This soft gingerbread cookie recipe is such fun to make each year! Cut them out as gingerbread men or in whatever shapes you like. With just a little spice and not too sweet, these cookies are a healthful treat.
This recipe is free from gluten, grains, dairy, and refined sugar. And, if you're looking for gingerbread cookies without molasses, you're in the right place. You can feel good about making these ones with the kids this Christmas!
What You'll Need For the Recipe
- Almond Flour - Either almond flour or almond meal will work here. A finer flour will give you a more refined cookie, but use whatever you have.
- Coconut Flour - There is no substitute for coconut flour. It acts very differently from other flours, so you'll definitely not want to change this.
- Coconut Butter - I use a little coconut butter in the icing to decorate the cookies. It provides a creamy whiteness and nice flavour to the icing.
How to Make the Soft Gingerbread Cookie Recipe
Whisk the dry ingredients together.
Whisk the wet ingredients in another bowl.
Stir the wet ingredients into the dry mixture until the dough forms a ball. Chill it in the fridge for an hour.
Then, roll out the dough and cut it into shapes.
Bake the cookies and allow them to cool on a rack.
Once the cookies have cooled, combine the coconut butter and honey for icing.
Pipe the icing from a bag with the corner cut out to decorate the cookies.
Recipe FAQ's and Tips
Your cookies will go together easily if you plan ahead a little and set out your flours and eggs to come to room temperature. (Nut flours should be stored in the refrigerator to avoid rancidity.)
Coconut oil that is neither hard nor runny will work best, as you'll see in the video. If yours doesn't happen to be at just the right temperature - how often does that happen? - melt it. Then refrigerate it, stirring occasionally until it it starts to firm up and is just right.
After mixing the dough, your cookies will be easiest to roll out if you've chilled your batter in the refrigerator for an hour or so. You'll notice that I used a white flour in the video to keep my dough from sticking as I rolled it. That was arrowroot flour. Tapioca flour would work just as well. Another option is to roll your cookie dough between two sheets of parchment paper.
To maintain the low-sugar content of the cookies, I decorated them with a blend of two parts coconut butter to one part honey. Cream the icing thoroughly so you don't have any lumps in it. If you don't have piping bags and decorating tips, just use a simple plastic sandwich bag. Cut a tiny hole in the bottom corner, insert your icing, and draw away!
You might also like these gluten free Christmas cookies:
- Gluten Free Cranberry Almond Biscotti
- Ginger Cookies
- Honey Ginger Meringues
- Dutch Windmill Cookies (Speculaas)
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Soft Gingerbread Cookies
Equipment
Ingredients
Cookies
- 2 cups (230 g) almond flour
- 3 tablespoons (28 g) coconut flour
- 2 ½ teaspoons (4.4 g) ground ginger
- 1 teaspoon (2.6 g) ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon (4 g) baking powder (gluten free, if necessary)
- ½ teaspoon (3 g) baking soda
- 3 tablespoons (45 ml) coconut oil softened
- ¼ cup (60 ml) honey
- 1 teaspoon (5 ml) vanilla
- 2 large eggs
Icing
- 3 tablespoons (45 ml) coconut butter
- 1 tablespoon (15 ml) raw honey
Instructions
Cookies
- Whisk together the dry ingredients (flours, spices, baking powder and soda) in a large mixing bowl.
- In a medium mixing bowl, add coconut oil, honey, vanilla, and eggs, whisking after each addition.
- Stir the wet ingredients into the dry and combine until dough forms a ball. Chill for 1 hour in refrigerator for easier rolling.
- Preheat oven to 350F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Roll out dough on a gluten-free-floured surface with floured rolling pin, or between two layers of parchment paper, to ¼-inch (6 mm) thickness. Cut into shapes with cookie cutters. Lift each one onto a parchment-lined baking sheet.
- Bake on a rack in the middle of a preheated oven for about 5 to 7 minutes until cookies are just starting to brown around the edges. Cool them on a wire rack.
Icing
- Stir coconut butter and honey together until very smooth. Press it through a sieve if it's lumpy. Cut a very small corner off a plastic sandwich bag. Transfer the icing to the sandwich bag and squeeze through the hole in the corner to decorate cooled cookies.
Video
Notes
- Allow ingredients such as eggs and nut flour to come to room temperature before mixing.
- If your coconut oil is hard, melt it. Then (or if your coconut oil was liquid), refrigerate it, stirring it occasionally until it reaches a creamy consistency.
- Tapioca or arrowroot flours work well to keep the dough from sticking as you roll it out.
- Chill the dough, so the cookies will roll out and keep their shape nicely.
- I've given you an option for a naturally sweetened icing, but use your imagination when it comes to decorating your cookies!
Terri says
Great idea! I am so impressed that you made this work! Pinning to my gluten-free board 🙂
Cathy says
Thank you, Terri! I must check out your gluten-free board.
Christy says
Cathy, these look amazing! I will be putting them on my list to make. Thanks for sharing! 🙂
Cathy says
Wonderful! I'm sure you'll enjoy them.
Gabrielle @ eyecandypopper says
I've made similar cookies before so I know these are gonna be good! Love this, especially with almond flour. My mouth is watering. I love the honey in the icing too, so flavourful and better-for-you!
Cathy says
Thanks, Gabrielle! Doesn't almond flour make great baking!
Alexandra | Occasionally Eggs says
Coconut butter honey icing is my go-to for gingerbread as well! It looks so pretty. Beautiful cookies - the almond flour must make them so tender.
Cathy says
Isn't that interesting! I just looked in my cupboard for non-refined-sugar ingredients that I might use to decorate the cookies, and I saw a jar of coconut butter there. I was quite pleased with how easy and good the coconut butter and honey combination is. Of course, I shouldn't be surprised that I'm not the first!