Classic cut-out Vegan Gingerbread Cookies that don’t spread or puff up when you bake them! Perfectly spiced, buttery, delicious and easy to make.
This is the perfect recipe for gingerbread cookies, and no one would ever guess they’re vegan. I adapted this recipe from several non-vegan gingerbread cookies (Gimme Some Oven, Sally’s Baking Addiction).
It took me several tries to get it just right, at first just replacing the butter with vegan butter and the eggs with flax eggs. But that left me with a dough that was too dry. So I added some more molasses to make up for it, and voilà! The perfect cut out gingerbread cookies with no animal products.
I love that they hold their shape in the oven, the same way my Vegan Sugar Cookies do. The trick? Refrigerate the dough for a while before sticking them in the oven.
How to make gingerbread cookies
(This is simply an overview with photos, please see the recipe card below for the full, printable recipe.)
It’s pretty simple!
- In a medium-large bowl, whisk together all the dry ingredients (flour, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, baking soda and salt). Set aside.
- In another large bowl, add the softened vegan butter and brown sugar. Beat with a hand or stand mixer until creamy, then add in the flax egg, molasses and vanilla and beat until smooth. Slowly add in the dry mixture.
- The dough will be quite thick, but easy to smush together in your hands. It may look crumbly when you use the mixer, but when you form it into balls of dough, it should be plenty moist and easy to work with.
- Refrigerate the dough in two discs for an hour, them roll it out on a clean, lightly floured surface. Cut into desired shapes.
Bake for 8-10 minutes, or longer for crispier cookies. Let them cool completely before decorating.
Helpful tools
- Stand mixer – I love my Kitchen Aid, so if you have one, use it. A hand mixer works as well. If you don’t have either, you can probably mix by hand with a strong wooden spoon.
- Rolling pin – For rolling out the dough.
- Cookie cutters – I used this little set of 3. Love the different sizes.
- Icing bottles – For decorating. You can also use a pastry bag or even a ziplock bag, but for kids the bottles make it so easy!
Can I make them gluten free?
I haven’t tried it yet myself, but a quality gluten free flour mix should work here. It works quite well in my sugar cookies recipe, so I don’t see why it wouldn’t here. Don’t try to use almond flour or coconut flour, that will NOT work!
How to store vegan gingerbread cookies
Store leftover cookies in a covered container for up to 4 days, or freeze them for longer. They can be frozen iced or un-iced. I froze quite a few since I made several batches, and they taste wonderful right out of the freezer to me!
More pretty vegan cookies
- The Best Vegan Sugar Cookies
- Vegan Chocolate Crinkle Cookies
- Vegan Snowball Cookies
- Vegan Raspberry Almond Thumbprints
- Vegan Iced Oatmeal Cookies
Vegan Gingerbread Cookies
Ingredients
Flax Egg
- 1 tablespoon ground flaxseeds
- 2.5 tablespoons water
Dry Ingredients
- 3 1/4 cups all purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
- 1 tablespoon ground ginger
- 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
Wet Ingredients
- 3/4 cup vegan butter, softened to room temperature
- 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
- 2/3 cup molasses
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
Easy Icing
- 3 cups powdered sugar
- 3-4 tablespoons plant milk of choice
- 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Instructions
- Make the Flax Egg: In a small bowl, stir the flaxseeds and water together, then set aside to thicken.
- In a medium-large bowl, whisk together the flour, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
- In a large bowl with a hand mixer (or stand mixer using the paddle attachment), beat the vegan butter and brown sugar together for 2-3 minutes until creamy and fluffy.
- To the bowl with the butter/brown sugar mixture, add the flax egg, molasses and vanilla. Beat on medium speed until smooth and well combined.
- Gradually add the flour mixture on low speed until just combined.
- Divide the cookie dough into two portions. Form each portion into a ball, then flatten with your hands into about a 1 inch disk (I used parchment paper on a counter to flatten). Wrap the discs in plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour. Overnight is fine as well if you want to prepare the dough a day ahead of time. If the dough was chilled longer than an hour, let it sit at room temperature for 20 minutes before rolling.
