My most favorite Christmas cookie of all! These vegan gingerbread cookies are sweet, spiced, and SO fun to decorate and eat. Healthy, gluten free and fruit sweetened!
Welcome back to gingerbread week! Monday was all about chocolate with these rich, gooey chocolate chip gingerbread bars. Today, we’re talking about my FAVORITE Christmas cookie of all (these just barely beat these peanut butter gems).
I feel like gingerbread cookies are the face of Christmas, aside from like, Santa and the Grinch. A few years back when I experienced my first Christmas as a blogger, I made a gingerbread recipe but the method was kinda high maintenance and some of the ingredients are more difficult for you guys to find. So, I wanted to revamp my most favorite holiday cookie recipe with simple, healthy ingredients, easy techniques, and obviously delicious, powerful, spiced gingerbread flavor.
Let’s talk vegan gingerbread cookies!
Ingredients for vegan gingerbread cookies
- Almond flour: almond flour keeps the cookies really soft and gives a great chewy texture.
- Rolled oats: you’ll blend the oats into flour, which gives the cookies a little more structure so they can stand up to cutting into shapes.
- Date sugar: date sugar is simply dried dates that have been ground up, and it gives the cookies natural sweetness all from fruit.
- Pumpkin pie spice + ground ginger: these warm spices bring out the classic gingerbread flavor.
- Applesauce: unsweetened applesauce helps the cookies maintain a soft, moist texture.
- Molasses: molasses is essential for anything gingerbread and gives great rich flavor.
- Toppings for decoration: use whatever you like! Think vegan frosting, vegan yogurt, melted chocolate, vegan sprinkles, nuts, etc.
Tips for making vegan gingerbread cookies
- Mix the dry ingredients first. Depending on the almond flour and date sugar you use, there may be lumps to work out with a fork before mixing in the other ingredients to make sure everything in the cookie dough is incorporated.
- Roll and re-roll the dough as many times as you can. You’ll press the dough out into an even layer on a piece of parchment paper, and cut out as many little people as you can! The dough is still a bit wet and delicate, so just use gentle hands when pressing the dough out from the cutter onto the pan. Continue re-forming the dough into a ball and an even layer to cut out as many cookies as you can.
- The baking time may vary depending on the cookie cutters you use. If you use all very small cookie cutters to make your shapes, the cookies won’t need as long as the oven. Regardless I recommend keeping an eye on them after about 10 minutes so that they don’t get too dark!
- Let the cookies cool before decorating. After baking, let the cookies cool completely before adding any decorations.
- Have fun with the decorating! I like to melt PASCHA unsweetened or Lily’s stevia-sweetened chips. I also used the Kite Hill unsweetened vegan yogurt, thinned out with a bit of water. I just put whatever I’m using in a little squeeze bottle or a piping bag (or a ziplock with the corner cut off) for easy decorating.
These vegan gingerbread cookies are without a doubt, 100% going to be a yearly tradition for Christmas time at my house. We’re making these again on Christmas eve, and I cannot wait. Do you guys bite the heads off first, or a limb? Sounds so savage, but I bite off that cute little face first, every time.
It’s a good thing we don’t have any little ones yet, because I’d have a hard time saving any of these for Santa.
Hope you guys love these as much as I do!
Xo,
Sara
Vegan Gingerbread Cookies
Ingredients
- 2 cups almond flour
- 1/2 cup rolled oats, blended into flour
- 1 cup date sugar
- 1 tbsp pumpkin pie spice
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- 1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
- 1/4 cup molasses
- Optional toppings for decoration like vegan frosting, vegan yogurt, melted chocolate, vegan sprinkles, nuts, etc.
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- In a large bowl, mix the almond flour, oat flour and date sugar. Use a fork to break up any lumps in the almond flour or date sugar before measuring.
- Add the applesauce and molasses, and stir to combine into a thick dough. I start stirring with a spoon, then use my hands to press the dough together and make sure everything is incorporated.
- On a piece of parchment paper, spread the dough into an even, thin layer.
- Use cookie cutters to cut out the gingerbread people and set them on a lined baking sheet (I use silicone baking mats which work great).
- Continue re-forming the dough into a ball and an even layer to cut out as many cookies as you can. The number you will get will depend on the cookie cutters you use.
- Bake the cookies for 20 minutes – keep in mind that the baking time may vary depending on the cookie cutters you use. If you use all very small cookie cutters, they won't need as long in the oven, so just keep an eye on them so they don't get too dark. If you use larger cutters, feel free to bake them for up to 25 minutes if you want them even more crispy. Let them cool completely before decorating however you'd like!
- Store in a tupperware in the refrigerator or at room temperature. Due to the moisture and natural oil in the cookies, they will soften a bit when stored.
