Every October and November during high school, all of the members of our marching band loaded instruments, uniforms, and piles of homework onto five big charter buses each Saturday morning. We left the campus by 5 am and returned after midnight to spend the entire day competing in a band review. With a parade in the morning, a field show at night, and occasionally a few orchestra performances during the day, we barely had time to rest!
Championships, our final competition of the season, fell on the Saturday right before Thanksgiving. We spent hours perfecting every note and stride during the preceding week to try to bring home the special trophy, which stood almost 5 feet tall.
As the “unofficial” head section leader of the flutes during my senior year, I organized little goodie bags to pass out every weekend. I normally brought something small like a homemade muffin and orange juice, but for Championships, the three other flute section leaders and I planned something even better.
I invited them, plus two of our really close flute friends, over to my house the Friday afternoon before, and we baked more than a hundred cookies for our section. With at least four different flavors of cookie dough to mix up, we ran out of bowls and used the Tupperware top of a cake carrier to stir together the last batch of chocolate chip!
Because Championships fell so close to Thanksgiving and the holiday season, we all agreed that a spiced cookie felt necessary, so we baked gingersnaps. Soft in the middle, crunchy on the outsides, and coated in glittery sugar. They disappeared from everyone’s goodie bags by 7 am, but it took a whole lot more time to shape and flatten them to bake the night before!
These healthy soft baked ginger cookies are an even easier and healthier version of those! No rolling or flattening the dough, and no messy sugar coating either. These are made with entirely wholesome clean eating ingredients, yet they still have that same festive and cozy spice flavor that you know and love!
These are recipe #4 in this holiday season’s “Cookie Week” on Amy’s Healthy Baking! First we made rainbow chocolate chip cookies, then eggnog snickerdoodles, followed by peppermint mocha cookies. The final recipe is another true holiday classic!
KEY INGREDIENTS TO MAKE HEALTHY SOFT BAKED GINGER COOKIES
Time to talk about what you’ll need to make these healthy soft baked ginger cookies! Since you probably have common baking staples like vanilla, baking powder, and salt in your cupboards already, we’ll stick with the more interesting ingredients.
Spices. In order to create the iconic flavor of gingerbread — whether cookies, loves, or even gingersnaps! — you need two important ingredients. The first is obvious… Ginger! It provides that classic “zing” of bright spicy flavor. I love how fun and festive it tastes during the holiday season!
To round out the spice profile and add a cozy background warmth, you’ll also mix in a bit of cinnamon. If you can find it, I highly recommend Saigon cinnamon! This is the one I use. It has a slightly stronger, sweeter, and richer flavor compared to regular cinnamon. I’m obsessed!
Molasses. The second important gingerbread ingredient? Molasses! It’s an unrefined sweetener with a similar thick and viscous consistency as honey, and it has a really deep and rich flavor.
For these cookies, you’ll need regular unsulphured molasses — not blackstrap! The latter tastes rather bitter, yet the former is much sweeter in comparison. Molasses brings a warmth to the cookies that’s absolutely irresistible and nearly impossible to replicate, so don’t skip it!
Hint: Although many people only use molasses during the holiday season for gingerbread treats, my family and I actually mix it into our homemade whole wheat bread rolls. So good!
Sweetener. To brighten the sweetness of these healthy ginger cookies, you’ll also add honey. Yes, you do need to use both molasses and honey! I don’t recommend substituting one for the other. The balance of both yields the best flavor!
Unsalted butter. Just a bit! Unlike many traditional recipes that call for ½ cup or more, you merely need 2 tablespoons to make this one. That helps keep your healthy ginger cookies low calorie and low fat!
And to make these even easier and faster to make, you’ll melt the butter. No waiting around for it to soften… And I found that using melted butter yields a softer and chewier texture too. It’s a win-win!
Tip: Coconut oil works perfectly too, if you’d like to make your healthy soft baked ginger cookies dairy-free!
Egg. Fairly predictable, I’m sure! The egg binds together the other ingredients.
Flour. To make these soft baked ginger cookies healthier, I opted for whole wheat flour. It has added fiber and micronutrients compared to all-purpose flour. The ginger and molasses completely mask any sort of “wheat-y” flavor, so these cookies don’t taste “healthy” at all — just extra cozy and comforting!
Tip: If you’d like to make your healthy soft baked ginger cookies gluten-free, then see the Notes section of the recipe. I’ve included how to do so there!
HOW TO MAKE HEALTHY SOFT BAKED GINGER COOKIES
Time to talk about how to make the best healthy ginger cookies! The cookie dough itself is really quick and easy to make. Once you’ve mixed everything together, these tips should ensure that your batch of cookies turns out perfectly soft, chewy, and full of festive flavor!
