Chewy Vegan Ginger Cookies
Filled with ginger and cinnamon, these vegan ginger cookies are perfect any time of year! Easy to make with simple ingredients, you’ll love them.
Sugar, spice, and just about everything nice! These vegan ginger cookies are delicious all year long, but they make for an especially perfect holiday cookie.
Kind of a mix between gingerbread cookies and vegan molasses cookies, these are big and chewy vegan ginger cookies. They have soft centers, crackly edges, and are super chewy! But if you like yours with a little more snap, just bake them for 2 minutes longer!
I start making these in the fall when I’m craving a warming spice filled cookie. These are a family favorite all holiday season long. I hope you love them just as much!
For more ginger goodness, make sure to check out my vegan chocolate gingerbread cake!
Free from: Dairy, casein, eggs, soy, peanuts, tree nuts, coconut, fish, shellfish, crustaceans, mollusks, celery, corn, sesame, mustard, lupin, sulfites, and more
Why You’ll Love these Vegan Ginger Cookies
- Chewy, sweet, filled with warm spices, and covered in sugar crystals
- Easy to mix up
- A family favorite holiday cookie I know you’ll love!
- Free from common allergens so that everyone can safely enjoy! No flax egg required, this cookie is egg free naturally!
Ingredients
What’s awesome about these delicious cookies is that it only takes 9 simple ingredients to make a batch of them! And the ingredients are ones you can find at your local grocery store. Here is what you’ll need:
- Ginger + Cinnamon – You can’t have ginger cookies without ginger! I use a powdered ginger root because that is always what I have in my pantry. For cinnamon, I am partial to Saigon Cinnamon for its more intense flavor.
- Vegan Butter – Any kind of plant-based butter is great in this recipe. Make sure you stick with one that is in stick form, as the tub butter has a different fat:water ratio and won’t bake as evenly.
- Molasses – Avoid blackstrap molasses as the flavor is too overpowering. I like to use Grandma’s Molasses for the best flavor. Wholesome also makes a great (though stronger) molasses. This is an essential ingredient for these cookies so you can’t swap it for something else.
- White Sugar – This is for rolling the cookie dough in before baking for that perfect crunchy sugar coating. Use white sugar, cane sugar, or turbinado sugar for the perfect crisp.
- Other ingredients you’ll need: Brown sugar, vanilla, all-purpose flour, baking soda, salt
Allergy Substitutions
To make these corn free, make sure that your vanilla extract is corn free. Singing Dog Vanilla makes a great allergy friendly extract!
Instructions
For the full instructions, complete with recipe amounts and measurements, please see the recipe card below!
In a small bowl, sift together the dry ingredients: All-purpose flour, baking soda, salt, ginger, and cinnamon. Set this aside while you mix up the wet ingredients.
In a large mixing bowl with a hand mixer, or a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, cream the vegan butter, brown sugar, and molasses. Scrape down the sides of the bowl a few times. Mix this up on medium speed for about 4 minutes to get the butter and sugar really fluffy!
Tip! Use room temperature vegan butter for best results!
Now add the vanilla extract and mix for another 15 seconds.
Finally, add the dry ingredients to the wet. Mix on low speed until the dough comes together.
Using a 2 tablespoon sized cookie scoop, roll cookie dough into balls and in white sugar. Place on a cookie tray and let chill for at least 30 minutes.
While the cookies are chilling, prep 3 baking trays with parchment paper or a silicone non-stick baking mat.
Baking the Cookies
Preheat the oven to 350F.
Place 6 to 8 cookies on a baking tray and gently press them into a flat disc shape with the back of a measuring cup. Don’t squish them totally, just a bit!
Bake for 11 to 13 minutes. The cookies will be done even if they look a little wet. Let them cool for 10 minutes on the hot tray before placing on a wire rack to finish cooling before enjoying.
Tip! The cookies will puff up as they bake, but when you remove them from the oven, they lay down and that is where all the crinkles and cracks on top come from! To give them even more crinkles, you can tap the hot cookie tray on the counter once or twice.
FAQ
Yes, you can make them gluten free. Replace the all purpose flour with an equal amount of a good quality gluten free blend. I recommend King Arthur Flour Measure for Measure. While I personally have not made this recipe gluten free, it should work based on my experience.
How to Store
Store baked cookies in a sealed container on the countertop for up to 5 days. Baked cookies can be frozen after chilling and stored in an airtight container. They can keep frozen for up to 3 months. Allow them to thaw before serving after freezing.
Cookie dough can be made up through rolling in sugar. Let the cookies freeze and keep frozen in an airtight and freezer safe container for up to 1 month. Allow cookies to thaw in the fridge before baking from frozen.
Top Tips
Use dark, robust molasses in place of blackstrap molasses. Blackstrap can sometimes have too powerful of a flavor and you won’t taste the ginger and cinnamon. Grandma’s and Wholesome both make delicious molasses.
Use a big 2 tablespoon cookie scoop for these perfect sized cookies. These cookies can be made with a tablespoon cookie scoop for smaller cookies, but I personally prefer a larger cookie. If you don’t have a scoop, you can roll them out by hand into 2-inch balls and then roll in sugar and bake as directed.
Use the scoop and level method for measuring the flour. Don’t just scoop the measuring cup into the flour bag. Using a spoon to fill the cup and then level it off will provide you with a more accurate measurement.
More Vegan Cookies to Love
Equipment
- measuring cups
- measuring spoons
- mixing bowls
- mixing spoons
- hand mixer or stand mixer
- baking trays
- parchment paper
Ingredients
- ½ cup vegan butter
- ¾ cup brown sugar
- ¼ cup molasses
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 1 ½ cups all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 ½ teaspoons ginger
- 1 ½ teaspoons cinnamon
- 1 cup white sugar for rolling cookies
Instructions
- In a medium sized bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, salt, ginger, and cinnamon. Set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl with a hand mixer, or in a stand mixer, cream together the vegan butter, brown sugar, and molasses. Mix this on medium-high speed for 3 to 5 minutes, or until it is fluffy.
- Scrape down the sides of the bowl with the vegan butter and sugar. Add the vanilla extract and mix for a few seconds. Now add the flour mixture and mix on low speed until everything is combined. You may need to add a spoonful of water to help combine the dough if you live in a more dry climate.
- Scoop with a 2 tablespoon sized scoop and roll each cookie dough ball in the white sugar.
- Chill cookie dough for at least 30 minutes, but up to 60 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 350° F and line 3 baking trays with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.
- Place 6 to 8 cookies on a baking tray and gently press each cookie with something flat, like the back of a measuring cup.
- Bake cookies for 11 to 13 minutes. Cookies will have a soft center when done.
- Allow them to cool totally on the baking tray before removing.
Notes
- How to Store
- Store baked cookies in a sealed container on the countertop for up to 5 days. Baked cookies can be frozen after chilling and stored in an airtight container. They can keep frozen for up to 3 months. Allow them to thaw before serving after freezing.
- Cookie dough can be made up through rolling in sugar. Let the cookies freeze and keep frozen in an airtight and freezer safe container for up to 1 month. Allow cookies to thaw in the fridge before baking from frozen.
- LivingBeyondAllergies.com
The nutritional information on this website is only an estimate and is provided for convenience and as a courtesy only. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed.
