These shortbread cookies are simple, not too sweet and great to snack on. Dress them up with frosting of choice or some chocolate for fancier cookies.
These cookies taste somewhat like the bakery biscuits from our local bakery in India.(Cookies are called biscuits). Oddly though they don’t share any main ingredients. These are gluten-free, they don’t use shortening, and have no preservatives and things. Just simple wholesome good stuff. Coconut sugar gives the cookies just the right sweetness.
Lightly crispy and lightly crunchy perfection. No palm oil! For regular vegan Shortbread, see these Coconut Oil Shortbread.
More cookies from the blog.
- Gluten free Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Vegan Pumpkin Snickerdoodles
- Almond Butter Oatmeal Cookies. GF
- Gluten free Ginger Molasses Cookies
Steps:
Make the dough, oat it down, then use cookie cutters of choice.
Bake until just about lightly golden. Cool and store or dress with sugar icing or melted chocolate.
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Vegan Gluten free Shortbread Cookies
Ingredients
Dry
- ½ cup (80 g) white rice flour
- ¼ cup (30 g) oat flour use certified gluten-free if needed or use more rice flour
- ¼ cup (59.15 g) ground pistachio or other nuts
- ¼ cup (30 g) coconut flour or use cashew flour or oat flour
- ¼ teaspoon (0.25 teaspoon) salt
- ¼ teaspoon (0.25 teaspoon) baking soda
Wet
- ¼ cup (56 ml) oil
- ¼ cup (62.5 ml) almond milk
- 1 tablespoon chia seed meal or use golden flax seed meal
- 1.5 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ cup (80 g) coconut sugar or use finely ground raw sugar for whiter cookies
Instructions
- In a bowl, add all the dry ingredients and mix well.
- In another bowl, mix the chia seed meal with non dairy milk and let sit for 2 minutes. Add in the vanilla and oil and whisk. Add in the sugar and mix until sugar dissolves in.
- Add to dry and mix. Knead well for 1-2 minutes to form a smooth dough. Spray water on the dough if it does not come together easily (not more than 2-4 sprays). Pat the dough down and use cookie cutters to cut desired shapes. I used 1 inch round cutter. Gather remaining dough, pat down and cut more cookies or shape into balls and flatten. Place the cookies on parchment lined baking sheet, cover with another parchment and refrigerate for 15 minutes(or 10 minutes in the freezer). Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F / 190ºc. Bake for 13-14 minutes(a few minutes longer for larger cookies) until the edges just about start to get golden. Move the cookies around from outside to inside at the 11 minute mark. Let cool completely. Serve as is or dip in melted chocolate or top with favorite frosting.
- Notes: Add mini chocolate chips or sprinkles to the dough. Do not over bake as the cookies can get quite crunchy. The dough can be stored in the refrigerator for upto 3 days.
Notes
Nutrition
Irene
Have you tried any substitutions for the oil? Like maybe applesauce?
Richa
The cookies will be more muffin like rather than cookies with applesauce. Use nut butter instead
Lina Luckway
Love these shortbread cookies as other Richa’s recipes. Especially, they are gluten free! This recipe tastes like regular cookies. Thank you dear Richa for creating such great recipes!🙏❤️
Vegan Richa Support
yay! thank you!
Anna
I make them regularly. Today I added chopped chocolate chips and nuts. With adding or not, the taste of them is delicious!
Vegan Richa Support
Tasty.
Anna
These are like proper shortbread cookies!
Vegan Richa Support
proper indeed 🫖
Shreya
Ground pistachio means crushed pitachios or like pistachio flour?
Richa
Flour. Just pulse in blender with 1-2 tsp cornstarch until close to flour and use
Rani
Thank you Richa I was just looking for a recipe like this to make Christmas. Now I’ll thanks again have lovely holiday and merry Christmas.
Vegan Richa Support
🎄 happy holidays to you as well
Maisoon
Thanks dear for sharing. Can you freeze them?
Vegan Richa Support
yes, in an airtight container or reuseable ziplock with the least amount of air
Rachna
Looks yummy.
When you say to “move the cookies from
The outside to the inside at the 11 minute mark”, what exactly do you mean?
Thanks!
Gretha
I’ve made these a few times and they never seem to last very long 🤔 Always a winner. I’ve added orange zest to mine, and gives them a lovely citrus note. Thanks for your lovely recipes.
Gretha
Zena
Can I use cashew butter instead of oil (or partly instead of oil?)
Richa
Yes
Bela Modi
Very nice recipie
Kanachi
hey look absolutely yum!!how many days is the typical storage time for these cookies? Im planning to bake them tonight and really want to store them for few days if possible! TIA
Richa
The cookies are good for a week or longer. The flavor and texture is best in the first few days.
