Growing up making gingerbread people was a family tradition and I love carrying on the family tradition. I developed this recipe a number of years ago and have been baking them for friends and family ever since. Honestly I crave them throughout the year….I mean really, do gingerbread cravings have an expiration date? These are sure to satisfy your craving without any of the typical gingerbread ingredients such as wheat, dairy and icing sugar. In fact, these cookies are wonderful enjoyed for breakfast with tea, coffee, matcha or whatever hot drink you prefer! It is important to make sure the dough chills for at least 4 hours or overnight and to only take a portion of the dough as needed to roll out into cookies, bake and then repeat with remaining balls of chilled dough. Prep time does not include the chilling time. You can substitute 3 1/2 cups of your favourite gluten or grain free (Paleo) flour blend in these for the flour/seed meal mixture.
Beat coconut oil and coconut sugar until light and creamy. Add maple syrup, molasses and vanilla and mix until smooth. Add eggs/egg replacer, one at a time and beat until smooth. Stir in sunflower seed meal or nut flour.
Over a medium bowl sift the rest of the dry ingredients. (If you are using the Gingerbread Spice Mix, sift the spices through a fine mesh sieve and use 1 heaping tbsp in this recipe) Gradually add dry ingredients to the wet and beat until smooth. The dough will be quite loose and sticky. Gather dough, cover and place in fridge to firm up for a 3 to 4 hours or preferably overnight. It is important that the dough be very chilled in order to roll out without sticking.
Preheat oven to 350 F or 325 F convection.
Dust a parchment covered work surface or silicon baking mat with tapioca starch. Dust rolling pin with tapioca starch as well. Take a section of the dough(leave remainder of dough in fridge until needed) and form into a ball. Roll out dough to ⅛ inch thickness and cut with cookie cutter of your choice. Gently lift cut cookies with a metal spatula onto the baking sheet. If desired use dried currants to decorate by gently pressing them into the dough as eyes and buttons
Place on parchment lined baking sheet. Bake for 10-12 minutes. Repeat with remaining dough. Place on a cookie drying rack.
*if using the spice mix recipe, after sifting the Gingerbread Spice mixture measure out 1 heaping tbsp and add to the dry ingredients. Place the remainder of spice mix in a glass jar for other recipes.
Melt ingredients over very low heat, stirring occasionally, until smooth and melted. Place in a pastry bag (You can make a DIY pastry bag by spooning icing into a small plastic baggie and then nipping off the very tip of bag and squeezing icing through the bag end and decorating) Use the icing as a “glue” to adhere candies, chocolate chips or sprinkles.
Ingredients
Directions
Beat coconut oil and coconut sugar until light and creamy. Add maple syrup, molasses and vanilla and mix until smooth. Add eggs/egg replacer, one at a time and beat until smooth. Stir in sunflower seed meal or nut flour.
Over a medium bowl sift the rest of the dry ingredients. (If you are using the Gingerbread Spice Mix, sift the spices through a fine mesh sieve and use 1 heaping tbsp in this recipe) Gradually add dry ingredients to the wet and beat until smooth. The dough will be quite loose and sticky. Gather dough, cover and place in fridge to firm up for a 3 to 4 hours or preferably overnight. It is important that the dough be very chilled in order to roll out without sticking.
Preheat oven to 350 F or 325 F convection.
Dust a parchment covered work surface or silicon baking mat with tapioca starch. Dust rolling pin with tapioca starch as well. Take a section of the dough(leave remainder of dough in fridge until needed) and form into a ball. Roll out dough to ⅛ inch thickness and cut with cookie cutter of your choice. Gently lift cut cookies with a metal spatula onto the baking sheet. If desired use dried currants to decorate by gently pressing them into the dough as eyes and buttons
Place on parchment lined baking sheet. Bake for 10-12 minutes. Repeat with remaining dough. Place on a cookie drying rack.
*if using the spice mix recipe, after sifting the Gingerbread Spice mixture measure out 1 heaping tbsp and add to the dry ingredients. Place the remainder of spice mix in a glass jar for other recipes.
Melt ingredients over very low heat, stirring occasionally, until smooth and melted. Place in a pastry bag (You can make a DIY pastry bag by spooning icing into a small plastic baggie and then nipping off the very tip of bag and squeezing icing through the bag end and decorating) Use the icing as a “glue” to adhere candies, chocolate chips or sprinkles.