Thick + Chewy Ginger Cookies [gluten-free]

Let’s add a little spice to our lives with ginger cookies!

These cookies are soft, crinkly, perfectly spiced with plenty of ginger and cinnamon, made with almond and oat flour, rolled in sugar and baked up until tender and chewy!

And, although there’s a little bit of molasses in these cookies, they aren’t molasses cookies; these babies are all about the ginger. Molasses is just here to add a little bit of extra depth and spiciness to these cookies, and to compliment the rich, caramel flavor profile of coconut sugar.

In fact, these are more like a snickerdoodle with a little molasses and lots of ginger in the batter, as opposed to a traditional molasses cookie.

Which is to say, they’re totally dreamy. And perfect for Day 4 of Cookie Week here on the blog.

I like to keep the spices pretty simple with a mixture of ginger and cinnamon, but you could totally add some more winter spices like nutmeg, cloves, and/or cardamom for more of a gingerbread vibe here. Or mix it up with a few giant chunks of roughly chopped dark chocolate or some finely diced candied ginger.

I mean, if you’re already spicing up your life, you might as well go for it.

And that sugar coating? I highly recommend you don’t skip it. It adds the prettiest sugar sparkles to every cookie, and a little bit of crunch in each bite, which is such a nice textural contrast to the soft insides. It makes these cookies feel extra special, which is really what holiday baking is all about.

Whatever you do, you NEED these chewy ginger molasses cookies in your life. They’re naturally gluten-free (but not compromised in structure AT ALL) thanks to a combination of almond flour and oat flour, mixed together by hand in 1 bowl, and only need a quick chill in the freezer while the oven preheats to be ready to bake.

If you make them, be sure to leave a comment below letting me know what you think, or take a picture of them and share it with me on Instagram so I can see! 

Happy baking, friends! See you back here tomorrow with the next recipe for cookie week! 

XO,

Chelsea

Thick + Chewy Ginger Cookies

Time: 30 minutes
Yields: 16 cookies

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup virgin coconut oil, melted
• 1/2 cup coconut sugar (can sub brown sugar or sucanat)
• 1 large egg
• 2 Tablespoons blackstrap molasses
• 1 cup almond flour
• 1 cup oat flour
• 2 teaspoons ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/4-1/2 cup organic cane sugar, for rolling

Instructions:

1. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper and make space in your freezer for the sheet pan to sit level (if a sheet pan won’t fit in your freezer, you can just chill the dough on a plate then transfer to a sheet pan once chilled, or chill in the fridge on the pan for double the time)
2. Whisk together coconut oil, sugar, egg, and molasses in a mixing bowl. Add all remaining ingredients (except the cane sugar, for rolling!), and stir well, to combine. Pour the cane sugar into a small bowl.
3. Use a small cookie scoop or a heaping Tablespoon to portion the dough out into balls, dropping each into the sugar and rolling to fully coat, and placing on the sheet pan. Once all the dough has been rolled in sugar, place the pan in the freezer to chill for 10 minutes, while the oven preheats.
4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
5. Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until cookies are puffy and slightly cracked. For slightly flatter, chewier cookies, bang the cookie sheet once on the counter when you remove them from the oven, to help deflate them. For puffier cookies, leave them as is.
6. Allow cookies to cool completely before transferring to an airtight container for 2-4 days. These technically keep more like a week, but I find they start to soften up too much after 4 days, and the sugar loses some of its crunch.

NOTES:
You can make your own oat flour by pulsing oats in a food processor or high powered blender for 10-20 seconds, or until a flour-like consistency is achieved. 1 heaping cup of oats should yield 1 cup of oat flour, but be sure to measure the flour after you’ve made it to ensure you have a full cup!

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