If the mere thought of Pillsbury’s iconic Christmas slice-and-bake cookies fills you with nostalgic joy, then prepare to be delighted! These unbelievably delicious vegan holiday slice and bake cookies are a true game-changer. Building upon the success of our copycat Pillsbury pumpkin cookies, this festive recipe delivers an *identical* flavor profile and texture to the beloved store-bought classic. Best of all, they’re surprisingly easy to make, requiring just a handful of simple ingredients and a dash of holiday spirit.
Revisiting Childhood: The Magic of Vegan Pillsbury Christmas Cookies
For those of us who grew up in the 90s, the Pillsbury holiday sugar cookies weren’t just a treat; they were a quintessential part of the holiday experience. The anticipation of seeing those festive shapes emerge from the oven, the sweet aroma filling the kitchen – it’s a core memory for many. While we adore other classic holiday treats like:
- Peanut Butter Cup Cookies
- Peppermint Meltaways
- Hot Cocoa Cookies
- Cream Cheese Stuffed Red Velvet Cookies
There’s something uniquely special about these copycat vegan Pillsbury Christmas slice and bake cookies. They combine the best elements of our secretly vegan sugar cookies and easy vegan shortbread cookies, yet somehow manage to be even better! The magic truly lies in their authentic flavor and texture. Even before baking, the raw dough captures that unmistakable taste of the original Pillsbury logs (though, for safety, we don’t officially recommend consuming raw flour!).
Why You’ll Fall in Love with These Vegan Holiday Cookies
These easy vegan holiday slice and bake cookies are more than just a recipe; they’re an experience. Here’s why they’re destined to become a new holiday tradition:
- Authentic Pillsbury Flavor: We’ve cracked the code to replicate that distinctive sweet, buttery, and vanilla flavor that makes the original so beloved, but without any animal products.
- Surprisingly Simple to Make: Don’t let the intricate designs intimidate you! The process is straightforward, making them accessible for bakers of all skill levels.
- Perfectly Vegan & Allergy-Friendly: Made without eggs, dairy butter, or milk, these cookies are a fantastic option for those with dietary restrictions or allergies, ensuring everyone can enjoy a taste of the holidays. They’re even nut-allergy friendly.
- Fun for the Whole Family: The assembling process is a wonderful activity for kids and adults alike, sparking creativity and creating lasting memories in the kitchen.
- Ideal for Gifting & Cookie Exchanges: Impress your friends, family, and fellow cookie enthusiasts with these charming and delicious homemade treats. They’re sure to be a showstopper!
Infused with delightful vanilla and “buttery” notes, these cookies strike the perfect balance of sweetness without being overpowering. They’re a wonderful way to bring holiday cheer to your home, promising smiles with every bite.
Crafting the Perfect Vegan Pillsbury Copycat Cookies: The Essential Ingredients
You might be wondering how we achieve such a classic taste and texture without traditional dairy and eggs. The secret lies in a clever combination of readily available vegan ingredients that mimic their conventional counterparts perfectly. Let’s dive into what you’ll need to create these incredible dairy-free Christmas cookies and why each component is crucial:
- All-Purpose Flour: This forms the foundational structure of our cookies. For a gluten-free option, you can easily swap in a 1:1 gluten-free baking flour blend. We highly recommend King Arthur Measure for Measure for its consistent results, as it already contains xanthan gum, which is essential for texture and binding in gluten-free baking. We consciously avoid almond flour to ensure these cookies are friendly for those with nut allergies.
- Cornstarch: Just a touch of cornstarch works wonders in making these vegan sugar cookies incredibly soft and tender. It also plays a vital role as a simple and effective vegan egg replacement, contributing to the delicate crumb.
- Baking Powder: This leavening agent is key to giving the cookies a slight lift and a pleasant, tender puffiness, preventing them from being too dense.
- Pure Vanilla Extract: A generous amount of high-quality vanilla extract is indispensable. It’s the primary flavor component that delivers that signature sweet, aromatic taste synonymous with classic sugar cookies.
