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Festive gingerbread cookies decorated with vegan icing, served on a holiday-themed plate alongside two cups of hot cocoa, surrounded by warm fairy lights and Christmas ornaments.

Gingerbread cookies are so wonderfully spicy and crispy! They taste absolutely delicious and are a classic treat during the Christmas season. With the warm flavors of ginger, cinnamon, and nutmeg, these cookies will fill your kitchen with the coziest smell.

During Christmastime, it’s always fun to decorate the cookies, too. For us, it’s a tradition with the grandparents and kids. I’ve used a vegan icing flavored with ginger powder for these cookies, which was fantastic. However, they are just as tasty without icing – plus, the cookies are ready much faster. Making them perfect to enjoy all year round.

Get your cookie cutters ready, and let’s bake some gingerbread cookies. That are just as fun to make as they are to eat!

Ingredients for making Gingerbread Cookies:

On a light background with festive gold star motifs, there are many bowls of ingredients for the gingerbread cookies. They contain corn starch, coconut sugar, flour, ground almonds, sugar-root molasses, and spices such as ground ginger and ground nutmeg. In the center is a wooden plate with pieces of coconut fat. On three spoons are cinnamon, salt and baking powder. In the foreground is a ginger root. All around is a string of lights and a few small Christmas tree baubles are scattered around.

Flour
Corn starch
Ground almonds
Coconut fat
Water
Coconut sugar
Sugar beet molasses
Ground ginger
Ground nutmeg
Ground Ceylon cinnamon
Salt
Baking powder

Optional decoration:

Ginger powder
Powdered sugar
Aquafaba (chickpea water)
Baking powder

Equipment needed:

Cookie cutters
Mixer (for the icing with aquafaba)

How to make Gingerbread Cookies:

A hand add blocks of coconut fat into a stainless steel bowl. A string of lights shines in the background, and a few small Christmas tree baubles are scattered about. The light background has a festive gold star motif.

A hand adds sugar root molasses to the coconut fat, into a stainless steel bowl. A string of lights shines in the background, and a few small Christmas tree baubles are scattered about. The light background has a festive gold star motif.

First, melt the coconut fat, then add the water, sugar beet molasses, and coconut sugar in a bowl. Stir with the help of a spoon.

A hand adds ginger powder from a metal bowl to the stainless steel bowl. A string of lights shines in the background, and a few small Christmas tree baubles are scattered about. The light background has a festive gold star motif.

A hand adds ground nutmeg from a glass bowl to the stainless steel bowl. A string of lights shines in the background, and a few small Christmas tree baubles are scattered about. The light background has a festive gold star motif.

Then we can mix all the spices: ginger powder, ground nutmeg, cinnamon, and salt.

Hand add ground almonds from a metal bowl to the stainless steel bowl. A string of lights shines in the background, and a few small Christmas tree baubles are scattered about. The light background has a festive gold star motif.

A hand adds starch to the mixture in the stainless steel bowl. A string of lights shines in the background, and a few small Christmas tree baubles are scattered about. The light background has a festive gold star motif.

Next, follow with the ground almonds, corn starch, flour, and baking powder. Have a piece of plastic wrap ready to wrap the dough in. Now, mix the baking powder into the flour and starch with your fingers. Start kneading by hand until we have a nice brown dough.

A hand kneads the gingerbread cookie dough in a stainless steel bowl.

Two hands knead the gingerbread cookie dough over a stainless steel bowl. A string of lights shines in the background and a few small Christmas tree baubles are scattered around. The light background has a festive golden star motif.

Knead, knead, knead until you feel that all the ingredients have combined well. Then form a ball of dough and wrap it in the plastic wrap. Leave it to rest in the fridge for at least half an hour.

Roll out the dough with a rolling pin between baking paper. A string of lights glows in the background.

The gingerbread dough is rolled out and placed on baking paper. One hand holds a heart-shaped cookie cutter and cuts hearts into the dough. There are two other cookie cutters in the background.

It’s time to preheat the oven to 170°C/330°F.

Now, we take the chilled dough from the fridge. Start by rolling out the dough to a thickness of about 3 mm/0.12 inch. The thinner the dough, the crispier the cookie, choose how you prefer it. Rolling out with a rolling pin is best done between two sheets of baking paper- the dough is quite sticky!

At last, you can use the cookie cutters to your heart’s content! I used a large knife to transfer the cookies one by one to the baking sheet.
Keep kneading the left dough and rolling it out until all the dough has been cut into shapes.
Finally, the first tray can go into the oven for 10 minutes at the 170°C/330°F setting. Enjoy the delicious smell that fills your kitchen – it’s at least as nice as nibbling your first baked gingerbread cookie!

Decorate with Vegan Icing:

First of all, I want to emphasize that the cookies taste just as good without frosting. And they are healthier because they contain less sugar…

A close look to the gingerbread cookies ready baked, all on baking paper.

But since I want to have them as part of our cookie plates for Christmas (together with our delicious vanillekipferl). I wanted to decorate them for the festive purpose!

We start making the icing by whisking the aquafaba in a saucepan. The pot must be absolutely free of any residual fat or oil, otherwise the aquafaba cannot foam when whipping it. Add the baking powder to the aquafaba and whisk with a mixer until whipped, which takes longer than egg whites! Don’t be discouraged – keep going! After a few minutes, the mixture will be white and very fluffy. Add the powdered sugar and ginger powder through a sieve to avoid lumps. Mix carefully with a spoon – done.

The gingerbread cookies are ready to be decorated, all on baking paper, and a sauce bottle with a plastic piping nozzle for icing stands in front of them. There is a string of lights around it and a few small Christmas tree baubles scattered about.

The icing is in a sauce bottle with a plastic piping nozzle. Gingerbread cookies are being decorated on baking paper.

I poured the icing into a sauce bottle with a plastic piping nozzle. It was great for decorating the cookies. However, I have to admit I took my time decorating. If you don’t have that much time, go with a simple design. Once you have iced the cookies, let them dry completely before storing them.

Storage:

To keep your gingerbread cookies crisp, store them in an airtight container at room temperature. I put baking paper between the cookie tiers. Make sure the cookies are completely cooled before placing them in the container to prevent moisture from making them soft.

The gingerbread cookies are ready decorated, the icing still has to dry.

I hope you enjoyed this vegan gingerbread cookie recipe. Let me know what you think in the comments below!

Gingerbread Cookies

Ingredients for making Gingerbread Cookies:

How to make Gingerbread Cookies:

Decorate with Vegan Icing:

Storage:

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