This Vegan Gingerbread Men recipe is perfect for the festive season. Even though this is an egg-free and dairy-free recipe, the biscuit people are prepared with everyday store-cupboard ingredients and are deliciously soft inside and packed with delicious ginger flavours. We like to use raisins for the biscuit face as this gives them a nice vintage look.
Gingerbread men don't just have to be people-shaped; with a selection of cookie cutters, you can bake gingerbread snowmen (or snow-women), dogs, mittens, Christmas trees, cats, anything really. For a vintage touch, try adding features and details with chopped raisins or score on faces, clothes, and other designs using a skewer or toothpick. Once baked, you can decorate your gingerbread figures with vegan fondant icing, thick water icing, melted chocolate, cake sprinkles, and other decorations to create deliciously decorated treats.
Jump to:
What are gingerbread men?
Gingerbread men are an old-fashioned biscuit bake that is usually flavoured with ground ginger, along with syrup or treacle, flour, water or milk, and perhaps some butter and eggs. The biscuit dough is formed into men, women, or small child shapes with either a cookie cutter or by hand with a cutlery knife.
Gingerbread men are a variation of gingerbread cake or gingerbread slabs that were baked during the medieval era. Queen Elizabeth the first [1533-1603] is credited with starting the trend of baking gingerbread people as she had her own self, and those of her guests, baked into gingerbread figures for them to enjoy!
Gingerbread husbands
A very old British tradition was for unmarried woman to eat a gingerbread husband at All-Hallows Eve or Halloween. This ritual was intended to help find an actual real-life husband! Another old British tradition was for gentlemen to gift gingerbread figures to their suitors or sweethearts. As an extension of this old ritual it could be nice to bake gingerbread wives, boyfriends, girlfriends, or persons, especially for Valentine's Day or Halloween.
Gingerbread in children stories
If you'd like to read the old-fashioned tale of the gingerbread man then its available to read for free over on Project Gutenberg. The book is titled The Little Gingerbread Man by Robert Gaston Herbert and was first published in 1910. However, do read the story through before reading it to young children to ensure that it is suitable for your family.
If the gingerbread man story from Gutenberg project is not displaying properly, [the text was overlapping with other text while I was reading it] then the same story can also be found here over on americanliterature.com.
Ingredients
The ingredients you will need for this recipe are:
- plain flour [or all-purpose or cake flour]
- bicarbonate of soda [baking soda]
- ground ginger
- ground cinnamon
- salt [we used sea salt]
- dark brown sugar
- margarine/butter [we used Stork baking spread]
To decorate:
- raisins or sultanas or dried currants or dried cranberries
How to prepare
Step 1: Add the dark brown sugar, margarine and golden syrup [or light molasses] to a small saucepan. Gently melt until smooth.
Step 2: Add the plain flour, bicarbonate of soda [baking soda], ginger and cinnamon powder, and salt to a mixing bowl.
Step 3: Pour the melted ingredients into the bowl with the dry ingredients.
Step 4: Mix until a biscuit dough is formed.
Step 5: Pop the dough into the refrigerator for at least an hour to chill. This stage can be done a few days in advance.
Step 6: Once chilled place the dough onto a floured surface.
Step 7: Roll out the dough and cut out gingerbread figures.
Step 8: Decorate the figures with faces, buttons, and other details with little pieces of chopped raisins or other dried fruit. Gently press the raisins onto the biscuits.
Step 9: Bake for 10-12 minutes until golden and firm.
Small-medium gingerbread biscuits will take about 10 minutes and larger gingerbread figures will take around 12 minutes.
Step 10: Leave to cool for 5 minutes on the baking tray.
Step 11: Cool completely on a wire rack before adding any more decorations such as icing or melted chocolate.
Recipe notes
Storing
Gingerbread men will store well for up to 4-5 days within a covered cookie/cake/food tub or container. If storing for more than a few days wrap the biscuits in a layer of kitchen foil as this will maintain the gingerbreads texture. Store somewhere cool and dry. Gingerbread figures can be frozen for 3-4 months, well wrapped. The raisin decoration is fine for freezing.
FAQ'S
The gingerbread dough can be a little sticky or tacky after it has been prepared so chilling the gingerbread dough creates a dough that can be rolled and cut out much more easily. Ensuring the biscuit dough is chilled before rolling out results in the best textured and shaped gingerbread figures.
