These healthy Gingerbread Cookies are just as delicious as the traditional version, only they are made with gluten-free almond flour. They are so fun to decorate!
Why You’ll Love Them
They taste amazing. These cookies have the perfect balance of sweet and spicy gingerbread flavors. You can top them with any icing you love, or just roll them in a little coconut sugar for an easy holiday cookie.
They’re allergy friendly. These cookies are naturally gluten-free, dairy-free, egg-free, and vegan. If you have friends or family members following a grain-free or Paleo diet, they will love them, too!
They’re easy to make. All you need is 1 bowl and a few minutes to stir the dough together. For drop cookies, you can cook them right away, or let the dough chill for easier cut-out cookies.
They’re nourishing. Made with almond flour (which is simply ground almonds), these healthy cookies will leave you feeling more satisfied than the kind made with white flour and sugar.
Ingredients You’ll Need
What’s in healthy gingerbread cookies?
- Blanched almond flour
- Arrowroot starch
- Ground ginger
- Ground cinnamon
- Ground cloves (optional)
- Molasses
- Maple syrup
- Coconut oil
The arrowroot starch in this recipe acts as an egg substitute, and it also lends a more flour-like texture to the cookies. If you don’t keep arrowroot on hand, you could probably also use corn starch or tapioca starch with similar results.
The most important thing to know about this recipe is that you can tweak the ratios slightly. I’ve been playing with this one for years, and if you prefer less molasses flavor, you can reduce that to just 1 teaspoon, and add an extra 2 teaspoons of maple syrup for a slightly sweeter flavor. (My kids love it this way now that they are getting older and are exposed to more sugar at school.)
How to Make Vegan Gingerbread Cookies
1. Mix the dough.
In a large bowl, combine the almond flour, starch, spices, molasses, maple syrup, coconut oil, baking powder, and salt.
Once the dough has been stirred together, it’s important to chill the mixture so it’s easier to work with for cut-out cookies. You’ll need to chill it in the freezer for at least 30 minutes, or in the fridge for at least 1 hour.
2. Make the cut-outs.
Place a large piece of parchment paper on your work surface, and then set the chilled cookie dough down in the center of the paper.
Cover it with another piece of parchment paper, to help prevent sticking, then use a rolling pin to roll the dough evenly into a flat layer, about a 1/4-inch thick. Use your favorite cookie cutters to cut out fun shapes, then carefully remove the excess dough and transfer the cut-outs to a large parchment lined baking sheet.
Repeat with the remaining dough, rolling out the scraps again to cut-out more cookie shapes. You should get at least 12 cookies from this batch, but it will vary based on the size and shape of your cookie cutters.
3. Bake.
Bake the cookies in an oven preheated to 350ºF for 10 to 12 minutes, depending on how crispy you like them. The longer you cook them, the crispier they will be. For a soft center, remove the cookies after just 10 minutes of baking.
Let the cookies cool for at least 10 minutes on the pan, as they will be fragile when they are warm. Once they have firmed up, you can transfer them to a wire rack to finish cooling, if you need to use the pan to bake more cookies.
4. Decorate.
Once the cookies are cool, you can add any decorations you like! Frost them with a simple powdered sugar frosting (recipe below) or try coconut sugar frosting, for a naturally sweetened option.
Serve the cookies at room temperature, or transfer them to an airtight container and store them in the fridge for up to a week. You can also freeze these cookies for up to 3 months.
Healthy Gingerbread Cookies (Almond Flour)
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups almond flour (almond meal works, too)
- ¼ cup arrowroot or tapioca starch
- 2 teaspoons ground ginger
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ⅛ teaspoon ground cloves (optional)
- ⅛ teaspoon fine sea salt
- ¼ teaspoon baking powder
- 2 Tablespoons melted coconut oil
- ¼ cup pure maple syrup
- 1 tablespoon blackstrap molasses
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350ºF and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. In a large mixing bowl combined the almond flour, starch, ginger, cinnamon, salt, and baking powder and stir to combine. Add in the coconut oil, maple syrup and molasses and stir again until a sticky dough is formed.
