Thursday, December 24, 2009

Gingerbread Men Veganized

A friend of mine gave me some really cute cookie cutters for gingerbread men for my birthday. I’ve made sugar cookies the last few years and gingerbread years before that, so I was excited for gingerbread men. This base makes a good cookie and allows a good playing ground for decorating the cookies with candy or frosting.


This recipe comes from Joy of Baking and then I veganized it. Veganizing can be so easy! This recipe I simply used vegan margarine instead of butter, switched the white sugar to organic cane sugar and instead of the egg, I used cornstarch and water. Usually only one egg is used for cookie recipes as a binder. Cornstarch and water is a good substitute for this since the starch will work as a binder and the water will replace the liquid from the egg.

Please note, these cookies need 2 hours or overnight to refrigerate in the refrigerator. I forgot and made them late last night and had to wake up early to roll them out and bake them for my co-workers. The funny thing is people keep thinking someone took a bite out of a cookie, until they realize ALL the cookies have a “bite” taken out of them. You can use any cookie cutter for these cookies although gingerbread men are always fun.



Gingerbread Men

3 cups Unbleached White Flour
¼ tsp Sea Salt
¾ tsp Baking Soda
2 tsp Ginger, ground
1 tsp Cinnamon
¼ tsp Nutmeg
¼ tsp Cloves
½ cup Vegan Margarine
½ cup Organic Cane Sugar
1 Tb Cornstarch
3 Tb Water
2/3 cup Molasses

Place the flour, salt, soda and spices in a bowl and whisk to combine. In a separate bowl, cream together the sugar and margarine until smooth. Combine the water and cornstarch in a small bowl and add it to the sugar/margarine mixture along with the molasses and blend until fully incorporated. Slowly add the flour mixture until fully blended. Split the dough in half and wrap in plastic; refrigerate 2 hour or overnight.

After refrigeration, roll out dough on a lightly floured surface to ¼ inch thickness. Use cookie cutters and place on a grease cookie sheet. Bake for 8-10 minutes at 350°F. Decorate as desired. Enjoy!

7 comments:

jess (of Get Sconed!) said...

I like the headless one! No one ever gives him a chance...

Cassidy said...

Shoot! I can't believe I missed out on these. They look delish!

Anonymous said...

Hey :) Loved your blog, and these are the cookies that I've been looking for, without eggs! Anyway, I was wondering, could I replace molasses with some other syrup? Or are molasses thicker than simple syrup? Because I don't think we have molasses here. Would be really grateful if you responded! Thanks!

Chelsea said...

Glad you are enjoying my blog! Molasses is one of the base ingredients for gingerbread men and gives it a distinct flavor along with sweetening. Another syrup will probably work, but you will lose some of the flavor and color by doing so.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for your time! And fortunately, apparently there is a shop here where I could buy molasses yay! Nothing will stop me now :) May your holidays be happy!

Anonymous said...

Hello again..:D Hope you had a great Christmas.. I wanted to ask, do you think I can use whole wheat flour intead in this? Never used it before, so wondering if it may ruin the taste.
Have a nice day ;].

Chelsea said...

Thank for visiting the blog! If you wanted to try using whole wheat flour, I would recommend whole wheat pastry flour since it is lighter in flavor and consistency. You would want to use 1/4 cup less flour and this may change the taste a little. Otherwise, you can use 1/2 whole wheat and 1/2 white flour for a more traditional results, but still some whole grain goodness.