I’ve done it! I’ve successfully made my family sugar cookie recipe vegan and gluten-free.

I grew up making these cookies for every holiday, from Christmas to Halloween to Valentine’s Day. I also grew up watching the Rankin-Bass holiday specials, so I chose my favorite one to pair with this beloved recipe: “Jack Frost.”

This recipe makes roughly 24 cookies, depending on how thick you like your cookies and the size(s) you cut them to be.

Cookie Dough Ingredients
4 cups 1-to-1 gluten-free flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup vegetable shortening
1.5 cups sugar
0.5 teaspoons salt
2 vegan eggs (beaten)
1 teaspoon baking soda
0.33 cups vegan milk
1 teaspoon almond extract

Frosting Ingredients
2 tablespoons vegan butter, softened
1 cup powdered sugar
1-2 tablespoons vegan unsweetened milk
vegan food coloring (optional)
vegan sprinkles (optional)

Instructions
Mix all of the dough ingredients together in a bowl or using a stand mixer.

I used a powdered egg replacer and followed the instructions on the bag to prep 2 eggs, and I used almond milk to go with the almond extract. If you don’t have almond extract, vanilla works. Oat milk would also be great for this recipe instead of almond milk.

Form the dough into a ball and chill it, covered, in the fridge for an hour.

Preheat the oven to 375°F.

Roll out the dough and cut into the shapes of your choice using cookie cutters, circular cutters or a pizza cutter.

Carefully place each shape on a parchment-lined baking sheet.

Bake each sheet of cookies for 10 minutes at 375°F. You will probably make 3-4 sheets of cookies depending on the size of your pans and the shapes of your cookies.

Let the cookies cool completely before frosting.

To make the frosting, mix together the softened butter, powdered sugar and milk. (I again used unsweetened almond milk.)

Once the you’ve reached a spreadable consistency, you can move it into different bowls if you plan on making different colors.

We kept a large quantity to remain white, but we also made red, blue and green.

Mix your food coloring or dye powder into each frosting dish until you reach your desired shade. If it gets too dark, you can always stir in a little remaining white frosting.

Frost and sprinkle your cookies as desired. For me, sitting around the table with loved ones figuring out different combinations of frosting and sprinkles is one of the best parts of making these cookies.

Grab a cookie or two and enjoy with “Jack Frost!”

The Easy Route
You can probably find some premade dough and premade frosting if you don’t want to make these from scratch. Also, if you don’t have shaped cookie cutters, you could just cut the dough into rectangles or squares with a pizza cutter, or you could use any circular cutter you have (biscuit, donut, etc.).

Know of a bakery, store or restaurant that makes vegan, gluten-free frosted sugar cookies? Please share those details in the comments.

The Pairing
I was obsessed with the Rankin-Bass holiday specials as a kid, and I still don’t fully feel like it’s the holiday season unless I watch one of them. 1979’s “Jack Frost” is always at the top of the list.

The film tells the story of Jack Frost (voiced by Robert Morse) and how he pined after a woman so badly he asks the powers that be to become human to make her his bride. (This explains why “Wings of Desire” is one of my favorite films, methinks.)

Along the way, he helps the family and community of his crush, Elisa (Debra Clinger), stand up to a bully governor, Kubla Kraus (Paul Frees).

The stop-motion animation is charming, from sparkly snowflakes to big eyes meant to stir up all the emotions.

The best part about “Jack Frost” compared to the other Rankin-Bass holiday specials is that it isn’t particularly geared towards Christmas or Christian ideology, it is more of a generic tale of winter. The story is narrated by Pardon-Me-Pete (Buddy Hackett), a groundhog who is part of the annual Groundhog Day festivities in this special.

If you’re looking for something cute and short to watch this winter, I highly recommend “Jack Frost.”

If you decide to make frosted sugar cookies and/or watch “Jack Frost,” let us know! Tag us in your Instagram posts & stories, threads, TikToks and/or tweets: @veg_out_recipes. We’re also on Bluesky as @vegoutrecipes.bsky.social.