These vegan gingerbread cookies are both delicious and fun to make! Soft, chewy, and packed with spices, they're the perfect treat for celebrating the holidays.
A master cookie decorator I am not.
But that's okay! The great thing about gingerbread cookies, especially gingerbread men and women, is that they look cute even if you're super unskilled in the decorating department. See? Aren't these guys adorable?
So, whether you're looking for a fun and creative holiday activity to do with the kiddos, or just craving something sweet and festive, you should probably make these cookies. They're super tasty too — softer and chewier than your typical gingerbread, with just the right amount of spice. They're the best vegan gingerbread cookies, in my humble opinion!
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Ingredients You'll Need
This is going to be easy! The ingredients for vegan gingerbread are pretty close to those for regular gingerbread cookies, but without the egg. Here's what you'll need:
For the Cookies
- Flour. Regular old all-purpose flour is what we'll be using. I haven't tested the recipe with any other varieties, but I think whole wheat pastry flour or all-purpose gluten-free flour should work!
- Baking powder. Just a bit is needed in order to get our cookies to rise.
- Salt. This is a flavor enhancer, so don't skip it.
- Spices. Lots of them! We're using ground ginger, cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg.
- Vegan butter. Look for this near the regular butter in your supermarket's refrigerator. Some popular brands are Earth Balance and Miyoko's. Make sure to bring it to room temperature before getting started. Use this method to soften it up if you forget to plan ahead.
- Brown sugar. Make sure to buy organic, to ensure it's vegan.
- Vanilla extract. We're just using a smidge, because I love the way it compliments the spices.
- Molasses. This adds some sweetness and gives our cookies that classic gingerbread flavor. Make sure you use regular unsulphured molasses (such as Brer Rabbit or Grandma's brand). Don't use blackstrap molasses — it cooks up differently from regular molasses and can totally ruin a recipe when it's not called for!
For the Vegan Gingerbread Frosting
- Powdered sugar. Again, make sure to buy organic.
- Water. Just a couple of tablespoons is all you need to turn that powdered sugar into frosting!
- Vanilla extract. For flavor.
- Vegan food coloring. This is totally optional, and as you can see, I didn't use it. I have a box of this brand in my pantry, but again, I didn't use it, so I can't (yet) vouch for its quality.
How to Make Vegan Gingerbread Cookies
The following is a detailed photo tutorial on how to make this dish. Scroll all the way down if you'd like to skip right to the recipe!
Make sure to get started early in the day or a day in advance, because the dough will need to chill completely before you can use it.
- Start by stirring your dry ingredients together in a large bowl: flour, spices, baking powder, and salt. Set the mixture aside.
- Now place your (room temperature) vegan butter and brown sugar into another bowl, and whip them together with an electric mixer.
- Once they're mixed, add the vanilla and molasses.
- Beat everything together again.
- Now start beating in the dry ingredients, just a bit at a time. Be sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula. Continue adding and beating until everything is mixed and you've got a thick dough.
- Split the cookie dough into two halves and roll each half into a ball.
- Wrap each ball tightly in plastic and place them in the fridge until they're completely chilled. This will take a few hours, but it's important. Chilling the dough will firm it up so it's easy to roll and cut.
- When the dough has finished chilling, sprinkle some flour on the counter. Take one of your dough halves out of the fridge and roll it out.
- Tip: Do your best to work quickly when rolling and cutting your cookies. The longer the dough is out of the refrigerator the softer it will get, which will make it difficult to work with. This often results in not-fun things like dough sticking to your cookie cutters, broken limbs, and such.
- Use your favorite cookie cutters to cut it into fun shapes. Go traditional and make vegan gingerbread men and women, or try some fun shapes like stars, hearts, snowflakes...whatever! Be efficient in your cookie cutting. Cut them close together! Because again, the more times you need to roll the dough the softer it'll get.
- Arrange the cookies on a parchment paper lined baking sheet and bake them for about 10 minutes.
- Tip: For soft vegan gingerbread cookies, keep the bake-time low. For firmer cookies, bake them longer.
- When the cookies come out of the oven you'll need to transfer them to a cooling rack to cool completely before they're ready to frost. In the meantime you can whip up your frosting.
- Transfer your frosting to a pastry bag and decorate away!
- Decorating tip: You'll probably find that the little bit of frosting in the opening of your pastry bag often dries out between decorating cookies, which makes it difficult to get it to stick when you start a new cookie. Keep a damp cloth on hand to wipe away the dried out bit just before you start decorating each cookie.
Shelf-Life & Storage
These vegan gingerbread cookies will keep in a sealed container at room temperature for about 2 weeks, or in the freezer for about 2 months.
Frequently Asked Questions
I'm really not sure, but if you'd like to try it I'd recommend using an all-purpose gluten-free flour blend like those made by Bob's Red Mill or King Arthur Flour.
Most sugar in the United States is processed using animal bone char, so it's not considered vegan. Organic sugar is processed differently.
Vegan gingerbread will still be pretty soft when it comes out of the oven, but the cookies should be dry and partially set at their centers. They will continue to firm up as they cool.
More Vegan Holiday Cookies
- Vegan Peanut Butter Blossoms
- Vegan Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
- Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Vegan Snickerdoodles
- Vegan Sugar Cookies
- Vegan Peanut Butter Cookies
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The Best Vegan Gingerbread Cookies
Ingredients
- 3 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 tablespoon powdered ginger
- 1 tablespoon cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground cloves
- ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- ¾ cup vegan butter, brought up to room temperature
- ¾ cup organic brown sugar
- ¾ cup unsulphured molasses (not blackstrap molasses)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
For the Frosting
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 tablespoons water, plus up to an additional tablespoon, as needed
Instructions
- Stir the flour, baking powder, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and salt together in a large mixing bowl. Set it aside.
