Gingerbread Cut-Out Cookies [Vegan, GF, Paleo]

These healthier gingerbread cookies are paleo, vegan, gluten-free, and are super quick + easy to make. Decorate them with coconut butter for a 1-ingredient, sugar-free frosting option! 

Last week I overheard someone referring to gingerbread cookies as ‘ginger boys’ as if that were the official, agreed-upon, socially acceptable name for gingerbread men. Ginger Boys. Proper noun capitalization and all. 

So, naturally, I fell in love with the name ginger boys and had to- had to– go home and create my own version of Ginger Boys immediately. 

I mean, would you look at these little Ginger Boys? Gah, so cute.

All my life I thought these cookies were grown-ass men but now that I look closer, they are so very clearly little boys. Ginger Boys, obviously. 

Consider my entire life changed.

So, let’s chat about these Ginger Boys…er, I mean, these gingerbread cut-out cookies. They’re made with the simplest of ingredients: literally just almond butter, molasses and coconut sugar, mixed with lots of spices and almond flour. 

It almost doesn’t seem possible that this combination of ingredients would yield gingerbread cookies, but it does. Oh, it really does. 

These Gingerbread Cut-Out Cookies are:

• easy to roll out
• crunchy on the edges
• soft and fluffy in the middle
• heavily spiced
• just barely sweet
• made in 20 minutes, start-to-finish.

Of course, you could cut them into stars or Christmas trees, mushrooms or gnomes, and gingerbread folk of any gender, but right now, my heart is in love with Ginger Boys, and so I opted for the classic, slightly rounded, truly genderless-but-lets-call-it-a-boy cookie cutter.

This recipe yields at least 12 Ginger Boys, and if you want to roll out and re-cut the scraps, you’ll get another 4+; I was sick of rolling out and cutting cookies by the time I made this batch (it was my third test of this recipe in a row, so I was feeling pretty over it) and I opted to just squish the dough into a log with my hands and slice and bake circular cookies out of the scraps. While not nearly as cute, those slightly thicker, softer-in-the-middle cookies were great for snacking on, too, so if you don’t feel like cutting out cookies but still want s one gingerbread action in your life, go right ahead and turn the entire batch into slice-and-bake cookies!

And that icing? I literally took a jar of coconut butter (<–affiliate link), softened it up, drizzled some into a piping bag, and piped it straight into the cookies. I happen to love coconut butter and think it’s naturally sweet on it’s own, but you could totally add a tablespoon or two of powdered sugar if you prefer it sweeter. Either way, it’s a completely no-work option for icing that I totally love. 

If you make this recipe, let me know how it turns out! Leave a comment below, or take a picture of your Ginger Boys and share them with me on Instagram. I love seeing my recipes in your kitchen! 

Gingerbread Cut-Out Cookies [Vegan, GF, Paleo]

Yields: 12-16 4-inch gingerbread men or 24+ 2-inch cut-out circles 

Time:20 minutes

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup creamy almond butter
• 1/4 cup molasses
• 1/4 cup coconut sugar (or organic brown sugar)
• 1 Tablespoon fresh lemon juice or orange juice 
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups blanched almond flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 teaspoons ginger
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon cardamom
• 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/4 cup coconut butter, for icing (optional)

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. 
2. Stir together the almond butter, molasses, coconut sugar, lemon or orange juice, and vanilla in a large mixing bowl. 
3. Add all remaining ingredients (flour, leavening + spices) and mix well to fully combine.
4. Cut two large pieces of parchment paper the size of a sheet pan (you’ll use these to bake the cookies after you roll them out, so it’s helpful if you cut them to the size of your cookie sheet!). Place dough onto one of the pieces of parchment paper and use your hands to flatten it into a large (~8-inch) disc. Then, cover with the second piece of parchment paper and use a rolling pin to roll the dough out into a large circle about 1/4 inch thick.
5. Remove the top piece of parchment and place it on a cookie sheet. Cut the dough with your preferred cookie cutters, transferring each cookie to the lined sheet pan. When the pan is full, bake for 6-8 minutes, or until just set in the middle (they’ll continue to firm up as they cool). 
6. Re-roll any remaining dough and cut out more shapes, or do like I did and scoop the dough up into a ball, roll into a log, and cut out circles from the scraps. Bake final cookies on the piece of parchment you’re working on. 
7. Let cookies cool completely on the pan before icing with coconut butter. Soften the coconut butter to a liquid state (by either microwaving in 10 second increments until drippy, or sitting in a small bowl of hot water for 10 minutes), then pour into a piping bag with your smallest tip (or small plastic sandwich bag, cutting a tiny hole in one corner) and pipe faces/buttons, etc onto each cookie. 

#flourless gingerbread cookies, #gingerbread cutout cookies, #gingerbread man cookies