Celebrate the season with traditional gingerbread cookies made gluten free, and oh so easy!
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The most priceless photo and memory…
For the last few years, I’ve wanted to update this post – one of the oldest Christmas posts on my blog! The Google gods and such appreciate updates and photo improvements, and it is one of our favorite holiday recipes! But I just couldn’t bear replacing this photo. It was my oldest’s first time using a piping bag for cookies, and she was just *so* proud! So this year, I decided it was time, but also decided to keep this photo in the mix because…how sweet is she?!
Classic gingerbread cookies…Santa’s favorite!
There isn’t anything fancy here. Just delicious gingerbread cookies with a nostalgic flavor and cookie cut out shape! I hope you get a chance to enjoy introducing this flavor profile to your kids. The gingerbread aroma in the house is second to none! I also happen to know that in our house, it is Santa’s favorite cookie for the girls to leave out! 😉
The Method :: The gingerbread cookie dough
Blend the wet ingredients, and mix in the dry. It is a typical stiff cookie dough texture that does need to be chilled before rolling out. In order for the cookies to maintain a great shape, once the cookie dough is mixed up, put it in the refrigerator for a bit. I like to split it up into 2 disks so they chill faster. You could also make the dough days in advance.
The Method :: Rolling out the gingerbread cookies
After chilling the dough, you can knead it on a lightly floured counter, and then roll it out to the thickness of cookie that you like. They do puff up just a little. If you like crispy gingerbread, make the cookies thinner. If you prefer a softer, thicker cookie, make the cookies thicker.
The Method :: Baking the gingerbread cookies
You’ll need just 10 minutes to bake the cookies. At this point, you can either cool the cookies to ice. Or, you can freeze the cookies to ice another time! This makes a pretty big batch of cookies, so if you aren’t planning on serving to a party or give any away, you might choose to freeze some of them for later in the month!
The Method :: Icing the gingerbread cookies
These days, my kids are old enough to handle a traditional icing for the cookies. When my girls were little, a thicker icing worked easier for them to manage. You could even make a buttercream frosting. The icing is just powdered sugar and milk whisked with vanilla, so you can adjust the thickness to your liking. The icing will need a good hour or so to fulling set.
Tips for making cookies like this with little kids
- Split up the tasks! It is much more enjoyable to not do this entire project in one day with little ones. And I do recommend trying to include them in each step, because they will definitely love the dough and cut out part too. I know it takes some time to wait for the chilling and the baking, but it is good for them to learn that patience, and they will appreciate and enjoy eating the cookies that much more!
- Let them roll out a small amount of the dough. Even just a quarter of the dough listed here. It is easier to manage and helps them learn how to roll it out.
- Use a mini cookie cutter for little guys! This was a life saver when my girls were little. No tiny body needs a huge, giant gingerbread cookie. But if you make them mini, they can have 1 or even 2! That is a big deal to a little kid!
- Make the icing thicker for easier piping and less mess. You could even skip the piping bag and let them spread it with a little cheese spreading knife.
Tips for packaging gingerbread cookies for gifting
Let the icing fully set before packaging up your cookies. These cookies are nice and sturdy, but you may consider making them slightly thicker for any that you plan to package, and cook them a couple minutes longer to make sure they are on the crisp side versus soft when they cool.
Tell me about those cookie cutter sizes!
I already mentioned above that mini cookie cutters were a game changer when I had little ones in the house. It just keeps portions better managed for tiny tummies. It is totally fine to enjoy treats around the holidays, but we don’t need to go overboard and make everyone more susceptible to getting sick!
- Here are some MINI COOKIE CUTTERS to use! We have loved and used ours for years! I still use this one for classroom parties or packing a treat in a lunchbox too!
- A MEDIUM COOKIE CUTTER is great size and also pack up nicely for gifting.
- LARGE COOKIE CUTTERS are so fun. These big cookies would make great gifts or really wow your guests as a Christmas gathering.
- I love this super budget friendly set of all 3 sizes to choose from!
A little over a decade later…
She’s not 5 anymore…she’s 16. But still loves making cookies every holiday. Dear momma with littles, I promise it is worth the kitchen mess. It will be slow. It will require clean up. But your little guys at home will remember this! I’d love to hear about your baking adventures with the kids this holiday season below!
Gluten Free Gingerbread Cookies
Ingredients
COOKIES ::
- 1 cup softened butter
- ¼ cup molasses
- ¾ cup pure cane sugar or coconut sugar
- 2 eggs
- 3 ½ cups Namaste Gluten Free Flour Blend See Notes
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- 1 ½ tsp ground ginger
- ½ tsp ground cloves
- ½ tsp ground nutmeg
- ½ tsp sea salt
- 2 tsp baking soda
- 2 tsp xanthan gum
FROSTING ::
- 1 ½ cups powdered sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1-2 TB whole milk or cream
Instructions
- Cream the butter, molasses, and sugar with hand beaters.
- Add the egg and beat until creamy.
- Add the rest of the ingredients and combine blend until a thick cookie dough forms. This will take a minute – don't add more liquid! Give the butter a chance to absorb the flour.
