by 
These Soft Gluten-Free Vegan Gingerbread Cookies will be a holiday staple! They’re incredibly soft, chewy and flavorful from the molasses and warm spices.
Who loves gingerbread cookies?! I’ve come to love gingerbread flavored everything in my adult years, despite my family not making gingerbread cookies too often when I was a kid.
We were much more enthralled with making batch after batch of Magic Cookie Bars during the holidays. However, I got a few requests this year for some classic gingerbread cookies and decided to accept the challenge!
Also a gingerbread lover? You’re going to love these gingerbread scones, gingerbread blondies, and easy vegan gingerbread cookie granola!
What makes these Gingerbread Cookies delicious?
These gluten free gingerbread cookies are so flavorful and rich they 100% converted me into a gingerbread loving lady! Here’s why you’ll love them:
- Rich molasses flavor
- Soft texture
- Crisp outer texture
- Warming spices
- Refined-sugar free
- Quick & easy to make! (no chilling required)
- Paleo and vegan!
What you need to make gingerbread cookies
Surprisingly, I knocked these healthy gingerbread cookies out of the park on my first try (not to toot my own horn or anything). These vegan cookies come together super quickly and there’s no need for a stand mixer or chilling of the dough required! Here’s what you need to make them:
- Almond Butter
- Molasses
- Softened Coconut Oil
- Coconut Sugar
- Flax Eggs
- Vanilla Extract
- Cinnamon
- Ground Ginger
- Nutmeg
- Coconut flour
- Baking soda
- Sea salt
Can you make these gingerbread cookies vegan?
Yes! To make these gingerbread cookies you’ll simply use flax eggs! To make one flax egg you will simply mix 2.5 TBSP water + 1 TBSP flaxseed meal and allow to sit for 5 minutes. Once it’s thick, you’ll use the flax mixture just as you would a regular egg. For this recipe, you will need two flax eggs total.
Non-vegan version: If you aren’t vegan or don’t have flax on hand, you can easily use regular eggs. Just use one egg + one egg yolk to get the same texture.
Tips for making soft gluten-free gingerbread cookies
Coconut flour: Coconut flour keeps the cookies grain-free and paleo while also helping to create a delicious texture. I don’t recommend substituting for other flours here as coconut flour is very absorbent.
Flatten cookies: After the dough is ready, you will roll the dough balls into a coconut sugar/cinnamon/ginger mixture. After this, I recommend flattening out the cookies a bit as they do not spread as easily on their own when baking.
Softened coconut oil: Make sure your coconut oil is slightly soft, similar to a butter texture. This helps create a soft, puffy cookie texture.
For softer cookies: You can bake these gingerbread cookies on the shorter side for 10-11 minutes if you prefer a softer cookie texture. If you prefer crispier edges, leave them in the oven for an extra few minutes.
If you love these gingerbread cookies, check out these healthy holiday treats!
- Chocolate Chunk Gingerbread Blondies
- Gluten Free Vegan Peppermint Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Vegan Gingerbread Cheesecake Bars
- Thick & Chewy Paleo Snickerdoodle Cookies
Soft Gingerbread Cookies
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons 25g virgin coconut oil (solid and slightly softened, similar to softened butter)
- ⅓ cup 80g almond butter
- ¼ cup 85g molasses
- ½ cup (77g) coconut sugar
- 2 flax eggs, 2 tablespoons flax meal + 5 tablespoons water – whisk them together and let sit for 5 minutes to gel – see notes for info about using real eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt, skip if you’re using salted almond butter
- ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ½ cup 64g coconut flour
To roll the dough in
- ⅓ cup (51g) coconut sugar
- ¼ teaspoon cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon ground ginger
Equipment
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350ºF and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
- In a bowl or stand mixer, beat together the coconut oil, almond butter, molasses, and coconut sugar until smooth. Add the flax eggs and vanilla and mix until smooth.
- Add the ginger, cinnamon, baking soda, salt, nutmeg, and coconut flour to the wet ingredients. Mix until well incorporated.
- In a separate small bowl, combine the coconut sugar, cinnamon, and ground ginger to roll the dough in.
