Whole Wheat Gingerbread Cookies

stock photo

1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon cloves
Dash of nutmeg
3 cups whole wheat flour
2/3 cup black strap molasses, generous
1/3 cup coconut oil

Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease cookie sheets with additional coconut oil and set aside.

Mix all dry ingredients together and add molasses and oil together and slowly. Blend into dry ingredients well. If it is too dry add a tablespoon or two of water. Cookie dough should be of rolling consistency. You can roll and cut with cookie cutters or roll into a ball and use fork to press the cookie out.

Bake for 8-10 minutes for cookie cutter cookies and about 15 minutes for rolled and fork mashed cookies.

You can add walnuts or flaked coconut to the fork pressed cookies if desired.

Recipe submitted by Carol, Richfield, UT

Submit your recipe here!

Published on September 17, 2009

Be the first one to rate!

4 Comments

All Natural Katie December 22, 2012 at 9:27 pm - Reply

This recipe is okay.  The right level of spiciness, hearty due to the whole wheat flour, unsweet, and hard.  

Okay. For cookies, the recipe turns out hard and unsweet. There is no sweetener (I would hardly call molasses a sweetener), so be aware that they are not going to be sweet.  I ended up having to add 4-6 tbsp of water and ended up adding a little bit of turbinado sugar to the mix. Next time, instead of adding water, I will add honey to make the dough more moist and provide some sweetness (note: honey is not vegan). Use a stand mixer or food processor to mix because the dough is hard. Make sure you flour your rolling surface and rolling pin or the dough will stick. 

Better. For decorating with icing, the recipe would work (especially if you’re going to make gingerbread ornaments). 

Best. This recipe would be best for making a gingerbread house because the cookies end up being hard. 

Tips:
-Add 4-6 tbsp water .
-Bake for 10-12 minutes MAX in a preheated oven (otherwise, cookies turn out rock hard when cooled)
-Flour the rolling surface and rolling pin
-Use a stand mixer or food processor to mix the dough (I even had to mix by hand in the end)

Eric December 9, 2012 at 4:34 pm - Reply

I made these gingerbread cookies because I have been trying to find things to use my coconut oil in. I like that they are very pliable and easy to cut, and that they have 40 g protein, 80 g fat, and 400 g of whole grain carbs. It makes about 12 2-in diameter cookies, that do not expand when baked despite the baking soda.

Overall, the spices taste good and are the right strength, although I personally will switch the nutmeg and clove proportions when I make them again. The cookies also are excessively dry to my palatte. They are nice and soft, but quite dry such that without a topping I had to drink water to finish one (no, it was not salty!). Right after baking, I’d prefer them with milk or vanilla soymilk. But after I’ve ziploc’d them, I’ve been drizzling honey on them, which is nice bc it’s not so sweet that it clashes. I know vegans don’t eat honey and like coconut oil, but since I don’t know any vegans, I might also make honey merengue frosting if I was serving a batch to friends. I might also try adding an egg and seeing if it made them moister, and maybe a little agave nectar if I preferred them sweeter than just my molasses makes them.

Overall, a well-proportioned, pretty healthy cookie recipe with coconout oil that can be tweaked to a specific person’s taste.

Tanya December 19, 2010 at 10:49 pm - Reply

AH, thank you! I’ve been looking around for a healthy recipe for these :) People have so many different ideas of ‘healthy’.

Miss_Rachel April 15, 2010 at 11:04 pm - Reply

I’ve been wanting to make some gingerbread cookies, and these whole wheat ones sound so good! thanks for sharing!

Whole Wheat Gingerbread Cookies