Healthier Gingerbread Cookies
Classic gingerbread cookies, made more healthy! These gingerbread cookies are easy to make with whole wheat flour, molasses and coconut oil.
Updated by Kathryne Taylor on September 19, 2024
Too soon for gingerbread cookies? I hear everyone who put up their Christmas tree this weekend shouting, “No!” These are for you, my cinnamon candle-burning, Nat King Cole-playing friends. I appreciate your enthusiasm.
I usually get all bah-humbug Christmas baby this time of year, since the holiday completely overshadows my December 25th birthday if I’m not careful. I’m already planning my 30th birthday celebrations (with help, thankfully!) and have resolved to embrace the holiday cheer this time around.
I’ll probably make more batches of gingerbread cookies to share with friends this year, too, now that I’ve perfected the recipe. They’re so fun to make! I made a few simple substitutions to turn classic gingerbread cookies into healthier gingerbread cookies, without sacrificing flavor.
The result is a dough that is remarkably easy to make (no mixer required) and manage (it might as well be Play-Doh!).
How to Make Healthier Gingerbread Cookies
My substitutions include swapping coconut oil for butter, coconut sugar for brown sugar and whole wheat pastry flour for all purpose. All of those ingredients are becoming more mainstream now as their health benefits become more apparent.
Whole wheat pastry flour is one of my favorite subtle nutrition upgrades. It possesses all of the health benefits of whole wheat flour, but it’s more finely ground, lighter in taste and produces marvelously tender whole grain goodies.
It’s a great substitute for all-purpose flour in cookies, pie crusts and in many recipes that call for baking powder and/or baking soda for leavening. (You don’t want to use whole wheat pastry flour in yeasted recipes, like pizza dough. It just won’t work.)
These cookies turned out perfectly with 100 percent whole wheat pastry flour. I don’t think anyone would be able to tell that these cookies are made with whole grain flour! They’re crisp, spiced and delicious.
Molasses & Spice Notes
You can control the level of spice and flavor intensity by carefully choosing your molasses. I tried a lighter molasses and blackstrap molasses. The light molasses produces cookies with lighter color and flavor, naturally. If you’re making these cookies for kids with sensitive palates, you might want to choose light molasses and maybe even use half of the spices specified below.
If you want dark, intense cookies with an almost dark chocolate-level of richness, use blackstrap molasses and the full amount of spices. Blackstrap molasses offers greater nutritional value as well, since both the flavors and minerals present in molasses are more concentrated. Who would have guessed that a by-product in sugar production could be so high in potassium, iron, Vitamin B6, calcium and magnesium?
How to Decorate Your Cookies
You also have a few options when it comes to decorating your cookies. You could enjoy them plain, of course. They are not overtly sweet, though, and they look more festive with some decoration.
Options include sprinkling the cookie dough shapes with sparkling turbinado (raw) sugar or dusting them with additional coconut sugar before baking. You can ice them with the lemony icing offered below, which requires some powdered sugar (here’s how to make your own with less refined sugar) and/or sprinkle them with powdered sugar, which looks like snow. You could use a traditional royal icing, which calls for raw egg yolks and completely hardens on the cookie. Or, you could melt chocolate chips and drizzle chocolate on top. It’s up to you!
Healthier Gingerbread Cookies
Here’s a healthy version of your favorite classic gingerbread cookies! This gingerbread cookie recipe is healthier because of a few simple substitutions—I substituted whole wheat pastry flour for all purpose flour, coconut oil for butter and coconut sugar for brown sugar. See notes provided in the paragraphs above for tips and suggestions on choosing your molasses and decorations. Recipe yields around 32 cookies, depending on their size.
Ingredients
Cookies
- 3 cups (345 grams) whole wheat pastry flour*, spooned and leveled, plus more for work surface
- 2 teaspoons ground ginger
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- ¾ teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ teaspoon ground cloves
- ½ teaspoon finely ground black pepper
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ cup melted coconut oil
- ½ cup unsulphured molasses (use regular molasses for lighter, somewhat spicy cookies or blackstrap molasses for very spicy, intensely flavored cookies—or a mixture of both)
- ½ cup packed coconut sugar
- 1 large egg
- Powdered sugar, for dusting (optional)
Lemon icing (optional)
- ½ cup powdered sugar (here’s how to make your own)
- ¼ teaspoon lemon zest (optional, for intense lemon flavor)
- 2 ¼ teaspoons lemon juice
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit with racks in the middle and upper third of the oven. Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper. In a medium mixing bowl, combine the flour, ginger, cinnamon, salt, cloves, pepper, baking soda and baking powder. Whisk until blended.
