gluten free gingerbread recipe

Whisk together the first 8 ingredients (through the cloves) in a medium bowl. Set them aside.

In the the bowl of your stand mixer or with an electric mixer, beat the butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy.

Add the egg, molasses, and vanilla, and stir on medium-low speed until well blended. Don’t mix on high speed at this point; you want to avoid adding air to the dough.

Add the dry ingredients, and blend on low speed until incorporated.

Divide the dough in half, and place each half on a piece of plastic wrap. Pat the dough into flat disks, wrap completely, and chill in the refrigerator for 1 to 2 hours, or overnight (see “tips,” below).

Preheat your oven to 350°F.

Remove the the dough from the refrigerator and roll disks out about 1/4″ thick.

Cut the dough with your choice of cutters,and place on a parchment-lined baking sheet.

Chill the baking sheets of cut dough for about 15 minutes before baking for 8 to 12 minutes. The cookie will be firmer on the edges, but still soft in the center when done.

Allow to cool completely before decorating with royal icing and candies or dried fruit.

Can I Make The Cookies Ahead Of Time?

The cookie dough can be made ahead of time and kept in the refrigerator for up to three days or frozen in a plastic freezer bag for up to 6 months. Just allow the dough to warm up on the countertop for 10-15 minutes before rolling out. If frozen defrost in the refrigerator overnight.

Can I Freeze The Gingerbread Cookies?

These gingerbread cookies can also be frozen. Once the cookies are cooled place the undecorated cookies in a plastic freezer bag and place them in the freezer.  The cookies can be frozen for up to six months. To defrost the cookies overnight in the refrigerator or on the kitchen counter for several hours.

Can I make your gluten free gingerbread men vegan?

If you follow the steps above to make this recipe dairy free (using Stork instead of butter) then all you’ve got left to contend with is one egg.

Here’s a few ideas you can use as egg replacements, so each of these = 1 egg.

• 3 tablespoons of aquafaba – water from a can of chickpeas. Keep the chickpeas for a future dinner!
• Egg replacement powder – I’d recommend using Orgran as it’s gluten free.
• 1 tablespoon of chia/flax seeds mixed with 2 tablespoons of water and left for 10 minutes in the fridge.
• 3 tablespoons of applesauce.

So use one of those egg replacement options and you’ve got gluten free AND vegan gingerbread men!

What to do if my gingerbread dough is too crumbly?

The most common reason your gluten free gingerbread men dough might be too crumbly is that you’ve used too much flour. This often happens when you scoop the flour out of the bag and use volume measurements rather than weight (scooped flour can get compacted, giving you more than you actually need).

Don’t worry, this is easy to fix: Just add a tablespoon of milk or your favorite dairy alternative and mix. Continue to add milk a tablespoon at a time until the dough is back to being pliable.

Can I make sugar free gluten free gingerbread men?

This is something that will require a bit of experimentation. These gingerbread guys rely on brown sugar and molasses to achieve the perfect consistency and shape.

While you might be able to use some granulated sugar alternatives, I would caution about using too many syrups — you might end up with a goopy mess.

Do I need any special equipment to bake your gluten free gingerbread men?

Certainly not! As I mentioned in the last question, a little elbow grease means you definitely don’t need anything more than a bowl and a spatula/wooden spoon to make the dough.

I will definitely recommend my weapon of choice for biscuits though: I use this amazing rolling pin that allows you specify how thick you want your dough. That way, you can guarantee the thickness of what you’re rolling out every time!

But of course, any ol’ rolling pin will do too, you’ll just need to pay a little more attention to the thickness of your dough when you roll it out.

Can I make your gluten free gingerbread dough in a food processor or standing mixer?

Of course you can – I actually make this in a food processor myself and it’s probably the easiest way to make it. Why?

Well, instead of rubbing in your dry ingredients and butter by hand in step one, you can do it much quicker and easier by using a food processor. You can’t really do this part in a standing mixer, so it’s best to do it by hand if you don’t have a food processor.

