Vegan Vanilla Wafers

These easy-to-make, 9-ingredient vegan vanilla wafers are a crispy cookie that goes perfectly with any hot drink, and works well in a number of desserts. With minimal prep time and just a handful of ingredients, vanilla wafers are one of the easiest cookies you can make at home.

What Are Vanilla Wafer Cookies?

Vanilla wafers are the homemade version of the commercial Nilla Wafers, which are vanilla-flavoured, wafer-style cookies produced by Nabisco. They are traditionally made with flour, sugar, shortening and eggs. Because they’re made with just a handful of ingredients and require no special cutting, shaping or baking techniques, they are one of the easiest cookies to replicate at home.

Are Vanilla Wafers Vegan?

Traditional, or store-bought vanilla wafers, are not vegan. This recipe, however, uses only plant-based ingredients for the perfect vegan wafers.

These vegan wafer cookies are:

• Crisp
• Perfectly sweet
• Made with no preservatives, artificial colouring, flavouring or chemicals
• Vanilla infused
• Easy to make
• Delicious

Ingredients You’ll Need to Make Vegan Vanilla Wafers

Coconut oil – melted refined coconut oil works best, as it has a very neutral flavour that lets the vanilla shine. I don’t recommend reducing the amount, as fat is an important factor in the taste and texture of these cookies.

Sugar – use granulated sugar to sweeten these cookies.

Vanilla extract – a generous tablespoon of high-quality vanilla extract adds the titular flavour to these cookies.

Flax egg – the ultimate vegan egg replacer that will work in almost any recipe. To substitute one chicken egg, mix one tablespoon of flax meal with two and a half tablespoons of lukewarm water, and let the mixture sit for about 10 minutes. If this is your first time making flax eggs, you can read my quick tutorial on how to make flax eggs here.

Almond milk – you can use any kind of dairy or non-dairy milk you prefer. I used unsweetened almond milk.

Sea salt – adding salt to sweet recipes helps to bring out the flavours, and it really does make a difference. Use finely ground sea salt, and measure it precisely.

Almond flour – please keep in mind that almond flour is not the same as almond meal. It’s made by blanching almonds in boiling water to remove the skins, then grinding and sifting them into a fine flour. On the other hand, almond meal is made by grinding almonds with their skins intact, resulting in a coarser texture.

Corn starch – can be replaced with arrowroot and potato starch.

All-purpose flour – if you’re measuring in cups, make sure to use the “spoon and level” method: using a spoon, scoop the flour into the measuring cup, then use the back of a knife to level off the top of the measuring cup.

How to Make Vegan Vanilla Wafers

Step One – Prepare the Batter

Whisk coconut oil with sugar and vanilla. Add flax egg, almond milk, salt, almond flour and cornstarch, and whisk to combine. Mix in flour with a wooden spoon or spatula until loose batter is formed.

Step Two – Shape the Cookies

Chill the batter for 15 minutes, while preheating the oven to 350 degrees F (176 C). Once chilled, roll the dough out into a ¼-inch-thick rectangle between two pieces of parchment paper and use a small circle cookie cutter to cut out cookie shapes. Reform dough as needed until it’s all used up. Gently transfer the cookies to your parchment-lined baking sheet.

Step Three – Bake

Bake for 15-18 minutes or until golden brown on the bottom and dry on the top. Let cool completely before removing from the pan.

How Long Do They Keep?

Loosely covered, these dairy-free shortbread cookies will last for up to 5 days at room temperature, or well-sealed in the freezer for up to 1 month.

Looking for More Cookies?

If you’re half as excited about baking vegan cookies as I am, I recommend checking out these vegan lemon cookies, vegan coconut cookies, chickpea flour cookies, steel cut oats cookies, or vegan and gluten-free snickerdoodles.

Click here for a complete list of vegan cookie recipes.