- In a small mixing bowl, combine the coconut oil and molasses and whisk until combined. Add the coconut sugar and whisk until blended. (If the sugar is gloppy and won’t incorporate into the mixture, warm the mixture for about 20 seconds in the microwave or over low heat on the stove, just until you can whisk it all together.) Add the egg and whisk until the mixture is thoroughly blended.
- Pour the liquid mixture into the dry and mix just until combined. (If it seems like you don’t have enough liquid, just keep mixing!) Divide the dough in half. Shape each half into a round disc about 1 inch thick.
- Lightly flour your working surface and roll out one of your discs until it’s ¼ inch thick. Use cookie cutters to cut out cookie shapes and place each cookie on a parchment-lined baking sheet, leaving about ½ inch of space around each one (this dough just barely expands during baking).
- Combine your dough scraps into a ball and roll them out again, repeating until you have used up all of your dough. Repeat with the remaining disc. (If you’d like to decorate the cookies with granulated sugar like turbinado or extra coconut sugar, sprinkle it onto the cookies now.)
- Place baking sheets in the oven, one on the middle rack and one on the upper. Bake for 8 to 11 minutes; for softer cookies, pull them out around 8 minutes and for more crisp cookies, bake for up to 11 minutes. The cookies will further crisp as they cool. Place the baking sheets on cooling racks to cool.
- If you’d like to ice the cookies and/or sprinkle them with powdered sugar, wait until they have completely cooled to do so. To make the icing, in a small bowl, combine the powdered sugar, optional lemon zest and the lemon juice. Whisk until thoroughly blended. Transfer the icing into a small Ziploc bag, squeeze out any excess air and seal the bag. Cut off a tiny piece of one of the lower corners and squeeze icing through the hole to decorate the cookies as desired. The frosting will harden eventually, but it won’t ever be as indestructible as royal icing.
- If you’d like to sift powdered sugar over the cookies, do it now. Wait until the icing has firmed up (about 1 hour) before carefully stacking the cookies in a storage container. Cookies will keep for up to 1 week at room temperature.
Notes
Recipe adapted from Martha Stewart, on Smitten Kitchen’s recommendation. Recipe updated in December 2018 to remove whole wheat flour as an option—it doesn’t work well. My sincere apologies to anyone who was disappointed by their cookies.
*Flour notes: This recipe works great with whole wheat pastry flour. You can generally find whole wheat pastry flour at well-stocked grocery stores, as well as health food stores. All-purpose flour will also work. The dough tends to be hard and crumbly when made with regular whole wheat flour so I don’t recommend it.
Make it vegan/egg free: A couple of readers have reported that the cookies turn out well with a flax egg.
2025 recipe update: After retesting this recipe, I realized that the chilling step is unnecessary, so this recipe has become even easier! I removed the following from the recipe: wrap the discs in plastic wrap. Place both discs in the refrigerator and chill until cold—about 1 hour, or up to overnight. If the dough is very hard or crumbly, just roll it as best you can and then let it rest for a few minutes to warm up. Repeat until you’ve successfully rolled the dough to ¼ inch thickness.
Nutrition
The information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice. See our full nutrition disclosure here.
Would it be possible to substitute black treacle for molasses?
I’m sorry, I’m not sure!
Mine are too crumbly what do I need more of?
Thanks!!
Have you given the dough time to warm up a bit? The coconut oil can be a little brittle if it’s too cold.
It doesn’t matter that Christmas is over; I made these cookies yesterday and they are delicious! I will make them year round. Thanks for this wonderful recipe.
OH NO :-/ something went wrong… my dough is flaky, when I roll it it falls apart. I put it back in the fridge and now it’s really hard. How can I save it?
I rarely take the time to comment, and only came back to this site because I realized that one of my favorite recipes comes from it.. (THIS RECIPE). I altered it a little. Instead of 1/2 cup mollassas and 1/2 c sugar, I used nearly 3/4 c. mollassas and nearly 3/4 c. honey. I LOVED it. Plus, I upped the spices. I had literally tried at least 4-5 other gingerbread recipes and tried to make them healthy…to no avail. I am so grateful for this one. Thank you!! You help my Christmas expectations come to life! Thanks for the tip on the icing toping to keep in the moisture. I also added candied ginger for fun and because I had some on hand. If you like this recipe and are health conscious, you might also like ‘Whole Wheat Ginger Snaps’ on allrecipes.com submitted by MRSDAYCARE. DONT USE BLACKSTRAP MOLASSAS. I used Briar Rabbits.
