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Festive, simple, and delicious, vegan gingerbread men sandwich cookies. Made with brown sugar, molasses, a few spice powders and a touch of vanilla extract. These Christmas cookies have crisp edges, with chewy soft centers. Sandwich the gingerbread men with a simple, creamy, melt-in-your-mouth vanilla cream cheese frosting. Not only will they fill your home with a warm gingerbread scent, but they’ll also look pretty impressive on your holiday dessert table.
These vegan gingerbread men cookies are…
- super easy to make!
- fun to make with kids.
- packed with warm flavors of ginger.
- made without the use of a piping bag!
Ingredients for vegan gingerbread sandwich cookies…
- Flour: All-purpose flour for the perfect texture. I always prefer to measure the flour using a kitchen scale over a measuring cup as it ensures I don’t use too much flour. If you don’t have a kitchen scale, you can still use a measuring cup, just make sure you fluff the flour before using it. And with a spoon, scoop out the flour and transfer it into the measuring cup.
- Vegan butter: I always prefer to use salted, but unsalted works too! You might want to add an additional pinch of salt to the dry ingredients if using unsalted. Oh, and make sure the butter is at room temperature before using it!
- Sugar: Light brown sugar will gift us with perfect chewy cookies.
- Molasses: Unsulphured molasses. To gift these Christmas cookies with that classic gingerbread flavor.
- Spices: Cinnamon powder, ginger powder, nutmeg powder and a little salt.
- Baking soda: It’ll give these vegan cookies the perfect rise.
- Flaxmeal: AKA ground flaxseeds. When combined with a touch of water it’ll be our egg replacer.
- Vanilla extract: It’ll be used in the cookie dough and of course the vanilla frosting. Be sure to use vanilla extract and not vanilla essence. As essence is NOT vegan!
- Icing sugar: AKA powdered sugar. This will be used for the luscious vanilla frosting.
- Vegan cream cheese: Use your favorite brand for the frosting! It’ll need to be room temperature so make sure you take it out before you bake the cookies!
How to make the chewy gingerbread cookies
Start by making the flax egg. In a small bowl combine the warm water with the flaxmeal. In a large bowl beat the brown sugar with the vegan butter with a hand mixer on medium speed for a few minutes or until it becomes light and fluffy. You can for sure do this step with a wooden spoon, it just may take a little longer. Pour in the molasses, and give it another quick mix. Add the flaxegg and a splash of vanilla extract. Beat together with the hand mixer for 2-3 minutes more. Scraping down the sides of the bowl with a spatula when needed.
In a medium bowl, add all-purpose flour, ground ginger, ground cinnamon, ground nutmeg, salt and baking soda. Give it a quick whisk together. Transfer the dry ingredients to the bowl with the wet ingredients. I like to do this next step with a spatula, but you can continue to use the hand mixer if you prefer. If you use a spatula, just fold the mixture together until combined and there are no streaks of flour visible. If you want to use the hand mixer, simply add the flour mixture to the bowl with the wet ingredients in small amounts, and mix on low speed to prevent the dry ingredients from flying all over you!
Grab a sheet of plastic wrap and transfer the gingerbread cookie dough onto it. Shape the cookie dough into a disk, then tightly wrap and refrigerate overnight or for at least 4 hrs. I prefer to always make the cookie dough ahead of time and then refrigerate it overnight, doing this just makes the process feel more fun and effortless.
Shaping and baking…
The next day, bring the cookie dough out of the fridge 20ish minutes before using. Sprinkle a generous amount of flour onto your clean work surface and onto your rolling pin because the cookie dough can be a little sticky! Roll the dough out into a 1/4-inch thick layer. If at any point you notice the cookie dough sticking to your rolling pin, just sprinkle a tiny bit of flour over the cookie dough. Grab your 3-inch gingerbread cookie cutter, dust it with a little flour, and then create as many gingerbread men as you can! Transfer the cutout gingerbread men onto the prepared baking sheets. Bring the gingerbread cookie dough back together, roll it out, and then cut out more gingerbread men. Repeat until you have no dough left.
Grab half of the gingerbread men, and with a smaller gingerbread cookie cutter, cut out the centers. You can either bring those smaller gingerbread men together to create more larger ones but I personally love how cute the smaller gingerbread men look, so I keep them as is!
