One December during my middle school years, my aunt flew out from Arizona to visit us for the holidays. On her first full day at our house, she suggested that we made gingerbread cookies as an afternoon project, and since Mom usually lacked the patience for baking anything besides boxed mix brownies, my brother and I immediately agreed.
We found a recipe in one of our faded old cookbooks and quickly set to work measuring and mixing together the ingredients. After rolling out the dough and slicing it into fun shapes with our eclectic collection of cookie cutters, everything from candy canes and Santa’s sleigh to Mickey Mouse and the Pillsbury Dough Boy, we popped the trays into the oven to bake.
A couple of hours later, we sat down at the kitchen table to decorate our treats. Instead of mixing up traditional royal icing, we just stirred together milk and powdered sugar in a handful of small bowls, then squirted in a few drops of food coloring to dye them pastel shades of pink, green, yellow, and blue.
When we finished icing the cookies, we arranged them on large dinner plates and safely tucked those away on top of the refrigerator. Our golden retriever could easily jump up on the counters and eat anything in sight!
That evening, I slipped into the kitchen to sneak a cookie before dinner when Mom wasn’t looking. After grabbing a small star, I hastily slid the plate back on top of the fridge and brushed the crumbs off my fingertips, but when Mom opened the refrigerator door a few minutes later to pull out some vegetables…
That plate tumbled down and shattered on the kitchen floor, sending broken pieces of stoneware and cookies into every nook and cranny. Whoops!
Ever since then, I’ve thought of my aunt and that little refrigerator incident whenever I’ve eaten gingerbread cookies… But since she passed away six years ago, I haven’t actually baked any homemade ones. However, I decided to change that this year, so I set out to create this recipe for the Ultimate Healthy Gingerbread Cookies. They’re full of the same cozy flavors as traditional recipes, but without any butter, refined flour or sugar, they come with none of the guilt. And I know my aunt would’ve loved these!
(And I stashed the leftover cookies on a shelf in the pantry this time, not the top of the fridge!)
KEY INGREDIENTS TO MAKE THE BEST HEALTHY GINGERBREAD COOKIES
To make these healthier gingerbread cookies, you’ll start with white whole wheat flour. That sounds a little contradictory, doesn’t it? Normally white flour and whole wheat flour are two totally different things! However, white whole wheat flour is made by finely grinding a special type of white wheat, whereas regular whole wheat flour comes from a heartier variety of red wheat. This gives white whole wheat flour a lighter taste and texture, similar to all-purpose flour, but it still has the same health benefits as regular whole wheat flour (like extra fiber!).
The gingerbread flavor comes from two main sources: ground ginger and molasses. I’m sure you guessed the first of those ingredients! The molasses provides the deep, rich, cozy undertones, and it’s absolutely crucial when making gingerbread cookies. Don’t skip it! Molasses is inexpensive, shelf-stable, and keeps for ages. This is the kind that I buy, and you can find it at most grocery stores near the honey or maple syrup.
In addition to the molasses, you’ll sweeten these cookies with one of my favorite ingredients: vanilla crème stevia. Stevia is a plant-based, no-calorie sweetener that’s clean eating friendly, and it’s very concentrated. A little goes a long way — you just need 1 teaspoon for this entire batch of cookies! This is the kind that I buy because I love its warm vanilla flavor and don’t notice any strange aftertastes like with some other stevia products. You can find it at many health-oriented grocery stores, but I usually buy mine online here because that’s the cheapest price I’ve found. (And you’ll use it in all of these recipes of mine, too!)
HOW TO MAKE THE BEST HEALTHY GINGERBREAD COOKIES
I have a special trick to share with you about how to easily roll out cookie dough with absolutely NO mess… You’ll roll it out between two large sheets of plastic wrap! With this trick, you don’t need to flour your work surface OR the cookie dough OR the rolling pin. It works like a charm for pie crusts and my sugar cookies, too! (Bonus: Your rolling pin won’t get dirty, so you don’t have to wash it!)
Here’s another pro tip for how to create perfectly shaped cut-out cookies… After pressing down the cookie cutters into the dough, peel the extra dough away from those shapes. (If you pull the cut-out cookie dough away from the extra dough, it usually stretches and turns misshapen!) Then slide a knife underneath the cut-out cookie dough to loosen it from the plastic wrap, and transfer it to your baking sheet. Ta da! Perfectly shaped cookies!