Making these right now! Letting it sit in the fridge for an hour. Aghh can’t wait! Also, I’m in super healthy mode right now so I didn’t put brown sugar so I replaced it with organic agave syrup. Also, had a mix of millet flour & buckwheat! Will comment again on how it tastes!
Also, I replaced the molasses with pure honey!
My thoughts, it’s really good! Not your average gingerbread cookie but considering its gluten-free, sugar-free and vegan (replaced mine with flax egg), its really good! Try it out :) Thanks for the recipe!
I’m just wondering if these cookies would freeze well? Not the dough, but the actual cookies once baked? I love gingerbread and so does my toddler but no one else in the family does and I don’t want to make a whole batch and have them go to waste! Thank you!
Yes, they do!
I’ve just made the dough but it is SO dry and crumbly I could barely get it into a ball, I added a little vegetable oil to try and moisten the mixture up but no luck… I’ve got it sitting in the fridge at the moment but am considering just tossing it because I know it won’t roll out… I measured everything exactly, what did I do wrong?
Oh no! I’m sorry to hear that happened. It sounds like your batch perhaps had too much flour in it. That can happen if you measured your flour differently than I did. I use the spoon and swoop method—spoon flour into the cups, then level off the top with a knife. If you scooped the flour into the cups directly, you could end up with almost twice as much flour.
Why would you use coconut oil in lieu of butter?
It has LOADS more saturated fat (89% to butter’s 51%) and not the good kind of saturated fat. Most of the saturated fat in coconut oil is low-density lipoprotein (the choleasterol that clogs arteries) with only trace amounts of high-density lipoprotein (the good cholesterol).
There’s a lot of fiction on the internet that says coconuts are natural and not processed so must be good for you – WRONG!, ask any dietician or doctor.
You may as well use butter…
Hi Dr. Seine, I wouldn’t recommend swigging coconut oil or butter, but I think coconut oil is a healthy fat. Its saturated fat is composed of nearly 50 percent lauric acid, a relatively unique fatty acid that offers anti-viral and anti-bacterial benefits. (Lauric acid is why coconut oil lasts so long at room temperature before going rancid). It also has the potential to raise HDL levels (the good kind of cholesterol), but some experts are still skeptical given the saturated fat content.
Thanks for your reply…
Indeed. Many think that coconut oil is a healthy fat due to misleading claims by (surprise, surprise) coconut oil manufacturers.
Lauric acid is a medium-chain fatty acid that aids absorbsion of nutrients and not always the good nutrients. Research is still on-going as to how lauric acids interact with the body to raise LDL cholesterol in the blood, but they do know that coconut oil indeed does raise LDL levels. The levels of HDL cholesterol is incosequential as it is readily absorbed by the liver anyway; raising LDL cholesterol is bad regardless of how much HDL cholesterol you get.
A lot of the confusion regarding health benefits of coconut oil are either fact twisting or not put into the correct context.
For example you comment regarding lauric acid and it’s anti-bacterial/viral effect: While it is true that your ‘skin’ could be better off by the application of lauric acid (used in soaps and cosmetics) the usefulness of those properties in food are almost pointless.
Still, out-of-context claims like this are used by oil producers to keep consumers confused and let them fall back on the ‘it’s natural so it must be good’ argument, which is false.
Don’t take my word for it though (or the word of coconut oil producers for that matter). Go read what many scientific studies have said regarding coconut oil.
Hi there! So I really NEVER take the time to post on peoples Blogs, however, this needed a special comment.
I actually made these cookies. I was a bit skeptical….but doubt be gone! They are AMAZING! They totally taste like regular gingerbread made with butter! I couldn’t believe it. They were unbelievably easy to roll and cut, and baked up perfectly! I did leave the dough in the fridge over-night, and I doubled up on the spices, as I like mine spicy. For anyone who is thinking about making this recipe…I say, go for it!
Thank you, M! I really appreciate it! Delighted to hear that the cookies turned out great for you.
I wanted this to be great. It was a pile of dry goop. This is my 3rd try on this site, and I guess the last.
Hi Kay, really bummed to hear you’ve had trouble with my recipes. I can try my best to troubleshoot if you provide more details. The coconut oil hardens in the refrigerator, but loosens up again once it warms up a bit.
looks so yummy!
