Healthy vegan gingerbread man cookies that are spicy and soft, vegan and gluten free, yet sturdy enough to decorate and use as gifts or decorations. Made with healthier ingredients, such as maple syrup, and grated ginger root, these traditional Christmas cookies are refined-sugar-free, and egg free.
Make sure milk, maple syrup, molasses and pumpkin puree are at room temperature.
Line two baking pans with parchment paper.
Preheat oven to 350 F
Peel and chop 1 inch of fresh ginger root. Push chopped ginger through a garlic press and capture 1 teaspoon of the pulp and liquid that you squeeze through.
Make gingerbread cookies
In a large mixing bowl, mix the liquid ingredients together using a spoon, maple syrup, pumpkin puree, molasses, ginger root and milk.
½ cup maple syrup, ⅓ cup pumpkin puree, ¼ cup molasses, ¼ cup milk, 1 teaspoon chopped ginger root
Place a fine mesh strainer over the mixing bowl and to it add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and spices.
2 ¾ cups all purpose flour*, ½ teaspoon baking powder, ½ teaspoon baking soda, ½ teaspoon salt, 1 ½ teaspoons ground ginger, 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon, ⅛ teaspoon ground cloves, ⅛ teaspoon ground nutmeg
Run a spoon around the dry mixture to send it through the strainer into the wet ingredients.
Mix up the dough using a spoon or hand-mixer to mix up the dough. It will be sticky dough. You can refrigerate for 10-20 minutes covered if the dough is too sticky to work with, but I didn't need to.
Bake gingerbread cookies
In one lined pan, press the dough flat, and lay another sheet of parchment paper on top and roll it out. No flour is needed if you use a parchment paper sandwich or even foil or plastic wrap.
Peel off top sheet and cut out your shapes about ½ inch apart. Peel away the excess dough. Repeat by rolling and cutting out excess dough in other pan. Or you can lift cut cookie dough shapes and arrange them on another parchment lined pan.
Bake each pan separately for 10 minutes.
Remove pans, let cookies cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack and allow to cool completely before decorating.
Store gingerbread cookies
Store these cookies in a container at room temperature for 4 days, and for 1 month refrigerated or longer if frozen.
Video
Notes
*Use gluten free baking flour to make these cookies gluten free.The dough does not have to be chilled unless you are having trouble using cookie cutters.Store these cookies at room temperature in a sealed container for 4 days. After that refrigerate or freeze. The dough can also be frozen.