Then after a quick trip to the oven…
Time to pour a glass of milk and enjoy your cookies! Although with how much my family loved these, you may need to bake a second batch to make sure you have enough for Santa on Christmas Eve… 😉
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 ultimate healthy gingerbread cookies!
The Ultimate Healthy Gingerbread Cookies
Ingredients
FOR THE COOKIES
- 1 cup + 6 tbsp (165g) white whole wheat flour (measured like this)
- ¾ tsp cornstarch
- ¼ tsp baking powder
- 1 ½ tsp ground ginger
- ¼ tsp ground cinnamon
- ⅛ tsp ground nutmeg
- ⅛ tsp ground cloves
- ¼ tsp salt
- 2 tbsp (28g) unsalted butter or coconut oil, melted and cooled slightly
- 1 large egg, room temperature
- 1 ½ tsp vanilla extract
- ¼ cup (60mL) molasses (not blackstrap!)
- 1 tsp vanilla crème stevia (see Notes!)
FOR THE ICING (optional)
- 10 tsp confectioners' style erythritol (see Notes!)
- 2 tsp nonfat milk (or adjusted to achieve your desired consistency)
Instructions
- To prepare the cookies, whisk together the flour, cornstarch, baking powder, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and salt in a medium bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk together the butter, egg, and vanilla extract. Stir in the molasses and vanilla stevia. Add in the flour mixture, stirring just until incorporated. Transfer the dough to the center of a large sheet of plastic wrap, and shape into a 1”-tall rectangle. Cover the top with another large sheet of plastic wrap. Chill the dough for at least 1 hour.
- Preheat the oven to 325°F, and line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats or parchment paper.
- Leaving the cookie dough between the sheets of plastic wrap, roll it out until ⅛” thick. Lightly flour your cookie cutter, and press it into the dough, making sure each shape lies as close to its neighbors as possible to minimize unused dough. Peel the unused dough away from the shapes, and place them onto the prepared baking sheets. Reroll the unused dough, and repeat.
- Bake the cut out cookie dough at 325°F for 8-10 minutes. Cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
- To prepare the icing, stir together the confectioner’s style erythritol and milk in a small bowl. Spoon into a zip-topped bag, and snip off the corner. Pipe onto the cooled cookies.
Notes
View Nutrition Information + Weight Watchers Points
You may also enjoy Amy’s other recipes…
♡ The Ultimate Healthy Sugar Cookies
♡ Soft-Baked Ginger Cookies
♡ Gingerbread Oatmeal Cookies
♡ Gingerbread Breakfast Cookies
♡ Classic Gingerbread with Maple Glaze
♡ Gingerbread Muffins
♡ Gingerbread Protein Overnight Oats
♡ Baked Gingerbread Donuts with Maple Glaze
♡ …and the rest of Amy’s healthy cookie recipes and healthy holiday recipes!
Note: The recipe video was sponsored by SweetLeaf®. As always, all thoughts, text, photos, videos, and recipes are my own.
UPDATE: Love this recipe! I am fine with the liquid Stevia, but my mother isn’t a huge fan of it, so I made a second batch with Swerve brown sugar in place of the Stevia. I replaced it with a half cup of the BS. I needed to add a touch more flour to balance out the wet and dry. Turned out amazing!!!!! Like I said though, the Stevia is really good, but you can switch it to the half cup of Swerve brown sugar if you like!
Thank you for sharing how you made your recipe work with Swerve.
It means so much that you tried making my recipe, Holly! You’re really sweet to make a version that your mom would enjoy too. (My mom isn’t a fan of the taste of stevia either, so I can relate to that! 😉 )
I’m truly sorry I’m just now getting back to you; I had to take a lot more time off than I anticipated to take care of some family things. I’m so glad your experiment was a big success — you’ve definitely got a baker’s intuition! Thank you for taking the time to share what you did and how it turned out too. I always love hearing what recipe modifications work!
Happy holidays to you and your loved ones!! ♡
Thank you so much for your kind reply! My elderly mother moved in with me and my husband in May of 2020. She is a diabetic heart patient. I LOVE LOVE baking and I am an experiencd cake decorator. Since she moved in with me, I have been switching up all of my (unhealthy) recipes to make them healthy for her and me. She has a seeet tooth, so I try to make sure she always has some. I love gingerbread cookies at the holidays, and happened to come across your recipe. It is, hands down, one of the best cookies ever! Thanks again! Happy holidays to you and your family!