I tried your recipe this year after bookmarking it last year! Came out *very* good! The texture, flavor, and sweetness came out perfect. Is it because of the coconut oil? Also I loved that this was simpler and healthier than typical gingerbread recipes. Simpler is best in my opinion! These cookies will be xmas gifts and I’m positive they will make their recipients happy. :) Thanks for sharing your recipe!
I am trying to make these cookies, the dough is way too dry. I’ve added extra oil and an extra egg and its still a sand like consistency. I cant roll it or shape it at all. Though I like the ingredients involved, will not use this recipe again.
Amen Karen!
Has anyone tried to make this with a flax egg? Did it work well? I made these last christmas (super yum), but I have since gone vegan.
EEk! I’m making these right now and the dough is SO crumbly! Is there a way to put more liquid in? I’ve been mixing and mixing to no avail.
Thank you for sharing the recipe! I bookmarked it and will make it for Christmas this year :D
How many cookies does this recipe make? ?
Hi Kate! Thanks for your great recipes – love your banana bread! I just made the dough for these gingerbread cookies, and it was really crumbly. After shaping it into discs, there were lines through it as if it would just break off in pieces…chilling it now but just wanted to know if you have any other tips? I used 310g whole-wheat flour and heated the coconut oil…=(
THANKS!
Can we use honey instead of molasses?
Made these three times now. They turn out great but I’ve always had to add extra liquids.
Flax egg works great to make them vegan.
Now it’s 5 times. Can’t get enough.
I’m so excited about these cookies, but I just made the dough and after mixing and mixing, it is barely coming together. I added more oil and a few drips of water, but still it barely holds. Hopefully the fridge will do the trick?!
Hi Kate!
Just made this recipe- They are delicious! I had to substitute two things: the coconut sugar for dark brown sugar, and also wheat flour instead of wheat pastry flour… but they still taste great. I the lemon icing – it really helps balance out the wheat flour. Thanks for sharing!
So good! Made these with my 2 year old and it was’t too spicy or too sweet. Just perfect.
Hi Kate,
as always, a perfect recipe. My whole flat smells like gingerbread from last night’s baking.
Thank you! They beautifully kept shape and the one I tried was deliciously crunchy.
Thank you! And Merry Christmas!
Jana xx
Thank you so much, Jana! Happy holidays!
very good cookies! thank you! we made mini cookies, like animal cracker size and they were a big hit. I filled 4 cookie trays with them.
the icing didn’t stand up for me so I added vegan butter as I was making a vegan version of this. Yummy.
Best results ever. Just what I wanted for a gingerbread man recipe, good natural ingredients, straightforward clear directions, delicious results. I only got 16 cookies out of this batch (I have the same cookie cutter set as in the photos). I probably could have rolled them a little thinner but they are perfect for decorating without falling apart. Definitely saving and sharing this one.
I made these over the weekend for the festive season to give to friends but unfortunately found them to be rather dry once cooked but were really greasy when rolling altgough cracked a lot! They also lacked any real flavours so more spices needed I think. Also the icing makes a small really thin amount so I doubled this and added more sugar to make it thicker but once cooled and left it made the cookies look unappealing as it had turned a weird colour. Not sure where I went wrong with this recipe but didn’t really work well for me.
Any thoughts on subbing honey for the sugar?
Sorry, I don’t think honey will work well since it adds so much moisture and changes the texture. Coconut sugar is a natural, minimally refined sugar that works great here.
Chemically, coconut sugar is not significantly different than white or brown sugar. It is not safe for a diabetic.
Dough is crumbly and dry (before I even put in fridge). Throwing it all out…what a waste of time.
Yaaaaassssssss Erin!
Hi Kate!
Can’t wait to try these tomorrow! Can I sub maple syrup for molasses?
Sorry for the delayed response—you could, but you’d miss out on the characteristic gingerbread flavor.
These gingerbread cookies turned out great! We were very excited and our dairy eating friends enjoyed them too!!
I think I will try to do a gluten free version of this tonight. =) Great for a Christmas Eve dessert!
Thank you sooooo much for coming up with this recipe! I will be making is asap. Thank God there are people like you who know what healthier means in a recipe.
was looking forward to making these for my Christmas party but the dough is completely crumbly and falling to pieces, i let it sit overnight and i can’t make it into dough at all….
Hi Sam, it probably just needs to warm up a bit. Coconut oil can be brittle when it’s too cold.
Sam- same thing happened to me. The dough was just unusable.
Made dough and just took out of fridge one day later to make cookies with my toddler and the dough is really, really hard. I’m letting it sit out to warm but worth letting others know to plan for this. Hoping it will be soft enough to roll eventually. Any other tricks?
