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Vegan Spelt Flour Gingerbread Man Cookies

Happy holidays! Welcome to the party in the vegan gingerbread cookie town ^^ These are honestly the most enjoyable thing to make ever, super easy and fun, plus your entire home will be smelling like this sweet, warming, and festive aroma for more than a day! 


There are few foods that are as fun to make as they are to eat, but these little cuties sure are. I can't even decide which step was my favorite, stamping them out? Fun! Decorating them with icing? Fun too! And arranging them in a happy harmonious group and taking photos of them? My heart smiles just thinking about that again. 


I baked them the night before Christmas eve, and when we went to bed we could still smell the warm, sweet, and comforting aroma all the way from the kitchen, through the living room, dining room, and the gym to the bedroom!


When I was mixing the batter I kept remembering what Paul said on the Great British Baking Show (yes I'm low-key addicted to that show) - If it’s ginger snap I want them to snap. And THESE DO SNAP, plus its comforting warm spice palette, a perfect balance of sweetness from molasses, and the fieriness from ginger.


And instead of your typical white flour, I used something even better - organic sprouted spelt flour I got from One Degree Organics! Spelt flour is made from a type of ancient grain and it is a WHOLE GRAIN flour, however, unlike regular wholewheat flour, you can sub spelt flour wherever a recipe calls for white flour 1:1, it doesn't get easier than that, and you won't have any texture issues like you would with wholewheat flour! And One Degree Organics is my absolute go-to brand for oats, cereals, flour, and more, they are USDA-certified organic and sprouted, which makes them more nutritious! Thanks to One Degree Organic for sponsoring this post.

INGREDIENTS:

2 cup organic spelt flour
1/3 cup melted coconut oil
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 tbsp molasses
1 tbsp maple syrup
2 tbsp warm plant milk of choice
2 tsp ground ginger
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cardamom
1/2 tsp baking soda

For the icing -
2 cup icing sugar
2 tablespoon aquafaba (or water)


TO MAKE:

- In a mixing bowl, combine the flour, ginger, cinnamon, cardamom, and baking soda;
- In a separate small bowl, add the melted coconut oil, sugar, syrup, milk, and molasses. Whisk until smooth;

- Add the wet mixture to the dry mixture and stir to combine, use your hands to lightly knead the dough to form a thick disk. Wrap it in plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes, don't overdo it! I chilled the dough too long for the first time and it became too hard to roll;
- Preheat the oven to 325°F and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper;
- Take out the dough from the fridge. Place it between 2 sheets of parchment paper and roll the dough until about 1/4 inch thick;
- Use cookie cutters you like to cut out shapes and carefully place them on the baking sheet;
- Re-roll any remaining dough and repeat the stamping step until most of the dough is used up;
- Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until the edges are lightly browned, check frequently to prevent from burning;
- Let them cool down for 30 minutes in the baking tray before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely;
- Decorate with icing, have fun!

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