Soft Gingerbread Cookies
Hello Everyone!
Baking Christmas goodies with my mom is one of the best memories I have of my childhood. Nothing could replace that special time that I now get to share with my own sweet babies. But when I had to go gluten-free, I was worried that I wouldn't be able to enjoy it quite like I use to. But this recipe proved me wrong!
Ya’ll…these cookies turned out so soft and are just packed with beautiful holiday spices! I got my trusty taste tester (my husband) to try them out for me. He does not usually eat gluten free, so he has unbiased taste buds when it comes to gluten-free tasting. His verdict was the these were his favorite! To me, that is a microphone drop moment, because he is not a huge fan of sweet things. He said they tasted exactly like the real thing!!! I think Santa would approve of these cookies as well. Hey, who knows, maybe Santa is actually gluten free and the reindeer and elves get all of the “regular” cookies!
Enjoy!
Ingredients
- All Purpose Gluten Free flour blend (I used Great Value All-Purpose Flour Blend) - 1 1/2 cups (210 g)
- baking soda - 1/2 tsp
- ground cinnamon - 1 1/2 tsp
- ground ginger - 1 tsp
- kosher salt - 1/4 tsp
- light brown sugar - 1/2 cup (109 g)
- unsalted butter (room temperature) - 6 tbs (84 g)
- unsulphered molasses - 4 tbs (84 g)
- honey - 1 tbs (21 g)
- egg (room temperature) - 1 ( 60 g weighed out of shell)
- vanilla - 1/2 tsp
- Royal icing for decoration (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350°F. Line the baking sheets with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl whisk together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger and salt.
- Add the brown sugar and whisk again, making sure to get out all the lumps. You can also sift the brown sugar if it is still too lumpy.
- Create a well in the center of the dry ingredients and add the butter, molasses, honey, egg and vanilla, mixing to combine after each addition. The dough will be thick and sticky.
- Place the dough onto a large sheet of parchment paper and cover with another sheet of parchment so that the dough won't stick to the rolling pin. Then, roll into a rectangle about 3/8-inch thick.
- Take off the top sheet of parchment paper. D
- Dip a gingerbread man cutter (or whatever shape cutter you want to use) in all purpose gluten free flour or cornstarch (to help it not stick to the dough), and use it to cut out shapes from the cookie dough. I find it helps to jiggle the cookie cutter a little bit after you press down. This creates a cleaner edge on the cookies. Do not try to remove the shapes from the parchment paper yet and do not try to peel away the excess dough yet. It tends to stick and not want to peel off if it is room temperature.
- Put the parchment paper with the dough onto the baking sheet and cover it with plastic wrap. Put them in the refrigerator to firm up for about 10 minutes.
- Once the dough is nice and cold, peel back the rest of the dough from around the cut-outcookies. You can try to reposition the cookies to make room for more or you can leave them as is and place the whole parchment paper sheet onto the cookie sheet so that you don't have to worry about moving the cookies. If you decide to reposition them and cut out more, make sure to chill the newly cut out cookies in the fridge as well before adding them to the already cut out batch.
- If you are adding more cookies, place the new cut-outs on the baking sheets and put them in the refrigerator or freezer until firm (about 20 minutes in the refrigerator, or just 5 minutes in the freezer). This will help them keep their shape during baking.
- If you are not adding any more cookies to the sheet, just place the chilled cookies in the center of the preheated oven and bake until just set (they may still seem a bit soft at this point, but its ok), about 8 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely on the baking sheets. You can now decorate them with royal icing if you want when they have completely cooled.