Since I ran out of Trader Joes gingerbread men, and they wont be out for another year….I had a strong craving for gingerbread the last couple of weeks, I went to my go to healthy recipe site and was so happy to find the recipe. I just made these and they are wonderful. I didn’t want to use wheat flour so I used 2 cups of almond flour and 1 cup of brown rice flour. I also used a regular egg as eggs are fine on my diet. I just made round cookies as it didn’t roll out after an hour and too weak to wait till tomorrow. I was so pleased with how they came out. My husband and my 21 year old son loved them as well. This recipe will be my regular. Thanks so much Kate!!
YES these are great for cravings outside of the holiday season! So glad the family enjoyed them.
Well I tried them and they taste so good but the dough split and I couldn’t shake it I just made rounded cookies and my kids loved them
Can u tell how to make the dough come together next time
Thanks
Hi Sylvia, it sounds like your dough needed to rest a little longer in a warm environment. When it’s too cold, the coconut is solid and can cause the dough to split rather than roll out smoothly.
Hello, these look great… do you think a gluten free flour mix would work with these?
Thank you!
Hi Tiffany – I haven’t tried them yet, gluten free. But, I know that the Bob’s Red Mill gluten free all purpose flour has worked well as a gluten free substitute in the past. Let me know how it goes if you give it a try!
We made these last year and they were delicious! Was wondering if I could freeze the dough a couple weeks ahead of time?
Hi Krista – I haven’t tried freezing the dough for these, but it should work. For thawing, I would recommend thawing in the fridge and bring the dough to close room temperature before using to make it soft enough to handle. Let me know how it goes for you!
Hi, Kate!
My toddler and I love your healthier cookies and muffins, and bake together frequently! I was wondering if I could substitute maple syrup for the coconut sugar? I only have maple syrup and honey on hand as sweeteners…. I would prefer not to use sugar if possible.
Thanks!
Hi Claire, I’m sorry, liquid sweeteners won’t produce cookies with the same texture as you see here. Coconut sugar is minimally processed, so it’s about the same as using maple syrup or honey.
Yum! Perfect, thank you.I love making gingerbread each Christmas as gifts, and these taste perfect. Great texture too. And so easy to make!
What a fun idea, Karen! I am happy this recipe made the cut. Thanks so much for the review!
Is it possible to use all purpose flour instead of whole wheat flour?
Made it with honey instead of coconut sugar. Worked great. It’s a bit more moist so I added extra flour during rolling out stage. It’s perfect!
I am happy it worked, Tara and that you liked them so much! Thanks for your review.
Thanks for the recipe. I am at the rolling stage and my dough is quite dry, suggestions?
I tried this recipe and it failed miserably. It was a crumbly mess from the start, even with adding 3 extra eggs and a quarter cup of water. Biggest down side of cooking with coconut flour.
I’m sorry to hear that, Ashley! Unfortunately, coconut flour isn’t a 1-1 substitute here. It will soak up all the moisture and doesn’t have the same adhering properties.
Yes, I learned that the hard way. I did get everything I need to try the recipe again, without the coconut flour. My mom’s chickens will love their gingerbread biscuits and that’s a plus! The learn experience will now be turned into eggs.
We love this recipe-I have to hide these cookies otherwise they don’t last an hour in our house:)
I know what you mean, Rachel! Thanks for the review.
These were delicious. Made them with my kids. Used white whole wheat flour, as that’s all I had. Baked at 350 for 8 minutes. Yummy!!! Thank you.
Great! Thank you, Rachel.
We just kept mixing and then we just rolled the best we could and the best we could get was gingerbread granola.
I’m sorry to hear that, Linda. As you can see in the comments, these cookies turn out beautifully for most but not all. I’m investigating to see if I can determine what goes wrong for some. I stand behind my recipes and truly hate to hear that you’ve been disappointed by one of them.
I tried this recipe and would not recommend it at all. The dough was very crumbly and after refrigeration for 1 hour it could not be rolled out even after leaving it at room temp for 30 minutes. I ended up scraping the whole thing. I followed the directions exactly as written. I would not waste my time and ingredients again. Such a shame as I regularly use C&K recipes and never had any issues prior to this one.
Hi Jaime, I’m so bummed you had trouble with the cookies. I’ve heard from some other commenters with similar issues but have not been able to reproduce them to figure out what might be going on! As you can see in my photos and from other comments, they can turn out great. I’ll remake them this weekend to try to figure it out. I hope you’ll continue cooking from Cookie and Kate and would love to hear how your other recipes turn out.