These delicious, mouthwatering healthier chewy ginger molasses cookies are gluten free, dairy free, and made with unrefined sweetener for a healthier twist on a holiday cookie classic. They can also easily be made vegan with one simple swap!
Healthier Chewy Ginger Molasses Cookies
My oldest sister makes these particular cookies every year for the holidays. I look forward to them when she invites us over for a gathering or we all get together at my parents house for Christmas eve. These cookies are her chewy ginger molasses cookies but they are pretty far from healthy (ha, sorry Kim, but you know this to be true too!). This doesn’t mean they aren’t insanely delicious, they are, and it also doesn’t mean I don’t usually help myself to 2 or even 3 of them at a time… I do, but this year I decided to try my hand at making a batch of healthier chewy ginger molasses cookies that would actually hold a candle to hers.
My friends, I’m pretty sure I succeeded!
My healthier take on these chewy ginger molasses cookies are insanely good too. They have the perfect crackled texture on the outside and ooey-gooey chewy inside. They are perfectly sweet and fully flavoured with ginger, cinnamon, cloves, and a touch of nutmeg. The molasses is present but not overpowering and they are completely dairy free and gluten free!
My sister’s cookies happen to be dairy free as well, but she uses shortening in her recipe whereas I went with my favorite Earth Balance vegan butter.
I’ll admit, my healthier chewy ginger molasses cookies are just that – “healthier” – than the average ginger cookie, but they aren’t the “healthiest” out there. I didn’t go completely raw or sugar-less or use 100% unrefined flour, but my cookies are suitable for those who can’t eat gluten or dairy, and are made with a combination of unrefined sugars including coconut palm sugar (which is naturally low glycemic) and organic cane sugar!
The Cuisinart Precision Stand Mixer
To make my healthier chewy ginger molasses cookies I used the Cuisinart Precision Stand Mixer from The Brick. I’ve used this stand mixer for a couple other recipes on the blog including my Chicken Tinga Tacos and my Baked Chocolate Banana Bread Donuts and every time I work with this small kitchen appliance I’m so impressed with how easy it is to work with and clean!
For these cookies I first used the whisk attachment to cream the sugars and vegan butter together, then I added the rest of the wet ingredients and whisked it up easily. Next, I used the flat mixing paddle which perfectly twirled the wet and dry ingredients into a cookie dough ball mass no dough pieces stuck to the sides of the bowl…waste not, want not, right?
The Cuisinart Precision Stand Mixer is so sleek and has a multitude of uses, with even more attachments available to purchase like a pasta roller, meat grinder, and even ice cream maker! I highly recommend it!
The Cookie-Making Process
There are a few key steps in the baking process that can’t be missed to for these healthier chewy ginger molasses cookies as follows:
- Chill the dough before baking. Once you’ve mixed up the cookie dough it’s best to form it into a ball and wrap with saran wrap and pop in the fridge (or outside in the cold!) to chill for about 1 hour. This makes the dough firmer and easier to form into balls as well as solidifies the fat in them so that when the cookies bake they spread slower in the oven and don’t fall completely flat.
- Once chilled, roll the dough into balls. Rather than adding the dough in mounds to the baking sheet, this cookie dough is best rolled into golf ball sized balls as it will melt and form into the proper shape in the oven.
- Roll the cookie-dough balls in turbinado sugar. This type of partially-refined sugar is perfect for rolling the cookie-dough balls into to get that classic cracked sugary look that ginger molasses cookies have.
- Bake for only 8 or 9 minutes. The cookies may seem slightly soft when removed from the oven but harden over time while cooking. To avoid hard, non-chewy cookies, you don’t want to bake much longer than 9 minutes at 350 degrees!
That’s all you really need to know for making the best healthier ginger molasses cookies you’ll ever have! I hope you enjoy this recipe and if you have a favorite festive cookie you love to enjoy this time of year, tell me about it in the comments!
Also, be sure to pin the photo below the recipe to save this one for later and of course, share the love!
Healthier Chewy Ginger Molasses Cookies
These delicious, mouthwatering healthier chewy ginger molasses cookies are gluten free, dairy free, and made with unrefined sweetener for a healthier twist on a holiday cookie classic. They can also easily be made vegan with one simple swap!
