I am all about baking a million cookies for the holidays! I have my daughter help and then we give them to everyone. These vegan Santa’s trash cookies are one of our absolute favorites to give out and to make! They are so simple and are easy to customize with whatever snacks you have on hand. My personal favorites are chips, pretzels, chocolate and sprinkles! They are so festive, so cute and have a delicious sweet and salty thing. Sweet and salty desserts are my very favorite.
This recipe makes 2 dozen cookies, so you will have plenty to share with your friends and family. My husband took a bunch to work this year and no one knew they were vegan. They are an excellent texture and and use very simple ingredients that will be easy to find in a regular grocery store!
These vegan Santa’s trash cookies are nice and soft, which is just the way I like them. However, you can bake them a little longer so they are firmer and crispier. The choice is yours! These cookies will definitely be a awesome, unique and delicious addition to any cookie exchange or holiday party!
Some alternative snack suggestions:
- Any kind of roasted/salted nuts
- Vegan chocolate candies
- Potato sticks
- Vegan white chocolate
- Dried fruits
I just recommend any combination of sweet and salty treats. Since these are called Santa’s trash cookies, they can really be whatever you want, or have on hand. I do love the base recipe I have for you here, but anything is possible! These are best with something sweet, something salty, something crunchy, something soft, and something rich. They will be one of your favorite holiday treats to make from now on! You can even switch up the colors of the sprinkles so they can work for other holidays!
Vegan Santa's Trash Cookies
Ingredients
- 2 Tablespoons Flax meal
- 3 Tablespoons Water
- 3/4 Cup Vegan butter, I used Earth Balance (room temperature)
- 1/4 Cup Organic cane sugar
- 3/4 Cup Brown sugar
- 2 teaspoons Vanilla
- 2 1/4 Cup All purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon Baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon Salt
- 1/2 Cup Crushed potato chips
- 1/2 Cup Dark chocolate chips, vegan(or chunks)
- 1/3 Cup Crushed pretzels
- 1/4 Cup Red and green sprinkles,vegan(I used Sweetapolitas)
- Sea salt for topping, optional
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees(F).
- First, make a flax egg by whisking the flax meal and water together in a small bowl and set aside to thicken while you start the cookie batter.
- Using a hand mixer or stand mixer, mix together the vegan butter, cane sugar and brown sugar in a large mixing bowl. Mix until fully combined and fluffy. Scrap down the sides of the bowl if needed.
- Then add the vanilla and the flax egg you made. Then continue to mix until everything is fully combined. Set aside.
- Now, in a separate large mixing bowl, sift the flour and the baking soda. Then add in the salt. Stir to combine.
- Next, add about 1/2 cup of the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients at a time, mixing until the dry ingredients are combined, then add more, until all of the dry ingredients have been incorporated.
- Then, pour the crushed chips, dark chocolate chips, crushed pretzels and sprinkles into the batter. Fold everything in so they are evenly distributed into the batter.
- Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper or spray with non-stick spray. Then take about 1-2 tablespoons of the cookie batter and roll into a ball. Place on the baking sheet and press down to flatten just a bit. They should still be thick.
- Repeat with all of the batter making sure the cookies are at least 2 inches apart on the baking sheet, sprinkle the tops of the cookies with sea salt if desired. You will probably need to use 2 baking sheets or do them in 2 batches.
- Bake for 7-9 minutes or until golden brown. They will still be slightly soft when done, they firm up when cooled. Cool completely before eating.
Nutrition
So good! I’d probably just sprinkle the chips on top next time – I used regular lays and they kind of just disintegrated. The recipes makes a great cookie.
these came out absolutely incredible. so easy to make and fun to make. thank you so much!
These are delicious and so fun! I did almost double the cooking time. I would definitely make these again! My almost-four-year-old got a huge kick out of mixing up the Santa’s trash part of the recipe.
I made them with a TBSP scoop and baked them for 10-11 minutes. The sprinkle of sea salt before you bake them is an absolute must. Otherwise, they taste somewhat flat. They are great though. Texture galore!
easy to make and good. Got rave reviews from friends. Large chunks of chips worked better.
Only omitted the chips (due to friend’s preference) and used small chocolate chips. I found the dough was very dry and crumbly and difficult to shape. The taste, however, was GREAT. Will definitely make again, but may use more water/ butter/ or milk in order to get more pliable cookies.
Wow! Just made these and was skeptical of how they would turn out because the dough was VERY soft and looser than my usual cookie dough. They spread the perfect amount in the oven, and fluffed up a ton!.I had to bake for closer to 12 minutes to get the slightly golden edges and they were still gooey out of the oven but set as they cooled. I definitely recommend using medium pieces of potato chip, not too finely crushed so that you get a good texture and flavor. I couldn’t help ,myself and ate some while they were still cooling, and they were ok but a million times better once fully cooled! Take her advice and wait until fully cooled.
O.M.G. These are the best cookies! Perfect in every way. Thank you!!
These looks super interesting!
How many cookies does this recipe make? it says serving one, but it can’t be just for one cookie
I think you might be looking at the serving size for the nutritional information. It is just showing you the nutritional information for one cookie. The actual amount my recipes make is always listed at the top of the recipe, where the name of the recipe is. This one has 24 cookies listed!
Made them with gluten free pretzels, GF all purpose flour and vegan butter so they could be an allergy friendly option at a Christmas party. Worked great. Will need to press down next time to achieve the more pleasant looking, flatter cookie appearance. Needed to cook almost twice as long to achieve golden brown. Kids loved them!
Hi! How long will these last in Tupperware? Thanks
Hi! They should last for a week or so if in tupperware.
Delicious! I have made these every year for the past 4 years for the holidays and they are my favorite.