Brown Sugar Espresso Shortbread Cookies (Vegan)
The flavors of brown sugar, cardamom, and espresso come together in these lovely shortbread cookies. They are easy, dairy-free, and just festive enough to add to your holiday baking.
Each bite of these crisp little cookies brings with it the sweet flavor of brown sugar, an undertone of cardamom, and an espresso-enhanced glaze. They are light and buttery with the perfect amount of snap. These little guys are super simple to bring together but do require some refrigerator time. The perfect cookie to add to your holiday baking list or just a fun weekend bake.
What you will need:
Brown sugar, espresso powder and a touch of cardamom are a must for these cookies. All other ingredients are basic pantry items.
- all purpose flour
- plant based butter
- brown sugar
- vanilla extract
- cardamom
- vanilla extract
- powdered sugar
- plant based milk
- espresso powder
- turbinado sugar – optional
How to:
This shortbread dough could not be easier to bring together. To a medium bowl, add the flour, brown sugar, powdered sugar, and cardamom. Whisk the ingredients together until fully combined. To the dry ingredients, add the vanilla extract and the butter. The butter should be cold and cubed. Toss the mixture to coat the butter and incorporate the vanilla. To create that lovely shortbread texture we all love, cut the butter into the dry ingredients. I used a pastry cutter for this process. You can also use two knives or even your fingers. The goal is to create a pebble-like consistency. Once you have achieved the desired consistency, bring the dough together with your hands and form it into a disk. Wrap the disk in plastic wrap and place it in the refrigerator for one hour.
Remove the dough from the refrigerator and place it onto a lightly floured surface. Roll the dough out to a 1/4 inch thickness. Cut the cookies out with your favorite cookie cutters. I used a 2-inch round cutter and a 2×2 1/2-inch rectangular cutter. Re-roll the dough as many times as you need, but try to handle the dough as little as possible while doing so. If you feel like the dough is getting too soft, place it back in the refrigerator to firm up again and then continue cutting out your cookies. Place the cut cookies on parchment-lined cookie sheets. Once all the cookies are cut out, place them in the refrigerator for one hour.
Preheat the oven to 325°F. If the cookies have been resting on a cookie sheet in the refrigerator, transfer them to a room temperature cookie sheet before baking. Baking the cookies on a cold cookie sheet will affect the bake and the baking time. I sprinkled turbinado sugar over the cookies before baking; this is a completely optional step. Bake the cookies for 13 minutes. At 13 minutes, my cookies came out with a beautiful, crisp texture. Allow the cookies to rest on the pan for 5 to 10 minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack.
Prepare the glaze while the cookies cool. In a small bowl, add the powdered sugar, espresso powder, vanilla extract, and milk. Whisk the ingredients together until well combined and smooth. Once the cookies have completely cooled, the glaze can be applied. I fully glazed half of the cookies by dipping the tops. I drizzled glaze over the other half of the cookies. Allow the glaze to dry before storing the cookies in an airtight container at room temperature.
Alright, let’s get started. Please make, bake and enjoy!
Brown Sugar Espresso Shortbread Cookies (Vegan)
Ingredients
Cookie
- 1½ cups / 180 grams all purpose flour
- 1 stick / 113 grams plant based butter with salt – cold and cubed
- 4 tbsp brown sugar
- 2 tbsp powdered sugar
- 1 tsp cardamom
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
Glaze
- 1/2 cup/ 60 grams powdered sugar
- 2 tbsp vanilla extract
- 2 tbsp milk
- ¼ tsp espresso powder
optional
- turbinado sugar
Instructions
Cookie
- To a medium bowl, add the flour, brown sugar, powdered sugar and cardamom; whisk to combine. Add the vanilla extract and the cold cubed butter; toss to coat the butter and incorporate the vanilla.Cut the butter into the dry ingredients until a pebble-like consistency is reach. I did this with a pastry cutter. Once the desired consistency is reached, bring the dough together with your hands, form it into a disk, wrap it in plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for 1 hour.
- Remove the dough from the refrigerator and place it on a lightly floured surface. Roll it out to a 1/4 inch thickness. Using cookie cutters of your choice – I used a 2 inch round and a 2×2 ½-inch rectangle – begin cutting the cookies. Place the cut cookies on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. You will need at least two cookie sheets. Re-roll the dough as many times as needed; try to handle the dough as little as possible during this process. Once all the cookies have been cut, place them back in the refrigerator for another hour. **If you have the cookies on a cookie sheet while resting in the refrigerator , I suggest using a different cookie sheet to bake the cookies on. Putting the cookies in the oven on a cold cookie sheet will affect the bake.*****optional – sprinkling some turbinado sugar over the cookies before baking them***
- Preheat the oven to 325F. Bake the cookies for 13 minutes. Once out of the oven, allow them to rest on the cookie sheet for 5 to 10 minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack.
Glaze
- To a small bowl, add the powdered sugar, vanilla extract, milk and espresso powder; whisk until fully combined and smooth.
- Once the cookies have completely cooled, they can be glazed or drizzled. I fully glazed half of the cookies by dipping the tops of the cookies in the glaze. I drizzled glaze over the other half of the cookies. Allow the glaze to completely dry before storing the cookies.Store the cookies in an airtight container at room temperature.
