Vegan Almond Butter Cookies with a Buttery Tender Crumb

Switch up your cookie baking game with these vegan almond butter cookies, boasting a tender, buttery crumb. The subtle richness of almond butter effortlessly blends with the cookie’s texture, resulting in a delightful buttery-rich cookie treat. It’s like comfort food in cookie form. Add in some slivered almonds and roll these almond butter cookies in granulated sugar before baking. Vegan almond butter cookies are a baked treat you won’t want to miss!

My (grown) daughter and I had entered cookie-palooza this last holiday season and were making ALL the cookies. This was her first year hosting Christmas in her home with out-of-town visitors she wanted to impress with tasty vegan food and I was just making all the cookies because that’s what I do. Make all the cookies!

Once you get the hang of it, baking the perfect vegan cookies isn't that hard! You need to be clever with vegan substitutions like using vegan butter in cut out vegan sugar cookies, adding cornstarch, using a combination of sugars - or even entirely replacing the granulated sugar with powdered sugar in soft vegan sugar cookies. My new trick is adding agave nectar in cookies to make to add moisture. Chewy vegan red velvet cookies and vegan white chocolate macadamia nut cookies would be overly dry without the added agave nectar - which almost every vegan kitchen has in the cupboard. Hiding SOMEWHERE. 

It was time for us to whip up some peanut butter cookies but unfortunately we had run out of peanut butter after making a double batch of no-bake peanut butter cookies with oats and didn’t want to run out of the store for more. So I looked in my cupboard and found almond butter. What if, we wondered. What if?…

You’ll love these vegan almond butter cookies because they’re simple, nutty, and melt-in-your-mouth good. The almond butter gives them a rich flavor, and the buttery crumb makes every bite satisfying. Trust me, they’re a treat you won’t want to miss! And these cookies are not just for the holidays either. Any time is cookie time for almond butter cookies.

Ingredients needed to make vegan almond butter cookies

•  ground flax and water to make a flax egg
• all purpose flour  – Do measure the flour accurately! Please see the instructions below.
• cornstarch – for a tender cookie texture that holds together
• baking soda and baking powder
•  salt
• vegan butter – Use the higher fat content stick variety; not the vegan tub butter.
• vegetable shortening – Using half vegan butter and half shortening will help keep the cookie from spreading. For an extra buttery taste use butter flavored vegetable shortening.
• almond Butter – Use almond butter without added sugar and salt. We will be adding enough sugar and salt in the recipe.
• brown sugar and granulated sugar for the recipe and also more granulated sugar for rolling the dough before baking. If you are a sugar vegan then use organic sugars.
• agave nectar helps with moisture and adds a little flavor.
• vanilla extract and almond extract – Almond extract can be found at the grocery store next to the vanilla extract. The almond extract keeps forever and can be used in a variety of baked goods such as sugar cookies!
•  slivered almonds – Not sliced almonds
• ½ cup granulated sugar for rolling the dough balls – Just like rolling peanut butter cookie dough balls.
• You’ll also need an electric mixer, one or (preferably) two sturdy large cookie sheets (these [affiliate link] sturdy half-sheet pans are my favorite!), and parchment paper. A cookie scoop is also super helpful.

Instructions to make vegan almond butter cookies

The exact ingredients with measurements can be found in the recipe card below along with more concise abbreviated instructions. Read on for more details, tips, and tricks so that you will feel confident making this recipe.

Step 1: The prep

You won’t be preheating the oven just yet because the dough needs to chill for two hours after prepping. When it’s time, you will preheat the oven to 375℉. Just letting you know…

Prepare two large baking sheets with parchment paper. If you have only one baking sheet then you need to make sure it’s totally cooled between batches. Again, just letting you know.

Set the vegan butter out to soften if it is cold and hard from the fridge. It should be soft and cool to the touch – not warm and melty. If you poke your finger in the vegan butter it will give a little with gentle pressure but your finger won’t go all the way through.

If you are out of time and don’t want to wait too long to soften your vegan butter then cut it into slices and set in the bowl to soften. It will take about half the time or less.

Step 2: Make the flax egg

Make the flax egg by combining the ground flax with the water. Whisk it together and set the mixed flax egg aside while you are mixing the other ingredients. It should ideally sit for about five minutes and will get more thick and a little gelatinous. The ratios to make the flax egg for this recipe are a little different than for the standard flax egg so do pay attention to the measurements in the recipe card below.

Step 3: The dry ingredients and accurately measuring the flour

Measure out the dry ingredients (but not the sugars) into a medium sized bowl. When you measure the flour make sure to “lighten” or sift the flour so that you aren’t cramming it into the measuring cup.