Ingredients
- 1 cup vegan butter, I used Earth Balance brand
- 1/2 cup coconut palm sugar
- 1 cup organic cane sugar
- 1/4 cup unsulphured molasses
- 1 egg (or 1 flax-egg for vegan*)
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 2 3/4 cups of 1-1 baking gluten-free flour (400g), I used Bob’s Red Mill brand
- 1 tablespoon baking soda
- 1/2 tablespoon ground ginger
- 1/2 tablespoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1/3 cup turbinado sugar (for rolling)
Instructions
- In a bowl or stand mixer add in vegan butter and sugars then using a whisk cream together the sugar and butter until completely incorporated.
- Add in the molasses, egg, and salt and whisk until well mixed.
- Next, add in the flour, baking soda, and spices and using the flat paddle attachment (if using a stand mixer), mix the dough until a loose ball forms and all of the mixture is pulled from the sides of the bowl.
- Transfer the dough to a plate or small baking sheet covered in parchment paper and form into a ball then wrap with plastic wrap or parchment paper.
- Chill the dough in the fridge for 1 hour or the freezer for 30 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and roll the dough into golf-ball sized balls then lightly roll in turbinado sugar.
- Space the balls out evenly on the baking sheets (leaving 1-2 inches between each ball as they will spread out in the oven) and bake for 8 to 9 minutes until crackled on top (they will still be soft when you remove them from the oven but will firm up while cooling).
- Allow cookies to cool for 20 minutes.
- Enjoy!
Notes
*To make a flax egg, in a small bowl mix together 1 tablespoon of ground flaxseed with 2 ½ tablespoons of water. Let sit for 5 minutes until thickened. Use as a substitute for 1 egg in the recipe.
*Recipe loosely adapted from Gimme Some Oven and Inspired by The Red Barn Loft
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I’m signing off for the holidays so I hope you all have an amazing Christmas and Happy New Years! Oh, and I’ve got something BIG coming the first week of January that’s going to be an amazing inspiration for your healthiest year yet! I’ll share more details very soon!
Disclaimer: This post was sponsored by The Brick, as always the thoughts and opinions are my own.
These cookies were delish but if you roll them the size of a golf ball it did not make 28 cookies!
I made these for my mom who is gluten and dairy free and they turned out amazing!! I was genuinely impressed with how good they were, especially since they don’t have any butter in them! Thank you for sharing this recipe. My mom really appreciates it as it is difficult to find things to eat that are gluten and dairy free that are actually tasty!
Hi Annie, thank you so much for the review! I’m very glad your mom enjoyed the cookies – these are my favorite Christmas cookie by far!
These taste divine but I had some trouble with the recipe. I used Bob’s Red Mill 1-to-1 for the “flour” but instead of Earth Balance I used Pure Blends Avocado Oil plant-based butter. I’d never used it for baking before but it’s all I had.
After chilling for two hours the dough was still very gloppy. I baked one test cookie and it came out flatter than a pancake. Eventually I added another 1/2 c of the baking mix, scooped the dough into small balls, and froze them. I sprinkled cinnamon sugar on top when they came out of the oven. Perfect! So- after all that, do you think my problem was the Pure Blend? Have you heard that anyone else needed to add more baking mix and/or freeze the dough? This recipe is a keeper but I definitely need to tweak it some how.
Hi Tracey! Ah, yes it very well could have been that Pure Blend because the chilling is actually to make it so that the cookies don’t spread out a ton when baked, it actually slows the “spreading”. The fat content or overall blend in the Pure Blend may have affected the chill time, which is why it worked out better when frozen! Also, I think with baking recipes I’m going to start adding gram measurements because one persons “cup” of flour may be different than another persons “cup” depending on how much flour they allow to be packed into that cup, so the volume can vary, if that makes sense. I’m glad at the end it worked out for you and you were able to improvise! Thank you for the feedback!
Are these supposed to cool 20 minutes on the pan? Or should they be moved to a cooling rack at some point in there?
Either or! A cooling rack will cool faster, but be careful when transferring so they don’t break! 🙂
Hi Christal,
I’m excited to try these cookies, as l have a friend who eats gluten-free and my ginger cookies are made with buckwheat and spelt flours. The one, very simple, difference in that recipe is that when you roll roll them in turbinado or cane sugar, add some cinnamon to the sugar first. It makes them even more flavourful. Enjoy!!
Merry Christmas!
Love that tip! Thanks Mary! Merry Christmas 🙂