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.
Deirdre says
These are delicious! Such good flavors 🙂 I needed to add 2 TB of soy milk to get mine to come together. I refrigerated the dough for a little bit before rolling out, only because I didn’t have time to cook them right away. I also reduced the baking time to 12 minutes because I like a soft cookie. Thanks for the great recipe! I made it twice it was so nice!
Alison Andrews says
Awesome! Thanks Deirdre! 🙂
Kesha Harmon says
The substitutions worked well and the kids had so much fun! Thank you!
Anna says
I made a gluten free version of this today – with one of those maize, rice and tapioca blend flours and Orgran egg replacer instead of flax egg. Worked great! The dough seemed a little dry at first but after a bit of kneading rolled perfectly. With fifteen minutes in the oven they came out crisp as promised… I think I will try a little less next time for a bit more soft chewiness.
Tiffany says
Amazing recipe! Cookies came out perfectly formed and delicious!
Alison Andrews says
Thanks Tiffany! 🙂
Keri says
Thanks so much! Woke up this morning after finally finishing all the Christmas food shopping that I’d forgotten that we haven’t done gingerbread this year! So I found this recipe and raided the cupboard and managed to make them! I replaced the flax egg with Orgran egg replacer & golden syrup instead of molasses and if worked out great. Happy kids and I think they taste delicious. 15 mins in the oven is perfect. Thank you!
Keri says
Sorry lots of typos. Am a hungry pregnant lady and the gingerbread is distracting me!
Alison Andrews says
Haha, no you’re good, I seriously didn’t even notice any typos!
Alison Andrews says
So glad it worked out well! Thanks for the awesome review. 🙂
Taylor says
Absolutely love!! Like some others, I sub’d coconut oil for vegan butter, since it’s what I had on hand, and they turned out great! I would probably add some extra ginger next time since I like the ginger flavor to be a little stronger!
Also, I found that the cookies I cut out after re-rolling the dough had fewer cracks than the first cut outs; next time, I’ll probably work the dough, just a little bit, once turned out on the table.
Giovana says
Do you know if I can substitute vegan butter for the same amount of coconut oil?
Alison Andrews says
You can, if you read the other comments others have done it successfully so it should work just fine. 🙂
Paleta says
Hi! Great recipe, Im making cookies for a vegan friend and it was really helpful and easy to follow for a newbie like me.
I have a question tho, regarding the icing, how long does it take to harden?
Cheers!
Alison Andrews says
So glad you like the recipe! The frosting shouldn’t take long to dry, like 30 minutes or so since it’s just a small amount. You can put them in the fridge to speed it up if you like. 🙂
Adriana Chan says
Could I use vegan margarine instead of the vegan butter? Do you think that will make the dough softer?
Alison Andrews says
Absolutely! Dairy free margarine is basically the exact same thing as vegan butter. So it will work perfectly. 🙂
Helsinky Morizon says
Yes, we all loved these cookies, my 4 & 6 year old kids did most of the work.
They taste great, and I love no need for refrigeration.. all I’ve always wanted in a ginger bread cookie recipe.
Btw So far I’ve been very happy with all the recipes I’ve tried on your blog
Alison Andrews says
So glad you enjoyed them and that you’ve been happy with the recipes on the blog. It’s always so good to hear that. Thanks so much for sharing! 🙂
Meg says
This recipe was delicious! I had run out of flax so used 3 TBS of unsweetened applesauce, coconut oil, coconut sugar, and white whole wheat flour because that’s what I had on hand and they were great! My kids had fun rolling the dough between parchment paper and cutting them out.
Alison Andrews says
I’m so glad to hear it worked out great! Thanks so much for sharing your adjustments and the awesome review. 🙂
Samantha says
Can i use apple sauce instead of flax?
Alison Andrews says
Hi Samantha, yes you can. Use 3 Tbsp of applesauce to replace the flax egg. All the best! 🙂
Luna says
These cookies were absolutely delicious. Perfect gingerbread taste. The only problem was that 15 minutes in the oven burnt them, so I baked the rest of the batch at 9 minutes, and that was perfect. Keep an eye out when you bake!
Alison Andrews says
Oh dear! Ovens can be so variable. Sorry to hear the first batch burnt. That is definitely wise advice to always keep an eye out when baking. Thanks for the wonderful rating! 🙂
Gail Spach says
Thank you! I was looking for a quick and easy gingerbread recipe and used this one. They came out perfectly! I followed the recipe exactly. They will be my go to recipe for gingerbread shapes. I made moose because I had a Swedish cookie cutter in that shape.
Alison Andrews says
So glad they came out perfectly! Thanks so much for the awesome review. 🙂
Alicia says
hi, I have been searching for a good vegan gingerbread recipe for so long and now found yours. unfortunately I don’t have molasses and don’t really think we have sth like that in Germany.
Do you have an idea how I could substitute it?
xxAlicia
Alison Andrews says
Hi Alicia, you could substitute it for syrup, like golden syrup or maple syrup. All the best! 🙂
Alicia says
thank you so much, I will give it a try and let you know how it turns out!