Chill. Because of the molasses and honey, this cookie dough is wet… Very wet. When you first mix it up, you’re going to call me crazy. It looks more like thick muffin batter than cookie dough!
So chilling is mandatory! Chilling helps stiffen the cookie dough so it won’t spread as much while in the oven. Do NOT skip this step! If you did, your cookies would completely flatten out into one massive blob on the baking sheet. It’s amazing what a difference a stint in the refrigerator can make!
Drop + shape. After chilling, the cookie dough will still be sticky — but no longer wet and runny! — so pretty pretty please, don’t even try to use your hands. Instead, grab a spoon and spatula to drop it into rounded mounds on your baking sheet.
You can also use the spatula to shape the mounds of cookie dough to be taller than they are wide. This will further prevent spreading and create thicker cookies. (I love using a mini spatula to shape cookie dough! It’s so handy — and one of my favorite kitchen tools. I own at least a dozen of them!)
Hint: Do not flatten these either! As long as all of the ingredients were measured correctly, they would turn into one big cookie blob on the baking sheet.
Bake. Keep an eye on these cookies! (Or if you’re anything like me, you’ll be tempted to sit in front of the oven and watch them the entire time…) They’re ready to come out of the oven when the centers still look and feel a little underdone.
That’s right — don’t wait until they’re completely firm! That leads to cakey or bready cookies. Pull them out a bit sooner, when the centers are still a teensy bit squishy, and then let your cookies cool on the warm baking sheet. The residual heat will cook those centers all the way through, without drying out the cookies. This is my #1 trick for the perfect soft-baked cookie texture!
These cookies filled my house with the smells of Christmas… Warm, cozy, and oh so festive! So bake a batch of these as fuel for your holiday shopping or as a treat to nibble on while covering gifts in wrapping paper and bows. I’m sure Santa wouldn’t mind enjoying a few of these cookies on Christmas Eve either!
And when you make your own, remember to snap a picture and share it on Instagram using #amyshealthybaking and tagging @amyshealthybaking IN the photo itself! (That guarantees I’ll see your picture! 🙂 ) I’d love to see your healthy soft baked ginger cookies!
Healthy Soft Baked Ginger Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 ¼ cups (150g) whole wheat flour or gluten-free* flour (measured like this)
- 1 ½ tsp baking powder
- 1 ½ tsp ground ginger
- ½ tsp ground cinnamon
- ¼ tsp salt
- 2 tbsp (28g) unsalted butter or coconut oil, melted
- 1 large egg, room temperature
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- ¼ cup (60mL) molasses (not blackstrap!)
- 5 tbsp (75mL) honey
Instructions
- Whisk together the flour, baking powder, ginger, cinnamon, and salt in a medium bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk together the butter or coconut oil, egg, and vanilla. Stir in the molasses and honey. Add in the flour mixture, stirring until just incorporated. Chill the cookie dough for 30 minutes, or up to 2 hours. (If chilling longer than 2 hours, cover the cookie dough with plastic wrap – and see Notes!)
- Preheat the oven to 325°F, and line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.
- Using a spoon and spatula, drop the cookie dough into 15 rounded scoops onto the prepared baking sheet. Bake at 325°F for 12-15 minutes. Cool on the pan for at least 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack.
Notes
View Nutrition Information + Weight Watchers Points
You may also like Amy’s other recipes…
♡ The Ultimate Healthy Cut-Out Gingerbread Cookies
♡ Healthy Gingerbread Oatmeal Cookies
♡ Healthy Gingerbread Snickerdoodles (Gingerdoodles)
♡ Healthy Classic Gingerbread
♡ Healthy Gingerbread Oatmeal Muffins
♡ Healthy Gingerbread Oatmeal Breakfast Cookies
…and the rest of Amy’s healthy gingerbread-flavored recipes, healthy holiday cookie recipes, and all of her healthy holiday recipes!
This recipe looks amazing – so excited to try it! I have self raising wholemeal flour…is that okay? Will I still need the baking powder too? Many thanks from an amateur Baker!! X
I really appreciate your interest in my recipe Lucy! 🙂 Other UK readers have reported that self-raising flours don’t work very well in my recipes, so I’d recommend getting regular wholemeal flour instead. I can’t wait to hear what you think of these cookies if you try them!
These cookies look so delicious! I can’t wait to try them ?
I was wondering if I could substitute the honey for Stevia. Also, could I use black strap molasses ?