- Vegan Butter: Achieving the right texture heavily relies on using room temperature vegan butter. Creaming butter and sugar together creates a light and fluffy base, and ensures the sugar properly emulsifies before the dry ingredients are added. We highly recommend Miyoko’s Kitchen Cultured Vegan Butter or Plant Crock Vegan Butter for their excellent flavor and baking performance.
- Organic Powdered Sugar: This is our secret weapon for replicating the authentic Pillsbury cookie dough flavor. Using powdered sugar instead of granulated sugar gives the cookies a finer crumb and a distinct melt-in-your-mouth quality, a trick learned from a high school baking mentor! For 100% vegan certification and superior quality, Florida Crystals powdered sugar is an excellent choice.
- Vegan Food Coloring: To create those vibrant, festive holiday designs, you’ll need a range of vegan food colorings. For the most brilliant hues, Ann Clark brand is a fantastic option. Alternatively, you can explore natural food color powders like spirulina for green or matcha for a more subdued green.
- Optional: Almond Extract: While a hint of almond extract can enhance the flavor, we find that the cookies are absolutely perfect and authentically Pillsbury without it. Feel free to omit if you prefer to keep them nut-free or simply love the pure vanilla profile.
That’s all there is to it! Despite their impressive appearance, these vegan Christmas slice and bake cookies boast a surprisingly simple ingredient list, making them an accessible baking project for anyone.
Step-by-Step Guide: How to Make Your Vegan Slice & Bake Christmas Cookies
Creating these charming homemade slice and bake cookies with festive designs is a two-part process: first, preparing the dough, and second, meticulously assembling the designs. While it might seem complex, the steps are quite manageable with a little patience. Our accompanying Instagram video demonstrates three different designs, allowing you to choose one, two, or all three to try. If you’re opting for a single design, you can refer to the ratios provided in our pumpkin sugar cookies recipe for guidance.
Part 1: Preparing the Delicious Vegan Cookie Dough
The base dough for these vegan holiday sugar cookies is similar to many of our other beloved cookie recipes, focusing on a smooth, pliable texture perfect for shaping.
- Cream the Wet Ingredients: In a large bowl, combine the room temperature vegan butter, powdered sugar, and vanilla extract. Use either a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment or a hand mixer to beat the mixture until it’s light, fluffy, and well combined. This process usually takes about 1-2 minutes and should resemble a creamy buttercream frosting.
- Incorporate Dry Ingredients: Sift the all-purpose flour, baking powder, and sea salt into the creamed mixture. Continue mixing on low speed until the flour is mostly incorporated and a sticky dough begins to form. Add 1 tablespoon of dairy-free milk at this stage.
- Adjust Consistency & Color (Green Dough): Use a silicone spatula to gently fold the remaining flour into the wet ingredients. If the dough seems too dry or crumbly, add the second tablespoon of dairy-free milk, but only if absolutely necessary; avoid overmixing. The dough will come together with a bit of work. Once the dough is unified, separate about one-fourth of it into a smaller bowl. This portion will become your Christmas tree dough. Add the natural green food dye or matcha powder to this smaller portion and mix thoroughly until the color is uniform.
- Chill the Dough: Flatten both the plain dough and the green dough into separate discs. Wrap each disc tightly in plastic wrap to prevent drying. Place both dough portions into the refrigerator to chill for at least 30 minutes. This chilling period is crucial for firming up the dough, making it much easier to handle and shape accurately.
Now that your base dough is chilling, it’s time to prepare for the magical part: creating the intricate holiday designs!
Part 2: Assembling Your Festive Holiday Designs
This is where the true artistry of these Christmas slice and bake cookies comes to life. While it requires a bit of patience and careful handling, the results are incredibly rewarding. You can choose to create just one design, or challenge yourself with all four. The gingerbread cookies are generally the easiest to shape, followed by the Christmas trees, and then the snowman and stockings, which benefit most from visual guidance.
For the more complex designs like the snowman and stockings, watching the accompanying video on Instagram will be incredibly helpful to visualize the freehand shaping process. Here’s a general plan for distributing and coloring your dough to achieve various festive designs:
Once your plain dough is ready, you’ll divide and color it according to the designs you wish to create. This illustration gives you a clear visual of how to distribute your dough for each design.