- To make cut-out cookies, place the dough in the freezer for 30 minutes to help it firm up, or in the fridge for up to 2 hours. (Alternatively, you can skip the cut-out cookies and just roll the dough into tablespoon-sized balls, roll them in a bit of coconut sugar, and flatten them on the baking sheet with your hand.)
- Once the dough has been chilled, place the dough in the center of a large piece of parchment paper, then place another piece of parchment paper on top. Use a rolling pin to roll the dough into a flat layer, about 1/4-inch thick. Pull away the excess dough to reveal each shape, and re-roll the dough to create more shapes. You should end up with 12 to 15 cookies, if use use cookie cutters about the size of the palm of your hand.
- Bake the cookies at 350ºF for about 10 minutes for cookies with a soft center, or 12 to 14 minutes for a more crisp cookie. (The edges should brown for a crispier cookie.) Allow them to cool completely on the pan before icing and serving. They will firm up as they cool.
- Leftover cookies can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for up to a week in the fridge, or you can freeze them for up to 3 months.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Healthy Gingerbread Cookie Nutrition Note: The values listed above are calculated per cookie, without the frosting. These are only general estimates, so be sure to check the labels on your ingredients for more accurate calculations.
Recipe Notes:
- I’ve made these cookies with almond meal and almond flour, both with good results. If you need a recipe that doesn’t use starch, try my original ginger cookies.
- Melted butter can replace the coconut oil, if you don’t need a dairy-free or vegan cookie.
If you try this recipe, please leave a comment below letting me know how you like it! And if you make a modification, I’d love to hear how that works out for you, too. We can all benefit from your experience!
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Reader Feedback: What’s your favorite holiday cookie? These are definitely the winners for me, but my husband’s favorite are these Peanut Butter Balls (or “Buckeyes”).
OMG! These are DELICIOUS!!! I absolutely love them!!! I don’t even want to decorate them! Trying hard not to eat the whole batch!!!
Is there anything I can substitute for the coconut oil?
Butter would be the closest substitute, since it’s also solid at room temperature, but another butter substitute should also work similarly.
I was thinking unsweetened applesauce as an oil substitute?
Delicious, I mean delicious! Thanks very much for sharing this incredibly delicious recipe! It’s the best I’ve tried so far! And just in time for the holidays. Seriously, this is killer!
Is this dough sturdy enough to make a gingerbread house out of??
I think if you baked it until the edges are brown, and then let it cool completely, that it would be sturdy enough. But I haven’t tested that theory yet, so please let me know if you try it!
Hi,
I have a nut allergy how much coconut flour would I use instead of almond?
I haven’t tested this recipe with coconut flour, so I couldn’t say for sure. You might want to see if you can tweak my coconut flour cookie recipe, but keep in mind that the texture will be a lot softer, more like a muffin top. (Coconut flour just makes weird cookies!)
So good!!!
Just made them!
These cookies are amazing! I was really wanting a healthier option for gingerbread cookies and these did the trick! I’ll be making them all year long 😊. Thank you for sharing !
Wow these look amazing! I wonder if there are any suggestions to make these nut free?
Thank you so much for all your recipes! We make your date brownies regularly. I love that your ingredients are usually things I have at home and nothing weird. I’m excited to try this recipe but I’m wondering if I can sub arrowroot/tapioca for something. Corn starch? Flour? We are trying to reduce refined sugar intake, but are flexible with the other stuff ;). Please let me know if either of those work. Thanks!!
Corn starch would be the most similar substitute, I think!
Thank you! Looking forward to trying it 🙂
I didn’t have molasses or coconut oil…. and I halved the recipe. So I used vegetable oil and left out the molasses. I did miss the flavor the molasses would have added and I will make sure to pick some up next time I go shopping. What a great recipe!!!! This is one I’ll keep.
