookies
Equipment
Ingredients
For the topping:
- 2 tablespoons organic coconut sugar
- 1 teaspoon organic ground cinnamon
- ⅛ teaspoon organic ground vanilla bean powder
For the cookies:
- 2 cups organic raw cashews
- 2 tablespoons organic coconut sugar
- 2 tablespoons organic refined coconut oil
- 2 tablespoons organic coconut flour
- ⅛ teaspoon Himalayan pink salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees and set aside a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.
Prepare the topping:
- Add all ingredients for the topping to a small bowl and stir until everything is well combined. Set aside.
Prepare the cookies:
- Prepare the cashew butter by adding the raw cashews and coconut oil to a food processor and process until the cashews turn into cashew butter. This will take approximately 3-5 minutes as the cashews will change from raw cashews to cashew flour and then from cashew flour to cashew butter. Stop and scrape the sides every minute or so to help it along.
- Transfer the cashew butter to a medium-sized bowl and add the remaining ingredients for the cookies; stir until everything is well combined.
Assembly:
- Take out a spoonful at a time of the cookie mixture and roll it into a ball shape. Flatten the ball between the palms of your hands into a round flat disk shape, about 2-inches in diameter.
- Dip the top of each cookie into the topping mixture and place the cookies onto the prepared cookie sheet.
- Bake at 350 degrees for approximately 12 minutes, or until the edges of the cookies are golden and taking care to not over bake them.
- Remove the cookie sheet from the oven and allow the cookies to cool completely before removing them.
- Store in an air-tight BPA-free container at room temperature, or in the refrigerator if you prefer a more dense textured cookie.
Recipe Notes
Nutrition Information
Copyright Notice
The instructions, notes, and photographs for this recipe by Karielyn Tillman of The Healthy Family and Home™ website are copyrighted material. This copyrighted work is protected and licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives 4.0 International License and the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) and cannot be legally used without my written permission.
Want More Healthy Gluten-Free Vegan Cookie Recipes?
Check out these:
- Chocolate Pistachio Cookies
- Fudgy Chocolate Mint Cookies
- Gluten-Free Vegan Gingerbread Cookies
- or my CLEAN DESSERTS Cookbook with 72 plant-based gluten-free + vegan no-bake dessert recipes made with clean, real food ingredients just like this one that you will love!
Did You Make This Recipe?
I'd love to hear about it! Please give it a rating and leave a comment below...it would make my day! 🙂
Debra Parker says
I followed this recipe except had to sub almond flour for the coconut flour as I didn't have any coconut flour. Unfortunately, the dough was very pasty and not able to roll in the cinnamon sugar mixture. I froze the batter for awhile and then just dropped onto sheet and sprinkled cinnamon sugar mixture on top and then flattened with a spoon. After baking for about 20 minutes, the cookies just crumble when picked up. The flavor is good. Mostly tastes like cashew butter.
Karielyn Tillman says
Hi there Debra! I'm sorry to hear the recipe didn't work out for you with the substitution you made 🙁
Unfortunately, coconut flour and almond flour are not interchangeable ingredients and are very likely why the cookies were crumbly.
Also, it's very important that the cookies are allowed to completely cool before removing them from the pan. This is because the coconut oil in the cookies is hot and not in a solid-state immediately upon removing the cookies from the oven. After the coconut oil has been allowed to solidify at room temperature, by completely cooling, it is what "holds" the cookies together.
I know it can be very tempting to eat a cookie as soon as it comes out of the oven - it certainly is hard for me! But since these are egg-free, flourless and gluten-free, they are different from traditional cookies and need to be handled with a little extra care.
Thank you for trying out the recipe! 🙂
Debra Parker says
I made these exactly as written except used equal part almond flour instead of coconut flour. They just crumble after baking and were just a pasty batter so I couldn't roll them in the cinnamon sugar prior to baking. Maybe the almond flour made the difference?
Karielyn Tillman says
Hi there Debra! Thanks for sharing your experience and leaving feedback!
Please don't take this the wrong way, but it's not really fair to say you made them "exactly as written" and then follow with "except used equal part almond flour instead of coconut flour". Using the substitution was not making them "exactly as written".
Nonetheless, coconut flour and almond flour are not interchangeable ingredients. That could very well be the reason the cookies did not turn out optimally.
I'm really sorry they didn't work out for you with the substitution you made, but hope you will give them another try when you are able to use almond flour.
Thanks again for taking time to leave feedback...it's greatly appreciated! 🙂
Michelle says
These look incredible. I usually soak my cashews to get a more creamier texture, do you think I could can do with your recipe? Thank you.
Karielyn says
Hi there Michelle! I usually soak my cashews too before using them, but I didn't in this recipe. Even though I haven't made these with soaked cashews, I don't see why it wouldn't work and will try it the next time I make them.
Thanks for the question and I hope you enjoy the recipe! 🙂