Have a seat, friends, we need to talk. Have you been feeling down this holiday season because you are gluten-free? Have you felt that pang in your heart as you have had to pass the plate of delicious treats? Well cry no more because these gluten-free vegan gingerbread men cookies are unfathomably delicious! Santa Clause has come early this year and he is handing out probably the best tasting gluten, egg, AND dairy-free gingerbread cookies you will ever sink your teeth into this Christmas season.
This recipe is a part of the Christmas Cookie Countdown I did with Brooke from Crackers on the Couch where she supplies the cookies and I figure out a way to make them gluten-free and vegan. See Brooke’s original recipe before I took the gluten, egg, and dairy out of it.
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PinIngredients
For the Cookies:
- 1/2 c vegan butter
- 2 1/2 c Cara’s gluten-free all purpose flour mix
- 1/2 c sugar
- 1/2 c molasses
- 1 flaxseed meal egg (1 Tb flaxseed meal + 2 Tbs warm water, allow to sit for 5 minutes to thicken)
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp ground cloves
For Sugar Icing:
- 1 c powdered sugar
- 1/4 tsp vanilla
- non-dairy milk
- natural food coloring (optional)
Instructions
- In a large bowl, beat margarine with an electric mixer on medium to high speed about 30 seconds or till softened.
- Add about half the flour.
- Add sugar, molasses, flax egg, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, and cloves. Beat till thoroughly combined.
- Beat or stir in the remaining flour.
- Divide dough in half. Cover and chill about 3 hours or till easy to handle.
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
- Grease a cookie sheet, then set aside.
- On a lightly floured surface, roll each half of dough in to 1/8 inch thickness.
- Using a cookie cutter of your choice, cut dough into shapes.
- Place 1″ apart on the prepared cookie sheet.
- Bake for 7 to 10 minutes or till edges are firm. Cool on cookie sheet for 1 minute. Transfer cookies to a wire rack.
For the Icing:
- In a small mixing bowl, combine powdered sugar and vanilla. Stir in a dash of non-dairy milk and food coloring (optional) until well blended and thick. If too thin, add more sugar. If too thick, add another dash of milk. Makes 1/2 c.
The flavor will punch-kick you right in the mouth. Guaranteed. And the best part? Tastes JUST like they were made with flour, eggs, and butter. Make your holidays bright and bake up some gingerbread men. Word.
Disastrous! Crumbly, dry, wouldn’t even roll out let alone cut into cookies! I’m so disappointed.
I agree! Awful…and I made them for a wedding party ? Don’t have time to make anything else – serving these will be humiliating!
Sounds like you had too much flour in your mix, which can also be due to using different flours not stated in this recipe. Did you use my flour blend?
I’m making these for my son’s kindergarten class. I did a trial run today using soy-free Earth Balance. The dough was super sticky and soft out of the fridge, was hard to cut into shapes… will be impossible for kindergartners to work with. How can I get this dough to firm up? Suggestions please!
Just as more flour mix Crystal. Stay worth a tablespoon at a time until it is no longer sticky.
these cookies are AMAZING!! i make gingerbread cookies every year at christmas; they are my favorite. but after going gluten/dairy/soy free early this year, i knew i’d have to miss our on my favorite cookies. i made these today and they taste almost exactly like the regular gingerbread’s. such a great recipe!
p.s. i even used the ninjabread cookie cutters 😉
Thanks for this great recipe! The first batch I made tasted way too much like molasses for me, so the second batch I made with only 1/3 the amount of molasses (and made up the rest with golden syrup), and lots of ginger. They were delicious and the non-vegan, non-gluten-free person I gave them to loved them!
Next time I might try substituting the molasses with golden syrup entirely.
I LOVE this recipe! The only thing I did different was use parchment when baking as well as a bit of spray, and I was impatient, so I chilled the dough in the freezer for about an hour and it worked beautifully 🙂 I made this dough for some gingerbread house cookie cutters I got at the thrift store.
The first batch baked for maybe 8 or 9 minutes. They got a little overdone and crunchy. The next batch I took out after 6 or 7 minutes. They were perfectly baked, but started falling apart when I tried to assemble the houses! If I had done gingerbread ninjas 7 min would have been perfect to keep the cookies a little soft, but the house cookies definitely need to bake longer! The overdone cookies held together wonderfully while assembling the houses. All in all, DELICIOUS recipe and perfect for using cookie cutters!
My son is allergic to flax..Think I could use EnerG egg replacer instead?
Shelley, You can definitely sub the EnerG! It’s really one of my go-tos for all egg replacement.
The dough tastes fantastic. Sticky as hell though, not easy to mold. Cookie cutter-wise, epic fail. I probably should have added more flour mix though! That said,I could eat that dough for days.
Best recipe ever! I did a few subsitutes because I didn’t have.
These really are good, huh?! So happy that you tried them out!
These were amazing!! Thank the stars! I doubled the spices, and used blackstrap molasses. They were chewy (yet crunchy) and amazing… and now they’re gone. Thank you for having an awesome blog. I’m off to make thin mints for my darling husband. Yay!
Haiiii Ya!! yeah indeed.. you are one cray creative shaker missy!
Have I told you how much I love you today? You are so freaking awesome. Those cookies are the shiz!
haha! we totally have ninja cookie cutters! they’re the best!!