Next, we move to the precise step of shaping our cookies. The gingerbread and Christmas tree designs utilize a similar log-shaping technique as our previous pumpkin sugar cookies, ensuring a consistent and delightful outcome.
For the snowman and stocking designs, you’ll be using freehand shaping techniques, which truly adds to the fun and unique character of each cookie. This part can be incredibly creative and allows for personal touches!
Phew! You’ve accomplished the intricate task of shaping your cookie dough into beautiful holiday designs! This stage is truly rewarding, seeing your creations come to life.
Now, all that’s left is the satisfying step of baking your creations! Once your shaped cookie logs are thoroughly chilled, use a thin, sharp knife to slice them into uniform, approximately half-inch thick cookies. Arrange these festive slices onto a baking sheet, ensuring they are spaced adequately to allow for even baking. Into the oven they go, and soon your kitchen will be filled with the irresistible aroma of freshly baked vegan Christmas cookies!
Expert Tips for Vegan Slice and Bake Cookie Success
Achieving perfectly shaped and delicious vegan slice and bake cookies is easier than you think, especially with a few key tips and tricks. Here’s what you need to know:
Can I Eat This Cookie Dough Raw? (Safety First!)
While this cookie dough is completely free of eggs, it’s generally still not recommended to consume raw cookie dough logs. The main reason is that raw flour can potentially carry harmful bacteria like salmonella. If you’re keen on enjoying the dough unbaked, it’s safest to use heat-treated flour. A fantastic way to always have heat-treated flour on hand is to use it as “pie weights” when blind baking pie crusts. After baking your pie crust, let the flour cool completely, then store it for future use in recipes like this cookie dough!
Freezing Your Cookie Dough for Later Enjoyment
Absolutely! These cookie dough logs are perfect for making ahead of time and freezing for later. This allows you to have fresh-baked cookies whenever a craving strikes or unexpected guests arrive. For best results, slice the dough into individual cookies first, then layer them between pieces of wax paper in an airtight freezer-safe container. They will keep beautifully in the freezer for up to three months. When you’re ready to bake, transfer the frozen slices to the refrigerator the night before to allow them to thaw gradually and come to a more even temperature before baking. This helps ensure even baking and prevents spreading.
Achieving Crisp Edges and Soft Centers
The key to those delightful crisp edges and wonderfully soft centers lies in your oven temperature and baking time. Preheat your oven to the recommended temperature and ensure it’s fully heated before placing cookies inside. Baking for 12-14 minutes is usually ideal, but ovens vary. Keep an eye on the edges; they should be just lightly golden. Overbaking will result in drier, harder cookies, so err on the side of slightly underbaked for maximum softness. Allow them to cool on the baking sheet for 5-10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack; this helps them set without breaking.
Don’t Overmix Your Dough!
After adding the flour, mix the dough only until it’s just combined. Overmixing can develop the gluten in the flour, leading to tougher cookies. We want these copycat Pillsbury cookies to be tender and delicate, so a light hand and minimal mixing after the flour is incorporated will ensure the perfect texture.
Easy Copycat Vegan Pillsbury Christmas Slice and Bake Sugar Cookies
- Author: Britt Berlin
- Prep Time: 40 minutes
- Chilling Time: 60 minutes
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour 55 minutes
- Yield: 20 cookies
- Category: Cookies
- Method: Vegan
- Cuisine: American
- Diet: Vegan
Description
If you cherish the nostalgic Pillsbury Christmas slice and bake cookies, you’re in for a treat! These unbelievably delicious vegan holiday slice and bake cookies perfectly replicate the store-bought classic and are super easy to make with just 6 simple ingredients. Perfect for festive baking, cookie exchanges, and spreading holiday cheer!
