Vegan Peppermint Cookies

By Alexandra Caspero on November 25, 2022

Peppermint meltaways! These peppermint Christmas cookies are so easy to make and always a hit. Vanilla shortbread with peppermint frosting. If you love peppermint cookies, then you’ll love these.

Back with another Christmas cookie recipe for you! As I mentioned when I posted my chai sugar cookies last week, I’ve got a few new vegan cookie recipes coming your way– including these meltaway peppermint cookies!

It might be surprising that I love to bake Christmas cookies as much as I do, especially as I’m not usually a baker (and a dietitian!) but the truth is that I love gifting cookie boxes this time of year. They make for great neighbor and friend gifts, and I like giving them as hostess gifts as well as teacher and boss gifts.

And while I’m not vegan, I do love baking vegan as much as possible as I find it to be an exciting challenge and I know many of you are always looking for new dairy-free and egg-free baked goods. Therefore, all of my Christmas cookies coming your way are vegan (and you can find 25+ vegan Christmas cookies here as well).

Because I consider myself to be more of a cook than baker, I’ve been working with my friend Melanie, a chef and pastry chef extrordinaire to perfect these cookies. They’ve been tested several times to ensure that they come out perfectly for you.

What are Meltaway Cookies?

If you haven’t tried meltaway cookies, you are going to love these! Meltaway cookies are soft shortbread cookie that seem to melt away in your mouth. The unique combination is due to butter, powdered sugar and cornstarch.

These go perfectly in your Christmas cookie boxes, especially paired with my chocolate peppermint cookies, molasses ginger cookies and chai sugar cookies. Or even with truffles, like my chocolate truffles and bourban balls if you want something different!

You can make these vegan peppermint cookies in so many different ways depending on how you want them. You can either make a vanilla shortbread and then top with peppermint frosting for a light mint flavor, or you can make a peppermint shortbread and then top with more peppermint frosting for even more peppermint intensity.

Or, you can make these peppermint and chocolate! With either a peppermint base and chocolate on top or a vanilla shortbread and chocolate on top. Then you can do a sprinkle of crushed candy canes on top for a light peppermint taste.

For a chocolate frosting, add in cocoa powder into the frosting along with the powdered sugar. Or, you can use my chocolate frosting from my vegan donut recipe.

Peppermint Cookie Recipe with Frosting and Crushed Candy Canes

Ingredients for Peppermint Sugar Cookies

Yes, these cookies use lots of butter! You need that for the melt away texture and other substitutions will not work. Of course, you can use vegan butter for this. I used both Trader Joe’s and Earth Balance for testing these and either one will work.

In addition to the butter, you’ll also need:

Powdered sugar
Peppermint or Vanilla extract, depending on the flavor you want
Flour
Cornstarch
Salt

For the frosting, you’ll need more powdered sugar, peppermint extract (or more vanilla extract) and non-dairy milk. If you want these to be red, then you’ll need to use a little food coloring. I use the natural food dye from Whole Foods, but other food coloring, like beet powder, would work.

How to make this Peppermint Cookie Recipe

Make the dough
Cream the butter and sugars together, then add in the rest of the ingredients until a dough forms. Roll into a ball, then place in the fridge for 30 minutes – 1 hour. This will make it easier to roll.
Roll and cut out
When ready to bake, roll out the dough and cut into desired shape and size. The baking time directions are for the smaller 2 1/2 inch circles (using this round cookie cutter) and if you want to make a bigger cookie then you’ll need to increase the baking time.

Continue with the rest of the dough, then place in a parchment-lined baking sheet and bake for 13 minutes until lightly browned. Remove and let cool on a wire rack before frosting.
Frost and decorate

Whisk together the ingredients for the frosting, then place on the cookies once cooled. Decorate with crushed peppermint candy, or sprinkles!

Tips for Success

I use my stand mixer to easily make these cookies, but if you don’t have one then an electric mixer and a large bowl will work. You can technically make them with just a whisk and elbow grease, but it will be more of a workout to cream the butter and sugars together.

If you are using vegan butter sticks, know that they are always salted. If you want to use a regular unsalted butter, then I recommend adding in 1/4 teaspoon more salt to the batter.

I really like the way these look with adding in a little red food coloring to the frosting, but you can add any color you want. If you wanted to do a vanilla option, then I think using a blue food coloring and silver sprinkles would also look really nice.

More Christmas Cookie Recipes:

If you try this peppermint cookie recipe, make sure to come back to leave a rating and a comment. Your feedback helps other readers and seeing you make my recipes makes my day!

Vegan Peppermint Cookies

Author: Alex Caspero
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 13 minutes
Total Time: 28 minutes
Yield: 24 cookies 1x
Category: cookie, christmas cookie, holiday cookies, sugar cookies
Method: oven
Cuisine: American
Diet: Vegan

Description

Peppermint meltaways! These peppermint Christmas cookies are so easy to make and always a hit. Vanilla shortbread with peppermint frosting. If you love peppermint cookies, then you’ll love these.

Print Recipe

Author: Alex Caspero
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 13 minutes
Total Time: 28 minutes
Yield: 24 cookies 1x
Category: cookie, christmas cookie, holiday cookies, sugar cookies
Method: oven
Cuisine: American
Diet: Vegan

Author: Alex Caspero
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 13 minutes
Total Time: 28 minutes
Yield: 24 cookies 1x
Category: cookie, christmas cookie, holiday cookies, sugar cookies
Method: oven
Cuisine: American
Diet: Vegan

Scale

Ingredients

Peppermint Meltaway Cookies:

1 cup vegan butter
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/4 teaspoon peppermint extract
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon salt

Peppermint Glaze:

1 cup powdered sugar
1/4 teaspoon peppermint extract
1 tablespoon non-dairy milk
Food coloring, if desired
Crushed candy canes, for topping

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Instructions

Place the butter, sugar and extracts in the base of a stand mixer (or bowl with a hand mixer) and beat until creamy.
Add the flour, cornstarch and salt, then beat until well combined.
Remove the dough and mold into a loose ball with your hands, then place in a bowl. Place in the fridge for 1 hour or until firm enough to roll easily.
When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Roll the dough between 2 pieces of parchment paper to 1/4 inch thick. Cut the rounds using a round cookie cutter (ideally 2 1/2 inches round). Place the cookies on a baking sheet lined with a non-stick mat, like a silpat, or parchment paper. Bake for 13 minutes or until bottom of cookie is slightly brown.
Remove from the oven and allow the cookies to cool slightly on the sheet, then transfer to a cooling rack to finish cooling. While the cookies are cooling, make the glaze.
For the peppermint glaze, whisk all ingredients in a small bowl. Spoon a small amount on the top of each cooled cookie and top with candy canes or sprinkles.

Notes

These cookies are very versatile! If you want to make a vanilla only cookie, replace the peppermint extract in the cookie with an additional 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla. The vanilla cookie can be topped with the peppermint glaze, or you can top with a chocolate glaze (or even with a chocolate nutella). These can then be topped with crushed candy canes or other sprinkles of choice, or omitted completely.

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Meet Alex Caspero

Alex Caspero is a Registered Dietitian, New York Times Bestselling Plant-Based Chef and mom of two. She aims to cut through the nutrition noise by providing real-life, nourishing tips for body and mind. Learn more about Alex.