Easy Dairy-Free Funfetti Cookies is a simple recipe for a colorful confetti cookie treat loaded with sprinkles and baked into soft, festive cookies, made without butter or milk.
Easy Dairy-Free Funfetti Cookies are colorful treats packed with sprinkles and baked to soft perfection, giving you all that classic birthday cake flavor completely without butter or milk.
Whip up a batch for parties, lunchboxes, or a sweet snack.
Otherwise known as confetti cookies, they’re loved by kids and adults alike.
And they’re adaptable. Soft or crispy just depends on the baking time!
And they freeze well.
Love confetti baked goods?
Try Funfetti Cake and Funfetti Cupcakes!
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) for dairy-free funfetti cookies
Can I make these funfetti cookies softer or chewier?
You can easily adjust the baking time or dough thickness to achieve your desired level of softness or chewiness. Bake slightly less for a softer texture, or bake a bit longer around the edges for a slightly crisper bite.
How do I store these cookies?
Store your baked cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days, or freeze them for longer storage.
Are these funfetti cookies dairy-free and pareve?
They are made completely without butter or milk, making them a great dairy-free and pareve treat for any party or snack.
Can I adjust the amount of sprinkles?
You can easily customize the amount of sprinkles to make them more or less colorful depending on your preference.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) for baking:
Why do recipes have salt in the ingredients of baked goods?
Even though salt tends to make foods, well, salty, it actually plays other roles in baking as well.
For example, the right amount of salt balances flavors in baked goods; it can bring out the sweetness of sugar and, at the same time, prevent them from tasting overly sweet. It also can help dull the bitterness of cocoa.
Salt prevents baked goods from tasting bland, while it balances the richness of the fats. It also helps develop flavor in yeast breads and works with proteins to strengthen gluten and make it more elastic.
Salt also slows down yeast fermentation because it prevents the yeast from eating up the sugars too quickly, which otherwise would cause the dough to rise too fast and then ultimately collapse, causing bread to come out flat instead of fluffy.
Salt helps baked goods stay a little fresher for a little longer and helps delay mold from growing on them.
Some types of salt in baking:
Kosher salt—called “kosher” because it is used in the process of making meat kosher for observant Jewish consumption. The grains are large.
Table salt—this is what we use to flavor our food at the table. The grains are much smaller than those of kosher salt.
Flaky salt—flakes of salt that are used for decoration and add a salty taste to the already-baked good.
Sea salt—like table salt, but processed differently
A lot of recipes call specifically for sea salt. There is no difference in the baking process or taste between sea salt and table salt, and both contain approximately 40% sodium.
However, while table salt is usually mined from underground salt deposits, is heavily processed, and often contains the nutrient iodine, sea salt is made by evaporating water from the ocean, sea, or lakes with saltwater and may contain very small amounts of some minerals.
What is the difference between baking soda and baking powder?
Baking soda and baking powder are both synthetic leavens that help baked goods rise, but there is a difference between them.
Baking soda is pure sodium bicarbonate, which needs another ingredient that is acidic in order to be activated. When the baking soda touches the acid, it creates a carbon dioxide gas, which helps the baked good rise. Baking soda is between 3 and 4 times stronger than baking powder, and if too much baking soda is used, your baked good will end up with a metallic flavor.
Baking powder is baking soda that is already mixed with an acid and a stabilizer and will be activated by moisture and heat. Nowadays, baking powder is called double-acting because it activates twice—once when it gets wet (when you mix the ingredients together) and again when it heats in the oven.
Replacing one with the other can be tricky, and it’s not recommended. However, if you have no choice, then do solid research for substituting one for the other for the baked good you are preparing so you don’t ruin it.
What is the difference between butter and margarine?
Butter is a dairy product that is made by churning heavy cream until the fats separate from the milk (i.e., buttermilk). Margarine, however, is made from vegetable oil. Butter generally has a lower melting point than margarine as well as a lower water content (and the soft tub margarines have a higher water content than bar margarines).
Using butter in baking cookies can create a crisper, more flaky cookie, while cookies will come out softer and more cakey when made with margarine. It is also generally believed to be better to “cream” using butter rather than margarine.