Also, if the gingerbread dough has been worked a lot during rolling and cutting out, then it's a good idea to stick the formed figures along with the baking tray in the refrigerator. If kids are preparing the biscuits then they may like to knead and play with the dough so do chill for at least 20 minutes before baking if necessary.
A gingerbread decorating station is a fun activity for parties or just for some festive fun. Anything sweet or tasty that can be used to decorate cakes, biscuits, ice-cream, hot chocolates, etc can be included. Although perhaps do not include fresh fruit unless of course the biscuits will be eaten soon after decorating.
Enjoy your decorated gingerbread people with a nice hot chocolate and stick on your favourite festive film.
A few decor ideas:
* water icing [powdered icing sugar and water] [you can add various colours to dye the icing. If your in the UK, Lidl have vegan food dyes in the bakery section] [the water icing can also be used as a glue to stick other decor on]
* sifted icing sugar [just sift it over the gingerbread]
* fondant style icing [Lidl have a packet of fondant icing that come in individual colours formed into little logs that are ready to roll. This product is labelled vegan. Use jam [whip the jam with a fork to make it easier to spread], or a little water to stick the fondant onto the gingerbread]
* melted chocolate [create little trousers by dipping the gingerbread men legs into the chocolate or use a small spoon to spread on to the biscuits]
* vegan chocolate spread
* biscoff spread
* fruit jam
* peanut butter or seed butter
* raisins, currants, apricots, cranberries, dates, any dried fruit can be chopped small and used as decor, either before baking or after
* freeze dried fruit
* dried banana chips
* crystalized ginger
* broken pretzels
* granola or muesli
* small breadsticks [those intended for dipping into dips or chocolate spread]
* small crackers
* desiccated coconut and coconut shards or flakes
* chopped nuts
* caraway seeds
* candied [glace] cherries
* candied chopped fruit
* small or chopped vegan sweeties or candy or cake decorations [the Doizy and Dam range have vegan style smarties, ballers which are like Maltesers, and chocolate covered peanuts] [other vegan friendly sweets include Jelly Tots, Millions [although do check the label as some flavours may not be], Candy Kittens, and Skittles]
* strawberry laces/pencils and similar sweeties [ Bebeto have a range of these types of sweets that are labelled vegan and tend to be relatively inexpensive. They can be found on Amazon UK as well]
* vegan chocolate drops/buttons/pieces
* roasted chickpeas/maize/peas [the type that you can buy ready-prepared as a snack]
* some types of breakfast cereal such as vegan friendly rice crispies/bubbles etc, either crushed or left whole
* crushed biscuits [such as lotus biscoff, bourbons, custard creams, some flavours of Oreos, etc]
* vegan marshmallows either mini or chopped larger ones
* got some marzipan left over from decorating a Christmas cake? use some to decorate the gingerbread [Lidl UK has marzipan that is labelled vegan]
* vegan cake pens
* liquorice
A happy cute gingerbread family! Baked gingerbread figures are soft inside but firm on the outside so are perfect for kids to create little edible play scenes.
More vegan gingerbread recipes
Gingerbread recipes are old-fashioned, homely, and perfect for tea-time. A few of our family favourite vegan gingerbread recipes are this old-fashioned Vegan Gingerbread Cake, and these lovely wee Gingerbread Biscuits. We also love these vintage Parkin Biscuits, and although these Scottish Treacle Scones are not gingerbread they are flavoured with ground ginger and so are a nice tasty gingerbread flavoured scone.
These three cute gingerbread snowmen found themselves stuck within a Scottish powdered sugar blizzard!
***please note: for US measurements click the 'US customary button' within the recipe and the measurements will switch to tablespoons, cups, and ounces.***
📖 Recipe
Vegan Gingerbread Men
Equipment
- Baking trays
- Baking paper.