- Once the dough has chilled, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and line a large baking sheet (or 2) with parchment paper.
- Sprinkle flour on a clean, large surface (I just use my counter). Unwrap the dough and place on the floured surface. Using a rolling pin, roll the dough until about 1/8th inch thick. Use cookie cutters to cut them into shapes, and transfer to the baking sheet.
- Bake for 8-10 minutes (for crispy cookies, bake for 12-14 minutes), in the center rack of the oven. They will be quite soft out of the oven, so let them cool on the pan for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to finish cooling.
- Repeat rolling and cutting until all the dough is used.
- Make the simple icing: Whisk all icing ingredients together in a medium bowl until very smooth. You want it to be fairly thick for decorating, so add more powdered sugar as needed, or more milk if it gets too thick.
- Once the cookies have cooled completely, use a piping bag or plastic bottle to decorate the cookies however you like. Enjoy! Store leftover cookies in a covered container for 4 days, or freeze them.
Notes
- You may get more or less cookies, depending on the size of your cookie cutters. I used a variety of sizes.
- If you prefer crispy gingerbread cookies, simply bake them longer, 12-14 minutes. I prefer them soft but so they are easily held and don't fall apart.
- Gluten free - I haven't tested it, but a gluten free all purpose blend will likely work quite well.
- Please don't skip refrigerating this dough, or your cookies may very well spread and puff up when you bake them.
Nora!
Hey you queen of vegan baking! We made the dough last night with plans to bake and decorate tonight. Alas life has come up- do you think the dough would be alright chilling for two days? Xtra chilled!
Hi there! Yes, the dough should be fine for a few days. Just let it sit at room temperature for 20 minutes or a little longer so it doesn’t crumble when you roll it out, as it will be extra cold. Hope you enjoy the cookies!
Hi there Nora
Could you please tell me how many grams of butter you get if you weighed it out?
Thanks kindly
Quita
170 grams. Thanks!
Hi! I was wondering since these are flat cookies, what does the baking soda react with? I thought it needed an acid. Asking bc I’m trying to watch sodium intake
I love all of your recipes so good. If I don’t frost the cookies will they last longer then 4 days in the pantry?
The cookies will start to dry out, but you could keep them in the refrigerator a bit longer, maybe up to a week in a covered container. Hope that helps and thank you!
Hi! I haven’t tried this recipe yet, but I was wondering if you could come up with a gingerbread house recipe. So far, our family has used graham crackers instead, but this year we wanted to try something new. As we learned the hard way, substituting a not-vegan recipe for a vegan one does not go well. We would love it if you could make a successful Nora-style recipe! Thanks for all your amazing recipes!
Thanks for the idea, that would be really fun to do!
can I replace the molasses with something else?
Hi Nora – do you think I could sub pumpkin pie spice instead of the separate individual spices? If so, how would you recommend adjusting?
You probably could, yes. I’d say about 2 1/2 tablespoons.
I was thinking of trying this recipe as a crust for your pumpkin pie recipe. How do you think that would work?
I’m not really sure, but I think it would work! It actually sounds really good! If you try it, let me know how it goes.
I plan on it….. I will let you know next week! I love your recipes by the way. You are amazing!
Thank you Kari! Happy cooking!
First of all, this is an amazing recipe. It was an awesome crust, I used your delish pumpkin pie recipe. Word of advice, keep a crust shield on the pie for probably most of the cooking time, if now the whole time. I blackened the edges of mine. It was still great. Thank you!
I’m so glad you loved the gingerbread as a crust, and the pie! Thank you for sharing your great review and comments!
I love this recipe and have made it several times with regular flour. Today I tried it with Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free All-Purpose Flour and it was a bust. I’ll continue to experiment and see if I can make it work somehow.
I’ve made this recipe twice now and it’s really great and easy and makes perfect gingerbread for decorating.
One thing I noted however – the first time I made this recipe I ran out of molasses and only put about half in and substituted the rest with maple syrup and they turned out perfect taste wise. The second time I made them I used the full amount of molasses and woahhh they are wayyyyy too molassesy. The molasses is overwhelming. Next time I would definitely halve it!
