Making these vegan gingerbread cookies signals my first foray into the world of molasses.
And…I found it weird! This is probably no surprise to you if you’re familiar with this ingredient – it is weird right?
Like really weird.
It looks a lot like date syrup, which is a syrup I use a lot, as it’s awesome, and made from dates and nothing but dates. But aside from looks, there is no other similarity. Date syrup is very sweet, whereas molasses…. is not.
It’s not just that it’s not very sweet, it’s that it’s got the weirdest taste to it.
The good thing is that molasses in gingerbread cookie batter does the job amazingly well. Going in as an ingredient molasses is quite weird, but once baked into something, it adds something pretty great to the flavor!
These gingerbread cookies came out fabulously well and were so easy too.
I adapted a recipe from Sally’s Baking Addiction in order to make it vegan and I took a few other shortcuts to make sure that I didn’t have to take too much time in making these.
I am always looking for shortcuts. In this case I didn’t want to chill the dough for a couple of hours before baking, I just wanted to mix the dough and then bake the cookies!
So I took some shortcuts and they worked! Yay!
So these gingerbread cookies are super quick. Just 20 minutes to prepare and 15 minutes to bake.
Some say you can bake them in 10 minutes, but I’m a fan of the crispier cookie.
If you want yours to be more on the soft side, then you can take them out the oven after 10 minutes.
The main time consuming factor in these cookies is rolling out the dough and cutting out the gingerbread men.
It doesn’t take long, but that’s really the only reason the prep takes 20 minutes rather than 10 or 15.
And then there’s decorating them.
Of course this step is completely optional. This was my first attempt at decorating cookies and I have to admit to not being very successful. I had to hand the job over to Jaye who is much more steady-handed when it comes to the ‘fine arts’ of putting eyes and mouths onto cookies. 
Even so, some of these guys look a bit psycho!
I hope you’ll love these vegan gingerbread cookies! They are:
- Festive and fun
- Perfectly crispy on the outside
- Soft and deliciously chewy on the inside
- Infused with ginger goodness
- Easy to make!
If you have a few kiddos around, make these with them. My niece was not into the flavor too much (I think I probably wasn’t big on ginger either when I was 6), but she LOVED the look of these guys!
So whaddaya think of these vegan gingerbread cookies? Let me know in the comments! Rate the recipe and let me know how it turned out if you made them!
Tag me #lovingitvegan on instagram if you take any photos, I’d love to see them!
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Vegan Gingerbread Cookies
- Prep Time: 20 mins
- Cook Time: 12 mins
- Total Time: 32 minutes
- Yield: 16
- Diet: Vegan
Description
Festive and fun vegan gingerbread cookies. These gingerbread men are crisp on the outside, soft and chewy on the inside and packed with ginger, cinnamon and brown sugar flavor.
Ingredients
For the Gingerbread Men:
- 1/4 cup (56g) Vegan Butter
- 1/2 cup (100g) Brown Sugar
- 1/3 cup (100g) Unsulphured Molasses*
- 1 Flax Egg
- 1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract
- 2 cups (250g) All Purpose Flour
- 1 tsp Baking Soda
- 1/4 tsp Salt
- 2 tsp Ground Ginger
- 2 tsp Ground Cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp Allspice
- 1/4 tsp Ground Cloves
For the Decorating Frosting:
- 1 cup (120g) Powdered (Icing) Sugar
- 1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract
- 1 Tbsp Soy Milk
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C)
- Add the vegan butter and brown sugar to an electric mixing bowl and cream together.
- Prepare your flax egg by mixing 1 Tbsp Flaxseed Meal with 3 Tbsp Hot Water and allowing to sit for a minute.
- Add the molasses, vanilla and flax egg to the electric mixer and beat together with the vegan butter and brown sugar.
- Sift the flour into a bowl and add the baking soda, salt, ginger, cinnamon, allspice and cloves and mix together.
- Add all the dry ingredients into the mixing bowl containing the wet ingredients and mix into a thick batter.
