It doesn’t really feel like December until the first batch of gingerbread cookies, right?! SO I couldn’t resist whipping up a batch of healthier, grain-free, paleo, & SCD-friendly cookies, using my favorite easy cookie recipe…
Healthier Grain-Free Gingerbread Cookies
It’s early December, our Christmas tree is up, stockings are hung, holiday music is turned all the way up, and gingerbread cookies are in the oven. There’s just something so comforting and magical about this time of year!
Growing up, gingerbread cookies were honestly never my favorite BUT over the past few years, they’ve grown on me! Coming from a chocolate chip or shortbread cookie type of girl, this is big. I don’t know what’s happened but for the past week, all I’ve been craving was gingerbread with a hot cup of tea. So I’m rolling with it (literally)!
This is the first holiday season that I’ve had to try and recreate all of my favorite cookie recipes to follow the Specific Carbohydrate Diet. I started closely following the SCD in February to manage my ulcerative colitis symptoms, and I haven’t turned back since!
NOTE: molasses and the dark chocolate frosting are not SCD “legal”. However, I’ve been able to add both foods (and a few others, listed in this post) back into my diet since my last “flare”.
Baking with Monk Fruit
Monk fruit is a paleo-friendly natural nonnutritive sweetener, and I’ve recently discovered it to be great to bake with!
Monk fruit is very high in antioxidants- known as mogrosides- that make this sweetener 100- 250x sweeter than sugar. So you don’t have to use as much, and it doesn’t have any textural consequences on the final product. Although mongrosides are glycosides (table sugar- sucrose- is also a glycoside), monk fruit cannot be metabolized by the body so it is considered to be a zero-calorie sugar substitute.
How to Decorate Paleo Cookies
Coconut butter, who would’ve thought?!
It seems too easy to be true, but melted coconut butter has been my go-to frosting replacement for Christmas cookies this year. All I do is simply scoop about 1/2 cup of coconut butter into a microwave safe bowl and microwave for about 35-40 seconds!
Meanwhile, make a piping bag: cut off a small corner of a plastic bag to create a very tiny hole. Using a spoon, transfer the melted coconut butter into the bag. Squeeze the coconut butter towards the corner of the bag with the small opening. Pipe the coconut butter “frosting” on to the baked and cooled cookies before serving!
I did the same thing with melted dark chocolate to make the buttons and bowties. But feel free to get creative here: if you can make and eat the real deal (aka normal frosting), go for it!
However, if you are also following the SCD, dealing with gut health issues, or simply looking for a healthy decorating alternative, coconut butter has been my favorite little “trick”!
How to Make Healthier Gingerbread Cookies
Step 1: Beat together the melted and cooled butter, monkfruit, molasses, vanilla extract, and eggs until creamy. Add the almond flour, coconut flour, baking soda, ground ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt until a thick dough forms. Chill for about 15 minutes.
Step 2: Place the ball of dough between two pieces of parchment paper and roll out with a rolling pin until it’s about 1/4″ thick. Use a gingerbread cookie cutter to shape the cookies. Transfer the cookies on to a lightly greased cookie tray.
Step 3: Bake for about 8 minutes and let cool completely before decorating.
More of My Favorite Cookie Recipes:
- SCD Holiday Spiced Shortbread Cookies
- Classic Paleo Chocolate Chip Cookies
- SCD Blueberry Lemon Thumbprint Cookies
- SCD Butter Pecan Cookies
- SCD Cutout Sugar Cookies
Paleo Gingerbread Cookies
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 8 minutes
- Total Time: 28 minutes
- Yield: about 20 cookies 1x
Description
Healthier, paleo gingerbread cookies with a coconut butter “icing”. SCD-friendly, paleo, low-sugar, grain-free, gluten-free.
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup ghee, melted and cooled.
- 1/4 cup monk fruit sweetener
- 3 tbsp. backstrap molasses
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
- 2 cups blanched almond flour
- 3/4 cup coconut flour
- 1/2 tsp. baking soda
- 1 1/2 tsp. ground ginger
- 1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
- 1 tsp. nutmeg
- 1/2 tsp. salt
“Icing”:
- coconut butter, melted
- 100% dark chocolate, melted
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350F and lightly spray a baking tray with nonstick cooking spray.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine the melted and cooled ghee, monk fruit sweetener, molasses, eggs, and vanilla. Beat well until creamy.
- Add in the almond flour, coconut flour, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. Beat again until a thick dough forms. Cover and refrigerate the dough for about 15 minutes to make it easier to work with.
- Place the ball of dough between 2 sheets of parchment paper. Roll out with a rolling pin until it’s about 1/4″ thick. Use a gingerbread shaped cookie cutter to press out cookies.
- Transfer the shaped dough on to the baking sheet with a metal spatula.
- Bake the cookies for about 8 minutes, until the edges appear to be slightly golden-brown.
- Let cool completely before decorating!
Notes
See the above post for full decorating instructions!
- Category: something sweet
- Method: bake
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 cookie
- Calories: 140
- Sugar: 4
- Fat: 12
- Carbohydrates: 8
- Fiber: 3
- Protein: 4
Keywords: specific carbohydrate diet, paleo, holiday cookies, healthy baking, gingerbread cookie recipe, easy paleo desserts, grain-free, gluten-free
