Gingerbread Cookies

Being on a restricted diet doesn’t mean you have to give up your holiday traditions of baking and decorating cookies. These gingerbread cookies are free of gluten, grain, dairy, eggs and sugar but oh my goodness you would never know, they are simply delicious!

Sweetened with dates and loaded with warm spice flavors, these have the perfect chewy texture yet still hold their shape making them the ultimate holiday cookie to decorate.

Ingredients:

15 dates

1/2 cup honey

1 tbsp cinnamon

1 tbsp ginger

1 tsp cloves

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1 1/2 tbsp olive oil

1 1/2 tbsp coconut oil, melted

1/2 tsp baking soda

2 cups almond flour

Directions:

1. First, make date paste by soaking them in hot water for 15 minutes until softened.

2. Drain the water and place dates in a food processor with 2 tbsp of fresh water. Process until dates become smooth, adding extra water as necessary.

3. Preheat oven to 350ºF.

4. In a medium saucepan, heat up honey, spices and 4 tbsp of date paste.

5. Take off heat and mix in oils until fully incorporated.

6. Add in baking soda and almond flour and mix thoroughly.

7. Roll dough in a ball, wrap in plastic wrap and place in freezer for 20 minutes.

8. Take dough out of freezer and roll dough out between two pieces of parchment to 1/4in thick. Use cookie cutters to make shapes and put them on a paper-lined baking tray and bake for 8-10 minutes until just starting to brown.

I used to fear my kids would not enjoy cookie decorating as much if they can't use the typical frosting and candy. I was wrong! My kids enjoy being creative and coming up with unique foods they find around the house to use as decorations.

Here are a few examples of ones they decorated using cut up dried fruit, nuts and coconut flakes as the “candy” decorations.

The frosting was super simple to whip up. In a small saucepan, heat 4oz of raw cocoa butter, 6 tbsp of coconut butter, 1/4 cup of honey and 1/4 cup coconut milk. Slowly whisk together until fully incorporated. Transfer to a glass bowl and place in fridge for 20 minute to harden.

You can use a knife to spread the frosting, or use a plastic bag to pipe the frosting onto the cookie. To do so, place the frosting in a bottom corner of the bag, squeezing out all the air. Cut off the very tip of the bag and squeeze from above to push the frosting out. The more of the bag you cut off, the bigger the hole and the thicker the frosting will be.

If you prefer colored frosting, there are many options to naturally color the frosting without the need for artificial dyes. Some natural foods that work well are beets for red, spinach for green, turmeric for yellow and blueberries for blue / purple. I will have more on natural frosting color in a future post soon.