Place all the complete gingerbread men onto one of the baking sheets lined with parchment paper. And the ‘doughnut’ aka cut out ones onto another. You’ll need to separate them as the complete ones have a slightly longer bake time. Don’t have two baking sheets? Don’t worry! Just bake the complete ones first, and then the doughnut ones after. The complete ones need to bake for 12-13 minutes. Allow them to cool on the baking tray for 5 minutes, and then transfer them onto a wire rack. The cutout ones need to bake for 10-11 minutes. And just like the complete ones, you’ll need to allow them to cool on the baking tray for 5 minutes. Oh, and if you have any of those cute small gingerbread men, they’ll only need around 6-7 minutes to bake! All the cookies need to be cooled completely before moving on to the next step, but don’t worry it only takes 30ish minutes!
The vanilla frosting…
While they cool, make the vanilla cream cheese frosting. In a small-medium mixing bowl beat the room-temperature vegan salted butter and vegan cream cheese together. Add a little of the icing sugar to the mixture and beat until completely combined. Repeat until you have no icing sugar left, and thick, creamy icing. Mix in a touch of vanilla extract, and a pinch of ground cinnamon.
Grab the complete gingerbread men cookies, spread the vanilla frosting over them, and then sandwich the cutout gingerbread men over the frosting. And just like that – you have simple gingerbread men cookies that didn’t require a piping bag to decorate! I’m not the best at piping with a bag of buttercream so you can see why this is my favorite cookie to make for the holiday season! It’s a great recipe that can be made by anyone!
Keep any remaining cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for 2-3 days, or refrigerated for up to 5 days.
Once you try this vegan gingerbread men sandwich cookies recipe, please leave a star rating and review below! I try my best to respond to you all. Oh, and don’t forget to tag me on Instagram – I can’t wait to see your images!!
More vegan Christmas cookies you’ll love
- Dark Chocolate Pecan Cookies
- Soft Snickerdoodles
- Double Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Double Chocolate Crinkle Cookies
- Vanillekipferl (German Vanilla Crescent Cookies)
- Gooey Skillet Cookie
Ingredients
Cookies
- 2 tsp flaxmeal
- 3 tsp hot water
- 73 g salted vegan butter (softened )
- 75 g light brown sugar
- 100 g molasses
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 220 g plain flour
- 1/2 tbsp ground ginger
- 1/2 tbsp ground cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/8 tsp salt
Frosting
- 180–200 g icing sugar
- 37 g vegan butter (softened )
- 52 g vegan cream cheese
- 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
- pinch of ground cinnamon
Instructions
- Gingerbread dough: For the flaxegg, simply combine flaxmeal and hot water in a small bowl. In a large bowl, with a handheld mixer, beat brown sugar and vegan butter together for 2 minutes or until soft and fluffy. Pour in the molasses, and mix to combine. Add vanilla extract and flaxegg and beat for a further 1-2 minutes. In another bowl whisk together the all-purpose flour, ground cinnamon, ground nutmeg, ground ginger, salt and baking soda. Transfer dry into the wet, and with a spatula, fold until combined. Place gingerbread cookie dough onto a sheet of plastic wrap. Tightly wrap, and refrigerate overnight or for at least 4 hrs.
- Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F. Line the baking sheet with parchment paper. Take your dough out of the fridge for around 20 minutes before you roll it out.
- Shaping: Dust the workspace with a generous amount of all-purpose flour, pop your cookie dough on top and using a floured rolling pin, roll it until 1/4 inch thick. Using a 2-inch gingerbread man cookie cutter, cut out as many cookies as you can. Then bring the dough back together, roll and cut with the cookie cutters again. Repeat until you have no dough left. Using the smaller, 1-inch cookie cutter, cut out the centers of half of the full gingerbread men. I like to keep the mini gingerbread men as is, but you can bring them together to make a couple more full-size gingerbread men!
- Baking: Place all the complete gingerbread onto the same baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Keeping a 2-inch distance. Bake for 12-13 minutes. Allow cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes, then transfer them onto a wire rack to cool. Place all the cutout gingerbread men onto the baking sheet, keeping a 2-inch distance. Bake for 10-11 minutes. Allow to cool for 5 minutes on the baking sheet, then transfer to the wire rack. If you have the mini gingerbread men, place them onto the baking sheet and bake for 6-7 minutes. Allow to cool on the baking sheet just like the other cookies, then transfer to a wire rack.
- Frosting: To make the frosting, beat vegan butter with vegan cream cheese and vanilla extract, then add in the icing sugar and ground cinnamon. Mix together until smooth. Spread on the cooled, complete gingerbread men cookies, then sandwich a cutout cookie on top. Enjoy!
Nutrition
- Calories: 238
