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AIP Gingerbread Cookies are a classic recipe and easy! These simply perfect holiday cookies are so much fun to make and delicious to eat! Egg-free, nut-free, Paleo and Gluten-free.
This recipe is made in part with tiger nut flour. You’ll have two options, described below: Make soft, chewy round cookies OR cut-out shapes!
If you make the cut-out shapes, you may also use the recipe to make a Gingerbread House. My son and I did this last year, and it turned out great!!
Ingredients in AIP Gingerbread Cookies
The dry ingredients in AIP Gingerbread Cookies are tiger nut flour, cassava flour, coconut sugar, gelatin, AIP spices (see below*), baking soda and sea salt. Plus, optionally, arrowroot.
There are two options when making this recipe:
- Arrowroot is added to the cookie dough if you’re making shaped, cut-out cookies — like gingerbread men! (or a house!)
- Omit the arrowroot if you’re making soft, tender, chewy, traditional, round cookies.
You choose! Both are SO good! My family loves, loves this recipe, both ways! So make a batch of each, or make your preferred recipe — super easy to include or exclude the arrowroot.
The remaining wet ingredients in AIP Gingerbread Cookies are avocado or olive oil, maple syrup and molasses.
*Lastly, the ginger! You can choose between using fresh ginger root, finely grated, or dried ginger, which is a little more convenient for some of you. Both are great. The recipe also uses a little cinnamon.
How to make AIP Gingerbread Cookies
This simple recipe is just: stir together the dry ingredients, add the wet ingredients!
If you’re making the drop cookies, you’ll just place mounds of cookie dough on the prepared cookie sheet and bake — couldn’t be easier or simpler!
For shaped, cut-out cookies: Sprinkle arrowroot powder (additional after what’s used in the recipe) on your work space. Place the mound of dough down and press it flat with your fingers and hands. Top with another sprinkling of arrowroot, then roll to about 1/4″ thickness.
AIP Gingerbread Cookie dough is not finicky! You can roll it out a little thicker or thinner, use a little less or more arrowroot when rolling out, and they’ll still turn out great!
I LOVE that this recipe behaves so well, because it means that you can stay relaxed and jolly the whole time you’re making cookies — no worries, just restful holiday fun!
Once the dough is rolled out, simply use cookie cutters, and transfer shapes to your prepared cookie sheet.
See the process photos below in the Recipe itself, too, for a little added aid in what it looks like to make the cookies.
Tips when making AIP Gingerbread Cookies
If you’re making the shaped cookies, here are a few tips:
- Use a toothpick, chopstick tip or straw to gently remove the dough from the cookie cutters.
- The toothpick and straw can also be used to create circles or dashes on the cookies before baking — to decorate rustically if you do or don’t want to ice the cookies.
- Use AIP Buttercream and a small pastry tip to decorate cooled cookies. Or, you can make homemade powdered sugar icing from coconut sugar, HERE.
- If the dough is whitened by extra arrowroot powder before baking, don’t fret. It looks pretty cool when baked, like powdered sugar.
- After you’ve cut out as many shapes as you can with the rolled out dough: You’ll have scraps! Just roll these between the palms of your hands. Flatten the balls slightly, and place on cookie sheet. They make great cookies! You’ll never know they were the scraps.
To make the Gingerbread House
See the Notes section directly below the recipe for photos of our Gingerbread House.
Use all the dough to create the cut out pieces. I don’t have formal dimensions for the house pieces, but here’s a photo of the shapes we used last year, to give you an idea.
If you’d like to have a template, use a cardboard box to cut out the shapes first.
Or, we just winged it, and ours turned out well.
AIP Gingerbread Cookies (Paleo, GF)
Equipment
- cookie sheet
- mixing bowl
- oven
Ingredients
- 1 cup tiger nut flour Break up any large clumps.
- ¼ cup avocado oil or olive oil
- ¼ cup maple syrup
- 3 Tablespoons coconut oil , melted and then cooled
- 2 Tablespoons cassava flour Otto's or Bob's; do not use other brands, as they are too starchy
- 2 Tablespoons coconut sugar
- 1 Tablespoon molasses
- 2 teaspoons gelatin
- 1 teaspoon baking soda sifted
- 1 teaspoon ginger dried OR 2 Tablespoons freshly grated ginger root
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon sea salt
- ½ cup + 3 Tablespoons arrowroot powder optional, use for shaped cookies; divided (do not combine the ½ cup and 3 T.)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, stir together dry ingredients (only use the ½ cup arrowroot if making shaped, cut-out cookies. Omit the arrowroot completely if you're making simple flat round cookies.)
- In 2-cup glass measuring cup or small bowl, combine wet ingredients. Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients. Combine. (If you included arrowroot, it will be easier to combine by using an electric mixer.)
