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.
Very sticky but these turned out terrific! Super yummy!!!
I accidentally bought ground flaxseed instead of ground flaxseed meal for the flax egg. I’ve never made a flax egg before—-with the ground flaxseed (NOT the flaxseed meal) work as well? Thanks!
Yes it’s the same thing!
Our favorite recipe. We’ve made it half a dozen times just this past month alone. Nice flavor and just the right sweetness.
Thanks so much Ara!
I just love your recipes. You are my go to when I don’t have time to create my own. I do tweak as I like to put my spin on things. But I’m so grateful for your abundance of creativity and your recipes are the best to recreate!! Avid follower here!! Merry Xmas
Thank you so much Nicole!
I’ve made this before and loved the recipe and I’m wondering if I can make the dough ahead of time before rolling it out and baking. If yes, how long do you have before you have to bake it?
You can make it and refrigerate up to 3 days before. Let it come to room temp before rolling it out.
After making FIVE batches of these cookies, I can safely say that these are the BEST gingerbread cookies EVER! Full of flavour and light & fluffy. I will be using this recipe for many years to come. ❤️
Thanks so much Tash!
This recipe came out amazing! I added a little bit more sugar though 3/4 and was just right! Can’t recommend enough to impress around the holidays 🙂
Thanks Savannah!
Loved these…excellent flavour and texture. Bonus that the dough doesn’t need to be refrigerated. I will definitely be making these again!
Thanks so much Andi!
Excellent vegan recipe, I cooked them for only 10 minutes and once cooled they are crunchy. Try not to eat them all before they’re iced!!
Delicious recipe Alison,everything was easy and came out perfect,thanks
Awesome! Thanks Jennifer!
I made these with my girls. Had ran out of vegan butter so used coconut oil instead, and they came out great! We even made gingerbread house with it. thanks for sharing. you made our day!
So happy to hear that Flor! Thanks for the amazing review!
I love all of your recipes! Should the butter be softened or cold?
Thank you! The butter can be softened first if it’s a stick style butter.
Looks delish! Do these come out sturdy enough to make a Gingerbread house with?
They’re very sturdy! I haven’t made a gingerbread house with them, but I think they would work great.
Mine was really good 🙂 yummy
Awesome! Thanks Melissa!
Texture came out good but flavour was a bit bland. May have been a mess up on my end though will try again!