- In a separate large mixing bowl, use an electric mixer to beat the butter and brown sugar together until smooth and creamy, for about 1 minute.
- Add the molasses and vanilla. Beat the mixture again, just until uniform and creamy.
- Begin adding the flour mixture to the butter mixture, about a cup at a time, fully beating in each addition before adding the next. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed. By the time all the flour has been added the mixture should form a dough.
- Divide the dough into two halves and roll each into a ball. Wrap each ball tightly in plastic wrap.
- Place the dough halves into the fridge to chill for at least 3 hours and up to 2 days.
- When the dough has fully chilled, preheat the oven to 350°F and line a couple of baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Sprinkle the counter lightly with flour, remove one of the dough balls from the fridge, unwrap it and place it on the counter.
- Flour a rolling pin and use it to roll the dough until it's about â…› inch thick (it'll be about 12 to 14 inches in diameter).
- Cut the dough using cookie cutters, then transfer the cookies to the baking sheets, leaving at least ½ inch between cookies.
- Reroll the excess dough and repeat steps 9 and 10 until all of the dough has been used.
- Bake the cookies for 8 to 10 minutes, then transfer the baking sheets to cooling racks.
- Repeat steps 8 to 12 for the second dough ball.
- While the cookies cool, mix the frosting ingredients together in a medium bowl. Use just as much water as you need, and keep the mixture relatively thick so it pipes easily.
- When the cookies are cool, transfer the frosting to a pastry bag and pipe it onto the cookies to decorate them. Alternatively, you can simply spread the frosting on the cookies.
- Let the cookies sit for a few minutes for the frosting to set, and then serve.
Notes
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I'm dairy and egg free right now. These cookies are fantastic. Just made them for a second time because we shared and ate all the cookies from the first batch! Also made your chocolate chip cookies and they're the best choc chip cookies I've ever had. Great recipes, thank you!
Thank you for sharing the cookie making process, it is just right now, 2 months of shelf life is enough for me to keep until Christmas.
Wonderful recipe! Thanks so much
Hi, I just made this recipe. I noticed your list of ingredients includes non dairy milk, just a few tablespoons, but the directions do not. When is the nondairy milk suppose to be added?
I totally missed the nondairy milk since I was just following the directions and using the ingredients list as reference. So the dough was very dry and added the non dairy milk after, and turned out fine. But want to prevent the mistake next time.
In the end, the cookies came out incredible, thank you!
Thanks!
Hi Bridget! Are you sure you didn't mix up my recipe with someone else's? This one doesn't call for any non-dairy milk.
Help! My dough ball crumbled when trying to roll. Followed the recipe to a T! This happens every time I try to bake. I was really looking forward to these cookies ;((
Oh no! Try adding a bit of water to see if it fixes the problem - cookie dough usually crumbles when it's too dry. If this happens regularly it could be that you're measuring the ingredients incorrectly. Make sure you're using dry and liquid measuring cups when needed and leveling off the dry. Also, I find a lot of people scoop their flour right from the bag or canister using the measuring cup. This can pack it too tightly so you end up with too much flour in the dough. Also make sure your dough balls are wrapped very tightly when you chill them, as the fridge can really dry them out. I hope that helps!
‘…find a lot of people scoop their flour right from the bag or canister using the measuring cup. This can pack it too tightly so you end up with too much flour in the dough.‘ I’m sorry, what is the correct way? I’m very new to vegan baking!
Happy to help! You'll want to lightly spoon the flour from it's original container into the measuring cup. This results in it being less densely packed into the cup. Make sure to initially add too much flour to the cup, then level off the top using something flat like a butter knife. Here's a guide with some illustrations and helpful tips: https://www.loveandlemons.com/how-to-measure-flour/
If I added too much flour, how can I fix the dough without having to start all over?
Oh no! Sorry to say it, but you'll probably be best off starting over. Depending on what stage of the recipe you're at, you might be able to scale up the batch size, but if the dough is already mixed you'd be risking having the whole batch flop and wasting even more ingredients.
I loved these! Chomp!
Can I substitute coconut oil for vegan butter?
I think so, but I haven't tried it myself, so I can't make any promises. I'd love to hear how it turns out if you try!
Well... I forgot to make sure that my molasses was the correct kind... and WOW it makes a big difference! So word of advice—double check that. I liked the texture quite a bit so I will definitely use this recipe again next year and just make sure I make it correctly. Also I would use a bit less clove, I found it somewhat overpowering.
I made these last year and they were such a success I’m making them again this year. Both my vegan and non-vegan friends love them and it’s such an easy recipe! I’m in the UK so I use black treacle instead of molasses.
I actually just published this recipe on Friday. :) So you probably made cookies from another recipe last year. I hope you enjoy these just as much as those though!
Update: It’s 2021 and it’s DEFINITELY this recipe I’ve come back to ever since. Just made a batch now 😂
Great recipe! Only thing I'd suggest is not using brands like Earth Balance because it contains palm oil (think orangutan deaths due to increasing palm oil cultivations). I added a little food coloring to make green and red outfits too. I am no artist but none of the kids seem to care:)