These Vegan Gingerbread Cookies are soft in the middle and crispy on the edges with the best balance of spices and delicious cinnamon, molasse, and ginger flavor. So, let’s start the holiday season with the most classic Vegan Christmas cookie recipe ever!
The countdown to Christmas has started in our house, and the smell of these freshly baked Gingerbread cookies really kicks in the holiday season. I probably made these vegan cookies ten times in so many shapes, and however I make them, the house smells like Christmas, and the kids are so excited.
So let me share with you how you can make healthy gingerbread cookies, because yes, these are not only egg-free gingerbread cookies, they are also made with less sugar and molasse a naturally high plant-based-iron ingredient.
Ingredients and Substitutions
All you need to make gingerbread cookies are:
- All-Purpose Flour – I didn’t test the recipe with gluten-free flour, even though I am sure you can swap wheat flour for a 1:1 gluten-free all-purpose flour as long as it contains a stabilizer like guar gum or xanthan gum.
- Flaxseed Meal – You can swap it for ground chia seeds or cornstarch. This acts as an egg replacer in your vegan cookie recipe.
- Unsweetened Almond Milk or any non-dairy milk you like oat milk, soy milk, or coconut milk.
- Allspice – Or more cinnamon if you don’t have this store-bought mix.
- Unsulphured Molasse or maple syrup, but any other liquid syrup works. But keep in mind that molasse is what makes gingerbread cookies darker in color, chewy and soft in the middle with this delicate nutty flavor. Plus, as a vegan, you should definitely add molasse to your day as it’s an iron-loaded ingredient! What’s better than eating cookies that fuel you up with the good stuff? You can replace the molasse for sugar-free maple syrup if you want to make sugar-free cookies.
- Vegan Butter – I used soft vegan butter. I left the butter for 30 minutes at room temperature to soften before using it in the recipe. However, I didn’t get any good results with coconut oil, so I don’t recommend that option.
- Soft Brown Sugar – Most gingerbread cookie recipes use dark brown sugar. That’s up to you, but I prefer soft brown sugar. It contains more moisture and makes the cookie softer in the middle. You can swap brown sugar for coconut sugar for a low GI option and molasse for maple syrup or coconut nectar. For sugar-free cookies, swap the brown sugar for a golden monk fruit erythritol blend.
How To Make Vegan Gingerbread Cookies
It’s so satisfying to make your own homemade gingerbread man cookies. Even better with this easy recipe, you can basically make it in one bowl with only a few ingredients.
Decorating
Vegan gingerbread cookies are much more beautiful if decorated with royal icing. That’s why I created a vegan royal icing recipe for you to pipe on top of your cookies.
The recipe is pretty straightforward and easy to make from powdered sugar.
Expert Tips For Beautiful Cookies
My tips to easily set icing on cookies are to:
- Pop the gingerbread cookies for 10 minutes in the fridge before icing them. This is just enough to make their surface cold and stick the vegan icing recipe on top of the cookie.
- Use a cold royal icing fresh from the fridge. I store mine for 1 hour in the fridge before filling my piping bag.
- Use the smallest nozzle of the piping bag to avoid too much icing running out at once,
Never decorate hot or lukewarm cookies with any icing because the cookie dough will melt your icing resulting in a big mess.
Next part, sprinkle! You can find lots of vegan sprinkles brands on the market that makes the cookies colorful and kids-friendly.
I used a touch of the vegan icing recipe to stick each sprinkle on top of my gingerbread man cookies.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes, you can use this dough to make a lovely Christmas gingerbread house, but you will have to double or triple the recipe.
Also, bake longer, around 16-18 minutes, to make harder cookies that hold the house for weeks.
Simply add more flour to the chilled dough, and knead to incorporate until the dough is easy to roll on a floured surface and won’t stick to the rolling pin.
Yes, you can use an electric beater to beat butter and sweetener or a wire whisk working fast to beat and cream vegan butter.
Then, use a silicone or wooden spoon to bring the ingredients together.
Finally, when it becomes hard to stir, oil your hands, and knead with your hands, the dough is sticky, so that’s why I recommend a stand mixer with the paddle attachment.
These are egg-free gingerbread cookies which means they store very well at room temperature if placed in a cookie jar. I kept these cookies for up to 1 week without seeing any alteration in texture or color. You can also store them in the fridge, but they harden a bit when refrigerated.