I really appreciate your interest in my recipe Cara! If you’re looking for a ginger cookie made with stevia, I actually recommend this recipe of mine instead. That way, you don’t need to make any modifications! 🙂 I’d love to hear what you think if you try them!
Hi Amy,
I just made these cookies!
Thanks for suggesting these (I was originally going to make the cookie cutter ones but didn’t want to use the Stevia and did want to use molasses – so You sent me to this link). I followed the recipe exactly although I made 31 smaller cookies. 12 min in the oven per batch. They are delicious. Perfect taste and texture!!!
Also, with the conversion to grams from mL, in case others want to know – it’s 80g of molasses, and 105g of honey.
I’m so glad you loved these cookies Shannon! 🙂 Thanks for the mL to gram conversion — I really appreciate you sharing that!
Hi Amy- can I substitute all purpose flour for the whole wheat in these cookies? Also, can I use raw, organic honey?
Can’t wait to try this… thanks so much!
– Jamie
Yes to both! I’m excited to hear how your cookies turn out Jamie! 🙂
This is NOT refined sugar free! Molasses is a byproduct of cane sugar refinement. If you are like me and cannot have cane/white sugar, then you should not eat molasses!
I really appreciate your interest in my recipe Jane! You’re correct that people who cannot have cane sugar shouldn’t have molasses. However, molasses is still considered an unrefined sweetener. Refined sugar is considered a sweetener that has been stripped of all micronutrients, and molasses still contains those. 🙂 I have plenty of refined sugar free recipes here that don’t contain molasses — perhaps those will be better suited for your diet!
Good day to you Amy,
Firsty please may send the biggst of thank you’s to you for the most wonderful cranberry cake recipe, my daughter loved them so very much, and it tasted just like (but better) the cranberry cake she used to enjoy as a child, it brought so much joy and happy memories back,
But most importantly gave Issi the joy of being able to eat cake again, we used quail eggs in place of the butter and it worked wonderfully, there is alwats some in the freezer now to munch on,
Please coukd ssk a kindness from you, my daughters condition has got mych worse, and ginger buscuits really seem to help, (and give a variety from plain oatmeal or your lovely cranberry bread which is Issi can tolerate now)
Issi loves to dip them in tea (very english thing!) we had some that found by a german company that doesnt have any fat in them, the recipe simply states
Gingerbread (brown sugar syrup, wheat flour, rye flour, spices, raising agent (ammonium hydrogen carbonate))
We cannot seem to buy them anymore, as the company only buys them at christmas,
We have scoured online but cant serk to find anything similar, or a similar recipe, so thought could ask you your advice?
As your cranberry bread was delicous, it is heartbreaking we tried several recipes and they all come out cardboardy….and wish to make her some biscuits to take with her when she goes into hospice,
so if you could be so kind do you think these cookies could be made without the butter/oil
Or even these
https://amyshealthybaking.com/blog/2016/12/04/the-ultimate-healthy-gingerbread-cookies/
Or
https://amyshealthybaking.com/blog/2014/12/13/skinny-christmas-sugar-cookies
Any help would be very much appreciated
Thank you again for such winderful recipes, and your help last time,
Kindest regards
A Palmer
I truly appreciate your interest in my recipes! I’m so glad you’ve enjoyed the cranberry cake. That means the world to me! Your daughter is so lucky to have you to make her homemade treats too! Can your daughter tolerant fats of any kind? I typically don’t recommend replacing butter or oil in my cookie recipes because it greatly alters the texture. My cookie recipes, when made without butter or oil, tend to turn out bready rather than soft and chewy. However, if your daughter cannot tolerate any sort of butter/oil/fat source, then you can replace the butter or oil with your preferred type of milk. Just remember that the cookies texture will be very different! 🙂 I’d love to hear what you think if you decide to try that with either my ultimate healthy gingerbread cookies or sugar cookies!
the color of the font for this recipe is really hard to read. Try using black to make it easier. Otherwise, the cookies turned out great but you use way too much honey. I only used 2.5 tbps and they turned out great. Just wanted to share!
I’m glad you enjoyed these cookies Amanda! 🙂
Awesome recipe!! This is my second time making it, its a easy and great tasting recipe! Thank you.
I’m so glad you enjoyed these cookies Kori! Thanks for taking the time to let me know — that means a lot to me! 🙂
Do you think I could shape the dough strategically so when they spread the would have gingerbread man shapes?
I’m gonna try this soon, they look so good!
I really appreciate your interest in my recipe John! That won’t work with this particular recipe (the cookie dough is too wet!), but I do have a recipe for the ultimate healthy gingerbread cookies here that would definitely work for that! 🙂 I’d love to hear what you think if you try making either recipe of mine!