Baked with almond butter and warming festive spices these easy Christmas cookies are half dipped in chocolate for an extra special treat!

Did you know shortbread dates back all the way to the 12th Century?  It was an expensive luxury for most and so was originally reserved for celebrations and family gatherings.  Nowadays of course, it’s available reasonably cheaply all year round but I wanted to jazz basic shortbread up a bit for these delicious but super easy Christmas cookies.

I absolutely love shortbread.  And now we (vegans) have quality vegan butter available there’s no need to miss out in this buttery festive treat!

Every Christmas I make some kind of shortbread.  There’s nothing like the smell of home baking with added spice for getting you in the festive spirit.  And as shortbread was, along with Danish butter cookies and roasted nuts, something we generally only had at Christmas as I was growing up, it so reminds me of happy times with Mum and Dad.

How to make vegan shortbread cookies:

If you’re doing this by hand you’ll want to soften the vegan butter first.  Then beat it together, either by hand or using a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, with the almond butter and sugar.

Beat in the flour and spices until it starts to come together as a dough.  Tip the dough out onto your surface and knead lightly until smooth.

Dust your surface with a little flour then roll the dough out to roughly 1/2 cm thick.  How you cut the dough then is up to you.  I’ve used a plain round cutter but also cut bar shapes with a sharp knife.

Put the cookies onto a lined baking tray – they don’t spread so you can put them fairly close together.  Prick the cookies a few times with a fork then bake for 12-15 minutes until just cooked.  The cookies firm up on cooling so you want them to feel slightly underdone and soft still so you get that lovely shortbread texture.

Once the cookies have cooled dip half of each cookie in melted chocolate.  Plain dark chocolate goes very well with these as the slightly bitter chocolate pairs with the sweet cookies.

Before the chocolate sets scatter over your chosen sprinkles.

Once set, store in an airtight container.

Looking for even more vegan Christmas cookies?  Try these:

Vanilla Sandwich Cookies

Chocolate Orange Shortbread Cookies

Tahini Pecan Chocolate Chip Cookies

Danish Butter Cookies

Cinnamon Sugar Cream Cheese Cookies

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