#gingerbreads

[ID: a photo of my hand holding a plate of small, 1 inch gingerbread cookies that have been decorated with icing. They are in the shape of gingerbread people, hearts, snowmen, angels, unicorns, and cacti. End ID.]

This recipe is an alteration of one from a very 90s cookbook I own called Treasury of Holiday Recipes. It makes excellent non-gluten-free gingerbreads, so if you want regular gingerbread cookies, just sub the flours for regular wheat flour. Similarly, this uses coconut sugar in lieu of brown sugar to make it slightly refined sugar reduced - if you don’t want it refined sugar reduced, use brown sugar.

As a note - these make somewhat crisp gingerbread cutouts! If you're looking for a soft gluten free version, you can either try reducing the cooking time, or try this recipe - I've made it a few times and it makes very soft cookies. I'm not as fond of the texture, which is why I tried altering this recipe instead. It worked pretty well!

Correction: after sitting for a bit, they soften beautifully. I think mine were a bit crisper for the first day, but after that they have a lovely soft texture.

Making the cookies

Dry ingredients

1+3/4 cups gluten free flour blend (with xantham gum)

1/2 cup oat flour *see notes

2 tsp ground cinnamon

2 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp ground cloves

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

Wet ingredients

3/4 cup butter or baking margerine, softened

1/2 cup coconut sugar (or packed light brown sugar)

1/2 cup dark molasses

1 egg

Put all dry ingredients in a large bowl, stir to combine.

In a separate bowl, cream softened butter* and coconut sugar (beat by hand or with an electric mixer until light and fluffy). Beat in the molasses and egg. Gradually add the flour mixture, beating until well blended.

Form the dough into three discs, wrapping each disk in plastic wrap. Refridgerate until firm (a few hours, or less time in the freezer - you want it quite firm).

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Working with one disc of dough at a time, unwrap it and place it on a lightly floured surface for rolling. Roll out dough with a lightly floured rolling pin to about 1/4 inch thickness (or less or more, depending on how thick you want them). Note: this gluten-free version makes a very sticky dough. Try not to add too much flour to the dough with rolling, as it will chance the consistency of the cookies.

Cut out gingerbread people (or unicorns, or cacti, or whatever your little heart desires) with floured cookie cutters. I use mainly 1" cookie cutters, for extremely tiny gingerbread people, but it works well with bigger cookies too.

Gently press the dough trimmings together; re-roll and cut out more cookies. Repeat rolling etc with all of the dough discs.

Place cutouts on an ungreased cookie sheet as you cut them out. Once a cookie sheet is filled, bake them. Bake until the edges are golden brown - about 5-7 minutes for 1" cookies, about 10-12 minutes for regular sized cookies. Let cookies stand for 1 minute on cookie sheets, then remove and place on wire cooling racks. Cool completely.

Icing

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar (for refined sugar free, substitute with powdered monk fruit sweetener)

2 tbsp milk plus additional if needed

1/2 tsp vanilla

food dye as desired

Place all all ingredients but food dye in a powdered bowl; stir with a spoon until thick, but spreadable. Add additional milk if it's too thick. Add additional powdered sugar if it's too thin.

If you want to dye the icing, separate into bowls, and dye each one. Food dye paste gives a more vibrant colour.

To ice the cookies

Spoon your icing into small ziploc bags (or other bags that have a corner). Cut off tiny corner of one end of bag (very small, it's easy to cut bigger but a pain to have to start with a new bag). Pipe icing decoratively onto cooled cookies. You can also press candies into the icing if you want!

Let stand at room temperature 20 minutes or so, until the icing sets.

Store cookies in a tightly covered container at room temperature, or freeze up to 3 months.

Some notes

Make sure all your ingredients are gluten free!

If you don't have oat flour, you can definitely try making this with just gluten free 1:1 flour. I find that oat flour softens gluten free baked goods, and often replace part of the flour with it. You can also try changing the ratios, this is the first time I've made these and I haven't mucked around with the gluten free flour: oat flour ratio.

It is possible to make your own gluten free oat flour if you can't find any gluten free stuff, I just don't know how. Google is your friend!

You could try and make these dairy free with vegan butter and a milk replacement for the icing - I have not idea how well it would work, but good luck!

Have fun and good luck!

[ID: a photo of a small espresso sized mug of hot chocolate with a tiny whisk and four tiny gingerbread cookies sitting on a plaid cloth in front of a windowsill. End ID.]

I know the colours are pretty bright but it's all we have.

Yes, I've made Kondraki on 682 from man on reindeer.

Yes that thing on heart supposed to be Bright's amulet.

Also Ruin from Darksiders made on a Camel lol

Happy Christmas you all