Sugar Cookies Without Butter

There are times when we’re craving a specific recipe or maybe we promised to make it for a party but then we find we don’t have all of the ingredients listed in the recipe.

While many recipes have been tried and tested again and again using the same ingredients, we still can achieve the desired results with a few simple substitutions.

When you think of sugar cookies the word buttery might come to mind. It’s understandable, with the taste and texture, that you might think you can’t make sugar cookies without butter. But, in fact, you can make delicious sugar cookies without butter if you don’t have it on hand or need a dairy replacement.

That reminds me, if you’re dairy-free, I highly recommend checking out my list of the best vegan chocolates on Amazon. You could even get creative and add some to this recipe to make some dairy-free chocolate sugar cookies, yum!

Butter doesn’t quite make it to the list of pantry staples to always have on hand. It has to be refrigerated and likely will be used up quickly in many households.

If you can’t make it to the store but want to bake some delicious cookies, look no further than your pantry. There are many different substitutes for butter that work just as well in this classic cookie recipe that you probably already have at home.

When using a substitute of any kind in baking, you should always check and see how much to use. In the case of butter, some substitutes have a 1:1 ratio. This means that you would use the same amount of the substitute ingredient as you would for the original ingredient in the recipe. 

However, this may not always be the case and you may end up with cookies that are a very different flavor or texture. In baking, the number of certain ingredients can affect how the cookie rises. It may cause the cookie to be either soft and chewy or hard and crunchy.

For sugar cookies, you want a cookie that is soft in the middle but slightly crispy around the edges and not too buttery or sticky.

Most people have oils in their homes for cooking such as vegetable, olive or coconut oil. All of these can be used to achieve the same, or similar, outcome in cookie recipes.

In this recipe, I have used coconut oil which has a very buttery-like texture and keeps well in the pantry for a long time. Coconut oil is a great staple to have in your pantry for days when you can’t make it to the store. It can be used easily for both cooking and baking.

The quality of the coconut oil you use really does matter though. If you don’t have a quality organic coconut oil, I’m completely obsessed with this one from Amazon.

The shelf life of coconut oil is around 2 years compared to 6 months for vegetable oil and about 20 months for olive oil. Like other cooking oils, coconut oil does not need to be refrigerated.

Using coconut oil may give your cookies a very subtle coconut flavor. While some people may find that this makes the cookies even better, you can always use another substitute if you don’t like coconut oil.

Other substitutes for butter that can be used if sugar cookies also include applesauce, greek yogurt, and buttermilk. However, some of these substitutes may also change the flavor so a type of oil might be the best option for sugar cookies, depending on what you have available.

When using vegetable oil or olive oil, you can substitute about ¾ of a cup for every one cup of butter. In sweeter recipes, some people find that the flavor of olive oil might be too strong. But I think this is a matter of preference and I have never minded using olive oil as a substitute for butter.

How to Make Sugar Cookies Without Butter

Step 1: Gather your ingredients

Step 2: Whisk together the dry ingredients

Step 3: Add the wet ingredients

Step 4: Chill the dough for 30 minutes

Step 5: Roll and flatten the dough onto a baking sheet and place into a preheated oven (350 F)

Step 6: Bake for 11 minutes, then take out your cookies and let them cool before enjoying!

Up Next: How Long Do Sugar Cookies Last? – Storage Tips