Vegan cinnamon sand dollar cookies surrounded by sea shells.

These adorable little vegan cinnamon sand dollar cookies are basically a summertime themed snickerdoodle!

We are parents to 3 girls and a 1 boy. This means we have watched the Little Mermaid and Finding Nemo approximately 9 gazillion times, and have hosted about seventy eleven mermaid/ocean themed birthday parties over the years. These cookies scream beach themed gathering!

They are pretty easy to make, they just require a little time to press all those almonds down into the dough! They bake up quickly and are super delicious to boot.

So if you need a beachy themed cookie for a party, or just want to whip up a batch for yourself because they are so cute and addictive, then we are here to serve.

And if you are stuck watching a the same mermaid or fish movie for the millionth time and just need something to break up the monotony of this phase of life, these should help. They won’t however help with the songs that are forever stuck in your head from said mermaid movies. Hey, I just make food, not miracles.

INGREDIENTS:

3 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup vegan butter, softened
1 cup powdered sugar
1 cup granulated sugar, divided
2 tablespoons tapioca starch, plus 6 tablespoons water
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
slivered almonds

INSTRUCTIONS:

Whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt in a medium sized bowl.
Using a stand mixer or an electric hand mixer and a large bowl, cream together butter, powdered sugar, and 1/2 cup granulated sugar until light and fluffy. This will take a few minutes.
Mix the tapioca starch and water together.
Add starch mixture and vanilla to the butter sugar mixture and mix.
Add in the flour and mix until well combined.
Mix remaining 1/2 cup granulated sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
Scoop dough using a small cookie scoop or spoon ( around 2 teaspoons of dough) and roll into balls. Roll the balls in the cinnamon sugar mixture.
Use the bottom of a glass to press the cookies out flat. It helps to spray the bottom of the glass with some cooking spray so they dough does not stick.
Press 5 pieces of slivered almonds into each cookie to make a star shape.
Bake cookies for 7-10 minutes, just until the edges seems done. Let cookies cool on the sheet for a few minutes then transfer to a cooling rack to finish cooling.
Store cookies flat in an airtight container. This helps the almonds stay put! We stored them in a zip lock and it caused some of the almonds to fall out.

If you like this recipe, try these:

Vegan Ranger Cookies

Gluten Free Mexican Wedding Cookies

Dairy Free Oreo Truffles

A woman holding a vegan cinnamon sand dollar cookie

Vegan cinnamon sand dollar cookies

Vegan Gluten Free Mexican Wedding Cookies

When I was a kids I used to beg my dad to buy me a bag of the Keebler Danish wedding cookies in the pink bag, every time we went to the grocery store. I am not sure if it was the pink bag, or the delicious little cookies inside, all covered in snowy powdered sugar.

Either way I loved them! I did not attempt making my own until I good and grown, and needed a Russian treat for an international school festival one of our kids attended. The Russian apple cake I fist attempted was an epic failure ( I forgot to add sugar, I’m and genius, I know) so In a pinch I turned to googling and found what seemed to be a Danish wedding cookie, but called a Russian tea cookie, but also commonly known as a Mexican wedding cookie.

Apparently this cookie goes by a lot of names, but I most often hear it called a Mexican wedding cookie, or snow ball. The cookies were so easy to make, a huge hit, and whatever you call the, rest assured they are amazing.

My awesome daughter was kind enough to bake up a gluten free batch recently for my Man Jong Club (I know, I am all over the place in this post, but y’all Mah Jong is SO FUN) so everyone could enjoy a treat. We used our favorite, fail proof, gluten free flour blend from the A Little Insanity website. It has worked in any recipe we have ever used it in, and is 100% worth your time to mix up a batch. Also, her site is great for all things allergy friendly and GF, so give it a gander!

You can also use regular all purpose flour in this recipe if you are not GF! It works just fine. So if you have been craving a vegan Danish, Mexican, Russian, Italian, tea, butter ball, snow ball, international cookie of mysterious origin, we have you covered, dipped, and rolled in powdery sugar goodness!

INGREDIENTS:

2 1/2 cups gluten free flour blend (we use this one, it is hands down the best we have tried)
1 cup vegan butter, softened
1 cup powdered sugar, plus extra for rolling
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract (optional)
1/4 teaspoons salt
1 cup almond meal ( ground up almonds)

INSTRUCTIONS:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

In large bowl mix softened butter and sugar until creamy. Add in the vanilla and almond extracts and mix.
Add in the dry ingredients and mix until well incorporated. The dough be dry but wet enough to hold the shape of a ball. You can find almond meal in the baking section of most stores now. It is NOT almond flour. It is more coarse. We normally just pop some almonds in a blender to make the meal.
Line 2 baking sheets wth parchment paper. Using a small cookie scoop or a talbesppon, scoop dough and roll into balls. The cookies do not really spread, so you do not have to space them out too much.
Bake for about 12-15 minutes, just until the cookies are starting to brown around the edges.
Allow cookies to cool completely before rolling them in powdered sugar. If the cookies are even still warm it will cause the powdered sugar to cake up and melt on the cookies. So make sure they are totally cool.
Store cookies in an airtight container.

If you like this recipe, try these:

Vegan ranger cookies

The Perfect Vegan Peanut Butter Cookie

Easy Vegan Fudge

**you can sub the same GF flour blend in these cookie recipe. We have done it and it works great!