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 will be my first attempt making gingerbread cookies. I don’t have allspice, so what can I use as a substitute? Thanks.
Hi Joan, you can leave it out in that case. 🙂
I made these gingerbread cookies at Christmas for my toddler grandson. They were easy to make and delicious! I did have to taste them! I just finished making a batch of hearts using the recipe. It is so easy to make and decorate. Thanks for this great recipe!
Thanks so much for the awesome review Linda!
The best gingerbread recipe!! I tried two different recipes before finding this one and I’m so glad I did. I rolled the dough out to be 1/2” so they were a little chewy on the inside and it was delicious. The spice ratio and seasonings are exactly what you want in a gingerbread. I decorated with some vegan royal icing which was a nice contrast but not necessary. I’ll definitely be making this every year now!
Thanks so much Alyssa!
These cookies are great! I was skeptical whether they would turn out because first, they seemed a little dry (probably my error, I measured rather than weighed out my flour) – and then I ran out of time to bake them right away. I did a super light coating of vegetable oil and stuck them in the fridge with some plastic wrap on top. Took it out 2 days later, got it to room temp, and all it took was a little extra hand mixing to get them ready to roll out. They turned out fantastic! I did most at 10 minutes exactly and most of mine turned out slightly chewy (just the way I like), but did the last pan closer to 12 minutes since I know some people like them crispy, & that did the trick. I used pretty small cookie cutters. Thanks for the recipe!
So happy they worked out great Katie, thanks for the amazing review!
Best gingerbread cookies I’ve ever had. I doubled the ginger on the second batch. We like a bit of an extra kick. I also used swerve confectioners sugar for the icing to reduce the sugar intake.
Awesome! Thanks so much for sharing!
I use this recipe every year! I crave these cookies 🤪 so good, amazing recipe. I find using almond milk works well for frosting too.
So happy to hear that Tiffany! Thanks a million!
This gingerbread is amazing thank you for the recipe 🙏🏼🙏🏼😋😋
Thanks so much Nikolett!
Second year making this recipe. Always a hit. Make sure you flour the surface like she tells you to avoid it sticking. I even made gingerbread houses with this recipe.
Fantastic! Thanks so much Marcy!
Amazing cookies!! I used a smidge more butter, a pinch less flour and baked them for 9 minutes. Perfection!! Can’t wait to take these to work for our Xmas cookie party.
Awesome! So glad they worked out great!
I am making this recipe for the second time. Both times I have had to add 3 tbsp water to make the dough stick together.
Hi Margaret, it’s possible that you are over-measuring the flour, it’s a good idea to weigh it if you have a food scale, but if not then definitely use the spoon and level method. Nonetheless though, adding in some extra liquid (non dairy milk would also be great) if the dough is too crumbly is exactly the right move.
Hi there – do these freeze well?
Yes they freeze very well. 🙂
looks delicious and lovely. will try.
Sooo good. Made these for a party and everyone loved them. Make sure to make them a bit thick for the perfect texture!
Thank you.
So happy they worked out great! Thanks for posting Nathalie!
Hi. I cannot wait to try these, they look great! I do have a question though, how long do they last?
Hi Pree, up to a week in a sealed container at room temperature.
I’ll be honest, I didn’t follow your instructions at all. I followed the ingredients kind of, and the measurements. Instead of butter I used apple sauce, instead of the flax egg I used apple cider vinegar + oat milk and the sugar was half raw sugar half coconut sugar. I didn’t use a cutter of any type, instead what I made was ginger bread puffs. They are light, fluffy and soft. Very tasty! When they cool I shall pop a little icing on the top. I hope this didn’t offended you, I still give your recipe 5 stars!!
As long as they were good that’s all that counts! Thanks for sharing Sam!