Soft & Chewy Vegan Gingerbread Cookies (Gluten Free)

These perfectly spiced vegan gingerbread cookies are crisp on the edge with a snap yet soft in the center for the most delicious vegan Christmas cookie!

Why you’ll love these vegan gingerbread cookies (even if you aren’t vegan!)

So these might actually be my favorite of all vegan Christmas cookies this season, and I’ll tell you why.

These gluten free vegan gingerbread cookies have a beautiful warm spiced flavor, and they’re not overwhelmingly sweet. Just enough sugar to satisfy the craving but not give you that sugar rush.

They also snap like a traditional gingerbread man cookie should. It’s literally like eating a Pepperidge Farm gingerbread cookie (those were my mom’s words, not mine!), only fresh out of the oven ;).

Plus, these healthy Christmas cookies are completely vegan and gluten free, yet you’d never know, making them the ultimate Christmas cookie to bring to any cookie exchange (don’t forget the vegan sugar cookies!). Or decorate on top of a gingerbread cake, gingerbread cupcakes, or even a copycat Starbucks gingerbread loaf!

I mean, that’s pretty cool right?

But before we go over how to make these cookies, let’s get a few questions out of the way!

Are gingerbread cookies soft or hard?

Really, gingerbread cookies can be soft or hard! I personally believe that gingerbread snaps and the gingerbread man cookies that you make with cookie cutters tend to be on the crisper side, like these ones. I’d go so far as to say Paul Hollywood would even approve of this crispness.

Meanwhile, some people prefer their gingerbread to be soft and chewy. I think it really boils down to what you personally enjoy!

Ingredients for vegan gingerbread cookies

For these vegan ginger cookies, you’ll need only a few key ingredients:

• Flour: you can use gluten free 1:1 baking flour or all purpose here.
• Granulated sugar: or coconut sugar.
• Spices: I like to use ground ginger and ground cinnamon. You can also add in nutmeg and/or ground cloves!
• Molasses
• Vegan butter or coconut oil: a note about the coconut oil- make sure it’s soft, and not solid!
• Unsweetened applesauce: This replaces the eggs found in traditional gingerbread cookies.

As you can see, we’re not using baking soda here. This helps the cookies have a bit more of a “snap” to them!

How to make vegan gingerbread cookies (overview)

As delicate as these Christmas cookies look, they are actually extraordinarily easy to make, and really fun to involve the kids too 🙂

For the full written instructions and ingredient measurements, see the bottom of this post in the recipe card. You can also hit the “jump to recipe” button at the top of this post! Here, we’ll go over a brief overview of the steps, along with providing visuals for a better understanding of the recipe.

Make the dough

Much like my vegan chocolate chip cookies, the cookie dough part of these vegan gingerbread cookies is very easy to put together!

First start by whisking together all of the dry ingredients:: the flour, spices, and sea salt. Then set that aside.

1. Whisk the dry ingredients. First start by whisking together all of the dry ingredients:: the flour, spices, and sea salt. Then set that aside.
2. Combine the wet ingredients. Use a hand mixer or stand mixer and cream together the wet ingredients in a separate bowl. First the vegan butter and sugars, then add in the molasses and applesauce.
3. Fold in the dry ingredients. Next, combine the wet and dry ingredients together until it forms a consistent and slightly sticky gingerbread dough.
4. Chill! Place the dough into plastic wrap and chill the dough in the fridge for 30 minutes.

How do you make gingerbread man cookie cutters?

One of my favorite parts 🙂 When your gingerbread cookie dough is ready to be rolled out, simply dust a clean surface and your rolling pin with flour and begin to gently roll out the dough.

1. Roll the dough out to be about 1/4 of an inch thick and make sure to flour your cookie cutters on the side that will cut into the dough.
2. Press your favorite cookie cutter shape (I recommend a little gingerbread man cookie cutter, a Christmas tree cookie cutter, snowman, or snowflake! But have fun with it!).
3. Repeat until there is no more space to make a cookie, then peel off the scraps. Use a spatula to gently carry the cookie onto a parchment lined baking sheet.
4. You can re-roll the dough out to make more cookies as well!
5. Then simply bake the cookies at 350F until done, and let cool before piping your vegan icing 🙂

FAQ’s

I hope you love making these vegan gingerbread cookies as much as I do! They’re the perfect treat for Santa 🙂

If you make these cookies, let me know how they went in the comments below, as well as if you have any questions! As always, I would absolutely love to see your beautiful decorations on these cookies, so be sure to tag me on Instagram and Pinterest!

Happy vegan gingerbread cookie baking!

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If you make this recipe, please be sure to leave a comment and a rating ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ below. This helps others to find the recipes! As always, I absolutely love to see your beautiful creations on Instagram and Pinterest, so be sure to tag me there as well!

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