Share with all your friends!
Jump to Recipe Print Recipe
Why you should make these chocolate gingerbread cookies!
Now I don’t know about you, but I find adding chocolate always everything that bit better. The flavours of gingerbread are already a winner in their own right in my opinion. However, adding chocolate takes these Chocolate Gingerbread Cookies to a whole new level.
These cookies are a soft gingerbread, so full disclaimer, you aren’t going to get that traditional snap. But what you are going to get is a baked good that is plant based, refined sugar and gluten free whilst still tasting amazing! That’s a winner in my book.
Some other reasons why you should make these cookies:
- Fun to make: adults and children alike will have fun making these. Decorating biscuits with some festive tunes on is one of my favourite Christmas pastimes
- Edible gift: stuck on what to get a loved one this Christmas? These will make a great addition to a cookie box, or standalone in their own right
- Porridge topper: no this is not a mistake, seriously they make a great topping for festive porridge bowls
- Simple to make: the icing takes a little more work, but the biscuits themselves are really easy to make
- The smell: nothing beats the smell of freshly baked gingerbread
Christmas for me is all about unwinding and spending time making all my favourite things in the kitchen. These are no exception and fill the kitchen (and rest of the house, lets be honest) with smells of freshly baked spiced treats.
chocolate gingerbread cookies – Recipe notes
** The recipe uses chocolate porridge mix, but you can use the same weight in standard porridge oats. Just pop them in a blender and mill to a fine flour, add an extra tbsp of raw cacao and another tbsp of maple syrup
** Standard self-raising flour will work in the place of the buckwheat flour, but it obviously won’t make a gluten free cookie
** Wherever possible stick with the raw cacao over other alternatives like cocoa. Most cocoas tend to be processed with added sugars, whereas raw cacao usually is in its purest form, which results in a rich chocolate taste
** Tip for the icing! I found it a lot easier to use piping bottles than using traditional piping bags. I got mine from Amazon and they were from the brand KitchenCraft
chocolate gingerbread cookies – recipe ADAPTIONS
** Any dairy free milk will work. I tend to use either cashew or almond in my bakes, but soya, oat or hazelnut will work well too. Just try to choose ones that are unsweetened and aren’t barista style. The barista style have added oils and stabilisers to get that micro foam we like in our coffees, but we don’t need that in our bakes
** With the maple syrup, it’s worth spending the money on a pure maple syrup product. The cheaper varieties only contain % of the maple and are filled out with other (cheaper) sweeteners
** If you don’t have maple syrup at home, you could swap it out for agave or date syrup
** You are looking for an unflavoured natural yoghurt in this recipe. Anything flavoured will alter the overall taste of the cookies
Details
20 approx
15 minutes + cooling and icing + setting overnight
25 minutes
Print
Ingredients
- Cookie Ingredients
140g Chocolate porridge mix
245g Buckwheat flour
3 tbsp Raw cacao
1.5 tsp Baking powder
135g Dairy free butter
80ml Dairy free milk
50ml Maple syrup
50ml Dairy free yoghurt
4 Balls of stem ginger from a jar, finely chopped
2.5 tsp Ground ginger
2 tsp Ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp Salt
- Royal Icing Ingredients
80g Aquafaba / water from a can of chickpeas
350g Icing sugar
Directions
- Preheat the oven to 180oc and line 2 large baking trays with parchment paper
- In a large bowl add the chocolate porridge mix, buckwheat flour, raw cacao, spices, salt and baking powder. Stir until combined
- Add to the bowl the dairy free butter and rub in with your fingertips until you get a fine breadcrumb consistency
- Next mix through the stem ginger
- Add to the bowl the milk, maple syrup and yoghurt and combine until you get a firm ball. If it is too wet, add a little more buckwheat flour. If it’s too dry, add a splash more milk
- Turn the mixture out onto a floured surface and press / roll out into a rectangle about 5mm thick
- Using the cookie cutters (this recipe uses Christmas tree and star shapes) to cut out your cookies and place onto the lined baking trays. Allow 5 – 10mm spacing between each one
- Once all cut out (you can re roll on a floured surface to use up all the dough), place in the oven for 20 – 25 minutes until firm all the way through and even in colour
- Allow to cool on the tray for a few minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely
- To make the icing, add the aquafaba to a large bowl and whip with a handheld whisk until you get distinct peaks that are glossy. This will take approximately 5 minutes but will depend on the speed / power of your whisk
- Add the icing sugar spoon by spoon, whilst still whisking the mixture until all combined and thick
- Transfer the iced cookies onto a wire rack and allow the icing to dry completely (at least 12 hours, but ideally overnight) before storing in an airtight container at room temperature
I can’t wait to hear what you think of these Chocolate Gingerbread Cookies so please leave a comment below and tag me in your wonderful creations! I’m @fortheutteroffood on Instagram and use the hashtag #theutterloveoffood. I’m also on Facebook – please say hello!
