Vegan Gingerbread Cookies
As you know, I'm a big fan of ginger and all things spicy-sweet. These gingerbread cookies in particular hit all the right notes for me - they're crispy on the outside, soft in the middle and absolutely packed with flavor and spice.
Every year, my family and I get together for a Christmas cookie baking party. Normally, our gingerbread cookies contain loads of butter and eggs. This year, I wanted to introduce more vegan cookies to our party and thought gingerbread cookies would be the perfect place to start.
I started with a Spruce Eats recipe for vegan gingerbread cookies. However, that recipe was slightly less flavorful than I prefer (like many gingerbread cookie recipes). To add more flavor, I substituted half of the all-purpose flour with spelt flour, increased the number of spices and used coconut oil rather than vegan butter. These additions all gave the cookies a more interesting and enjoyable flavor. The icing and powdered sugar on top just pulls all the flavors together with a hint of sweetness.
Tell me what you think of the recipe in the comments and don’t forget to follow the sustainability tips below!
Time: 1 1/2 hours
Active time: 30 minutes
Makes: about 64 3-inch by 3-inch cookies
Ingredients
For the cookies
1 tablespoon ground flaxseed meal
3 tablespoons warm water
21/2 cups white spelt flour
Note: If you do not have spelt flour, you can substitute with and an equal amount of all-purpose flour
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tablespoons ground ginger
1/2 tablespoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon cardamom
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup unrefined coconut oil at room temperature
3/4 cup coconut or granulated sugar
1/2 cup unsulphured molasses
For the Icing (optional)
Note: The recipe below is enough to ice all of the cookies. To prevent the icing from drying out, I recommend first making half of this recipe. Then, when you run out of icing, make the other half of this recipe and ice the remaining cookies.
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar, plus more if you'd like a thicker icing
1 teaspoon vanilla extract, plus more if you'd like a thinner icing
4 tablespoons lemon juice, orange juice or milk (vegan milk if making vegan)
Steps
Combine the flaxseed meal and water in a small bowl and set aside to thicken. In a medium bowl, sift together the flours, ginger, cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, nutmeg, baking soda and salt and set aside.
In a large bowl, beat together the coconut oil and sugar. Add the flaxseed mixture and molasses to the coconut oil mixture and beat until well combined. Add the dry mixture to the wet mixture and stir together with a large spoon. It will look too dry at first but don't worry, it will come together after a few minutes or stirring. Cover the bowl with a damp tea towel and refrigerate for 1 hour, or up to 24 hours.
Preheat oven to 375 F. Transfer the dough to a lightly floured surface and use a rolling pin to whack/roll the dough out until it is 1/4-inch thick. Use cookie cutters to cut out shapes that are approximately 3-inches by 3-inches large. Transfer cookies to a parchemnt-lined baking sheet and bake for 6-8 minutes, or until edges are just beginning to brown.
If you don't want to make the icing, you can leave the cookies plain or simply sprinkle them with some powdered sugar. If you want to make the icing, just whisk together all icing ingredients until combined. Add more powdered sugar to make thicker icing, or add more juice or milk to make a thinner icing. If you want detailed decorations on your cookies, transfer icing to a piping bag with a #1 tip and decorate. Alternatively, you could use a spoon to drizzle the icing over the cookies. Let icing harden and dig in!
Sustainability Tips
Flour: I like to buy King Arthur brand flour because King Arthur Flour is a B Corp, which means that they're held to a high environmental and social standard. Alternatively, you could seek out a farmer who grows and mills flour locally. Buying locally can help connect you to your local food system and cut back on the miles your food has to travel.
Sugar: I like using coconut sugar because it's easier to find fair trade varieties of coconut sugar than cane sugar. If you can find organic and fair trade brown sugar or granulated cane sugar, feel free to use those in place. Read all about the sustainability of cane sugar in my sustainable sugars post!
Lemon or orange juice: Get your citrus as locally as possible to cut down on greenhouse gas emissions from travel. For those who live in a citrus-growing region, you can get lemons from a neighborhood organic farmer. For those who don't live in a citrus-growing region, try to buy organic lemons that were grown in your home country or as close to you as possible. Also, be sure to make this recipe during winter, when citrus fruits are in peak season.