- Let the dough chill for an hour in the fridge – I split the dough up into 2 disks so it chills faster.
- Pre-heat the oven to 375 degrees and line 2-3 cookie sheets with unbleached parchment paper.
- Knead the dough with your warm hands to make it pliable, roll out onto a floured surface, cut out your shapes, and place the shapes onto the prepared baking sheets.
- Bake at 375 degrees for 10 minutes.
FOR THE FROSTING ::
- Whisk the frosting ingredients together until well combined and thick enough to pipe. You can frost your cookies once they have cooled!
Notes
- Any gluten free flour blend with xanthan gum should work for this recipe. If you tolerate regular all purpose flour, you can use that cup for cup too.
Beautiful!
Thank you Jessica!
This is JUST what I was looking for!!! I will be trying to make these but also dairy free too! Any tips on a dairy free version?
Hi Lauren! Great! Yep you can sub coconut oil, palm shortening, or pastured lard for the butter in the cookie and that should work great! And then for the frosting you can use palm shortening instead of the butter – palm is a great source of friendly fats and you should be able to find it in any health food store – probably even some mainstream stores. In the baking sections most likely.
what is xanthan gum and why add it to your cookies?
Hi JA 🙂 Xanthan gum is plant derived and used in a lot of gluten free baking. It gives a gluten texture to gluten free goods as well as helps with binding and rising. I do not use xanthan on a daily basis – only in my pie crust and roll out cookies like gingerbread and sugar cookies. It just makes the whole rolling out process so much easier. The jury is still out for me on whether xanthan is ok to have more than just the occasional treat so I use it sparingly – just in Christmas cookies and the occasional pie crust throughout the year. There are sources that point to xanthan in large amounts possibly irritating the gut – but again, I find that in the very small amount that I use it in, I am not concerned. I hope that helps a little! (PS – if you make the dough without the xanthan you will have a very melty cookie 😉 I have tried – trust me!)
If I were to use a gluten-free all purpose flour mix that contained the tapioca flour, the rice flours and the xanthan gum, how much should I use here?
Hi Angela! If you just equal the flour amount – so 3 1/2 cups of flour I think you should be good – and then leave out the xanthan gum since it is in the mix you have. Does that make sense?
Have you tried making them with GF oat flour? I just don’t like using tapioca. I LOVE your pictures.
Thank you Anna! I have not tried it with oat flour and it will probably change the dough quite a bit – tapioca flour gives a soft, gluten-y type texture. I’m not quite sure what oat flour would do. I’m sorry that doesn’t help much!
I am looking forward to making these cookies for a Christmas party! About how many round cookies would you say this makes?
Hi Kristen! It would depend on how big your rounds are – this batch makes 18 large gingerbread men cutouts so I would say double that number with a small/medium circle. I hope that helps!
I made these yesterday for my daughters class party today. I used flax eggs im place of the egg and they turned out great!
Hi Amy! Oh! I was thinking of you when I posted this hoping you would try an egg free version 🙂 I’m glad they turned out! That is so great! Thank you for coming back to let me know!
I know I’m very late but if I’m using a gluten free flour blend, what would be the exact measurement for that?
Hi Ashley! Yes, I used the Namaste Gluten Free Flour Blend exact measurement for the flours, and just left the xanthan gum out because the blend had xanthan in it and they worked out great!
I like your philosophy of keeping things simple at Christmas and choosing one thing to bake. It’s important to be able to relax and enjoy spending time with family. It must be fun for your children to help you with these cookies! And, the cookies look great!
Omg these are soooo cute and festive! Saving this recipe to make with my niece for christmas!
YES!!! NOW this is a GOOD Gingerbread cookie recipe! I will be trying this recipe soon. It’s not the holidays without them.
Will this recipe work for a small gingerbread house? I don’t want the hard tasteless recipes I’ve seen on the internet.
Hi Miriam! Yes it does!
Made these with my 3 year old yesterday and they were a hit! So yummy and easy. I used Bobs Red Mill 1-1 gluten free flour instead of the flours and left out the xanthan gum (it was in the gluten free flour) and they came out great. I also doubled the frosting so we’d have more to work with. I’ll be saving this to my treasured recipes!
That is fantastic Eva! So special to have a recipe that you can use to create memories with each holiday!
I’m going to try a gf blend as others have mentioned but wondering how to make them dairy free? Maybe palm shortening? Also, hoping to sub coconut sugar. Thoughts?
Hi Sara! Coconut sugar works in this recipe fine! And yes, I’d do palm shortening for the butter for this cookie recipe!
Just made these tonight, egg free (flax egg) for the neighbors with an egg allergy. I also used namaste gf flour to replace the other flours. It was pretty crumbly, but held together for the most part- and I didn’t think about adding a little bit of water to the dough until I had gone through half the dough. But the cookies didn’t fall apart and my husband said the raw dough tasted amazing. The finished product is delicious!
Hi Megan! I’m glad you enjoyed them! I’ve never used the flax egg so it’s good to know how you used it! Thanks for sharing!