Healthy Gingerbread Cookies (gluten-free, vegan, refined sugar free)

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas… :) and it’s time for Gingerbread EVERYTHING! And from these ah-mazing Gingerbread Brownies I just shared and that are an instant hit!! We move into the classic yet healthy Gingerbread Cookies!

Let’s just embrace Gingerbread Spice everything season and go with the flow… make a bit batch of the spice mix and put it into everything from pancakes, to smoothies, to just good old hot almond milk (my favourite!) :) That would go SO well with these Gingerbread Cookies!! Enjoy!

Gingerbread Cookies

gluten-free, vegan

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons flaxmeal  (ground flax seeds)

1/4 cup warm water

3/4 cup coconut oil

1/4 cup maple syrup

1/4 molasses

1/2 applesauce

2 3/4 cups all purpose gluten-free flour

1 tablespoon ground ginger

1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt

2 teaspoons baking soda

Directions:

In a small bowl, mix the flaxmeal with the water and set aside for 10 minutes.

In a medium bowl, combine all the wet ingredients : coconut oil, maple syrup, molasses, applesauce.

In another bowl, combine the dry ingredients: flour, ginger, cinnamon, ground cloves, nutmeg, salt and baking soda.

After 10 minutes, add the flaxmeal mixture to the wet ingredients and mix well. Combine the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and mix to incorporate. Knead to form a dough.

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Prepare a work surface and roll into a thin layer (about 1/8” thick) and cut out cookies. You may need extra flour to sprinkle on your work surface before putting down the ball of dough.

Bake in a preheated oven at 350 F for 10 minutes. Be sure to check for baking time depending on thickness of the cookies. Thinner cookies will need less time baking.

Cut the Sugar Tip:

• These cookies (without the icing) are sweetened with only Molasses ~ which is probably THE healthiest sweetener in the world. (But it doesn’t go with every recipe…) luckily it’s essential in these Gingerbread Cookies.
• Molasses though has incredible health benefits – it is especially high in iron and calcium. So if you like the flavour – use that as your main sweetener whenever you can – I like to make hot almond milk with it or add to my coffee during the holiday season along with a bit of the gingerbread spice mix ~ so good!
• What I suggest with this recipe, is to add just a tiny bit of icing – these little dots were super cute and added the perfect little touch and it was just enough sweetness! You don’t need to have a solid layer of icing on top of your cookies (sorry Martha Stewart! ;)) That’s when home-baked sweets can be worse for you than store bought – it’s when you make ridiculous choices not only with ingredients but also with the amount of sugar you add.
• When it comes to sugar – it’s about the QUALITY AND QUANTITY ~ remember this :) (the golden rule of Cut the Sugar! ;))

So for the icing, I also have a tip for you guys. If you’re not into baking and you don’t want to get a whole decorating set (I don’t even have one) what I do is use a plastic sandwich bag, scoop the icing inside into one corner and just cut a tiny hole in that corner. If it’s ziplock, you could just squeeze the air out and lock it in place so you don’t get icing coming out of the other side.

And to decorate, just squeeze the icing out through the hole with your fingers. Super easy and simple and no special tools required. BRILLIANT!

 

Ella Leché is a cookbook author (‘Cut the Sugar‘), recipe developer, and photographer/stylist behind Pure Ella; where she shares delicious and healthy recipes. Eating PURE is clean ingredients, whole foods, plant-based nourishment and delicious desserts – with quality ingredients and sweeteners so they’re treats with benefits so you won’t have to feel deprived or restricted to eat healthier.
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