Festive and fun vegan gingerbread cookies. These gingerbread men are crisp on the outside, soft on the inside and packed with ginger flavor.
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.
And if you love all things ginger then check out our vegan gingerbread cake and our vegan gingersnap cookies too.
How To Make Vegan Gingerbread Cookies
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 10-12 minutes to bake.
If you prefer a crispier/crunchier cookie then you can bake them up to 15 minutes.
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.
Decorating
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!
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 that big on ginger either when I was 6), but she LOVED the look of these guys!
More Vegan Cookies
- Vegan Sugar Cookies
- Vegan Oatmeal Cookies
- Vegan Chocolate Cookies
- Vegan Peanut Butter Cookies
- Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Vegan Coconut Cookies
Did you make this recipe? Be sure to leave a comment and rating below!
Vegan Gingerbread Cookies
Ingredients
For the Gingerbread Men:
- ¼ cup Vegan Butter (56g)
- ½ cup Light Brown Sugar (100g)
- ⅓ cup Unsulphured Molasses (100g)
- 1 Flax Egg 1 Tbsp Ground Flaxseed Meal + 3 Tbsp Hot Water
- ½ tsp Vanilla Extract
- 2 cups All Purpose Flour (250g)
- 1 tsp Baking Soda
- ¼ tsp Salt
- 2 tsp Ground Ginger
- 2 tsp Ground Cinnamon
- ¼ tsp Allspice
- ¼ tsp Ground Cloves
For the Decorating Frosting:
- 1 cup Powdered Sugar (120g)
- ½ 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 ¼ 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.
Video
Notes
- Weigh your flour for the most accurate results or use the spoon and level method. Spoon the flour into your measuring cup and then level off the top with a knife.
- 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.
- The number of gingerbread men you’ll get from this recipe depends largely on the size of your cookie cutter.
- Baked cookies store well in an airtight container at room temperature for up to a week.
- Nutritional information is for 1 cookie of 16, without frosting decoration.
This is my first- and will be my last gingerbread recipe, because I will always use this one! I’ve made these for the last two years with wild success. Absolutely adore these.
That’s great Eden! Thanks so much for sharing and for your review!
Absolutely scrumptious. I made this with my grandchildren on a snow day!
I used an egg instead of flax seed so the cookies are non-dairy not vegan. I substituted 1/8 teaspoon of nutmeg & 1/8 teaspoon of cardamom for allspice.
I read the reviews and also reduced the oven temperature to 325 and baked cookies for 10 minutes. Highly recommend this easy recipe.
Glad to hear you enjoyed the recipe Molly! Thanks so much for sharing and for your great review!
Should the vegan butter be room temperature?
I am a nervous baker, can’t bake a thing. This recipe was a lifesaver. Even with a non baker like myself, they turned out amazing! I can’t say thank you enough! Your recipes always come through.
That’s awesome Joelle! Thanks so much for sharing and for your great review!
Delicious!! I did as others have suggested and increased cinnamon and ginger. My 8yo and I made these together, first time baking gingerbread. Anew tradition for us; will 100% use this recipe again!!
Happy to hear you enjoyed the recipe Lucy! Thanks so much for sharing and for your great review!
The cookies were delicious! I increased the ginger and cinnamon to 1 tablespoon instead of 1 teaspoon. I also felt the dough was a little dry. So, I added a little bit of Almond Milk. I liked them on the softer side. So, I baked a couple of sample cookies for 9mins (a little crispier than desired). Then I baked a couple at 8 mins. (seemed slightly mushy). 8 mins and 30ish seconds was my happy place! lolol. I’m not vegan. But a friend of mine doesn’t eat dairy. I wanted to share cookies that everyone could enjoy! We ate ALL of them! Plus they requested the recipe! Definitely will make them again! Thank you
Thanks so much for sharing and for your great review Joyce! A reason for dry dough could be because you added more ginger and cinnamon, which automatically increases the dry ingredients. So good call on adding more almond milk to reach the perfect consistency!
Yay! These were great! I did add a tiny amount of almond milk at the end as it was a tad dry, but if you do that, do a little bitty bit at a time. Did not need much. These held together for gingerbread cats, bunnies, ponies, men, trees, reindeer!!! SO good and baked 8 minutes btw. THANKS!!!!
That’s great Joy! Thank you so much for sharing and for your lovely review!
Great recipe I make for my mom since she is lactose intolerant. Only complaint is not enough spice flavor comes through, so I recommend doubling the spices, or at least doubling the ginger and cinnamon since allspice and clove are fairly strong. Otherwise this is a great cookie – chewy with a slightly crisp outside!
Thanks for sharing and for your review Hunter!
These are so yum! Instead of icing the biscuits I instead sprinkled some sea salt on each one. Can the raw dough be frozen at all?
Awesome Izzy. And yes, the dough can be frozen raw for up to three months.
the gingerbread men r very yummy 🙂 i used coconut oil instead of vegan butter and it turned out very well, the dough was not greasy or sticky and it rolled like a dreamy. will make these again for sure
Thanks so much for sharing and for your great review!
trying this recipe right now. I grew up in the country with molasses with biscuits sometimes. It’s very healthy for you. A teaspoon a day helps add calcium, potassium and iron to your diet. Unsulphered is the best. It’s strong and strange at first. But not only do you get used to it, you crave it 😜
Hello 🙂 I love all your recipes but I wondered if I can substitute the molasses with something else?! Thank you 🙂
Hi Fede! We haven’t tested the recipe with any substitutions for the molasses, but you can substitute with either maple syrup or dark corn syrup. 🙂
The BEST gingerbread cookies ever. Not just because they are vegan but because they are the best. I used a quarter of the amount of sugar and they are still amazing !
So happy to hear you enjoyed the recipe FJ! Thanks so much for your awesome review!
Turned out delightful! I added a couple tblsp extra brown sugar and 2 tblsp of applesauce and cut the temp down to 325 and only cooked for 10 mins to make them a bit more chewy. My kids and I love them!
Awesome! Thanks for the amazing review Rana!