After that, you can either use a standing mixer, food processor OR electric hand whisk after you add your wet ingredients to bring the gingerbread dough together.

I do however use my standing mixer to make the icing, which speeds up the whole process massively. You can also use an electric hand whisk for this part too.

HOW TO MAKE GLUTEN FREE GINGERBREAD COOKIES?

1. Mix the flour, spices, baking soda and salt in a medium mixing bowl; set aside.
2. In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and brown sugar together.
3. Add in the egg, molasses, and vanilla extract. Cream until smooth.
4. Add in half the flour mixture and mix until combined.
5. Add in the remaining flour mixture and continue to mix until combine.
6. Shape dough into a ball and divide in half.
7. On a piece of parchment paper, pat dough down into a 1-inch disk. Repeat with the other half of the dough. Refrigerate for 1-2 hours, or until cold and firm.
8. Once the dough has chilled, remove it from the refrigerator and place a piece of wax paper on top. Using a rolling pin, roll dough out until its ¼ inch thick. Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C).
9. Remove the wax paper from the top of the dough. Using cookie cutter, cut shapes into the dough. Use a spoon or butter knife to remove the extra dough from around the shapes. Roll extra dough back into a ball, and place the wax paper back on top, and roll into ¼ inch thickness. Repeat until all dough is used.
10. Transfer the parchment paper with the gluten free gingerbread cookies cut-out onto a baking sheet.
11. Bake for 8-10 minutes, or until the edges are firm and the centers are set. Remove from the oven and cool to room temperature.
12. Enjoy plain, dusted with powdered sugar, or decorate these gluten free gingerbread cookies with icing.

Gluten Free Gingerbread Men

Instructions

Add the butter, golden syrup and light brown sugar to a small pan. Place over a low heat for 10 minutes, allowing the butter to melt and the sugar to dissolve. Don’t allow the mixture to come to the boil or bubble, as you’ll risk it turning into toffee!

Take a large mixing bowl (or stand mixer) and combine the plain flour, bicarb, xanthan gum, ginger and nutmeg. Stir them together and make a well in the centre.

Pour the butter and sugar mix into the well in the mixing bowl and combine the ingredients until you have a fairly-firm cookie dough. If using a stand mixer this will take about a minute – if you are using a wooden spoon, a couple of minutes (you might have to get your hands in there to knead the dough if mixing with a spoon isn’t doing the job).

You should now have a lovely smooth, pliable cookie dough. It’ll still be quite warm, so transfer it onto a piece of cling film, wrap and then chill in the fridge for at least 1 hour (or if you need to leave it for longer, just give it a knead with your hands before using it, to avoid any crumbling).

Once the dough has chilled, preheat your oven to 180C (fan).

Roll the dough out with a rolling pin until it is roughly the thickness of a £1 coin (5mm). Or slightly thicker if you like really soft-centred gingerbread biscuits.

Instructions

Line a baking tray with greaseproof baking paper. Then take a gingerbread man cutter and cut out as many person shapes as you can, placing each cookie on the baking tray as you go. Leave a little space between the cookies as they will spread slightly during baking. After cutting, recombine and reroll the dough scraps, cut out more shapes and repeat until you’ve used all the dough. You can either use two trays, or bake in batches (I do two batches of six gingerbread men).

Into the oven they go! Allow the cookies to bake for 8 minutes, until lightly golden. They will still be soft when you take them out, so allow them to harden on the tray for 5 minutes. After that, you should be able to carefully transfer them to a wire cooling rack.

Once completely cooled, you can ice the gingerbread men. Simply mix the icing sugar and water until you have a smooth, thick paste. Transfer to a squeezy bottle (these make it mega easy to use the icing and very kid friendly) or piping bag, and decorate the gingerbread men with icing patterns, sprinkles and sweets.

Allow the icing to harden, then enjoy your gingerbread people or store in an airtight container for up to three days.

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