- If you're making shaped, cut-out cookies, sprinkle 2 Tablespoons arrowroot on a work surface. Top with finished cookie dough. Use your hands to flatten and spread out the dough. Sprinkle with remaining arrowroot and roll out to about 1/4" thickness. (You don't need to be finicky or worried about doing any of this perfectly. The dough is easy to work with.)
- Cut out shapes and transfer them to your prepared cookie sheet, leaving about 1" between dough edges.If you're not making shaped, cut-out cookies. Simply scoop batter into mounds on prepared cookie sheet. Space dough apart by about 2".
- Bake 10 to 12 minutes, until puffed all over and set looking, especially around the edges.
- Cool completely on rack. Then decorate if desired.
Notes
To make a Gingerbread House
Here are the two photos I took last year when we made a Gingerbread House with this recipe. My 11-year-old son made the house, and I just let him have fun, so it's not a fancy photo, but I hope it helps you if you decide to go this route with the recipe. And he used the AIP Buttercream Frosting to hold the house together.
Jean Choi says
SO fun and cute!! I cannot wait to make these soon.
Megan says
Great, Jean. Thank you! 🙂
tina says
Interesting! Starting to hear a lot about Tiger Nuts Flour, this recipe looks like the perfect one to try it out!
Megan says
Hi Tina, yes, this is a great recipe to start with if you’re new to tiger nut flour! 🙂 Gingerbread Cookies taste just like the real thing, and the dough is easy to work with. Hope you love them!
ChihYu says
There’s nothing better than a delicious gingerbread cookie – these are perfect! So fun for the holidays!
raia says
These are perfect for the holidays! What a wonderful option for people with food intolerances. 🙂 Thank you!
jennifer says
These look absolutely amazing, I love the option to use fresh ginger in there. One of my biggest holiday look-forward-to’s is anything gingerbread — totally trying your recipe this weekend, thanks!
Donny says
So cute! Those spices with molasses make the best cookie!
Sarabeth Matilsky says
We made these today, and our atheist Jewish catholic family found them truly perfect!! Crispy outside and chewy inside and decadent and exactly the right flavor. We could have eaten them all at once…and the little ones had a blast using the stiffer version like play dough to make shaped cookies that held together very well.
Cheryl Maddox says
I like these better than a regular gingerbread cookies.. I shared my cookies with my daughter and her family. They couldn’t believe these were a “healthy” cookie. Will be making these cookies again!
Megan says
Yay, Cheryl! That blesses my morning. Thanks so much for sharing, and I’m so glad!
S says
How about making them keto with almond and/or coconut flour and using monk fruit for sweetening?
Megan says
Hi S, I love this idea, but I’m not sure it would be best to base the Keto recipe off of this one… rather, better to create a fresh recipe. The reason is, not all of the flours will sub perfectly for one another. Almond flour would sub fine for the tiger nut, but then I’d need to figure out the best subs for the starchy flours, and coconut flour wouldn’t work well for that. Sorry!
Tracey E says
These sound delicious! Is there any substitute for the molasses?
Megan says
Hi Tracey, thanks! You might be able to omit it, or sub maple syrup for it.
Kass says
These tasted fine, but definitely did not come out as pictured, despite following the instructions exactly. I’ve made them twice now to test, and both times they baked quite thin and crispy. And yes, I used the exact brand of everything that you recommend, so that’s not it. I think this is probably a measuring issue. If you added weight measurements, it would be much easier to troubleshoot issues like this (and there wouldn’t be as many).
Megan says
Thanks, Kass, for your feedback, and I’m sorry you weren’t as happy with the recipe as you would have liked. I’m glad they tasted fine for you, and I may be able to add weights for the future. Best wishes!
John says
Hi Megan,
I love your berry breakfast cookies! I make them all the time. They are amazing. Now I’ve been trying a couple other of your recipes. For this one in particular, I didn’t use Arrowroot as I just wanted to do cookies, I didn’t use the coconut sugar or molasses. Instead, I used stevia powder. For some reason, the cookies just crumbled after. They did not hold so not sure if I should be adding more coconut oil? or perhaps add the arrowroot? Everything else was included as per your measurements. Any feedback would be appreciated. 🙂
thanks,
John
Megan says
Hi John, thanks for your comments. I’m so glad you love the berry breakfast cookies! 🙂 So, I can’t recommend you make ANY changes to AIP recipes. Sorry, but they are recipe tested carefully, and any subs that I don’t include myself in the recipe as acceptable are not a good idea. I would make the cookies exactly as written, fine without the arrowroot, and I know you’ll have perfect success. This dough is really nice, not finicky and easy to work with. So, no stevia powder. Thanks for understanding!! Egg-free baking is exact.
Reams says
Hi do you add the gelatin into the dry or soak it in water first?
Megan says
Hi Reams, you stir in dry gelatin powder (granulated) with the dry ingredients. Hope that helps!