These homemade dairy free lofthouse cookies are pillowy soft, decadently sweet, and SO much better than store-bought. Plus, you’ll never know the dairy is missing. Switch up the colors and sprinkles for whatever you’re celebrating!
A few weeks back, Mike officially graduated from his fellowship at the hospital after years of training to be a doctor. (More on that here!) Before the pandemic hit, I had all of these big plans to celebrate him with a fancy night in the city, but obviously, we had to scratch that and come up with a few new ways to celebrate.
One of Mike’s most favorite desserts on the planet is those store-bought frosted Lofthouse cookies. That man is obsessed.
If you haven’t ever tried Lofthouse cookies, or aren’t sure what they are, allow me to explain: classic Lofthouse cookies are pillowy soft sugar cookies topped with a thick layer of frosting. The sugar cookie base is light and fluffy but holds up to a nice layer of sweet buttercream frosting. Lofthouse cookies are most commonly found as a staple in grocery store bakeries. They’re often topped with colorful frosting and sprinkles and they’re a big hit with kids and grownups alike.
Dairy Free Lofthouse Cookies; a.k.a., Pillowy Soft Frosted Sugar Cookies
Lofthouse cookies are also the perfect celebratory cookie! You can make them for birthdays, top them with orange frosting and black sprinkles for Halloween, use green and red or blue and white frosting and sprinkles for Christmas and Hanukkah, use pink or yellow for Easter or spring holidays, green for St. Patrick’s Day, the list goes on and on.
See Also → Soft and Chewy Dairy Free Sugar Cookies + The Most Amazing Dairy Free Chocolate Chip Cookies (that can also be made vegan and/or gluten-free too!)
Basically, when there’s a celebration to be had or a holiday to celebrate, you NEED these Lofthouse cookies.
Dairy Free Lofthouse Cookies; a.k.a., Pillowy Soft Frosted Sugar Cookies
So I set out to recreate Mike’s favorite Lofthouse cookies, with a twist: they had to be dairy free so that our oldest daughter, Scarlett, could eat them too.
Admittedly, I was a bit worried about how much work would be involved in making our own Lofthouse cookies, but they turned out to be quite easy to make and the end result was incredible. Honestly, you’d never know these rich and fluffy cookies were dairy free.
And most important of all, our whole family absolutely loved them.
Forget the grocery store cookies; these dairy free Lofthouse cookies are ten million times better.
These dairy free pillowy soft frosted sugar cookies are decadently good. The cookie is light, fluffy, moist, and perfectly sweet, and topping them with a rich frosting = heaven.
Now since we do everything with a twist, the classic Lofthouse cookie has a buttercream frosting; I’ve tried them with both a vegan cream cheese frosting and a vegan buttercream frosting and both are awesome. We went with the cream cheese frosting for this particular celebration because Mike loves it and it was his celebration after all. And honestly, the vegan cream cheese frosting topped cookies might be the winner. 😉
Either way, the frosting is super easy to whip up (both of the recipes are down below) and either one tastes amazing paired with these pillowy soft sugar cookies.
Now as for devouring the cookies, whether you eat them fresh (and cooled) right out of the oven, or snack on them chilled (my favorite!) throughout the week, these dairy free Lofthouse cookies will quickly top your list for best ever sugar cookies. They’re that good.
What You’ll Need to Make Dairy Free Lofthouse Cookies
- All purpose flour or cake flour
- baking powder
- salt
- Vegan butter (Earth Balance butter sticks work GREAT!)
- vegetable shortening, like Crisco
- granulated sugar
- eggs
- vanilla extract
- almond extract
These cookies work SO well with both buttercream frosting and our favorite vegan cream cheese frosting! Both are super easy to whip up and taste amazing paired with these pillowy soft sugar cookies, so this is really a “take your pick” kind of situation.
What You’ll Need to Make Vegan Buttercream Frosting
- vegan butter, softened
- vegetable shortening
- vanilla extract
- salt
- powdered sugar
- Almond milk or soy milk
- food coloring
What You’ll Need to Make Vegan Cream Cheese Frosting
- vegan butter, softened
- vegan cream cheese (like Tofutti), slightly softened
- sifted powdered sugar
- vanilla extract
- food coloring
And of course, don’t forget the sprinkles!
Now let’s get to that cookie recipe …
These homemade dairy free lofthouse cookies are pillowy soft, decadently sweet, and SO much better than store-bought. Switch up the colors and sprinkles for whatever you’re celebrating! TO MAKE THE COOKIES: TO MAKE THE VEGAN BUTTERCREAM FROSTING: TO MAKE THE VEGAN CREAM CHEESE FROSTING: ... Frost cooled cookies with a flat butter knife and top with sprinkles. *Earth Balance butter sticks work best for baking (and are perfect for this recipe!) 1 stick equals 1/2 cup. Adapted via Sweet C’s
Dairy Free Lofthouse Cookies; a.k.a., Pillowy Soft Frosted Sugar Cookies
Ingredients
Instructions
Notes
Writing this post just has me dreaming up another excuse to make our celebratory Lofthouse cookies!
Are you just as in love with Lofthouse cookies as my husband is? Do you have a favorite store-bought cookie? I’m always looking for fun new recipes to re-create with our own spin!
SHOP THE DAIRY FREE LOFTHOUSE SUGAR COOKIES RECIPE POST | CLICK LEFT & RIGHT ARROWS TO EXPLORE