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This soft olive oil sugar cookies recipe uses olive oil and apple sauce instead of butter to create dairy-free sugar cookies. In less than 30 minutes, you can have the most delicious soft and chewy no butter sugar cookies ready to and waiting. They are sure to be a crowd pleaser !
These dairy free sugar cookies are my newest homemade sugar cookie obsession. They are pillowy, light, and chewy. They taste just like regular soft sugar cookies but with a lightened-up air to them. And they are simple and quick to make. They take less than 30 minutes to make!
I love using olive oil to replace butter in this cookie recipe. If you love baking with olive oil, check out my Olive Oil Chocolate Chip Cookies or my Olive Oil Pumpkin Cake.
Table of Contents
Why this recipe works
- It is a delicious sugar cookie recipe without butter. For a more classic butter cookie, try my Sable cookies.
- They are no chill sugar cookies that are soft and chewy.
- They are sweet but not heavy
- They are light and airy and yet perfectly satisfying.
- They are dairy-free, but taste like regular sugar cookies. That is why I love making cookies with olive oil instead of butter. You get great taste and texture but without having to use butter.
Recipe Ingredients
- flour– unbleached all purpose flour is best for this recipe.
- baking soda AND baking powder– you need both in this recipe and they are used to help the cookies rise.
- olive oil– extra virgin olive oil is my go-to for this recipe. Make sure you are using a light flavored olive oil, that is lighter in color.
- apple sauce– make sure it has no added flavors or sugars.
- sugar– organic cane sugar is my favorite to use for sugar cookie recipes.
- coarse sugar– to dunk the cookie dough into before baking (optional)
To get a full list of the ingredients, check out the recipe card at the end of the post.
Additions/ Substitutions
- Instead of olive oil, you could use avocado oil.
- Add sprinkles to the dough before baking OR roll the dough into course sugar prior to baking.
- Instead of apple sauce, you can use pear sauce.
Step by Step Cookie Instructions
Step 1: Mix all of the dry ingredients together in a bowl. This includes the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in one bowl.
Step 2: Mix the wet ingredients with a hand-held mixer. This includes the olive oil, sugar, egg and vanilla. Then mix the wet and dry ingredients together until a dough forms.
Step 3: Use a small cookie scoop to gather the dough.
A small cookie scoop grabs about 1 Tablespoon worth of dough. Put the dough onto a cookie sheet OR you could grab some coarse sugar and dunk your cookie dough balls into it before putting them onto a cookie sheet.
Step 4: Bake!
How to decorate them:
- You can dunk the cookie dough in coarse sugar before baking.
- You can sprinkle the dough with sprinkles.
- You can frost them.
- If you want to keep the cookies totally dairy-free, you could use a dairy-free frosting like one from Mrs Jones.
- You could also use regular frosting if that works for you. Store bought or homemade frosting works great.
Recipe FAQs
Cover and keep at room temperature for 4-5 days.
Yes, just make sure to use a 1-1 gluten-free baking flour.
Yes, it helps with the texture of everything. However, if you can’t have apple sauce, you can try pear sauce.
Other olive oil baking recipes that you’ll love:
If you love chocolate, then you will love these Chocolate Chocolate Chip Sea Salt Cookies. It’s not for the faint of chocolate heart!
These Paleo Almond Flour Brownies with Olive Oil are delicious brownies with a gluten-free and dairy-free twist.
These Banana Oatmeal Muffins Made with Olive Oil are the ultimate breakfast muffin that tastes amazing with some almond butter on top.
These gluten free chocolate chip cookie bars are the ultimate decadent gooey cookie dessert.
Did you try this recipe? Please leave me a ⭐ review below!
Soft Olive Oil Sugar Cookies (Dairy-free)
Ingredients
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup olive oil
- 1/4 cup apple sauce
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Optional- coarse sugar to roll the dough in before baking
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- In a large bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt together with a fork.
- In another bowl, mix the olive oil, sugar, egg, apple sauce and vanilla with a hand held mixer.
- Pour half of the dry ingredients into the bowl of the wet ingredients and mix with your hand-held mixer. Add the other half of the dry ingredients and mix again. You may need to scrape the sides of the bowl as you do this.
- Using a small cookie scoop, or a spoon, scoop out 1 Tbs sized balls of the dough and place on a cookie sheet.
- Note: if you want to roll the dough in coarse sugar, do this prior to placing the balls of dough on a cookie sheet.
- Bake for 10-12 minutes, then remove the cookies from the oven and let them sit on the cookie sheet for 5 minutes before moving them to cool on a cookie rack.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
I have extra Virgin olive oil and coconut oil on hand. Which would be best for this recipe? Not sure which would have a lighter flavor
I think olive oil would work best.
I couldnt get these to roll out as they werent firm enough. Any suggestions?
When you say roll out, do you mean you weren’t able to scoop them up in a cookie scoop? I wonder if you add a little bit more flour if that would help.
I only have extra virgin olive oil. Does that matter?
yes, that is fine and works perfect here.
I made these and rolled them and used a cookie cutter. They kept their shape and size while being cooked. I did add matcha but not enough to taste. I didn’t see that this recipe makes 24 cookies. That’s exactly how much I got out of it, and pretty generous and thick ones too. I used half the sugar and they still tasted and rolled perfectly. I will be bookmarking this recipe and using it as my go to sugar cookie recipe. I don’t like coconut oil as much because of having to melt it. This is much better.
So glad these worked great for you. I’m happy to know they taste good with less sugar as well and can be rolled out . I love the idea of using matcha as well!
Positively delicious! I was nervous to make these since there were no comments or reviews, I didn’t want them to end up turning out bad and end up going to waste. This is my 3rd time trying out a no reviewed or commented recipe and the 2nd time they succeeded! I used about 1/4 cup olive oil, 1/2 Pineapple Jam instead of Applesauce and Vanilla soy milk instead of Vanilla extract. I’m Glad I followed the recipe and added both cups of flour although I thought 1 looked like it was enough. I had to bake it about 5 minutes extra, they came out darker but still Amazingly Tasty! They were Hard(biteable hard) on the outside and so chewy and soft on the inside! I loved them!! These were made yesterday at 1Am, I left them on the counter overnight covered(couldn’t eat them all). Today they were quite harder, after a small bite I thought they were ruined and was planning to throw them out but my Mother said they actually tasted good. Later I tasted one(a better bite than last time)and Oh! They were Fine! A bit harder outside but still a chewy inside, all was well! 10/10 for this Recipe!!
Very happy to hear it! I’m also happy to see the tweaks that you made that worked.