WOW!!! Holly, you’re the biggest sweetheart and a true gem!! ♡ Your mother is incredibly lucky to have you. You’re so thoughtful to make homemade treats that suit her dietary needs! I’m truly honored that you’d call my recipe one of the best cookies ever too, especially with how talented of a baker you already are. That’s such a huge compliment — you just made my entire week!! Thank you, thank you, thank you!
What can you use instead of the liquid stevia? Just cane sugar??
We appreciate your interest in this recipe, Jan! We actually answered your exact question in the Notes section, directly below the recipe. I know it can be easy to miss, though! I’d love to hear what you think if you decide to try these gingerbread cookies!
Thank you…. The recipe you suggested turned out wonderful!
We’re so happy to hear you enjoyed these cookies, Jan! Thanks for taking the time to let us know and rate this recipe. It really means a lot!
Thank you…. I do like all of the alternatives Amy gives…… but I couldn’t understand it…… I thought I read I could use cane sugar instead of molasses and stevia. My question was to just replace the stevia…… and keep the molasses
I really appreciate your help.
Thank you
I reread it a fourth time and think I’ve it……. I can use cane sugar, 120g, and the molasses!
I have enjoyed these recipes for healthy eating
Thank You
We appreciate your kind words and are so happy you’re enjoying our recipes, Jane! That really means a lot. 🙂
Not quite! If you’d like to use molasses to make these gingerbread cookies, then you’ll need to use the stevia as well. Stevia is really concentrated, so 1 teaspoon of the vanilla stevia that we use is the sweetness equivalent of 6-8 tablespoons of granulated sugar.
If you’d like to use cane sugar (120g), then you’ll omit both the stevia and molasses. Cane sugar would be the only sweetener that you use. This is because sugar contributes to the liquid volume, so using it AND molasses will make the cookie dough too wet. The cookie dough will be more like muffin batter, and you won’t be able to roll it out or cut it into shapes!
However, we do have another molasses cookie recipe here that doesn’t use stevia! Perhaps that would be of interest to you? 🙂
Hi! I am so excited to try this recipe, but unfortunately, the link to the cookie cutter is not working…is there any way you could repost the link? I can’t wait!
I’m so happy to hear you’re excited about these cookies, Nia! I just checked the link and it seems to be working now! Sometimes there are temporary glitches that resolve themselves before we get a chance to fix them. It should open a link to Amazon with a Wilton set of three holiday cutters, including the gingerbread man that Amy uses! 😉 I’d love to see your cookies if you decide to try this recipe!
Hi, is there only 28 grams of butter in this recipe?
Yes, that’s correct! 🙂 I’d love to hear what you think of these gingerbread cookies if you try making them, Margaret!
Hi Amy, thank you very much for your reply😊 I will try these out and let you know how I get on. Sending my best wishes from Scotland, Margaret
It’s my pleasure, Margaret! I’m happy to help. I’m really looking forward to hearing what you think of these cookies! 🙂 Happy holidays to you and your loved ones!
Lovely Recipe. Thank you for this. For me, the Stevia Overpowers and ruins the taste. I’d rather have less Sweet than the artificial taste of Stevia. So I adapted the recipe. Thank you.
We’re happy to share, Shirley! Amy has some family members who are incredibly sensitive to stevia’s flavor. They can detect the tiniest trace of stevia in anything, even when nobody else can. It sounds like there’s a chance you might be the same way — so we’re glad you were able to find a way to modify this recipe to suit your personal tastes!
I’m curious if you happened to substitute a different stevia product? If so, do you mind sharing the exact brand + product name?
Sometimes knowing that information can give us more insight! 😉
Really good. Thanks for your tips about the stretchy dough and weighing ingredients. They turned yummy and I will make a double batch now that I’ve tested it the recipe.
I don’t have liquid stevia but I have a lot of powdered NOW brand Better Stevia. I mixed 1/4 cup of that with 1 cup boiled water and about 2 tsp. vanilla extract/mixed well and used 1 tsp of that as my liquid stevia. Even hubby says there is no aftertaste whatsoever. I’m new to this whole stevia thing.
I’m so happy to hear that you enjoyed these cookies, Beth! Thanks for taking the time to share and rate this recipe, it really means a lot! I appreciate you sharing your stevia modifications, too. We love to hear about recipe tweaks that work well! 🙂