These nut free gingerbread cookies are fun, easy, and so tasty, and you’ll never know that they are paleo and AIP! Made with cassava flour and coconut flour, and sweetened with maple syrup.
Gingerbread cookies always get me in such a fun and festive mood. It’s everything about it, from cutting out the shapes, seeing them plump up while baking, and decorating them at the end. All with holiday music playing in the background. That’s why I loved making these nut free gingerbread cookies and I’m so excited to share them with you.
AIP and Paleo Gingerbread Cookies Recipe
These nut free gingerbread cookies use cassava flour and coconut flour, and they are sweetened with maple syrup and no refined sugars. They use healthier ingredients, but don’t worry, they taste as indulgent as the traditional kind and they are easy to roll out too!
I thought the texture might be more difficult to work with, but that’s definitely not the case. The dough doesn’t break easily, it’s flexible, and yield the most adorable gluten free gingerbread men. I’m so excited to have these paleo cut out cookies in my life and I’ll be making them every holiday season!
Coconut Butter Icing
It’s difficult to find paleo-friendly store-bought icing (this frosting could work, but it won’t harden like icing). Luckily, homemade icing for these paleo cut out cookies are actually quite simple and easy to make! It just requires coconut butter, coconut oil, and honey.
Coconut butter is easy to work with when melted and will harden like icing once cooled. However, there are 2 things to note using this icing:
- Don’t use a cheap brand of coconut butter. I found that some brands separate when melted. This is my favorite coconut butter that works perfectly every time.
- It’s important to heat up coconut butter slowly for it to melt properly. I like to microwave it at 10 second increments. If you don’t have a microwave, you can put the whole jar in a bowl of hot water for 10 minutes until liquified. Stir before using.
- Try to work quickly once the icing is made to decorate these nut free gingerbread cookies. It’ll harden once it’s cooled.
Tips For Making These Paleo Gingerbread Men
- Don’t over-mix the batter. Stop when everything is just incorporated together.
- The dough will be wet at first. It’s important to chill it in the fridge so it can firm up. If you are NOT making these into paleo cut out cookies and just want a regular cookie shape, no need to chill. You can just drop them on a prepared baking sheet, flatten them, and bake for the same length of time.
- Cool the cookies completely before icing, so the coconut butter doesn’t melt while icing.
Other recipes you might love…
- AIP & Paleo Sugar Cookies
- Cranberry Pistachio Paleo Chocolate Cookie
- Nut-Free Cassava Flour Chocolate Chip Cookies (Paleo, Vegan, Gluten Free)
- Paleo & Vegan Salted Caramel Thumbprint Cookies
Paleo Nut Free Gingerbread Cookies (AIP-Friendly, Vegan-Option)
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup cassava flour plus more for rolling
- 1/4 cup coconut flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp sea salt
- 2 tsp ground ginger
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1/3 cup maple syrup
- 1/2 cup coconut oil or ghee, for paleo
- 2 tbsp blackstrap molasses
Icing
- 1/4 cup coconut butter
- 2 tbsp coconut oil
- 1 tsp honey or maple syrup, for vegan
Instructions
- In a large bowl, mix together cassava flour, coconut flour, baking soda, sea salt, ginger, and cinnamon.
- In separate bowl, whisk together maple syrup, coconut oil and molasses.
- Add wet ingredients to dry and mix together until a dough form.
- Wrap the dough in a plastic wrap, and let it chill in the fridge for 20 minutes to set.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
- Remove the dough from the fridge and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Place the dough on another sheet of parchment paper.
- Place another sheet of parchment paper on top of the dough to prevent from sticking, and use a rolling pin to roll the dough into an even 1/4 inch layer.
- Cut into shapes and use a spatula to gently place the cut-out dough on the prepared baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining dough.
- Bake for 10-11 minutes until the cookies are slightly browned on the outside, but still soft at the center.
- Cool on the baking sheet for 20 minutes before removing. The cookies will firm up more as they cool. Cool completely before decorating with icing.
- Make the icing: Melt coconut butter by microwaving in 10 second increments. You can also place the jar in a bowl of hot water for several minutes. Be careful not to heat up too quickly as coconut butter can separate if that happens.
- Add coconut oil and and honey and stir together.
- You can drizzle the icing over the cookies, or place it in a piping bag to decorate. Work quickly as the coconut butter will harden as it cools.
- Wait until the icing is completely cooled before enjoying the cookies.
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Very festive! Great for childrn to join in and make too!
This looks like a great base for all kinds of shapes. I love that you took such a classic recipe and made it paleo + nut-free!
So cute! My kids are gonna love them. 🙂
These are super cute!
These are adorable and held up to the cookie cutter-ing . . which many Paleo cookie recipes don’t I have found! So tasty
These are so cute and very fun to make!
Nothing better than a delicious gingerbread cookie, and even better that these are paleo and nut-free!
These are so cute, fun, and perfect for the holidays!
Wow, these are just the cutest, festive, paleo cookies! Great fun baking these with my kiddos during the holidays.
Thanks for the recipe! I’m a little confused with the egg and the molasses. The ingredient list is different than your instructions. Are those optional for aip? Should I do an egg sub?
Thanks!
Oops sorry about that! Sometimes there’s glitch in my recipe card and can mix up with another recipe. It’s fixed now!
These are so delicious! Hard to find paleo nut-free recipes. These turned out so good and hit the spot!
Yay! I’m so glad!!
I actually made these because I reach out of gf flour. I don’t usually use my cassava flour to make cookies with the grandkids. This recipe is unbelievable. Add an avid baker, I always know when a dough is good. This dough is soft and eat to use. I doubled the recipe and made giant gingerbread men and women for the grandkids and ginger snaps the my brother-in-law. I actually read the recipe wrong and mixed up the maple syrup and the molasses but I love molasses so they turned out awesome!
Thank you so much, Lisa!! I’m so happy your family got to enjoy them!
I have a question about the nutritional info. What size cookie if that? It’s it iced?
The nutritional info if you made 16 cookies out of the dough, and I based that on a standard gingerbread cutout. And yes, that includes the icing in the recipe.
Awesome recipe! The dough was super tasty too. Plan on making again tonight since I ate the last batch within a few days.
That’s so great to hear, Kristina. Thanks for leaving a review!
I’m looking to make some with my toddler this xmas, is there any other flour I cam use instead if cassava? Thanks!
Hi there! Is it possible to make this as a gingerbread loaf?
Unfortunately, the texture isn’t made for a loaf. You can try this gingerbread loaf recipe though!: https://whatgreatgrandmaate.com/gluten-free-gingerbread-loaf/