Vegan and Gluten Free Gingerbread Cookies
Over the years, I've come to love these sweet & spicy cookies. I will take them if they're crunchy or soft, I'm not going to stick my nose up to either. As a kid, I begged my parents to bake these each holiday. Each year I was told that I wouldn't like them, and my mom proceeded to bake another batch of sugar cookies. Honestly sugar cookie rollouts are my least favorite, just make shortbread... they're better. Finally during a severe snowstorm in 2007, my mom caved and decided to bake me a batch of gingerbread. I don't know what went wrong, we ended up with a dough-like weapon stuck in our Kitchenaid Mixer. We could have built a house with that bitter brown brick. She ended up baking another round of sugar cut-outs, great.
It wasn't until Junior year of high school that I decided to bake myself gingerbread. I simply couldn't proceed with another Christmas without trying this holiday staple. I spoke German at the time, so I was going off of an old German recipe. I wanted my first experience with this cookie to be as authentic as possible. I called over some friends to help decorate, who were as apprehensive about gingerbread as I was, we all loved them. Since then, I have removed the black pepper, mace or white pepper from my recipe. If you would like to add pepper to your recipe, start with an 1/8 teaspoon.
Gingerbread Cookies
3 ¼ cups all-purpose gluten-free flour
1/2 cup corn starch
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 tablespoon ginger
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup vegan butter, softened
3/4 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 cup + 2 tablespoon molasses, original or full flavor
2 tablespoon corn syrup
2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Sift together all of the dry ingredients, set aside.
In a stand mixer, or hand mixer, cream together all of the wet ingredients for 3-5 minutes. You want the butter mixture to be light and fluffy before adding in the dry.
Add in the dry, and mix until just incorporated. Scrape down the bowl with a rubber spatula and mix once more until fully combine.
Preheat oven to 365ºf, and prepare 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
Roll the dough between plastic wrap, and roll until the thickness is between 1/8"-1/4". The thicker the dough is rolled out, the softer the cookie will be after baked.
Cut out your desired shapes, and arrange on the baking sheet. These cookies shouldn't spread much, so they can be placed close to each other.
Bake for 8-12 minutes until your desired doneness is achieved. Make sure to rotate the pan halfway through, and switch tray placement from top to bottom.
Allow to cool completely on the baking tray before removing to decorate.
I like to decorate with a simple glaze made from powdered sugar and oat milk. Slowly whisk in oat milk, you need this glaze to be thicker. If your glaze is too runny, whisk in more powdered sugar until you achieve a piping consistency. Each powdered sugar brand absorbs liquid differently, so doing this by feel is important.
Keep it cheeky!
-Mason