- Small saucepan
- mixing spoon
- sieve
- Mixing bowl
- Rolling pin
- cookie or biscuit cutters [small-medium about 2-4 inch and large about 5-6 inch]
- cooling rack
Ingredients
- 200 grams golden syrup [or replace with light molasses]
- 100 grams dark brown sugar
- 160 grams vegan margarine/butter [such as Stork baking spread]
- 430 grams plain flour [all-purpose or cake flour]
- 1 ½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda [baking soda]
- 1 tablespoon ground ginger
- 2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ⅛ teaspoon salt [we used sea slat]
Decorate [optional]
- 2 tablespoons raisins [use more or less as required, chopped into small pieces, or replace with sultanas/dried currants/dried cranberries, etc]
Instructions
- Melt the margarine, sugar, and golden syrup together in the saucepan over a very low heat. Stir frequently and don't allow the mix to boil.200 grams golden syrup, 100 grams dark brown sugar, 160 grams vegan margarine/butter
- Sift the flour, bicarbonate of soda, ginger and cinnamon, into the mixing bowl.430 grams plain flour, 1 ½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda, 1 tablespoon ground ginger, 2 teaspoon ground cinnamon, ⅛ teaspoon salt
- Stir through the salt, and mix everything together.
- Pour and scrape all the liquid mixture into the mixing bowl with the dry ingredients.
- Mix it all together into a biscuit dough.
- Place the dough, along with the mixing bowl, into the refrigerator to chill for about an hour. [This step can be done a day or so in advance but if storing the dough for more than a few hours then cover the mixing bowl or wrap the dough in food wrap.]
- Preheat the oven to 180°C / 160°C fan / 356°F / Gas mark 4.
- Cover the baking trays with baking paper.
- If using raisins for decoration, chop these into small pieces.2 tablespoons raisins
- Halve the dough into 2 pieces as it will be easier to roll out. Keep one half in the chilled mixing bowl.Gently knead the dough for about 30 seconds.
- On a lightly floured work surface roll out the dough to about ¼ inch thick. Stamp out shapes with cookie or biscuit cutters.[thinner cookies will be crispier]
- Place the shapes onto the baking trays and leave about an inch between each biscuit.
- Decorate the biscuits with raisins, such as give the gingerbread figures eyes, noses and little happy smiles. A few raisin buttons are a cute addition. Don't press the raisins into the dough too hard, just place them on gently.
- If preparing gingerbread figures of different sizes then bake the larger ones together and the smaller ones together, so that they bake evenly.
- Bake small-medium sized cookies [about 3-4 inch long and about 2-3 inch at the widest part of the cookie cutter] for about 10 minutes on the middle shelf.Bake larger gingerbread figures [about 5 ½-6 inch long and about 4 ½ inch wide] for 12 minutes on the middle oven shelf.
- For smaller or larger cookies just adjust the cooking times, or bake until the gingerbread has coloured and is firm to the touch. Don't press too hard as the cookies will be soft inside.
- If the gingerbread is baked longer it will be more crisp on the outside and if the dough is rolled out thinner they will bake up to a more crisp texture depending on the thinness rolled.
- Once baked leave for 5 minutes on the baking sheet before removing to cool on a cooling rack.
Optional: Decorate
- Once cool the gingerbread can be decorated with a simple water icing [about 100grams [4 oz] of sifted powdered icing sugar mixed with a few teaspoons of water until the consistency is what you like. This icing will set firm. The water icing can be prepared quite thick and then added to a piping bag or simply applied with a small teaspoon, knife or even a flat lolly-pop stick.Vegan food colours can be used to dye the prepared water icing.The icing can be used as a tasty glue to stick on small pieces of vegan candy, sweeties or cake sprinkles, etc.Dipping the figures legs into melted chocolate will kit them out with little sweet trousers!
Notes
- Nutritional information is provided for guidance only and is not an exact calculation as ingredients can vary.
- Nutritional analysis does not include the optional raisins or any decoration.
- Store gingerbread cookies for up to 4-5 days, possibly a day or so longer if kept covered, somewhere cool and dry.
- If storing for a few days the biscuits will be fine in a cake or cookie jar.
- Wrap in kitchen foil for longer storage.
- Freeze un-iced gingerbread figures for 3-4 months, possibly a little longer. Iced gingerbread can also be frozen, but for best results it's better to decorate after defrosting.
- If golden syrup is difficult to come by, use light molasses. A darker molasses can be used but the gingerbread will taste richer.
Nutrition
Comments
Prepared our Vegan Gingerbread men recipe? Do let us know how you got on with the recipe by leaving us a comment below and clicking the star ratings. All feedback is very much appreciated. Thanks so much! Jacq x
Leave a Reply