Many Hands Make Gingerbread
The other day we had friends over and made tons of gingerbread men. So many little hands rolling and cutting out dough. We decorated our gingerbread men with dried fruit and nuts. The kids even cut loose and made free form cookie shapes as well.
5 cups blanched almond flour
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon ginger powder
¼ teaspoon cloves - ground
½ teaspoon celtic sea salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ cup grapeseed oil
½ cup agave nectar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
½ cup yacon syrup
2 eggs
1 teaspoon lemon zest
- In a large bowl, combine almond flour, cinnamon, ginger powder, cloves, salt and baking soda
- In a smaller bowl, mix together grapeseed oil, agave, vanilla, yacon, eggs and lemon zest
- Stir wet ingredients into dry
- Chill dough in freezer for 1-2 hours
- Roll out dough between two pieces of parchment paper to ¼ inch thick
- Remove top sheet of parchment paper, cut out cookies using a medium gingerbread man cookie cutter
- Decorate with nuts and dried fruit --we used pieces of lemon rind for the mouth
- Transfer with a spatula to a parchment lined baking sheet
- Cook at 350° for 15 minutes
- Cool and serve
Makes 36 gingerbread cookies
I have been working on this gluten-free, dairy-free gingerbread recipe for years. At last, I find myself sufficiently satisfied with the recipe and offer it to you for some Christmas cookie baking fun.
Posted on December 23, 2007 in desserts by Elana
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or Black and White Cookies
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17 comments
I am looking for good gluten free recipes and came upon your web site. Everything looks and sounds great. Unfortunately, my adult son who has just been diagnosed as gluten intolerant, is also allergic to tree nuts and soy. This limits his use of flours. Is there a flour we can use to replace the almond flour in your recipes? Almond flour sounds delicious but...
I'm looking forward to your advice. I also run an extended day program in a Waldorf School and would love to use some of these recipes for our snacks, but we are committed to being a nut free kitchen, too. Thanks, Susan
Hi Susan-
You could try my coconut flour recipes. Just enter "coconut flour" into the search bar on the upper right side of my site. The coconut flour recipes will appear and most of those are nut free.
Alternatively, you could experiment with the recipes in terms of replacements. Since I specialize in almond flour, my experimentation is in creating and perfecting recipes with that ingredient. I stay away from rice flour and most of the other gluten-free flours as they are super high glycemic.
Hope this helps.
Elana
HI Elana,
Great that you have this recipe online! But what is yacon powder exactly? I did a search online and it is only (and very limitly) available as syrup in Europe (and hot even in Holland...) I will try to substitute with a little more agave, but if you have any advice here, that'd be very welcome!
Thanks so much and enjoy a relaxed sunday!
xox Christianne
Hi Christianne-
I haven't ever used yacon powder --I use and link to yacon syrup. I generally link my unusual ingredients to sites that describe and sell them.
The yacon in this recipe gives the dough a darker color and rich flavor (sort of like the molasses in a standard ginger bread recipe).
I hope this helps and have a great weekend.
Elana
HI Elana,
Yes, I meant syrup, sorry for the mix-up! The website you link to doesn't sell outside the US so I searched for it here. Thanks for the advice, I will start experimenting here (I have an adorable gingerbreadman cookie cutter that is just dying to be of use) and will let you know how it worked out, maybe that'll be helpful to European readers...
Thanks again and have a great day in the peachpit! (WOW, quel chance!)
CHristianne
Hi Christianne,
If you find the yacon syrup sold outside the US let me know, and then I will share it in the faq section with my International readers.
Have fun with the adorable gingerbread man cookie cutter.
xo Elana
I was just wondering if I could try my black-strap molasses in this recipe that I have in the fridge. Or do you have something against it? I have heard it's gluten free and has some minerals in it. Thanks, Christin..I LOVE this site!!
christin,
You can try and experiment with any ingredient that you desire for this recipe and others, though I don't know what the results will be. I haven't cooked with molasses in a decade, though don't have anything against it.
Elana
Hey Elana
Do you know if yacon syrup is an acceptable sweetener for people with yeast issues and why would you use it over other sweeteners in a recipe (besides offering a dark, molassey flavor)?
Thanks!
Betsy,
When I had yeast issues I did not use any sweeteners other than stevia, I even avoided fresh raw fruit.
Yes, I do use yacon syrup for it's dark molasses flavor, for further info on this sweetener please see my faq.
Elana
Thanks for this recipe. We suspect that my 2 year old has celiac and my 4 year old is wheat intolerant. It has been a tough holiday season with all of the cookies and sweets at friend's houses and school. We didn't go to any of the parties we were invited to because I don't know how to handle it yet. They will be thrilled to make these tomorrow morning. I have been skeptical of making everything with rice flour so I am happy to see almond flour in your recipes. Any idea how long it takes for the symptoms to go away after cutting out gluten(and dairy and soy and corn)? Thanks again.
-Stephanie
Stephanie,
Thanks for your comment.
I think everyone heals differently. It seems like you are dealing with a very challenging situation. When I was faced with this (I was quite ill and my 3 year old was also not doing well). We went on the strictest phase of the SCD and we saw a difference within a couple of months. I am still grain/soy/corn free, which works very well for me, however my son is now able to be on a regular gluten-free diet, can eat some processed foods (all GF) and is in good health.
I can totally relate about being overwhelmed with social situations. It takes a while to get comfortable to adapting oneself (and family) to a new eating plan, then the next phase is dealing with it in a public/group setting. Once you adjust, it will get easier. Especially if you can bring treats to share (that work for your family) to parties, etc. Breaking "bread" with friends is the best.
Hope this helps and best of luck.
Elana
I have been enjoying many of your recipes the past 6 weeks. Today we tried the gingerbread cookies using Bob's Red mill flour since we had run out of the other and it was all we could buy in our local store. Just wanted to report that you were right - the batter was too runny and didn't work. I tried to thicken it with a little garbanzo bean flour, since we had used all the almond meal we had bought, with no luck. We ended up just making round cookies which my girls decorated with seeds, nuts and raisins. They still had a blast and the cookies tasted very good. I am looking forward to trying your recipe again with the proper ingredients!
Kristin,
Thanks so much for your comment and the report on almond flour. I spoke with one of my favorite almond flour experts the other day, Lucy Rosset and she confirmed my observations on Bob's Red Mill almond flour, stating that it is a very coarsely ground product that does not work well.
I'm glad you managed to salvage the dough and that your girls had fun.
Take Care,
Elana
Hi Elana
Thanks for the great recipe. Just wanted to let Christiane and other European readers know that iherb does ship to Europe. I have ordered some yacon syrup from them and it is very cheap (compared to the European stockists).
I can't wait to take delivery so that I can make the cookies!!
Hi Lou,
Thank you so much for your help, it is much appreciated! Since fall is around the corner, it is almost time to take out all pumpkin recipes and make lots of gingerbread men...!
Have fun with your baking and let us know how quick they were gone :-)
Christianne
Would I be able to use this recipe to make a gingerbread house?? I just wasn't sure if the result would be too soft or not.
Thanks.
Jenny
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