- Use a small or medium sized cookie scoop to form cookies and roll in the cinnamon sugar mixture. Place 2” apart on the prepared baking sheet. Press down slightly to flatten – note that the cookies won’t spread very much, so press them down to the thickness you prefer.
- Bake for 11 minutes or until the cookies have puffed and are cooked through. You can bake for an extra minute or two for crispier edges.
- Let cool for 5 minutes on the cookie sheet and then move to a cooling rack to cool completely. Enjoy!
Ohh man these look so tasty! I love soft, chewy cookies. It would be quite hard to stop eating them :)
Hehe they were definitely hard to stop devouring. You’d love these Elizabeth!
These look so good. Could I sub maple syrup or honey for the molasses
I wouldn’t recommend it – molasses has a very unique flavor that essentially is what makes these gingerbread cookies.
These look amazing!! Could I replace the coconut flour for another flour?
Thanks Valerie. As mentioned in the post, coconut flour is uniquely absorbent and no other flour will perform the same way here.
Hey Rachel !
I hope you’re doing well. I discovered your blog a month ago and already made 6 recipes that turned out AMAZING. I am so grateful for all those wonderful and tasty recipes.
I struggled a bit to find all the ingredients since I don’t live in the US but I still managed to find most of them.
I still didn’t find the molasses though … Do you know how I could replace it ? Or maybe how I could make it ?
Thanks again for sharing these delicacies with the world !
Pierre
So thrilled to hear you’re enjoying my recipes, Pierre! If you must, you can use honey or maple syrup in place of the molasses, but the molasses does have a flavor that makes these uniquely *gingerbready*. They’ll still be good, just not quite the same! Enjoy :)
Thank you for the advice Rachel ! I finally found molasses in an organic store though. Can’t wait to try them. Everyone fell in love with the brownies I made with your recipe today ! You definitely improved my life :-)
Aw I’m SO happy to hear that you loved the brownies, and I hope the gingerbread cookies are just as big of a hit :)
Second time I make these gingerbread cookies. I was the only one to fall in love with the first batch. The texture was great but since I had used blackstrap molasses, they had a very strong flavor (burnt flavor). Today I made them with “lighter molasses” and everyone finally agreed they were amazing. The texture is just so WOOOW ! Thank you again :-D Can’t wait to dip them in my golden milk tomorrow morning …
Yess so thrilled everyone was a fan! Thanks so much for your feedback Pierre. Dipping them in golden milk sounds HEAVENLY!
How long do these keep?
They will be best the first 3 days, but will probably keep for 5 or 6 :)
I didn’t think molasses was paleo?
Blackstrap molasses is generally considered to be acceptable! You can read more about it here: https://www.thepaleomom.com/blackstrap-molasses-the-sugar-you-can-love/
Just made these. They are delicious. I used 3 drops of Ginger essential oil in the batter instead of ground ginger. Thanks for sharing the recipe.
So thrilled to hear you’re enjoying them, love that you used essential oil!
These were wonderful! I used a little extra flour because the batter was a bit too wet to work with at first. They were still very wet and sticky and mine ended up spreading out more than i expected, but it really made no difference – the texture was BEAUTIFUL! So soft and chewy and they tasted marvelous! Everyone loved them
The batter came out too wet for me as well and spread out more. When I added a tad bit extra flour, I was able to form it into balls and did not spread as much and looks like the picture. Soft, chewy, flavorful!
Glad you were able to correct by adding a little extra coconut flour! Thanks for the feedback, enjoy!
These look amazing! And I think I have exactly a 1/2 C of coconut flour left ;) I don’t have any coconut sugar and prefer not to buy things I don’t regularly use. I know I could sub a less healthy sugar, like brown sugar, but do you think another liquid sweetener would work…along with the molasses, of course–maple syrup or honey, maybe?
Hi Erin, unfortunately these will be way too soft if you use a liquid sweetener, so I’d recommend sticking to a granulated sweetener. Enjoy!
Thanks!
Could you use something else besides almond butter for the gingerbread cookie recipe? I have any allergy to nuts. And what’s a good brand for coconut flour? Thanks!
Hi Michelle, you can use sunbutter to keep these nut-free. I like Bob’s Red Mill and Anthony’s for coconut flour. Enjoy!