Just in time for the Christmas season: A recipe for Molasses-Free & Vegan Gingerbread Cookies. These aren’t like your typical soft gingerbread, they are gingerbread-flavored crispy cookies. They are the perfect Christmas cookies!
So my goal for these Gingerbread cookies was to make them without molasses. Because I really dislike working with the sticky mess and I end up having leftover molasses in the pantry all year round. And they worked great! These aren’t like the typical soft gingerbread, they are crispy gingerbread cookies.
These Christmas cookies get their specific gingerbread taste from the cinnamon and ginger powder. If you’re looking for more vegan Christmas cookies, make sure you check out these No-Bake Marzipan Rum Balls or the easiest Christmas cookies ever with only two ingredients!
Molasses-Free Vegan Gingerbread Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 2/3 cup white flour
- 1/2 cup white sugar (make sure it’s vegan!)
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon powder
- 1/2 teaspoon ginger powder
- 2 tablespoons maple syrup
- 1/8 cup almond milk (or any other plant-based milk)
- 1/4 cup cold vegan butter (EarthBalance, Alsan,…)
Instructions
- Combine the dry ingredients: flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon powder, and ginger powder. Give it a quick whisk. Add in the maple syrup, vegan butter (cut in small pieces) and almond milk. Mix and knead with your hands until it’s a smooth dough. If it’s too sticky, feel free to add more flour.
- Cover the dough in plastic wrap and put it in the fridge for at least 30 minutes (the dough should be cold when you roll it out). Meanwhile pre-heat the oven to 350°F/180°C.
- Roll out the dough on a floured surface and cut out cookies with a cookie cutter until all the dough is used up. Transfer them on a baking sheet and bake them in the oven for about 10 minutes. They are quite soft when fresh out of the oven but they will harden once cooled, so let them cool off completely, before munching them or decorating them further.
Maria
Thursday 8th of December 2022
Made these for my vegan friend. I hate kneading but used gloves and got by fine, and after that the dough was a breeze to work with. I would personally say this needs at least 3x more spices (I also use cardamom, nutmeg, cloves and a whisper of black pepper in mine and did the same here), but maybe I just like my gingerbread cookies extra spicy. I would also recommend mentioning that they will expland and puff up a lot and you have to take that into account when choosing a cutter - these wouldn't make good intricate snowflakes for example. I was prepared from previous experiences and used a star cutter, pinching the rays after shaping so that it would make more of a star and less of a flower after puffing up in the oven. Overall a great recipe and a godsend for not using molasses or other finicky ingredients.
Miruna
Monday 23rd of December 2019
Best recipe ever. Thanks a lot! 💕
Judy
Saturday 7th of December 2019
I made them :) It was so good! Tasted like biscoff lotus biscuits :). I used some tapioca starch and homeade oat flour because that's what I had on hand. I also used chilled coconut oil instead of butter. It turned out amazing tho :). Thank you so much, I will be trying out many more of your recipes soon:)
célia
Tuesday 5th of December 2017
second winter i made them, super quick, super easy, super appreciated ! thank you
Bianca
Thursday 7th of December 2017
So glad to hear that, Célia!! <3
Chris
Saturday 2nd of December 2017
I had the same issue as the other commenter with my dough essentially being a powder. I added some more almond milk but it was too much and my dough was too wet. Added some more flour and it came out pretty good though. I'll have to try again with a different amount of almond milk and see how it comes out. Wasn't really "gingerbread" to me but that's just because of not using molasses I'm sure. Tasted and cooked great after all that though!
Bianca
Tuesday 5th of December 2017
Thank you so much for your comment, Chris! I've just remade the cookies and I've updated the ingredients and instructions. You're right, it needs a bit more almond milk, plus I've added in the instructions to use the hands for kneading the dough. It will need the body's warmth for the butter to get warm enough to bind everything together :) Yeah, it's not a typical gingerbread recipe, it's more like gingerbread-flavored cookies. Glad you liked them nonetheless! :)