Gingerbread Cookies
Add to favorites
~ raw, vegan, gluten-free ~
To some people, the word gingerbread means soft and chewy. To others, it means crisp and crunchy. I am going to go as far as saying that these cookies are somewhere in between.
In my opinion, gingerbread is all-encompassing of the flavor. I just love the warming spices of cinnamon, cloves, allspice, and black pepper.
With these flavors swirling throughout the dehydrator, they will fill your house with the best-ever aroma.
These cookies are high in protein, fiber, healthy fats, iron, calcium, B vitamins, antioxidants, and magnesium, just to name a few. I can guarantee that you won’t find all that in your average gingerbread cookie.
Holiday Traditions
I dunno, this may sound odd coming from a grown, well-matured woman who doesn’t have any children… but my all-time favorite movie is Shrek (the first one). Somehow it became my own little tradition to watch it over and over during the holiday season.
One of my favorite lines is when the little gingerbread man says, “Oh noooo, not my gumdrop buttons!!!” I love saying, hearing, and watching it. haha So needless to say, I had way too much fun with these cookies.
Do you have any personal holiday traditions that you would like to share with me? I would love to hear about them. Many blessings, amie sue
Ingredients:
Yields 16 gingerbread people
Dry Ingredients:
Wet Ingredients:
- 1/3 cup maple syrup
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 tsp fresh grated ginger
- 2 Tbsp water
Preparation:
- In a food processor, fitted with the “S” blade, pulse together the cashew flour, almond meal, coconut flour, shredded coconut, salt, cinnamon, allspice, cloves, and black pepper.
- Measure out the maple syrup and to that add the vanilla extract, freshly grated ginger, and water.
- Stir together and pour into the food processor along with the dry ingredients.
- Process until it starts sticking together and forms a ball. The dough is very sticky.
- Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and place in the freezer for roughly 1 hour or until chilled through.
- This step is very important. If you attempt to skip it you will find the dough too sticky to deal with.
- You could also place the dough in the fridge overnight if you wanted to do this in phases.
- Once chilled, line your surface with plastic wrap and place the chilled dough ball in the center.
- Cover with another piece of plastic, then start to roll the dough out to about 1/4″ thick.
- Remove the top plastic piece and using cookie cutters, cut out your shape(s) and transfer them to the mesh sheet that comes along with your dehydrator.
- Dehydrate at 145 degrees (F) for 1 hour, then reduce to 115 degrees for approximately 10-16 hours or until desired dryness is reached.
- Frost, decorate, and eat!
Suggested Sous Chef Substitutions:
- Cashews ~ use macadamia nuts or almonds with their skins removed
- Raw coconut flour ~ I don’t recommend substituting. This flour helps to absorb moisture. It is unique in that way.
- Maple syrup ~ raw coconut nectar
- Dehydrating ~ I have not tested baking these in the oven. So if you are interested in that method, you will need to experiment.
Culinary Explanations:
- Why do I start the dehydrator at 145 degrees (F)? Click (here) to learn the reason behind this.
- When working with fresh ingredients it is important to taste test as you build a recipe. Learn why (here).
- Don’t own a dehydrator? Learn how to use your oven (here). I do however truly believe that it is a worthwhile investment. Click (here) to learn what I use.
Roll the dough out to roughly 1/4″ thick. I highly recommend placing a sheet of plastic on top of the dough as you roll it out. This will keep the rolling pin clean and the dough will resist sticking to it.
Cut out the cookies, gather the dough back up, roll it out, and repeat the process until all the dough is used up.
Place the cookies on the mesh sheet that comes with the dehydrator to speed up the drying process.
© AmieSue.com
Tags: Dairy Free, Gluten Free, Refined Sugar Free, Soy Free, sugar free, Vegan
What a not so grown up silly girl you are! I LOVE YOU! Don’t ever change!
The pics are too cute, and oh that Gingerbread man… wow he looks delicious! Haha!
Shrek 1 is amazing, loving it!
Glad to see that you enjoy the days before Christmas!
Miss you!
Jana X
lol Jana… young at heart, young at heart. :) Now if I could just get my body to slow down! All though, a few days ago at a doctors appt. the specialist said that I look very young for my age. I asked her to put that in writing, frame it and mail it to me. haha
Have a very very Merry Christmas…. love and hugs my friend!
Happy Holidays, Amie Sue! I’ve been searching for years for a good ginger bread cook recipe so I can’t wait to try these! I was wondering (not only in this recipe, but others of yours as well) in the list of ingredients when your recipes call for a 1 cup cashew flour (just as an example) but then in the instructions you will say to grind down the cashews into a flour. I was curious as to if your measurement of the cashews is prior or after grinding down the ingredient. I know it doesn’t yield a drastic difference but perhaps enough to change the texture and consultancy. Hope you can help! Again, love your website! You are truly amazing!!! God Bless you and yours this holiday season, Courtney
Happy Holidays to you too Courtney. :)
Thank you for your kind words. They mean a lot. My measurements for the flour tend to be measured out first as the whole nut, then ground. I will work on making that more clear in my recipes, thank you for pointing that out. Consistency in raw recipes can always vary for example when using dry fruits, some have more moisture than others. One day, I might implement using weight measurements as well. This could be helpful.
Many many blessings, amie sue
You are amazing! Thank you – I am going to make them straight away as Gingerbread men are very traditional for me and my own version in raw was not that great…. These look so fabulous!
Merry Christmas and thank you so very much for all your creations and pictures – true inspiration!
XX, Blanka
Good afternoon Blanka…well I hope you enjoy these, please let me know! Merry Christmas and many warm hugs, amie sue
Hi Amie Sue, I am so excited to try these out but am wondering if I can substitute the cashew flour with almond flour?
Thanks so much for your awesome recipes.
Yes Uli… you sure could. :) I just love gingerbread cookies… it is that time of year again, isn’t it? Have a wonderful evening, amie sue
WOWSA! making these now! BUT theres almond meal in the ingredients list but not IN the recipe !!! ;)
Oops, I updated it Idapie, sorry about that. It gets added along with the other dry ingredients. amie sue