November 28, 2018

Vegan Christmas Cookie- Vegan Spruce Sugar Cookies

Here is my homage to that perfect, cozy, holiday season- spruce sugar cookies with a spruce vegan buttercream frosting. Walking by a Christmas tree lot, or through an evergreen forest, you’re greeted with whiffs of sharp, sweet and refreshing spruce or pine. The smell evokes the feeling of warm fires, vanilla, cinnamon, hot chocolate, cold rosy cheeks- basically, the feeling of Christmas. My goal was to create a vegan Christmas cookie that captured the essence of Christmas, and to me there’s no flavor more Christmas than spruce- or Christmas tree itself.

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This post was updated 2/9/24, but no changes were made to the recipe.

Foraging for Spruce

I always love foraging, and it can be hard to come by in the winter. It’s cold, and there aren’t tons of wild edibles beckoning to you from the frozen landscape. There is spruce though! If you’re not up for foraging, you can simply use some trimmings from your Christmas tree (this is most often a spruce tree, although sometimes they’ll be fir or pine). However, if you are going to use your tree, make sure it hasn’t been sprayed with a fire retardant as many trees are. The three main types of conifer are pine, spruce and fir, and all of their needles are edible (although I liked spruce the most). There are other evergreens that are not so good for you- yews, most notably, are poisonous- but sticking to the basics of pine, spruce and fir will make it easy to keep yourself healthy. Small caveat, that it’s possible there are poisonous trees in other parts of the world that I’m not aware of- I’m coming at you with a New England perspective. This article goes through some potentially toxic trees. My simplified version is pines have long, grouped needles, spruce have short, spiky, square, singly grouped needles you can roll easily between two fingers, and firs are similar to spruce, but flat and unrollable. If you want to narrow down the precise species of spruce you have, this guide is a helpful starting place.

Looking for Winter-Friendly Foraging? Try one of these!

Looking for Vegan Cookies? Try one of these!

How to Make these Spruce Vegan Christmas Cookies

If you’re not sold on the idea of spruce cookies, I understand. At first I was a little afraid that using spruce (a scent more commonly used in clearers or air-fresheners) would be off-putting in a cookie. I assure you it’s really not. The spruce melds beautifully with the vanilla and sugar, and the whole effect is the coziest, most festive, sweet and comforting vegan Christmas cookie ever. The ultimate vegan Christmas cookie, if I do say so myself.

This recipe starts by making a spruce infused vegan butter. This can be done by simply melting plant-based butter and adding spruce needles. After letting it sit for about half an hour, you can re-melt the butter and strain out the needles. That butter is going to be separated and used in both the cookies and the buttercream to give them all the Christmassy flavor.

Our cookies are all made in one bowl, for easy clean up. Once the dough is formed, you can roll it out in a 1/4 inch sheet and cut out your cookies. You can, of course, do any shape, but it’s hard not to use a tree shape because it’s adorable and appropriate. Bake your cookies, making sure they have space between them, for 10 minutes. Don’t move them off the tray right away as they will be very soft. After just a couple minutes they will be hard enough to transfer to a cooling rack and after they fully cool you can start to decorate.

Once the cookies are baked and cooled, it’s buttercream time. The buttercream itself is whipped up using the reserved spruce butter, along with powdered sugar and green food color if desired. Decorating these cookies is a matter of preference- I tried some with sprinkles, but ultimately I decided to use a butter knife to create a textured, more tree-like look. If you do go the sprinkle route, there are tons of fun, vegan-friendly sprinkle options on the market (such as these red, green and white sequins or these Christmas stars and holly). I also did less frosting than some of you frosting-lovers might enjoy- if you know you like your cookies to be more frosting than cookie, try infusing more vegan butter and whipping up a double batch of the vegan spruce buttercream.

The Ultimate Vegan Christmas Cookie- Vegan Spruce Sugar Cookies

Prep Time: 40 minutes

Cook Time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 50 minutes

Yield: 20 Cookies

The Ultimate Vegan Christmas Cookie- Vegan Spruce Sugar Cookies

Ingredients

For spruce infused butter (separated between frosting and cookies)

1 cup of spruce needles, rinsed, and removed from the branches
1 ½ sticks of unsalted vegan butter (3/4 cup), plus a tablespoon or two extra in case of evaporation

For cookies

½ cup of spruce infused butter (see above)
¼ cup brown sugar
½ cup white sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
Pinch of salt
2 tbsp. soymilk, or more as needed

For buttercream

¼ cup of spruce infused butter, solid (see above)
1 ½ cup icing sugar
2 tsp. soymilk, or more as needed
Green food coloring (optional)

Instructions

Infuse the vegan butter by placing the spruce needles in a microwave-safe dish, adding the vegan butter on top, and microwaving for 30 seconds at a time until it is completely melted and just starting to bubble. Remove from the microwave, and muddle with a spoon. Set aside for at least 30 minutes, or longer if possible. Remove the spruce needles by re-melting the butter and running through a fine sieve. If a lot of your butter is evaporated/stuck to the needles, add a little more un-infused butter so you have ¾ of a cup. Separate to ½ cup for the cookies, and ¼ cup for the frosting, and place the ¼ cup in the fridge.
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C). To start on the cookies, combine the ½ cup infused butter, brown and white sugar, and vanilla extract in a large bowl. Stir well before adding the flour, baking powder sand salt. Slowly add soymilk, using your hands to combine until it is smooth and not to crumbly (you should need about 2 tbsp. of milk).
Prepare a baking tray by lining it with a silicone mat. On a clean, floured surface, roll out your cookie dough until it is about ¼ inch thick. Use a cookie cutter to cut out your cookies (you could also use a jar lid, a knife, or whatever you have around) and place on the baking sheet with at least a 1/2 inch between them. Take the scraps of dough that were not used in the cookies, and re-roll and cut, continuing until you’ve used most of the dough. Place in the oven for 10 minutes, let cool for a minute or two before shifting to a cooling rack and allowing to cool completely before frosting.
To make the frosting, allow your infused butter to become solid in the refrigerator. Place it in an electric mixer and beat, adding a pinch of salt (omit if your vegan butter is salted), and powdered sugar half a cup at a time. Once all the sugar is incorporated, add two tsp. of soymilk and beat. Finally, add food coloring if desired- my cookies used 5 drops of green, but white frosted trees are also stunning if you’re not food-color inclined.
Once the cookies are completely cooled, use a butter knife to spread a layer of vegan spruce buttercream over each cookie. Decorate as desired, and serve. Store any leftovers in an airtight container.

https://veryveganval.com/2018/11/28/the-ultimate-vegan-christmas-cookie-vegan-spruce-sugar-cookies/