If you made more than one batch, is to freeze the extra gingerbread cookies in a zip-lock bag and thaw them at room temperature the day before serving.
More Vegan Cookie Recipes
Below are my favorite Vegan Christmas Cookies recipes for you to try:
Vegan Gingerbread Cookies
Ingredients
- ½ cup Soft Brown Sugar - or coconut sugar
- ⅓ cup Dairy-Free Butter (Unsalted) - softened at room temperature 30 minutes
- ⅓ cup Unsulphured Molasses - or maple syrup
- 3 tablespoons Unsweetened Almond Milk - or non-dairy milk of choice
- 2 teaspoons Flaxseed Meal
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla extract
- 2 cups All-Purpose Flour - + a little more to work the dough
- ½ teaspoon Baking Soda
- ¼ teaspoon Salt
- ½ tablespoon Fresh Ginger
- 1 tablespoon Cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon Allspice
Decoration
- 1 batch Vegan Royal Icing
- ¼ cup Vegan Christmas Sprinkles
Instructions
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, using the paddle attachment, beat vegan butter, soft brown sugar, and molasse for 1 minute on high speed, until smooth and creamy.
- Next, beat in almond milk, flaxseed meal, and vanilla and keep beating for 30 seconds on medium speed.
- Stop beater, add the remaining dry ingredients: flour, baking soda, salt, ground ginger, ground cinnamon, and allspice.
- Beat the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients at low speed. The cookie dough will be wet and slightly sticky, and that's normal.
- Divide the dough into two balls of the same size. Wrap each ball into plastic wrap tightly and slightly flatten into a disc. Refrigerate the dough for 1-2 hours or overnight. Chilling is compulsory, or the dough would be fragile and gingerbread flavors not intense.
Roll dough
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Line parchment paper onto two or three cookie sheets and lightly oil each with oil spray. Set aside.
- Remove one disc of chilled gingerbread cookie dough from the fridge. Flour your kitchen work surface, place the dough in front of you, sprinkle extra flour on the top, and roll into a thin disc of 1/4 inch thickness. Gingerbread dough cracks easily. Use your fingers to patch the cracks if needed.
- Cut into shapes and place each gingerbread man in the prepared cookie sheet leaving half thumb space between each.
Bake
- Bake for 9-12 minutes or until golden brown. If your cookie cutters are smaller, they cook faster, around 6-8 minutes. Just watch closely and remove them from the oven when the sides are golden brown. For crunchier cookies, bake for longer. For softer gingerbread cookies, cook less time.
- Cool down for 5 minutes on the cookie sheet before transferring carefully on a wire rack. Cool entirely before glazing with vegan royal icing.
Decoration
- Use one batch of my vegan royal icing and some vegan sprinkles to decorate the cold cookies. Pop the cookies 10minutes in the fridge to set the icing easily.
Storage
- Store at room temperature in a cookie jar or on a plate for up to 1 week or freeze for later.
I come back to this recipe every year, these cookies are well loved by everyone I share them with!
Thank you so much ! Happy holidays to you.
Made these with my granddaughter today and we had a blast! The dough was so easy to work with, even for little hands. And the smell… heavenly! Can’t wait to decorate them tomorrow! ??
OMG! These cookies are SO GOOD! My non-vegan hubby couldn’t even tell they were dairy-free! The molasses and ginger combo is perfection. Thanks for sharing this gem!
Good recipe, but could use a lil somethin’ somethin’. I sprinkled some vegan powdered sugar on top for extra ~fancy~ and it was a game changer!
Great idea!!
I made these goodies last year and I can’t wait to prepare them again this year. absolutely delicious! thanks for the recipes❤️
These cookies are the bomb! Seriously, I can’t stop eating them! Thanks for the amazing recipe! You rock!
Best gingerbread cookies! I’ve tried at least 4 recipes prior to finding this one and this is by far the superior one! Thank you!
Made these for a work potluck and they were a HUGE hit! Everyone was asking for the recipe. I added some chopped walnuts for extra crunch, and it was a genius move! Thanks Carine! You’re a baking goddess!
Finally found a vegan gingerbread recipe that doesn’t taste like cardboard! These are seriously delicious and so easy to make. Thanks for saving the holidays!
New family fave alert! These cookies are the perfect balance of spicy and sweet. My kids devoured them (and even asked for seconds!). Definitely making these again for Christmas!