Ok, so I’m whipping out my A-game right away this holiday season. Yup. Check this out- Gluten Free Vegan Gingerbread cookies that are sweet without refined sugar, spicy, crispy, and zero xanthan gum! BRING IT. Tell your gut its time for happy holidays with this cookie. And icing? Try this recipe.
So here it is. Beautiful gingerbread. Made from Real Food. Gluten Free, Dairy Free, Egg Free, Gum Free, Refined Sugar Free. Bring it on. :)
Note: If you’re looking for more gluten free holiday cookies, check out my Gluten Free Vegan Shortbread, Gluten Free Vegan Molasses Gingersnaps, and Gluten/Dairy/Egg Free Pumpkin Spice Cookies.
MyRealFoodLife.com
GF Vegan Gingerbread
Note: Make sure to roll these out thin!
*See substitutions below for help switching ingredients*
Dry Ingredients
FLOURS:
- 1 1/4 cups tapioca starch
- ¾ cup buckwheat flour
- ½ cup coconut flour
- ¼ cup millet flour
- ¼ cup sweet rice flour
- ¼ cup almond flour
BINDING:
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp celtic sea salt
- 1 ½ tsp agar agar powder
SPICES:
- 1/3 cup coconut sap (or brown sugar), 2 tsp ground ginger, 2 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp cloves, 1 tsp dark cocoa powder, ¼ tsp nutmeg, 1-2 grates black pepper
Wet Ingredients
- ½ cup virgin coconut oil
- 2 tsp vanilla
- ½ cup maple syrup
- 1/3 cup fancy molasses
- 1/3 cup cooking molasses
Directions
- Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl. Sift them. (The coconut sap will have chunks, its ok, mix them back in).
- Cut in the virgin coconut oil with a fork, pastry cutter, or pulse in a blender until the mixture resembles fine crumbs.
- Stir in the rest of the wet ingredients.
- Chill the dough for 15 minutes in the fridge to solidify the fat content.
- Roll out approx 1 cup at a time between two sheets of wax paper, to 1/8 inch thickness. Cut out your shapes. If its too sticky, refrigerate longer. (you may wish to spread a thin film of olive oil or a little bit of starch on the paper to cut down on sticking.
- Bake at 350 for 7-10 minutes on a parchment paper-lined cookie sheet (if you use palm oil, increase to 12-15 min). The cookies will be quite soft, but turning golden on the edges. Let cool for 30 min on the tray, then remove to cool for 2 hours on a rack before eating (the agar agar must have time to set, and the coconut oil must get solid at room temperature).
Substitutions
(use same amounts as original ingredients unless otherwise noted):
Tapioca Starch: arrowroot, potato, or corn starch.
Buckwheat Flour: teff flour.
Coconut Flour: ¼ cup chickpea flour plus ¼ cup teff flour.
Millet Flour: amaranth flour.
Almond flour: chickpea flour plus 1/4 tsp agar powder, or any nut or seed meal plus 1/4 tsp agar powder
Coconut Sap: brown sugar or sucanat.
Agar Agar Powder: 1 tbsp unflavored gelatin, or try 2 tbsp ground flax or chia added to wet ingredients. You could also try 1 tbsp psyllium husk.
Coconut Oil: palm oil, shortening, or butter.
Maple Syrup: agave nectar or honey.
Molasses: yacon syrup.
hi Mara- my appologies for not replying sooner- i had to go offline for a little while. i hope the cookies turned out! the eggs are a binder, so you would still need the baking soda and salt but not the agar :) hope they turned out ok for you! alea
I’m excited to try this! Just to clarify…if I use the 2 eggs recommended above by Alea as a binding agent, do I also leave out the other ingredients (baking soda, salt, and agar agar powder?)
Thanks for the information…trying this tomorrow if I can find all the ingredients!
awww Lili thank you so much!!
ok, lets see here… first of all, birch sugar sounds fabulous, where do you get it? i MUST try some!
1- eggs for binding- perhaps, and you could use 2, or, you could use 1-2 tsp more of ground flax or ground chia, or you could use a packet of unflavoured gelatin, or you could use 1 tsp agar powder. :)
2- also, if its delicate, freeze the rolled out dough on parchment paper or wax paper before cutting shapes- should hold together better that way.
3- bubbles…. oh! ok, it could be your birch sugar if it is in small clumps- it will melt and cause the bubbles. Alterhatively, the coconut oil- if its a touch chunky, it will also melt and cause bubbles. You can melt the oil completely before adding to your ingredients, insteado f chopping it up, and just make sure to refrigerate or freeze the dough for a bit so it hardens enough for rolling.
4- the dough lasts for ages- definetly in the freezer till the 21 no problem . to unthaw, pull it out and let it melt overnight on the counter top at room temp.
i can’t wait to hear how they turn out! give me a shout anytime :D
xo alea
Alea!! once again you rocked it :) I get nervous with long ingredient lists so I tried 2 recipes before this one and they flopped! I subbed the sweet rice flour as you mentioned below and I used yacon for one of the molasses as well as birch sugar in place of the coconut sap…they came out delicious!!!! Even my non liking cinnamon husband thought they tasted good and the texture was awesome!! I do have more questions though :)
1. the dough was super delicate …do you think if I use eggs it will bind better? If so do you know how much?
2. Mine came out with bubbles all over them which didn’t make them as pretty as yours…do you know what could have caused this? maybe too high a temp?
3. Do you think the dough will hold in the fridge or freezer until the 21st? I have that cookie party and would like to use it then…
Thanks again!!!
Alea,
Wow! Thanks so much for the quick response and helpful info; you’re amazing. :-) Happy holidays!
hi liz! so there’s fancy molassesa nd blackstrap/cooking molasses. i believe the fancy molasses is sweeter. i know the brand you’re referring to – its great stuff. stick with it. if you find the recipes tastea bit strong (ie if they taste a bit too strongly of molasses, personally i love the stuff, but, just in case), you may wish to reduce the molasses slightly and replace with maple syrup. otherwise, if you love the taste as i do, i’d just keep the amounts as they are :)
I’ve never heard of molasses being distinguished as “cooking molasses”; what is that? I’ve HEARD of fancy molasses but don’t know what that is either. Can you enlighten me and perhaps offer some standard molasses substitutions? I only have Wholesome Sweeteners organic molasses (blackstrap, unsulphured).
Hi there lili!
If you are looking to sub sweet rice flour, your best bet is to do half tapioca starch, half millet flour – or half starch of your choice plus half GF flour of your choice (sorghum is great too). Sweet rice flour is really sticky and really starchy, so to substitute it, you need to make sure there’s alot of starch :) I hope this helps! give me a shout anytime if i can help with anything else :)
alea
Hi! I had asked you before what a good sub for sweet rice flour would be and you said millet but I can’t remember if you said anything else I should do…and I can’t find that post on fb…can you tell me once more? Thank you!!!
Hi Hannah- they are indeed strong enough to make gingerbread houses. Just make sure to bake them till they are crispy instead of soft, and you’ll be good to go :)
These look incredible. Would they be solid enough to build a gingerbread house?
oh goodness! thank you so much Lisa! I’ll give you a shout out for sure… how lovely of you… thank you :)
Hi! Just wanted to let you know that I featured this recipe in my post, “An Allergy Friendly Christmas Tea Party” with a link back to you. Thanks!
http://allergyfreecookery.blogspot.com/2011/12/allergy-friendly-virtual-christmas-tea.html
Lisa @ Allergy Free Vintage Cookery
These look fantastic and no xanthum gum-yeah!