Cara!! I love you 🙂 I’ve just gone gluten free and Ive been printing off so many fun things from your blog so I dont feel deprived over the next few weeks! These look soo good and I love the Ninjas 🙂 Pow pow!
Welcome to the GF wagon!! What made you hop on, health issues?
Yeah I was advised to go wheat and gluten free for a month to begin with as I have always suffered with problem skin and a dietician told me that problems in the digestive system can show in your face and skin so I’m hoping to see an improvement there. Also I have seen other positive changes like a flatter stomach and just more energy in general 🙂 being meat, dairy and now gluten free is taking some getting used too but your blog shows it can still be full of fun!
You’re fantastic! I’ve seen those cookie cutters and I’m glad you put them to use! 😀
Aren’t they seriously the cutest things ever???
Hello, these are SO fun. And I just saw that you finaled at Veg News. Not surprised, of course. Hope you win!!! Congrats.
Aw, thank you so much Kelly! I have my fingers crossed. HiiiiiiYa!
Oh these are by far the best gingerbread ninja cookies the blogosphere has seen! How fun are they? My son would go nuts over these.
Sounds like someone will be buying their son some ninja cookie cutters soon… 😉
These are hysterical, Cara! Sorry I’m getting here so late to the party we had our Santa visit and then I decided to go insane and take two children to Ikea by myself. My head asplode. Perhaps it needs a good gingerbread roundhouse kick to the face.
Uh, no apologies sister! *I* am the late one, are you kidding me?! ha.
Thank you for this recipe. I wanted those cookie cutters for my nephew but they won’t ship to Canada. Boo!
A BIG Boooooo indeed! We need to figure out a way to sneak them over the border for you 🙂
These are just crazy cute!
I’m nominating you for the ‘Healthy Fun Food” Blogger Award!
Here’s the link
But I’ll post about it tomorrow and show off your Ninjas too!
Love this 🙂
http://cannedtime.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/healthy-fun-food-blogger-award-fb-001.jpg
You have been so supportive and loving towards me–thank you so much for this nomination! It is so appreciated… xo
🙂
These are adorable! Do you think I could sub coconut oil for the butter?
I don’t see why not Laura. Give it a try and tell me how they work out. Now I’m curious to hear the outcome…
Brilliant! Hiiiiiii Ya!
hehehehe. I’m so glad you appreciate that 🙂
They look awesome! I bought my friend a set of these cutters last year, I couldn’t resist them!
They are the stinkin’ cutest cutters, aren’t they? I heart them so!
I feel like I should collect cookie cutters…even though I’ve never in my entire life used a cookie cutter. For anything. Ever. You’re helping to convince me otherwise 😉
You have never used a cookie cutter? Sounds like you need to break this cycle with a Ninja cutter! I’m kinda with you though on the collection. I buy cutters constantly despite the lack of cookie making in my house…
Q: The best way to cut the crusts off your bread for High Tea?
A: Cookie cutters!
Good thing I got a High Noon Tea Recipe book for one of my stocking stuffers! Now I am all set 🙂
Silly girl, High Tea is in the afternoon, just ask any of your Brit pals.
Nope. Never made cut out cookies. We didn’t do Christmas cookies when I was a kid. IDKY. I guess my mom didn’t like cookies. She made lots of pie. I don’t like pie. Maybe because it replaced cookies. LOL
These look amazing! And the recipe sounds great! I’d love to give it a go sometime! 🙂
YOU HAVE TO!!! Sorry, I got excited there. But for reals…these cookies are SO good!
Ninjas!!!! So cute. Gingerbread is always on my list Christmas or not. I’ll definitely have to see about working these into the schedule. oh, and BTW do not ever make a shortbread crust and top them with lemon marshmallows. More than your life is worth not to mention major Sugar Buzz! xoxo
I cannot wait to hear what you think about these, Laurel!, she says as she stuffs shortbread and marshmallows into her mouth…
Well, I just want to say a HUGE Thank You because I ordered those Ninja cookie cutters as well as gingerbread skeleton cookie cutters and they are supposed to arrive today. But I didn’t have a recipe for GF, vegan gingerbread cookies. I thought I was going to have to use them to make sugar cookies, which I am not fond of at all. So, Thanks again!
Get out! Both of those cutters were my stocking stuffers too!! haha. The Gingerbread Man pictured is actually from that skeleton cutter set 🙂 It is destiny, isn’t?! Happy Baking! xo
Where did you find those ninja cookie cutters? I LOVE them.
They were actually a stocking stuffer. In my house, is it obvious that we cannot wait for Christmas? Truth be told, we have already opened all of our presents. ha. Oh, and ps the cutters are from Target 🙂
OH. MY. GAWD! These top my Lego men FOR SURE! These are amazing and I can’t wait to make them for Santa. Ka Pow! Take that Christmas baking! I just kicked your aaaaaassssss!!!
HiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiYa!
And those don’t top the Lego men–they are equal in awesomeness!
OK, equally cool. HIIIIIIYA! Namaste (Ninjaman bows to Legoman palms at heart center).
SO cute!! I want some gingery ninja men! Talk about a kick in your taste buds 😉
Aren’t these just the most fun cookie cutters? I am in love <3 HiiiiiiiiYa!