Using butter adds a kind of toasted nut flavor to baked goods, while margarine doesn’t add flavor (however, sometimes with margarine, one might have a waxy feel on the roof of one’s mouth after eating something with a high margarine content).
If one wants to make a dairy-free baked good that calls for butter, a dairy-free margarine is a good substitute.
What is the difference between dairy-free margarine and vegan butter?
Vegan butter and margarine have similarities. In fact, all vegan butter is a type of dairy-free margarine. The difference between them is in the content and the baking performance.
Vegan butter is made from fats such as coconut oil, shea butter, or cocoa butter and behaves like butter in that it creates more flaky and crisp textures and has a toasted nutty flavor, while margarine is typically made with the less expensive vegetable oils.
What is the difference in using oil vs. butter or margarine?
Both margarine and butter are solid fats at room temperature, and both contain more saturated fats than oil.
While margarine and butter will change from a solid to a liquid when heated, they will change back to solids when cooled again. Oil stays liquid at all temperatures. Oil also coats flour better in the preparation process before baking.
Butter “creams” better than margarine, but one cannot cream oil at all.
When converting a recipe from butter or margarine to oil, the general conversion rate is 1 to ¾ (although if you are doing more than one batch, you might need to reduce the oil because I have found that baked goods come out oily in this case).
And when converting from oil to margarine or butter, typically the ratio is 1 to 1¼.
What is the difference between real vanilla extract and imitation vanilla?
Real vanilla is made from soaking vanilla beans in alcohol, imitation vanilla is synthetic, and real vanilla costs quite a bit more than imitation. Whether or not there will be a taste difference in your baking depends on the baked good, so do some research before you decide.
Baking equipment for any occasion
- a stand mixer
- a hand mixer (for things that aren’t dough)
- a kitchen scale
- different sizes and shapes of baking pans, including loaf pans
- mixing bowls
- cookie sheets
- pie dishes
- dry measuring cups
- liquid measuring cups
- measuring spoons
- whisks
- rubber spatulas (really good for when you don’t want to leave anything in the bowl)
- rolling pins
- a baking mat for rolling out dough
- baking strips
- a good supply of baking (or parchment) paper (also round for layer cakes)
Baking ingredients to have at the ready
- flour
- white granulated sugar
- brown sugar (light/dark—I usually keep dark)
- confectioners’ sugar (powdered sugar)
- salt
- baking powder
- baking soda
- cocoa powder
- ground cinnamon
- ground nutmeg
- ground ginger
- ground cloves
- baking chocolate
- chocolate chips
- instant dry yeast
- vanilla and/or vanilla sugar
- cooking oil/cooking spray
- margarine or butter
- eggs
- honey
- instant coffee
- various extracts (real or imitation)
I also make sure that I have the following on hand to be able to make a variety of fillings, frostings, and toppings:
- whipping cream
- powdered pudding mix
- powdered sugar
- a good chocolate spread
Then, there is the following to make last-minute quick desserts:
- packaged pie dough or ready-made pie crusts
- puff pastry dough
Lastly, it’s not a bad idea to keep fun toppings, such as chopped walnuts, raisins, and the oh-so-important container of sprinkles.
Easy Dairy-Free Funfetti Cookies Recipe
Delicious, easy, and dairy-free confetti cookies.
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups all purpose flour
- ¾ cup white granulated sugar
- ½ cup unsalted dairy-free margarine or butter alternative
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, real or imitation
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 large egg
- ½ cup colorful sprinkles
Instructions
- Combine the flour, sugar, cornstarch, baking soda, and salt in a mixing bowl.
- Add the margarine or butter alternative, vanilla, and egg and mix thoroughly.
- Gently mix or fold in the sprinkles.
- Chill the dough for around an hour.*
- Spoon or scoop balls of dough on to baking sheets that have been lined with baking paper, leaving room for them to spread.
- Place the baking sheets into an oven that has been preheated to 350°F and bake for approximately 10 minutes or until the cookies aren't soft to the touch. Bake a little longer if you want crispy cookies.
- Remove from the oven and let cool before removing from the baking sheet.
Notes
* I skip this part if I don't have time and they still come out delicious if a little flatter.