Vegan Gingersnap Cookie Recipe (2024)

These Vegan Gingersnap Cookies are the most delicious thin, large and chewy gingerbread cookies packed with ginger and molasse flavors.

They are a must-have for your Christmas cookie platter, and they are sure to impress everyone with their lovely crackled look.

Table of contents

If you love our fun and crunchy vegan gingerbread cookies, you’ll love these vegan ginger molasse cookies.

The chewy texture and sweet sugar on top of the cookies make these irresistible.

What Are Gingersnap Cookies?

Gingersnap cookies are a mix between gingerbread cookies and snickerdoodle cookies.

They are soft and chewy, like snickerdoodle but have the strong ginger molasses flavor we love in gingerbread.

Are All Gingersnap Cookies Vegan?

No, classic gingersnap cookies contain egg and butter. They are therefore not vegan.

Ingredients and Substitutions

Let’s see all the ingredients you need to make gingersnap cookies.

• Flax Meal – This is used to make a flax egg in combination with lukewarm water listed just below. You can also use chia seed meal if you don’t have flax meal at home.
• Lukewarm Water – to make the flax egg.
• All-Purpose Flour – or oat flour.
• Unsalted Vegan Butter softened at room temperature or unsalted margarine
• Light Unsulphured Molasse –This makes the cookies crusty on top and softer. I used blackstrap molasse, as seen in the picture below, only because it’s what I had at home, and we love its bitter flavor in gingerbread cookies.
• Granulated Sugar, like white sugar or unrefined cane sugar.
• Vanilla Extract – for flavor.
• Ground Ginger and Cinnamon – for a classic fall flavor.
• Baking Soda – to give them a small rise.
• Allspice – because there’s not gingersnap cookies without it.

How To Make Vegan Gingersnap Cookies

It’s super easy to make Vegan Gingersnap Cookies. Even if you are not a baker, you can whip up a batch of these cookies this holiday.

All you need is a bit of patience since the key to making chewy crackled ginger cookies is chilling the dough for one hour.

1. In a large mixing bowl or the bowl of your stand mixer, using the paddle attachment beat plant-based butter and sugar until light, fluffy and creamy (photo 2). It takes about 1 minute on low-medium speed. You can also use a hand beater with the beating tool.
2. In a mixing bowl, whisk flour, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, all spices, and salt until well combined. Set aside.
3. In a small mixing bowl, whisk the flaxseed meal and lukewarm water (photo 3). Set it aside for 5 to 10 minutes until gooey. You will use this later in the recipe as an egg replacer. It gives an ultra-chewy texture to the cookies.
4. Stop the beater, and add molasse, vanilla extract, and flax egg made in the previous step (photo 4).
5. Beat again on low-speed to just incorporate (photo 5). Finally, fold in the flour mixture and beat on low speed to incorporate and form a creamy cookie batter (photo 6).

6. Film the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate the dough for 1 hour (photo 1).
7. Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C).
8. Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper, and don’t oil the paper to prevent the cookies from over-spreading.
9. In a small bowl, add the remaining sugar.
10. Scoop out one tablespoon of cookie dough (photo 2), grease your hands with coconut oil, and roll the dough between your palms into a dough ball.
11. Next, roll the dough ball into the bowl with sugar to coat evenly (photo 3).
12. Place each cookie dough ball on the prepared lined baking sheet, leaving 2 inches between each ball (photo 4).
13. Then, use the back of a glass to press down the cookies flat (photo 5).
14. Bake the cookies for 9 to 11 minutes until they crack on the top and expand (photo 6). They should be quite soft to the touch, but they will form up as they cool down.
15. Let the cookies cool down for 10 minutes on the baking sheet, then transfer them to a cooling rack.

Storage Instructions

These ginger cookies can be stored for up to one week in a cookie jar or airtight container at room temperature.

You can freeze leftover cookies in zip-lock bags and thaw them at room temperature the day before serving.

Serving

These vegan ginger cookies are delicious on side of any hot drink, plain or with a drizzle of vegan royal icing if desired.

The best drinks to serve with ginger cookies are:

• Vegan hot chocolate
• Peppermint hot chocolate
• Pumpkin Spice ChaiLatte
• Vegan Matcha latte
• Pumpkin spice latte
• Skinny Vanilla Latte

Allergy Swaps

Here are some options to adapt this vegan ginger cookies to your food allergies:

• Gluten-Free – I didn’t try all-purpose gluten-free flour yet, but I am confident it will work if you use a 1:1 gluten-free flour blend.
• Sugar-Free – Sugar-free erythritol is natural and works very well in cookies. Stay away from xylitol as it makes cookies very soft.
• Flaxseed-Free – You can use chia seed meal instead.
• Molasse-Free – These are vegan ginger molasse cookies, and the molasse gives them their special flavor. However, if you can’t have molasse, try using the same amount of maple syrup or rice syrup instead.

Frequently Asked Questions

Below are my answers to your most frequent questions about these cookies.