The other day we had friends over and made tons of gluten free gingerbread men cookies. So many little hands rolling and cutting out dough. We decorated our gingerbread men with dried fruit and nuts. The kids even cut loose and made free form cookie shapes as well.
Gingerbread Men Cookies
Ingredients
- 5 cups blanched almond flour (not almond meal)
- 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
- 1 tablespoon ground ginger
- ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
- ½ teaspoon celtic sea salt
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ cup grapeseed oil or palm shortening
- ½ cup agave nectar or honey
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- ½ cup yacon syrup
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon lemon zest
Instructions
- In a large bowl, combine almond flour, cinnamon, ginger powder, cloves, salt and baking soda
- In a small bowl, mix together grapeseed oil, agave, vanilla, yacon, eggs and lemon zest
- Stir wet ingredients into dry
- Chill dough in freezer for 1-2 hours
- Roll out dough between two pieces of parchment paper to ½ inch thick
- To make dough even easier to handle sprinkle with almond flour
- Remove top sheet of parchment paper, cut out cookies using a medium ginger bread man cookie cutter
- Decorate with nuts and dried fruit-- we used pieces of lemon rind for the mouth
- Transfer with a spatula to a parchment paper lined baking sheet
- Cook at 350°F for 12-15 minutes
- Cool and serve
Prep Time 10 minutes
Freeze Time 1 hour
Cook Time 12 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 22 minutes
Tried this recipe?Mention @elanaspantry or tag #elanaspantry!
I have been working on this gluten free, dairy free gingerbread recipe for years. At last, I find myself sufficiently satisfied with the recipe and offer it to you for some Christmas cookie baking fun.
Melissa says
Thank you Elana for publishing your recipes on your website. Thank you for having my back on simple delicious recipes that don’t add a bunch of fancy stuff I can’t even eat. I’m really excited to try these as I know your recipes are fool proof.
Elana says
Melissa, thank you for one of the kindest, most thoughtful comments I’ve ever received!
AVIELLA says
Hi this is Aviella and i love cooking i was wondering if for the gingerbread men if i could use cashew flour instead of almond flour
Elana says
Aviella, I haven’t tried that so not sure :-)
Anushka says
What can yacon syrup Bert replaced with?
Elana says
Anushka, I haven’t tried that so not sure :-)
Eloise says
Can it be replaced with maple syrup?
Elana says
Eloise, I haven’t tried that so not sure. If you do experiment please let us know how it goes!
Carrie says
I replaced with maple syrup and they turned out wonderfully!
Elana says
Thanks Carrie!
Sheryl says
These cookies were absolutely delicious! Although, they did come out more like a very soft, fragile bread-like cookie. I did use the recommended brand of almond flour and followed the recipe exactly, and the dough was very soft and sticky. I live in Hawaii, so maybe the humidity had an effect. Nevertheless, these were great! Mahalo!
Elana says
Sheryl, thanks for your comment. If the cookies are soft you can put them in the oven with the light on for a few hours to crisp them up. Here’s a link to a cookie recipe of mine that is very crispy that I think you’ll like:
https://elanaspantry.com/crispy-chocolate-chip-cookies/
Enjoy!
Elana
Sarah Holloway says
Can you use yacon powder instead of yacon syrup?
Thanks
Elana says
Sarah, I’m guessing it won’t work due to removing a main source of liquid in the recipe.
Roxanne R Stage says
Hello Elana! Thank you for all your wonderful recipes! I’m wondering if I can substitute Einkorn flour for the Blanched Almond Flour? I’m trying to incorporate it into more recipes.
Elana says
Hi Roxanne, I haven’t cooked with wheat or gluten since 1998, so probably not the best one to give advice on that :-)
Jennifer says
Dear Elana. Yesterday I carefully followed your recipe for gingerbread boys. I used recommended ingredients (Honeyville almond flour and yacon syrup). The dough was very soft, sticky and moist. The dough could not be cut by a cookie cutter. What do you recommend? My daughter said not to add more almond flour because that will contribute to oiliness of dough. Is there another GF flour that can be used to stiffen the dough? Sincerely. Jennifer
Elana says
Hi Jennifer, I’ve had this happen every now and then as well when I make this recipe. I simply sprinkle almond flour on the dough until it is easy to handle. Hope you enjoy these adorable cookies!
maria says
I have diabetes and celiac. I made your recipe blood sugar friendly by subbing the honey and yacon : instead used 1 1/4cup Swerve and 1/4 cup water for those. Hope that helps someone! (Swerve is just erythritol… easier on the tummy than other sugar alcohols and zero carbs affecting blood sugar!)
Elana says
Thanks Maria!
Katie M says
This recipe sounds great; do you have any suggestions for adapting it to just be a gingerbread loaf/cake?
Elana says
Katie, I’m working on something like that :-)