This cookies are amazing,,,, wonderful recipe and instructions…. I still can’t believe they are grain free. They taste just like traditional gingerbread I ate as a kid. Now my sisters and my bestie are making them too….when a cookie is that good (and healthy)news travels. Love your site and planning to try many more creative healthy bakes…next the carrot cake
Cake. Best Mari from toronto
These turned out great!
I didn’t have enough ginger, only about a 1/2 tsp, but I added 1/8 tsp of cloves. I am sure these will be even better when I have all the ginger!
I did the balls of dough by the teaspoonful and flattened them out with my hand. I baked them for 11 minutes and then left them on the hot cookie sheet for 2 more minutes. Perfect for our oven. I made 18 cookies.
We needed a Gluten Free, Dairy Free and Re-flux friendly cookie. This seems to work fine for all three. The cookies did not trigger anybody.
The almond flour also helped fulfill our need for protein in our snack/treat too.
Thank you for figuring this recipe out, so I didn’t have to struggle with it.
Much appreciated!.
Can you bake these the “slow” way that you have mentioned on your site. 250 for 30min?
Yes, I think that would work just as well!
What can you use if you can’t have almond?
Would this recipe work with Arthur’s gluten free flour? If not what other no -almond flour would you recommend?
This is my third year making these cookies for the holiday season, and they are still a family favorite! We actually like them soft and chewy so store them in a Tupperware on the counter. The chewier the better! I’ve never iced them, but the kids still love them anyway. Thanks so much for this great recipe. It’s obviously a keeper!
Is there a nut free flour you would recommend? Almonds and I don’t agree! Do you think an oat flour would work here?
Huge huge hit here! My son is a very picky eater and he was eating the dough raw! Lol! Will make these again and again!
Just made (and ate) them. Easy and convenient (we went for a walk while cake in the freezer). I added dried cloves and next time I’ll add more ginger since we like distinct flavors. But overall 5 stars for the healthy recipe.
So easy and delicious! Tastes just like traditional ginger bread cookies. Even at 10 minutes baking time they get pretty crispy!
I normally love all your recipes, but this one was a flop. The dough was so sticky that it was not enjoyable to make them. I had to use a lot of arrowroot to try to get them to stop sticking.
I just made these and they turned out great! I was so surprised at how well it came together without any eggs. I added some allspice and if I make them again I will add a little bit more, I like gingerbread spicy. I also made the coconut sugar icing but with grass-fed butter instead of shortening and it worked well. Thank you for the great festive recipe!
This recipe looks amazing! Do you think that cornstarch could be subbed in for the arrowroot powder? Asking because my local grocers is out of the arrowroot powder, but we have plenty of corn starch. Thank you!
I haven’t tried it with cornstarch yet, but my guess is that it would work. Let me know if you try it!
Great recipe! What I can replace molasses with?
Very easy to make and great flavor. Used almond meal. Was surprised husband loved them too given they are pretty low sugar. Used coconut sugar icing as well; needed to add more water to make it stick better to cookies but was super yummy! Tried to color it with beet powder and matcha for red snd green but didn’t quite work as it’s so brown to begin with.
Thank you! I made these this afternoon and my 2 year old helped cut out the shapes and then iced one for himself. I made the cookie recipe exactly as written and used a simple (vegan) powdered sugar and soy milk icing. Baked for 12 minutes and the texture was perfect, with a great flavor!
This was so easy, and probably the best thing I’ve made with almond flour so far.
Any suggestions for making this nut-free (coconut ok)? I tried oat flour (processed 1 1/3 c oats) and it was a bit dry though added some milk and oil to make it stick together. Love the flavor and want to make for Santa!
Ooh, I haven’t had the chance to experiment with that yet! Maybe check out my Chocolate Chip Cookie that uses oat flour, and add the gingerbread spices to that? https://detoxinista.com/vegan-gluten-free-chocolate-chip-cookies/
Leaving my first recipe reviews for two of your cookies because I am so delighted by them!! I have diabetes with pregnancy so holiday cookies can be tricky, but these were delicious and barely raised my blood sugar— a bit of a miracle.
