Vegan Speculaas Cookies {Dairy-Free + Gluten-Free + Refined Sugar Free}

For celebrating St. Nicholas Day on December 6th, we had to incorporate the tradition of baking Speculatius, also known as Speculaas or Speculoos cookies! But, I can’t eat dairy or gluten, and my children go NUTS with refined sugar, so we needed to develop a new recipe.

I started with the recipe of Maria Von Trapp that she shares in her lovely book Around the Year with the Von Trapp Family. Then I swapped out the butter and shortening for vegan responsibly sourced palm and coconut shortening, and the flour for gluten free flour. I ditched the sour cream, and added 1/4 cup of full-fat coconut cream instead. Finally, I swapped the brown sugar for coconut/palm sugar.

And, voila. Albeit not a traditional speculaas cookie, I now have a clean eating, gluten-free, and dairy-free speculoos cookie we can bake every year and enjoy!

This isn’t a super easy to succeed at without gluten or butter, so please follow my recipe instructions carefully!

Vegan Speculaas Recipes

We are not vegans, but this recipe happens to be vegan. Honestly, if the cookie dough recipe is vegan it makes it much less stressful for me when two year old hands stuff the dough into their face when I turn around!

I love being able to bake and not have a heart attack when the kids are stealing dough! And even though this dough is not very sweet at all the kids like it!

Refined Sugar Free Speculoos cookies (Speculaas)

I try to alter all my recipes to make them refined-sugar free if it is possible! Since the original recipe here calls for brown sugar, it is easily replaced with coconut/palm sugar.

Pro-tip- did you know that you can actually food process coconut sugar until it is a fine powder and use that as a replacement for powdered sugar? You can even use it to make icing!!

How to Make Gluten Free Speculaas Cookies

Okay, so it isn’t super easy. Because speculatius cookies are made without eggs or other binders, the original cookies really count on the flour and butter. Making them without flour or butter means you have to come up with some pretty serious tricks to make it work!

The first was- if the dough is too chilled it will just crumble. You should only chill it for about an hour. If it is crumbly at all, warm it up on the counter or with your hands. Once it is WARM it will roll out better.

How to roll out Gluten Free Speculaas cookies

So, rolling out gluten free cookies can be hard! I have a few recipes that make it easy, but many of these old-European adaptations are not easy to roll out when I make them gluten free and dairy free! I was determined to have old fashioned speculatus for St. Nicholas Day, so here we are :-).

BUT there are tricks to make it work.

Here’s how:

1. When you chill your dough, put the amount you would normally roll out between two pieces of parchment or wax paper. Chill in the paper in the fridge.
2. Remove it and check to make sure it isn’t too cold/crumbly. If it is, wait until it warms, or warm with your hands.
3. Roll it out BETWEEN THE TWO PIECES OF PARCHMENT PAPER. I know this is super wasteful y’all, and as someone who is striving for zero waste it makes the holiday season very wasteful. I am open to learning new ways, but for now this is the only tried and true way I know.
4. I didn’t have to do this with the Speculaas, but with some other cookies I will actually flip the rolled out dough right on to the cookie cutter sheet, cut the shapes on the sheet, and then remove the extra. If you find yourself with extra difficult dough, this is an option. Otherwise, cut and move to the tray.
5. When these cookies come out of the oven, move them immediately to a cooling rack or even just the counter. Move them slowly and carefully. As they cool, they harden and can become crumbly!
6. Be positive. You can do this!

Ingredients for Gluten & Dairy Free Speculaas Cookies

• 2 cups Vegan shortening Nutiva Palm/Coconut- I really love baking with this Nutiva brand. They only use responsibly sourced palm oil, and the shortening really does a great job holding gluten free flour together in a way that coconut oil doesn’t. Of course you could use a nice grass-fed butter or ghee if you preffered!
• 2 cups coconut/palm sugar – Alternatively you can use brown sugar.
• 1/2 cup coconut cream- If you aren’t dairy free you can use sour cream or full fat unsweetened yogurt.
• 4 1/2 cups gluten-free flour- make sure your mix has xantham gum
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 3 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp allspice
• 1/2 tsp cloves
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1/2 cup finely chopped walnuts or blanched slivered almonds

Directions for making St. Nicholas Cookies Dairy Free & Gluten Free

Cream shortening and sugar; blend in coconut cream.

Mix and sift dry ingredients; add slowly to creamed mixture.

Stir in walnuts.

Divide into 4 portions; wrap each portion in wax or parchment paper or store in pyrex and chill for an hour or so.

Work with one portion of dough at a time, roll out between two sheets of parchment or wax paper. If dough is crumbly, warm dough with your hands until it sticks together.

Roll out to 1/2 inch or so, and cut with cookies cutters. Transfer to cookie sheet.

Bake at 350º for 10 minutes.

Remove cookies immediately to cool on counter or cooling rack.

Decorate, if desired!

Substitutions in Vegan Speculaas Cookies for St. Nicholas Day

• To make this with dairy- Instead of palm/coconut shortening, you could use a nice grass-fed butter or ghee if you prefered! You can also swap out the coconut cream for sour cream or full fat yogurt.
• To make this with real sugar instead of refined sugar free– Swap out the coconut/palm sugar for brown sugar.
• To make this paleo– I do not think this will work with just almond flour, and I have not experimented with coconut flour.
• To make this with gluten– Just swap out for regular flour!