Accurately measure the flour

For precision in baking, weighing flour is the gold standard as it ensures consistent results. The weight of flour can vary significantly based on factors like humidity and measuring techniques. However, if you don’t have a scale, the “spoon and swipe” method—lightly spooning flour into a measuring cup and then leveling it off with a flat edge—can offer a more accurate measurement than scooping directly. While weighing remains ideal, the spoon and swipe method is a reliable alternative for achieving better accuracy in your baked goods.

1. First “lighten” the flour by stirring it about with a spoon to get some air into it.
2. Next, take a spoon or smaller measuring cup and scoop out the lightened flour.
3. Then shake the lightened flour into the measuring cup. You’ll be shaking the flour in the measuring cup until the level of the lightened flour is a little bit above the level of the measuring cup.
4. Next, take a knife or other flat implement and cut the top of the flour all the way across the measuring cup.
5. Finally, with one swift movement, use the same knife to swipe away the excess.

After correctly measuring the flour, add the cornstarch, baking soda, baking powder, and salt to the bowl with the flour. Mix it well so that when it’s time to add the flour mixture to the sugar/fat/liquid mixture, all you will need to do is to mix it in.

Steps 4 and 5: The Fats/Sugars/Liquids

Cream the sugars with the fats

When you measure the brown sugar, make sure to pack it in and level the sugar to the top of the measuring cup. But when you measure the almond butter, you can make a generous measurement that goes slightly over the top of the measuring cup. You don’t want to use as much as one-fourth cup extra – that would be too much. Just a generous cup.

Use your mixer and cream together the softened vegan butter, vegetable shortening, almond butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar. The mixture should be nice and fluffy when you are done.

The liquids

Add in the vanilla extract, almond extract, and agave nectar. The flax egg should be nicely gelled by now so add in the flax egg too. Mix with your mixer for another few seconds until it’s all mixed in.

Steps 6 and 7: mixing in The flour mixture and the almonds

Sprinkle about half of the flour/dry ingredients mixture on the top of sugar/butter mixture just to get it going. We do this so that we don’t have a huge cloud of flour once the mixer starts.

Mix with your mixer until most of the flour has been incorporated. Add the rest of the flour mixture and and mix until all the flour is integrated and mixed. You don’t want to over mix the almond butter cookie dough or you won’t have a tender crumb to the cookie. You may need to reach in at the last minute to fully blend in the flour by hand. Remember that you are just incorporating – not kneading.

The almonds

Stir in the slivered almonds with a sturdy spoon. Use (unsalted) slivered almonds for this recipe. If you can’t find slivered almonds then chop some whole natural almonds. I don’t like using sliced almonds. They are too thin and delicate.

Steps 8 and 9: Chill and prepare to bake

Gather the almond butter cookie dough into a large ball and cover the dough ball with plastic. Set it in the refrigerator to chill for two hours.

Sometime toward the end of the cookie dough chilling time preheat the oven to 375℉. Place the oven rack in the center position and prepare two or more baking sheets by lining with parchment paper. As a reminder, if you are using only one cookie sheet, make sure to thoroughly cool it between uses.

BAKING THE COOKIES

Place a half-cup sugar in a shallow bowl or plate. You won’t use the entire amount of sugar but I like to use that much (or more) to have enough in which to roll the cookie dough. Use a cookie scoop or large soup spoon and scoop out the dough. Roll the dough into balls. If you use a cookie scoop then then will already be formed into balls.

Roll the balls into the half cup sugar one or two at a time. Place the sugared cookie dough balls on a cookie sheet with room to spread a little – because they will spread a little. My large cookie sheet holds 12 cookies. If yours is smaller then you’ll need to bake fewer cookies at a time and in more batches.

Use a fork to make the cross hatch marks or single hatch marks. I do single hatch marks because I think only a peanut butter cookie deserves the cross hatch marks. But you do you:)

You will be baking your cookies in several batches so place the cookie dough in the fridge to chill between batches. I use two cookie sheets so that I have one ready to put in the moment one comes out. If you are using only one cookie sheet then cool it well between batches.

Bake in a 375℉ oven for 9-11 minutes. The cookies will be lightly golden on the edges and lightly browned on the bottoms. Allow to cool on the pan for about five minutes before removing the cookies to a cooling rack with a spatula to finish cooling.

Eat these yummy almond butter cookies within about five days for top freshness. Any cookies that aren’t to be eaten right away should be stored in a sealed container of sorts. I use a couple of ziplock gallon-sized bags. You can also freeze the cookies for later if you can’t eat all of them in at once. In theory. Because we always just eat them right away!

The Printable recipe card