Spicy Vegan Ginger Cookies
Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links.
It took 2 tries but in the end, success! Delicious vegan ginger cookies were born! This is actually an adaption of my Grandma’s famous spicy ginger cookie recipe, and I’ll admit they’re definitely not as good as hers, but they’re pretty close.
Nothing’s ever as good as cookies made by a grandma though are they?
I was home in Comox a few weeks ago and my Mom had a batch of my Grandma’s cookies on hand. When I returned home to Vancouver and was still craving them, I knew a vegan version had to be made!
The original recipe called for butter instead of coconut oil and an egg instead of the ground flax, but other than that the ingredients were the same. I adjusted them slightly, reducing the amount of sugar and making a few changes to the spices, but it was fairly simple to make them vegan.
If you’ve never used ground flax to replace eggs, it’s one of the handiest vegan baking tricks there is! Just mix a little ground flax with water and it makes a perfect replacement for egg.
For more tips on replacing eggs in vegan baking, check out the options listed in these two posts:
Vegan Options for Replacing Dairy in Your Diet
Vegan Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
The cayenne pepper is completely optional, it doesn’t make them too spicy but adds a nice kick. I’d recommend giving it a try! I love it! I’m almost tempted to add black pepper in there as well but I haven’t tried it yet. What do you think? Black pepper in cookies? It seems logical to me…
When these cookies come out of the oven, they’ll seem under done but they will firm up nicely as they cool. Make sure your oven has heated right up to 375 degrees, that way the 8 minutes should be perfect.
I’d let them cool completely before you enjoy them and if you can wait until the next day, the taste even better! They actually get even better as the days go by, I guess the flavours all meld together and all that’s left over is delicious!
Please come back and leave me a comment if you make them and be sure to tag any photos on social media with #runningonrealfood! Enjoy!
Print
Vegan Ginger Cookies
Print Recipe
Pin RecipeIngredients
- 1 flax egg replacement (1 tbsp ground flax mixed with 3 tbsp water)
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4–1/2 tsp cayenne pepper (optional)
- 3 tsp ground ginger
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- 2 tsp baking soda
- 3/4 cup coconut sugar
- 3/4 cup melted coconut oil
- 1/4 cup + 1 tbsp molasses
Instructions
- Mix the flax egg and set aside.
- Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl.
- Add the melted coconut oil, molasses and flax egg and use your hands to mix.
- Mix until all the dry ingredients have been moistened, really get in there with your hands working it all together.
- Roll the dough into balls and place on a cookie sheet. Press down lightly with a fork.
- Bake for 8 minutes at 375 degrees.
- Remove from over and let cool completely. They’ll seem undone when they come out but will firm up as they cool.
- Makes approximately 26 cookies.
- Store them in an air-tight container.
I’m making these this week! Love ginger cookies!
Yay! I love them too 🙂
Let me know how they turn out!
Only 2 tries?!? It takes me, like, 50 tries to come up with something!! Good for you!
My grandma makes the most delicious cookies. Actually anything she makes is amazing. And I’m pretty sure she has every recipe memorized. No matter how hard I try, my food never tastes the same!
I love the addition of the cayenne – can’t wait to try! That little kick with the sweet cookie – YUM!
I know right?! I can never even get it to taste as good as my Moms food, let alone my Grandmas!
Let me know how they turn out for you! Thanks for the comment 🙂
Love that you vegan-ized Gram’s famous cookies! Dad would probably think it was blasphemy haha– I hope to try this recipe when I have access to baking ware :] On-campus living really limits my kitchen fun, I just have to oggle over recipes during class (fun but probably not the best technique lol)
I finally made these tonight!! I think I may have put too much cayenne though, it has a strong spicy kick!! Still good though!
Yum! Just baked these cookies and they are delicious! I made a couple of changes:
1 cup all purpose and 1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup brown sugar and 1/4 cup white
1/4 cup coconut oil and 1/2 cup applesauce
Definitely going to make these again and again. I will not mix with my hands next time, though. My dough was very sticky and I lost at least a whole cookie down the sink washing my goo hands. I think a wooden spoon will mix them just fine. Also, I might cut the sugar down to 1/2 cup as they are plenty sweet and I like to test out lower sugar recipes.
Thank you so much for this recipe!
★★★★★
Awesome, thanks for your feedback and sharing the changes you made. I’d actually love to do a lower sugar version of this recipe too, and reduce the oil like you did as well. A reminder I need to make these again!