- Flour a surface and your hands very generously and transfer the cookie dough onto the baking surface. Roll it into a ball, adding flour as needed so it doesn’t stick.
- Roll out with a rolling pin to around a 1/4 inch thick and cut out some gingerbread men. Dip your cookie cutter in flour each time so it doesn’t stick. Move the gingerbread men to a parchment lined baking tray.
- Gather the scraps of dough, form into a ball and roll out again, cutting out more men.
- Don’t be shy to add more flour each time, this dough can be quite sticky and you need it not to be as you roll it, so add flour as needed. Any excess flour on the gingerbread cookies will bake off.
- Repeat this process until you have used all the dough.
- Place into the oven and bake for 10-12 minutes and then remove from the oven and allow to cool completely before decorating.
- When you’re ready to decorate, mix the decorating frosting ingredients together. It should be quite thick, but when you stir it into a peak, it should hold it’s shape for a bit before melting back down and should be quite sticky.
Notes
*I used Grandma’s Molasses brand.
*Nutritional information is for 1 cookie of 16, without frosting decoration.
*The number of gingerbread men you’ll get from this recipe depends largely on the size of your cookie cutter.
*Weigh your flour for accurate results.
*If you have accidentally used too much flour and/or the brand of vegan butter you have used has a lower water content, you may end up with a dough that is too crumbly – in this instance, add in a small amount of non-dairy milk until you get the right consistency of dough that you see in the pictures/video.
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Bake
- Cuisine: Vegan
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 Cookie (of 16)
- Calories: 117
- Sugar: 10.8g
- Sodium: 142mg
- Fat: 1.9g
- Saturated Fat: 0.3g
- Carbohydrates: 23.3g
- Fiber: 0.8g
- Protein: 1.7g
Keywords: vegan gingerbread cookies
Is there a substitute for molasses?
You could do any liquid sweetener like maple syrup etc, but it would impact the final flavor of course.
Last year I did it vegan and it was great, this year (long story) I did not have the flax meal so I use an egg! :0 🙁 still I just wanted to let you know that I also added about a tablespoon of apple sauce because it was too crumbly. It came out just fine. I thought it would be helpful for anybody to know in case it happens to anyone. The kids loved it. We make “ninja” bread men. I will try to post pics
★★★★★
Thanks for sharing Marlene!
I made these with applesauce and 1/3 cup of brown sugar and they turned out perfect! 🙂
★★★★★
Awesome! Thanks for sharing Emily!
They are a lot more dry than I would like and I was watching them and baked them for less than the amount of time suggested, the dough was soooo delicious prior to baking them I thought for sure they were going to be a huge hit. My Husband and daughter still liked them though.
★★★
Hi Alison, what can I use as a substitute for the flax? My toddler has a severe allergy to flax. I can’t use an actual egg, since he is allergic to eggs as well.
Hi Chris! Would chia work? Chia seeds can be used in place of flax seeds in the same quantity.
Feel like these cookies would have been perfect, but I followed the suggested 15 mins for crispy cookies. These aren’t crispy. They’re burnt. All that time wasted
★★★
Oh no, sorry to hear that Amber! Ovens can vary a lot so it’s always a good idea to keep a check on them.
they are perfect and so yummy! thank you for this recipe!
★★★★★
Thanks Sylwia!
I made this today and my husband who loves gingerbread and my little toddler loved it. I normally don’t like gingerbread but this ones a winner. Plus, it’s vegan! Thank you so much for sharing this recipe and I can’t wait to try other ones. 😊
★★★★★
Awesome! Thanks Nessa!
I’ve made these bad boys twice and each time they’ve been AMAZING. I used almond milk instead of soy milk, but that’s the only change. Love them 😍
★★★★★
Awesome! Thanks for sharing Tiff.
These cookies were very dry, but otherwise soft and yummy! I would add more spices and molasses next time so they have a stronger flaver. It also need more of the milk (i added some when the dough wasn’t the right texture yet but it was not enough).
★★★