Sam
If I dont’t want to lose the crunch, is it possible to change the flours except the rice flour? (only oat flour, whole spelt flour, …)
Richa
the cookies as written are crunchy for many days. if you are ok with spelt flour, try my regular shortbread, use all spelt flour. https://www.veganricha.com/2015/09/vegan-coconut-oil-shortbread-cookies-with-pumpkin-pie-spice.html
Sam
Thanks for the recipe, but I’m interested in the gluten free version, because of the use of liquid oil. GL is no problem for me, but I don’t want to use coconut or palm oil, if possible. So, is it possible to get crunchy cookies with liquid oil, when you use some rice flour?
Richa
i am confused. You mentioned spelt in the last comment and Spelt isn’t in this recipe. Spelt also isn’t gluten-free as it is wheat. You can use regular oil in the other recipe as well. What does GL mean?
If you are asking to use all rice flour in this recipe, then you can use it. You might need to adjust the amount you use and add only till you get a soft dough. However the dough will be hard to work with and crack a lot, and the Cookies will be very very crunchy.
Sam
Sorry, for confusing. Ok, so I search for a shortbread recipe, that’s possible with liquid oil. No need to be gluten free. Is some rice flour the possible answer for this?
Richa
Hi Sam, use the recipe link i mentioned earlier and use liquid oil in it, instead of coconut oil. The shortbread will come out crunchy if you bake it a minute longer. no need to use rice flour.
Adriana
Tried this recipe today. Awesome. Thank you.
Richa
Thanks for trying it!
Sara
Richa, do you have any suggestions for baking vegan cookies with minimal added vegan butter and sugar?
Richa
Hi Sara, You can reduce the coconut sugar in this to about 1/4 cup and use 1 Tbsp oil and 3 Tbsp non dairy yogurt.
Deepa
Made these last night – a hit with the kids!
Richa
Awesome!!
abc
Can I use coconut oil?
Richa
yes
Wendy
They’re in the oven!
Jenalee
I Know it changes it a bit but could one put dried cherries and almond extract in perhaps? Or would it change it too much?
Richa
you can add in dried cherries or other dried fruit and almond extract would definitely work well. This is a basic shortbread recipe, so you can add flavors and other things. 🙂 add chopped up dried cherries, so they are not too chunky else the cookies will tend to break.
Patty
Great cookies! Just finished baking – taste great & house smells so good.
abc
OMG Richa. Shortbread without shortening, awesome :-).
How many baking sheets did you need?
Thanks.
Richa
one large sheet.
Miriam
I don’t cook with oil, what can I substitute that with? can i use applesauce or banana?
Richa
yes you can use banana or applesauce. The cookies might be bake to a less crunchy cookie.
JN
Hi, I love shortbread but turning vegan has made me give it up! Any subs for rice flour? I have everything else (cashew flour, coconut flour, Almond meal, oat flour, Ragi flour…). Its snowing heavy outhere and I find comfort in baking & eating cookies. :-))
Richa
use half oat and half ragi flour to replace the 1/2 cup rice flour. rice flours does give a nice crunch to the cookies. they might be less crunchy with the subs
JN
Thanks Richa. I like them crunchy so I will just have to wait until tomo then. Will make rice flour a staple as well. Cannot get out today at all due to heavy snow:-((
Nina
Can I use brown rice flour instead of white?
I have cooked up a lot of your recipes the past week and they all turned out great! Favorite in my household so far are the Cinnamon Roll Pancakes and the Triple Ginger Molasses Cookies :). I am curious about your cookbook. Will it be available in Europe?
Richa
yay! so glad the recipes are turning out well! yes you can use brown rice flour
chrysta @ noshed
oooo! These are super cute little cookies. Love the use of ground pistachios. Thanks for sharing!
Caitlin
these look fabulous. i love how thick they are. shortbreads were always one of my favorite cookies.
Satya
I like to work with almond meal and almond flour – which one of the nut flours would you substitute to retain the flavor? Thank you!
Richa
finely ground almond meal or flour will work. though i prefer pistachios and cashews as they are a softer fattier nut.
christine
I used to love shortbread biscuits, so I’ll have to give these a try – maybe a good Mother’s Day treat in a couple of weeks time:) thanks x
Cassie
These look so cute! Cookies were a childhood favorite of mine!
Angela @ Canned Time
Oh my my!
I’m such a sucker for shortbread….and these little gems look perfect Richa.
I love that you used pistachio flour combined with the oat. Such an easy recipe.
I’d never be able to make them last the day 😉
June Burns
Those look scrumptious! I love shortbread, especially dipped in chocolate 🙂
Anna
This looks absolutely scrumptious!!! thanks for sharing <3
https://aspoonfulofnature.wordpress.com/
Priya
Hi Richa, Can I replace the GF flours with the same quantity of wheat flour?
Richa
sure. use about 1 cup wheat flour and 1/4 cup ground pistachios or cashews.