These classic vegan gingerbread cookies are soft, chewy, and a wonderful recipe for Christmas or the holiday season!
Homemade vegan gingerbread cookies
With the perfect soft-yet-crispy gingerbread texture, your entire family will fall in love with these iced vegan ginger cookies.
Try them dipped in Vegan Hot Chocolate or a Pumpkin Spice Latte.
Add the cookies to a giant Christmas cookie tray or to top a fancy holiday spice cake or cupcakes, and impress all of your party guests!
Of course, the best part about making your own homemade vegan gingerbread cookies is decorating them with an array of colorful sprinkles and icing.
Also make these Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies
Vegan gingerbread men
Turn the dough into gingerbread men, gingerbread women, gingerbread hearts, snowflakes, candy canes, circles, stars, Santa hats, Christmas trees, bells, reindeer…
The choice is totally up to you.
You can also roll the dough into balls, for gingerbread cookie dough balls. If desired, use a fork or spoon to flatten the balls (before or after baking), turning them into homemade vegan gingersnaps.
Healthy gingerbread cookie ingredients
These vegan cookies are made with no butter, no eggs, no milk, and no dairy.
To make the recipe, you need oat flour, applesauce, brown sugar or coconut sugar, ground ginger, cinnamon, molasses, baking soda, baking powder, pure vanilla extract, salt, vegetable or coconut oil, and an optional pinch of allspice.
As a fun flavor alternative, you can substitute an equal amount of mashed banana or nondairy yogurt for the applesauce.
Either regular molasses or blackstrap molasses will work for the recipe. I prefer blackstrap molasses because it boasts an array of health benefits, including iron, copper, and calcium.
I have not tried making the recipe without molasses or oil or swapping out the granulated sweetener for pure maple syrup. While I cannot recommend any substitutions not listed, please feel free to experiment at your own risk.
Aside from being plant based, egg free, and vegan, the healthy gingerbread cookies can also be low calorie, low fat, and gluten free.
How to make vegan ginger cookies
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit.
Combine all of the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl, stirring well to ensure everything is evenly incorporated.
Stir in the applesauce, oil, pure vanilla extract, and the molasses to form a gingerbread cookie dough.
For easy rolling, transfer the dough to a gallon ziploc style bag. Fold the bag in half, and use a rolling pin to roll the dough out until it takes up all of the space.
Open the bag, and cut out shapes. I used this Gingerbread Cookie Cutter.
After cutting your shapes of choice, re-roll the remaining dough, and repeat the process until no gingerbread dough remains.
Place the unbaked cookies on a baking tray. Bake on the center rack of the preheated oven for ten minutes.
Let the gingerbread cookies cool before decorating with vegan royal icing, homemade white frosting, mini chocolate chips, or anything you wish.
Store the iced and decorated cookies the same way you would store traditional gingerbread cookies. Place leftover cookies in an airtight container, and store in a cool, dry place for up to two weeks or until you eat them all.
The recipe was adapted from my Vegan Sugar Cookies
Vegan gingerbread cookie recipe video
Above – watch the step by step video showing how to make the cookies
Using gram measurements
For those who choose to use a food scale for measuring ingredients instead of using the cup amounts below, here are the gram amounts:
80 grams of oat flour, 40 grams of spelt flour or additional oat flour, 30 grams of brown sugar or coconut sugar, 24 grams of oil, 30 grams each of applesauce and molasses, and 2 grams of pure vanilla extract.
Also add the ginger, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and optional allspice.
Can you make a vegan gingerbread house?
Yes! This recipe can easily be turned into a homemade vegan gingerbread house.
Use the same ingredients. Stop once you get to the rolling step, before cutting shapes with cookie cutters.
Instead, cut out shapes to construct a gingerbread house. If you want a larger house, double or triple the recipe.
After baking, use plant based frosting to glue the sides and top of the house together. Decorate as desired.
Vegan Gingerbread Cookies
Ingredients
- 2/3 cup oat flour
- 1/3 cup spelt flour or additional oat flour
- 1/3 cup brown sugar or coconut sugar
- 1/2 tsp each baking soda and baking powder
- 1/2 tsp ground ginger and optional pinch allspice
- 1/4 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 2 tbsp applesauce
- 2 tbsp coconut oil or vegetable oil
- 2 tbsp molasses (blackstrap or regular)
- 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
Instructions
- To make vegan gingerbread cookies, preheat the oven to 325 F. Stir dry ingredients very well, then add wet to form a dough. For easy rolling, transfer the dough to a gallon size bag. Fold the bag in half, and roll the dough out until it takes up all the space. (See the video above for a visual of how this step looks.) Open the bag, and cut shapes of choice. I used this Gingerbread Cookie Cutter. Bake for ten minutes. Let cool before handling, because they firm up as they cool. Frost cooled cookies so the icing does not melt.View Nutrition Facts
Notes
Have you made this recipe?
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More Vegan Holiday Recipes
Vegan Pecan Pie
Vegan Apple Pie
Crustless Pumpkin Pie
Easy Cinnamon Rolls
Sweet Potato Brownies
Chocolate Truffles
Montgomery says
Just tried making these – they turned out a bit soft but still really good. I didn’t have applesauce, so used homemade blackberry jam instead – gives a nice fruity touch