Ingredients
For the Vegan Cookie Dough:
- 1 cup (226 g) vegan butter, room temperature
- 2 cups (240 g) organic powdered sugar
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp sea salt
- 2 1/2 cups (313 g) all purpose flour*
- 1–2 tbsp dairy free milk
For Vegan Food Coloring:
- Vegan red food coloring*
- Vegan green food coloring
- Vegan brown food coloring
- Vegan blue food coloring
- Vegan black food coloring
Equipment:
- 1.5″ holiday cookie cutters
- Large bowl
- 4 small bowls
- Whisk or hand mixer
- Silicone spatula
- Plastic wrap or parchment paper
Instructions
- Prep: Measure out all ingredients, except for the food coloring. Read through all instructions before beginning. If you don’t have holiday cookie cutters, refer to the blog post above for different designs that don’t require them. Decide whether you’re making 1 design or more. The below instructions are for 4 designs.
- Make the dough: In a large bowl, use a whisk or hand mixer to cream the vegan butter until fluffy, about 1-2 minutes. Then add in the powdered sugar, vanilla extract, baking powder, and sea salt, and mix again until well combined. It will resemble a buttercream frosting. Then add in the flour, followed by 1 tablespoon dairy free milk. Use a silicone spatula to fold the flour into the wet ingredients, adding another tablespoon of dairy free milk only if you really need it. The flour will take a bit of work to fully incorporate, and that’s okay/normal. It will come together.
- Color the dough: To make 4 designs, you’ll follow the written design for dividing the dough into quarters and then further dividing each quarter of dough. If you’d like to make just one design, divide the dough into thirds. Color the dough accordingly:
- Gingerbread people: To the bowl with a quarter dough, remove 2 thirds of that portion to keep plain to go around the gingerbread cut out. Then color that remaining third brown for the gingerbread cookies.
- Christmas trees: Take your quarter of the dough and divide it into thirds. Take 2 thirds of that dough and leave it plain. Then take the remaining third, and remove 1/4 of the dough from that portion. Color the 1/4 portion brown for the trunk. Then color the remaining dough green.
- Snowman: Take your quarter of the dough, and divide it into thirds. Take 2 thirds of the dough and color it blue. Take the remaining third and remove 3/4 of that portion to remain white for the snowman. Color the 1/4 of that portion black for the hat.
- Stocking: Take your quarter of dough, and divide it into thirds. Take 2 thirds of the dough, and color it green. Then take the remaining third, and remove about 1/4 of that portion to remain that plain white color. Color the remaining red for the stocking.
- Wrap and chill the cookie dough: Wrap each cookie dough in separate plastic wrapped discs. Place the cookie dough into the fridge to chill for 2 hours.
- Form the cut outs: Remove all cookie dough from the fridge. For the gingerbread and Christmas tree, you’ll use the cookie cutters. For the snowman and the stocking, you’ll form them yourself.
- Gingerbread: For the gingerbread, we’ll form a log to use our 1.5″ cookie cutter about 1.5″ wide and 1 1/4″ in height (about 10-12 inches in length). It will look long and semi-flat. Use a rolling pin to roll the top to get it smooth (see video here). Take the gingerbread cookie cutter and cut the gingerbread cookies out of the log. Place each gingerbread cookie stacked on top of each other (either stacked up tall or lengthwise, lining up- see photos in blog or video). Any scraps, you can reform into a smaller log, and begin cutting again. Once the cookie dough is used up, carefully wrap the log of gingerbread cookie cut outs in one of the plastic wrap pieces, and place into the freezer to chill for 20 minutes.
- Christmas tree: For the Christmas tree, we’ll form a log to use our 1.5″ cookie cutter about 1.5″ wide and 1 1/4″ in height (about 10-12 inches in length. Take the green cookie dough and shape it into a long log that’s about 1/2″ wide and 1 1/4″ in height (about 10-12 inches in length).It will look long and semi-flat. Use a rolling pin to roll the top to get it smooth (see video here). Then take the brown, and shape the cookie dough into a long log again that’s about 1/2″ thick, and this time, about 1/4-1/2″ in height (about 10-12 inches in length). Line up the green cookie dough along the brown cookie dough, so you have one large log with green and brown cookie dough. Take the Christmas tree cookie cutter and cut the tree cookies out of the log. Place each tree cookie stacked on top of each other (either stacked up tall or lengthwise, lining up- see photos in blog or video). Any scraps, you can reform into a smaller log, and begin cutting again. Once the cookie dough is used up, carefully wrap the log of tree cookie cut outs in one of the plastic wrap pieces, and place into the freezer to chill for 20 minutes.