I used almond flour and tapioca flour; once with coconut oil and another time with butter. I tripled the recipe the last time and froze half the dough and they still worked great. Cutouts and drop cookies were both so delicious and guilt-free 🙂 I have tried 3 or 4 paleo gingerbread cookie recipes and yours were the best, and the easiest. Thank you, thank you for sharing. You made my Christmas brighter!
Favourite gingerbread cookies! We love these and really enjoy making them on Christmas Eve with the kids! Yum!
I made these cookies and with half the ginger (my brand was super strong so I think half was the intended potency). Plus 2-3 more tablespoons of maple syrup (the odd brand of molasses smelled different), and I was wanted to cover it up. These cookies were awesome even with my last minute corrections. I have no doubt I’ll be making these again and again. My mom couldn’t stop eating them and she loves non paleo treats.
These look amazing and I cannot wait to try making them with my kids. I have never baked with arrowroot floor… Could I sub it for something else if I do not have it?
Thank you for always sharing AMAZING recipes!
I make these every year for Halloween. My kid adores them. They work for everyone. Huge hit!
Absolutely love these! Skipped the icing and will definitely make again. Thank you for this recipe!
I’ll be darned! Surprisingly chewy, soft and flavorful! Next time I would use candied ginger.
(Forgot to give it a star rating.)
I also rolled them in a sparkly, holiday sugar coating.
These cookies are incredible: we make them every year now! My husband who is highly critical of anything remotely healthy likes these better than regular gingerbread cookies. Thank you for your wonderful recipes!
Can i use tapioca startch-flour in replace of arrowroot startch?
Delicious! Thank you:) we only had apple pie spice instead of ginger and it came out lovely
The perfect trifecta easy, delicious and healthy! I only got about 7 men out of it but my cookie cutters are a good size.
I really want to make these but I do not have arrowroot powder. Can I make them without it or will it mess something up?
By far the easiest gluten-free gingerbread to work with and they stay soft and chewy! I had to cut the ground ginger in half though. The first batch I made was way too gingery.
On recommendation I baked a double batch on the first go. I followed the recipe, chilled the dough prior to rolling & cutting them out, then baked on a silicone mat. I missed the note to NOT store them in an airtight container, however, in accidentally doing so, they’ve maintained a crispness that has been deeply satisfying to bite into. They are delicious! I’ve struggled to find cookie recipes worth bookmarking, and I know I’ll be making this recipe throughout the year. [I’d like to hear if anyone has had success in swapping out the maple syrup for a Monk fruit Erythritol blend?] Thank you for your efforts!
Thanks so much for this recipe!! I substituted agave nectar for the maple syrup and they came out perfect!! 🙂
I have just tried thid recepie and OMG!!! I have only set the cookies for 10 minutes in the oven and the goey inside is just perfect. I think I am adicted to this recepie already 🙂 thank you so much for posting. Definitely going to try the rest of the recepies from this blog.
May I know 1 1/2 cup of almond flour is how many gram?
I’ve made these a few times (without the icing). They really hit the spot for a deliciously spicy crunch, that my 4-year-old enjoys as well. I love that they’re vegan and low histamine. Thank you for sharing this recipe!
Hi, Do you think Date Syrup would be ok in place of the maple syrup?
Question: can the blackstrap molasses be omitted from these cookies? or if needed is there something that can be substituted for that ingredient?
Hi this looks amazing!
I’d love to try it for our gingerbread house, has anyone given it a go? Just want to know if it’ll hold ok and work before I get started!!! Thanks
Just wondering would plain gluten free work as a sub for arrowroot?
I have loved this recipe in the past. I have it chilling again now – I made it from the printed version not looking at it live on your site – and on the site it has baking side but when you print the recipe it prints as baking powder. I used baking powder this time as that’s the version I was looking at. Which is correct?
I updated the recipe this year to use baking powder instead of baking soda, because that makes more sense in a recipe that doesn’t call for eggs or an acid, like vinegar, which would react with the baking soda. I also added a small amount of ground cloves this year, because I wanted a hint of extra spice, but that’s optional.