Jolly Gingerbread Cookies

If there isn’t gingerbread, is it even Christmas? These spicy sweet treats are an absolute staple during the silly season, so get your bake on with this healthier rendition of the traditional festive treat. Dust with powdered sugar to channel that white Christmas energy, or get creative with icing, melted chocolate and other edible decorations. You can also keep them plain for a simple and rustic look. 

Ingredients

3 cups (310g) gluten free flour

3 tsp ground ginger

3 tsp ground cinnamon

¾ tsp salt

½ tsp ground cloves

½ tsp finely ground black pepper

½ tsp baking soda

¼ tsp baking powder

½ cup melted coconut oil

½ cup unsulphured molasses (use regular molasses for lighter, somewhat spicy cookies or blackstrap molasses for very spicy, intensely flavored cookies - or a mixture of both)

4 tsp Morlife Certified Organic Monk Fruit

1 large egg

Powdered sugar, for dusting (optional)

Method

1. In a medium mixing bowl, combine the flour, ginger, cinnamon, salt, cloves, pepper, monk fruit, baking soda and baking powder. Whisk until blended.
2. In a small mixing bowl, combine the coconut oil and molasses and whisk until combined. Add the egg and whisk until the mixture is thoroughly blended.
3. Pour the liquid mixture into the dry and mix until just combined (if it seems like you don’t have enough liquid, just keep mixing!). Divide the dough in half. Shape each half into a round disc about 1 inch thick and wrap it in plastic wrap. Place both discs in the refrigerator and chill until cold—about 1 hour, or alternatively overnight.
4. Preheat oven to 180ºC with racks in the middle and upper third of the oven. Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper. Lightly flour your working surface and roll out one of your discs until it’s ¼ inch thick. If the dough is very hard or crumbly, just roll it as best you can and then let it rest for a few minutes to warm up. Repeat until you’ve successfully rolled the dough to ¼ inch thickness.
5. Use cookie cutters to cut out cookie shapes and place each cookie on a parchment-lined baking sheet, leaving about a ½ inch of space around each one (this dough just barely expands during baking). Combine your dough scraps into a ball and roll them out again, repeating until you have used up all of your dough. Repeat with remaining disc. 
6. Place baking sheets in the oven, one on the middle rack and one on the upper. Bake for 8 minutes for softer cookies or 11 minutes for more crisp cookies.The cookies will further crisp as they cool. Place the baking sheets on cooling racks to cool. 
7. If you’d like to sift powdered sugar over the cookies, do it now. 
8. Wait for cookies to cool before icing if you wish to do so.
9. Wait until the icing has firmed up (about 1 hour) before carefully stacking the cookies in a storage container. Cookies will keep for up to 1 week at room temperature.