- Roll out the vanilla cookie dough: While the shaped cookies are chilling and setting together, we’ll roll out the vanilla cookie dough or the encompassing colored dough (as for the snowman and the stocking). Lay the plastic wrap from the vanilla cookie dough flat. You can take one of the extra plastic wrap pieces from the remaining cookie dough discs and place it on top to roll out the vanilla cookie dough. If doing one design, you’ll roll the dough to be about 12″ by 4-5″ long. If doing two designs, the dough should be about 4″ by 4-5″ long. Remove the top plastic wrap piece and discard. We’re going to slice the cookie dough a bit to help mold the pumpkin cookies perfectly into the vanilla.
- Finish shaping the Pillsbury sugar cookies: Remove the shaped sugar cookies from the freezer, and place the log onto the rolled cookie dough right in the middle, aligning the length of the log with the length of the rolled out cookie dough. Pick up each side of the rolled cookie dough, and practice wrap the shaped cookies, seeing where the dough will overlap. Then use a sharp knife, and slice off the overlapping pieces. Take those pieces and roll them to be two long 12″ logs. Place those logs on either side of parts of the design that need protecting of their integrity. Press them into the shaped cookies to shape the cookies into one large cylinder (so that the stem’s integrity is maintained when we roll it into one large cookie dough log). Then wrap the cookie dough over the shaped sugar cookies, gently rolling the log so that the vanilla cookie dough presses into the shaped cookies and forms one large log. Wrap the log again in plastic wrap and chill for 30 minutes to 1 hour in the fridge. It’s even better to slice if chilled overnight.
- While the dough is chilling: Preheat the oven to 375°F (190°C), and line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Slice the cookies: Remove the cookie dough from the fridge, and slice the cookie log into 1/4″-1/3″ thick cookie slices using a sharp, thin knife. Place the cookies onto the prepared baking sheets, spacing them about 2″ apart.
- Bake: Place the cookie sheets into the preheated oven to bake for 12-14 minutes, or until the edges of the cookie dough are slightly golden and the centers are just set. Remove the cookies from the oven, and allow them to cool on the baking sheets for 5-10 minutes before carefully transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Enjoy! Enjoy your homemade copycat Pillsbury holiday sugar cookies! Store any leftover baked cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days. Unbaked dough can be stored well wrapped in the fridge for up to 2 weeks or frozen for up to 3 months.
Notes
Gluten-free: For a gluten-free version of these Pillsbury copycat cookies, simply swap in King Arthur Measure for Measure gluten-free flour for the all-purpose flour. This blend already contains xanthan gum, which is crucial for the texture of gluten-free baked goods.
Please read the entire blog post for full tips and tricks! It contains detailed insights and visual aids that will greatly assist you in perfecting these festive treats.
These vegan Christmas slice and bake cookies truly capture the essence of the Pillsbury holiday originals, but with the added bonus of being entirely allergy-friendly. If you bring these to a cookie exchange, be prepared for a barrage of questions about your secrets – everyone will be amazed by how you managed to get those charming Christmas trees (or other designs) right in the middle! And now, you’re armed with all the hacks 😉.
We sincerely hope you cherish these fun, festive, and incredibly delicious vegan slice and bake cookies as much as we do! If you give them a try, please share your experience and how it went down in the comments section below.
As always, we’d absolutely love to see your beautiful creations on Instagram and Pinterest, so don’t forget to tag us there!
Happy rolling, slicing, and baking this holiday season!
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If you make this recipe, please be sure to leave a comment and a rating ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ below. This helps others to find the recipes! As always, I absolutely love to see your beautiful creations on Instagram and Pinterest, so be sure to tag me there as well!