Thanks for sharing your review and comments! I’m glad you found a molasses measurement that fits your taste!
These turned out great! I had some trouble working with the dough, it was way too soft and sticky, even though I know I measured the flour correctly. I had to LIBERALLY flour the rolling surface and also roll them a bit thicker, and then it worked out. I also made the icing with lemon juice instead of milk, because I thought that would go well with the ginger and spices.
I’m so glad you enjoyed the cookies! A few suggestions – make sure your vegan butter isn’t melted when you begin. It should be soft, but not melted. I also wonder if you skipped the step about chilling the dough in a disk shape for at least an hour. If you did, than that’s what went wrong, as the dough does need to be chilled first. Hope that helps!
Thanks for your reply! I did chill my dough. I used regular softened butter (I’m not vegan but I don’t use eggs so I tend to modify vegan recipes), so I am wondering if the water content of the butter was different. I’m sure I’ll be making these again, so maybe I can add a little more flour next time.
Of course! It’s possible that real butter is a bit different, but yes if you make them again, just add a few tablespoons of flour at a time until you can work easily with the dough, but it’s also not crumbly or dry.
These are my first vegan gingerbread cookies and also the BEST gingerbread cookies I’ve ever had! Made them exactly per your recipe and they are absolutely perfect in flavour, texture and appearance!!
Hi Terri. I’m so glad you enjoyed the recipe! Thank you.
I highly recommend making this recipe! I made these cookies today using gluten-free flour, and they turned out perfectly. I didn’t roll out the dough evenly, so some cookies ended up being more like 1/4″ thick and some were about 1/8″ thick, but they all baked up beautifully and are delicious. I baked them for about 9 minutes to keep them on the softer side.
Oh my goodness! These were SO good and SO easy to make. Before this recipe, I was so-so on gingerbread, but I absolutely LOVED these and ate way too many. I gave them as gifts to non-vegan friends, and they were shocked to learn that they were made without dairy. This will be my go-to gingerbread recipe from now on. Thank you so much for sharing this fantastic recipe.
Side note, I’ve also made your sugar cookie, and snowball cookie recipes. Both just as fabulous!
That’s so great to hear! Thanks for the comment!
Hi Nora! Do you think whole wheat pastry flour might work here? It’s what I have on hand!
I think so, yes!
Hi Nora!
Love your recipes 🙂
Do you think this would be sturdy enough for making a gingerbread house?
Thanks!
I think so, but I haven’t tried it so I’m not sure. 🙂
Could I use gluten free flour in this recipe? Thanks~
It should work quite well, I haven’t tested it myself though. Thanks!
What can we use instead on molasses? We are in New Zealand.
Hmm you might be able to use dark corn syrup or maple syrup, or a mix of the two, but I haven’t tried it and I’m not positive it will work. Thanks!
These are sooooo good! Love that the gingerbread is soft but holds its shape well. I used a basting brush to put icing on half of them and those ones were extra tasty. Definitely my new holiday go-to recipe!
I’ve been looking for a vegan recipe for this cookies.
I plan on baking a few days before Christmas, but having the dough already made will help me a lot.
Can I make in advance the dough and keep it refrigerated for more than a day?
Up to 4 days should be okay. Enjoy!
Hi Nora! This recipe looks fantastic! I was thinking of using it to make the crustfor your pumpkin pie cheesecake recipe this Christmas for my family. Do you think it would work for this, or would the consistency be off? I was thinking I may have to bake up a batch of these all the way and then take some and crumble them down and add the butter and vanilla as you suggest doing with gingersnaps
Hmmm, I’m really not sure how it would go as a pie crust. I think it might though!
This recipe rocks! Perfectly spiced and cookies hold together. Definitely recommend refrigerating as long as you can before baking.
What kind of molasses do you use – blackstrap or a lighter kind?
Blackstrap is what I use here.
Could you use this for gingerbread houses? We are attempting to make them ourselves for the first time!
I think it would work! I’d bake it a bit thicker though to make it sturdy.
Can I use coconut oil as a substitute for the butter?
I haven’t tried it, but sometimes I find coconut oil causes the cookies to spread and burn.