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These Soft Gluten-Free Vegan Gingerbread Cookies will be a holiday staple! They’re incredibly soft, chewy and flavorful from the molasses and warm spices.
Who loves gingerbread cookies?! I’ve come to love gingerbread flavored everything in my adult years, despite my family not making gingerbread cookies too often when I was a kid.
We were much more enthralled with making batch after batch of Magic Cookie Bars during the holidays. However, I got a few requests this year for some classic gingerbread cookies and decided to accept the challenge!
Also a gingerbread lover? You’re going to love these gingerbread scones, gingerbread blondies, and easy vegan gingerbread cookie granola!
What makes these Gingerbread Cookies delicious?
These gluten free gingerbread cookies are so flavorful and rich they 100% converted me into a gingerbread loving lady! Here’s why you’ll love them:
- Rich molasses flavor
- Soft texture
- Crisp outer texture
- Warming spices
- Refined-sugar free
- Quick & easy to make! (no chilling required)
- Paleo and vegan!
What you need to make gingerbread cookies
Surprisingly, I knocked these healthy gingerbread cookies out of the park on my first try (not to toot my own horn or anything). These vegan cookies come together super quickly and there’s no need for a stand mixer or chilling of the dough required! Here’s what you need to make them:
- Almond Butter
- Molasses
- Softened Coconut Oil
- Coconut Sugar
- Flax Eggs
- Vanilla Extract
- Cinnamon
- Ground Ginger
- Nutmeg
- Coconut flour
- Baking soda
- Sea salt
Can you make these gingerbread cookies vegan?
Yes! To make these gingerbread cookies you’ll simply use flax eggs! To make one flax egg you will simply mix 2.5 TBSP water + 1 TBSP flaxseed meal and allow to sit for 5 minutes. Once it’s thick, you’ll use the flax mixture just as you would a regular egg. For this recipe, you will need two flax eggs total.
Non-vegan version: If you aren’t vegan or don’t have flax on hand, you can easily use regular eggs. Just use one egg + one egg yolk to get the same texture.
Tips for making soft gluten-free gingerbread cookies
Coconut flour: Coconut flour keeps the cookies grain-free and paleo while also helping to create a delicious texture. I don’t recommend substituting for other flours here as coconut flour is very absorbent.
Flatten cookies: After the dough is ready, you will roll the dough balls into a coconut sugar/cinnamon/ginger mixture. After this, I recommend flattening out the cookies a bit as they do not spread as easily on their own when baking.
Softened coconut oil: Make sure your coconut oil is slightly soft, similar to a butter texture. This helps create a soft, puffy cookie texture.
For softer cookies: You can bake these gingerbread cookies on the shorter side for 10-11 minutes if you prefer a softer cookie texture. If you prefer crispier edges, leave them in the oven for an extra few minutes.
If you love these gingerbread cookies, check out these healthy holiday treats!
- Chocolate Chunk Gingerbread Blondies
- Gluten Free Vegan Peppermint Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Vegan Gingerbread Cheesecake Bars
- Thick & Chewy Paleo Snickerdoodle Cookies
Soft Gingerbread Cookies
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons 25g virgin coconut oil (solid and slightly softened, similar to softened butter)
- ⅓ cup 80g almond butter
- ¼ cup 85g molasses
- ½ cup (77g) coconut sugar
- 2 flax eggs, 2 tablespoons flax meal + 5 tablespoons water – whisk them together and let sit for 5 minutes to gel – see notes for info about using real eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt, skip if you’re using salted almond butter
- ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ½ cup 64g coconut flour
To roll the dough in
- ⅓ cup (51g) coconut sugar
- ¼ teaspoon cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon ground ginger
Equipment
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350ºF and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
- In a bowl or stand mixer, beat together the coconut oil, almond butter, molasses, and coconut sugar until smooth. Add the flax eggs and vanilla and mix until smooth.
- Add the ginger, cinnamon, baking soda, salt, nutmeg, and coconut flour to the wet ingredients. Mix until well incorporated.
- In a separate small bowl, combine the coconut sugar, cinnamon, and ground ginger to roll the dough in.
- Use a small or medium sized cookie scoop to form cookies and roll in the cinnamon sugar mixture. Place 2” apart on the prepared baking sheet. Press down slightly to flatten – note that the cookies won’t spread very much, so press them down to the thickness you prefer.
- Bake for 11 minutes or until the cookies have puffed and are cooked through. You can bake for an extra minute or two for crispier edges.
- Let cool for 5 minutes on the cookie sheet and then move to a cooling rack to cool completely. Enjoy!
My mom just made these for me for the holidays and now I’m fighting my dad for them!! Amazing!
Soft and delicious
So glad you are all loving them, Adele! Thanks for the feedback.
I can’t have cinnamon or coconut sugar, so I subbed out fresh ginger and monkfruit sugar–then I’d run out of almond butter so I used peanut butter instead. These were GREAT! very easy to make too. Thx.
So glad they were a hit, even with the changes! Thanks for the feedback Taylor, and happy holidays!
These were perfect! I skipped the rolling in sugar part, really out of laziness, and added some dark chocolate chunks to a few! The almond butter I used was Base Culture’s Gingerbread Almond Butter so they came out extra ginger-y. Yum! Thanks so much for an easy and relatively healthy recipe that taste great.
So thrilled you enjoyed them!! Thanks so much for the feedback. Using that nut butter sounds absolutely delicious!!
Hi Rachel, I love all your recipes! I have tried few of them but have not been successful mainly because your recipes are measured in cups. I am based in Europe and we work with grams. Is it possible to have your recipes also the option to convert it in grams?
Many thanks
Ita
Hi Ita, many of my recipes do include gram measurements (including all of the recipes in my cookbook). You can also always use an online converter to find the right amounts for the recipes where that info hasn’t been added yet. I’ll update this one with grams, though!
MMMM – really yummy! Made them exactly per the recipe. One of my daughters said they’re a little to gingery for her so I might leave out the ginger that they get rolled in next time, but other than that – DELICIOUS! It’s recipes like this that make me love being vegan/gluten-free :)
So glad you love them, Nicole!! And that they’re (mostly) a hit with the kids :D thanks so much for your feedback!
Which molasses do you recommend?
I usually use molasses from the Wholesome brand.
I tripled check measurements and after adding coconut flour, it was still too liquid. No way to scoop. Measurements off?
Hi R, the measurements definitely aren’t off, but something may have gone wrong! Did you use a super liquidy almond butter or anything? Sometimes if you don’t mix them well, you’ll get what’s mostly oil at the top. Also, sometimes it can take a few minutes for coconut flour to absorb. Did it happen to get any thicker after a few minutes? Sometimes certain brands of coconut flour aren’t quite as absorbent as others, and in that case, I’d recommend adding it a tablespoon at a time, letting it rest for a few minutes, and repeating until you get the cookie dough consistency you’re after!
Help! I didn’t have coconut flour for the gingerbreads cookies so used almond flour. Soupy. Ideas? Sue
Hi Sue, the coconut flour is there to absorb the extra moisture because it’s super absorbent. To replace with almond flour, you’d need to use about 3x the amount.
these were so good. I subbed out half of the sugar for swerve brown to cut down on the carbs. I love your recipes. They are the best vegan and paleo ones I have found!
So glad you’re loving my recipes!!! Thank you so much for the feedback and support :)
These look amazing – do you think I could sub applesauce for the eggs instead of flax egg? Thanks!
Hi Tracy, it would likely make the cookies softer, so you can but it will change the texture a bit!