Description
Chewy, warm, and soft, these Vegan Ginger Cookies with Maple Icing couldn’t be easier to make. They’re absolutely delicious for the holidays.
Ingredients
Scale
- 300g (2 3/8 cups, spooned and leveled**) unbleached all purpose flour (see note 1)
- 2 1/4 teaspoons ground ginger (see note 2)
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 3/4 cup vegan butter, softened (see note 3 for oil-free option)
- 1 cup organic cane sugar (see note 4)
- 2 tablespoons JustEgg (or 1 flax egg, see note 5)
- 1/4 cup organic unsulphured molasses
Optional coating
- 3 tablespoons organic cane sugar
- 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Optional icing
- 1 cup organic powdered sugar
- 1/4 cup organic maple syrup
- 1-2 tablespoons non-dairy milk of choice, as needed
Instructions
- **NOTE: Either spoon and level your flour or use a food scale. Digging or scooping your measuring cup into the flour container packs too much flour in. Too much flour will make dry, crumbly, bad tasting cookies. I’ve tried it, trust me. Not good. And too little flour and your cookies may fall apart.
- Prep: Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit (177 degrees Celsius) and line two baking trays with silicone baking mats or parchment paper.
- Mix dry ingredients: In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, ginger, cinnamon, sea salt, and baking soda. Set aside.
- Make cinnamon sugar: Mix together the additional 3 tablespoons of organic cane sugar and ¾ teaspoon of cinnamon in a medium wide bowl (ideal for rolling the dough in the mixture) and set aside.
- Cream the sugar and butter: In a large bowl, cream together the organic cane sugar and the softened vegan butter until smooth using a stand mixer, hand mixer, or a strong wooden spoon (and some arm strength!).
- Add remaining wet ingredients: Add in the molasses, water, and vegan egg replacer and mix until well combined.
- Add the dry ingredients: Slowly add in the dry mixture while the mixer is running (or while your other hand is mixing the ingredients. Mix until just combined (try not to overmix).
- Optional chill time: You can refrigerate the dough for 30-60 minutes to make it easier to work with, but it’s not a necessity. Cookies will be delicious either way. I find that refrigerating the dough first does make for a slightly firmer cookie.
- Scoop and roll the cookies: Using a medium cookie scoop, about 2 tablespoons, scoop out around 24 dough balls. Roll into smooth cookie balls in your hands, then roll in the cinnamon sugar. Place on the prepared baking sheets, about 12 per half sheet pan. I like to place each cookie at least 2 inches apart because they do spread.
- Bake: Bake approximately 10-12 minutes. I found that 11 was perfect for soft but not too soft cookies. Note that they will look puffy and soft (even a bit under done) when they come out of the oven. Let them cool on the pan for 20 minutes before attempting to move them. They’re very impressionable at this point--my husband was removing a tray from the oven and marred a cookie with his oven mit, so be careful.
- Let cool: After cookies have cooled for at least 20 minutes on the tray, you can transfer them to a cooling rack to cool them faster if you like. If you’re going to ice them, they need to be completely cooled otherwise the icing will melt and get gloopy.
- If icing the cookies: Whisk together the organic powdered sugar, maple syrup and 1 tablespoon of non-dairy milk. You can add a little more of the milk to thin if needed, or a little more powdered sugar to thicken. Whisk until smooth. Either using a piping bag fitted with a very small tip or a spoon to drizzle the icing in whatever design you wish on the cookie. I was trying to make my cookies look neat with a zig zag drizzle, but didn’t realize it was glooping out of the other end of the piping bag onto the rest of the cookies… oops--but my husband thought it looked cool that way, so… I guess it was meant to be? Haha. You can also just dip the cookies in the icing if you prefer.
- Eat: Let the icing set on the cookies for 30-60 minutes and enjoy!
- Store: Store leftover cookies in an airtight container on the counter for 4-5 days, or freeze for up to 3 months.
Notes
- Note 1: I use plain unbleached all purpose flour--my favorite is King Arthur Baking Company All Purpose Flour. Substitutions: To make these gluten-free, try substituting a good quality gluten-free flour. I’ve heard marvelous things about Cup4Cup Gluten-Free Flour, but I’ve personally had good results with King Arthur Baking Company Measure for Measure Gluten-Free Flour and Bob’s Red Mill 1:1 Gluten-Free Flour).
- Note 2: I recommend using powdered ginger. Grated fresh ginger is definitely spicier in my opinion, and it tends to clump in the batter. Feel free to adjust the amount to your preference. You could also play around with adding ground cloves, allspice, or nutmeg. I personally like it simple with just ginger and cinnamon.
- Note 3: Solid coconut cream from a can stands in fairly well for vegan butter. You need fat to make good vegan ginger cookies. That’s just how it is. You can try these with pumpkin or applesauce if you need to, but I can’t guarantee it will work. I do think pumpkin puree would be delicious in this, so if you’re watching your fat grams I’d try the pumpkin.
- Note 4: I say organic because at least in the US, sugar companies are not required to state whether or not their sugar is filtered using animal bone char. So go with organic. Substitutions: Coconut sugar should also work with this recipe if you’re watching your refined sugar, though in my experience the cookies almost always end up super soft with coconut sugar (not sure why, maybe the composition of the granules?), so keep that in mind.
- Note 5: I have recently started to love baking with Just Egg. It mixes well, it binds well, it tastes good, and you don’t have to prepare it. Just pour and go. However, I think other egg replacers will work just fine, like Bob’s Red Mill Egg Replacer or a flax egg with ground flaxseed.
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Category: Dessert, Snack
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American, Christmas
Keywords: Vegan, Nut-Free, Soy-Free, Can Be Gluten-Free, Vegan Ginger Cookies