These one-bowl soft Vegan Ginger Cookies are easy to make! They're soft, chewy, and coated with crunchy sugar, bursting with classic ginger flavor. Perfect for the holiday season.
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We love smelling these vegan molasses cookies in the oven during the holidays.
My first attempts at this recipe yielded cookies that were too puffy and didn’t spread enough, not what I was going for! But after a few adjustments, these ones are just right - soft, chewy, and absolutely delicious.
And if you love all things ginger then also check out our classic southern sweet potato bread or our sweet potato ginger muffins.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- You’ll love the complex flavors of the ground cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg.
- A classic holiday cookie. Perfect for the holidays.
- No Chill time needed for cookie dough.
Key Ingredients
You'll need the following ingredients to make these soft vegan ginger molasses cookies:
All Purpose Flour - gives the cookies structure and helps create a tender texture.
Molasses - a staple in any gingerbread recipe. Molasses helps give the cookies a deep flavor and brown color. Use regular unsulphured molasses and not blackstrap molasses. It is sometimes called fancy or mild.
Ginger - it wouldn’t be a gingerbread cookies recipe without ginger flavor. We skip using fresh ginger to keep this recipe simple.
Spices – a blend of ground nutmeg and cinnamon add the perfect amount of warmth to these cookies.
Vegan Butter - for softness and flavor. Use softened butter. If it's overly warm or soft, the cookies will spread more. We like Country Crock Plant Butter and Miyoko's Plant Milk butter brands.
Granulated White Sugar & Brown Sugar - we prefer light brown sugar vs using dark brown sugar but feel free to use dark brown sugar for even more rich delicious molasses taste. Plus about two tablespoons of sugar for rolling the dough balls.
Ground Flaxseed - used as an egg replacer.
Vanilla Extract - for flavor and it helps balance out all of those strong spices.
Baking Soda - to help the cookies rise while baking.
Detailed ingredients, measurements, and instructions are provided at the end of this post in the printable recipe card. This recipe has not been tested with substitutions or variations. If you make any changes, please share your results in the comments!
Step By Step Instructions
Step 1: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line a large baking sheet.
Step 2: Mix ground flaxseed and water to make flax egg and set aside.
Make the gingerbread dough.
Step 3: With a hand mixer on medium speed, cream together the vegan butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar for 2 minutes.
Step 4: Stir in the wet ingredients: molasses, flax eggs, and vanilla until well combined.
Step 5: In a large bowl. Stir in the dry ingredients and spices, mixing until the dough forms into a ball. The dough will be thick but not dry.
Step 6: Set aside a dish with a cup of sugar for rolling the cookies.
Step 7: Scoop out 1 heaping tablespoon of dough. Shape the dough into cookie balls. Roll the balls in sugar and place the cookies on a parchment lined baking sheet 2 inches apart, flattening slightly with your hand.
Step 8: Bake in the preheated oven for 11 -12 minutes, until the tops start to crack and they are slightly golden on the bottoms. They will be soft, but will firm up as they cool.
Step 9: Allow to cool for about 10 minutes, then eat!
Expert Baking Tips
- Grating butter is a quick way to soften it. It takes 5-10 minutes to soften butter using a grater.
- To ensure your cookie top is crinkly and cracked, be sure to roll it in either turbinado or granulated sugar. Coating the cookies with either type of sugar draws out moisture from their surface, promoting cracks by drying out the top of the cookie before the interiors set. Granulated sugar actually achieves this more efficiently due to its coarse, crystalline structure
- If the dough seems overly sticky. Refrigerate it for an hour until it is firm enough to scoop. Chilling the dough usually fixes the problem!
Recipe FAQ’s
If you do not have molasses on hand. Try substituting with maple syrup, date syrup, sorghum syrup, agave syrup or brown rice syrup. Please note the flavor and texture of your ginger cookies will change. Be sure to use regular unsulphured molasses (brands like Grandma’s) and not blackstrap molasses. The taste of blackstrap molasses is bitter and salty and will make your cookie inedible.
Storing And Freezing Cookies
Store - These cookies will keep for up to 4 days at room temperature; store in an airtight container to ensure your cookies don’t dry out.
Freezing the dough - Place shaped uncooked cookie dough balls on a small parchment-lined baking sheet that will fit into your freeze.
Remove frozen dough from freezer and transfer to a freezer safe bag or container. Wrap in at least one layer of foil for extra protection. Freeze for up to 2 month.
When you're ready, thaw in the fridge overnight. Roll the dough in sugar and bake according to the recipe.
Did you try this recipe? Leave a ⭐️ rating below and share it on Instagram and Pinterest!
📖 Recipe
Soft Vegan Ginger Cookies
If you love this recipe as much as we do, let us know with a 5-star rating!
Equipment
- 2 Rimmed Baking Sheet
Ingredients
Wet Ingredients
- ¾ cup vegan butter softened to room temperature
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- ½ cup brown sugar packed
- 4 tablespoon molasses
- 2 tablespoon ground flaxseed mixed with 4 tablespoon cold water
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Dry Ingredients
- 2 ¼ cup all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ginger
- ½ teaspoon nutmeg
- ½ teaspoon salt
Sugar Coating
- Few tablespoons - granulated sugar or coarse finishing sugar like turbinado or demerera.
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line a large baking sheet.
- Mix ground flaxseed and water to make flax egg and set aside.
- With a hand mixer on medium speed, cream together the vegan butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar for 2 minutes.
- Stir in the wet ingredients: molasses, flax eggs, and vanilla until well combined.
- In a large bowl. Stir in the dry ingredients and spices, mixing until the dough forms into a ball. The dough will be thick but not dry.
- Set aside a dish with a cup of sugar for rolling the cookies.
- Scoop out 1 heaping tablespoon of dough. Shape the dough into cookie balls. Roll the balls in sugar and place the cookies on a parchment lined baking sheet 2 inches apart, flattening slightly with your hand.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 11 -12 minutes, until the tops start to crack and they are slightly golden on the bottoms. They will be soft, but will firm up as they cool.
- Allow to cool for about 10 minutes, then eat!
Notes
Expert Baking Tips
- Grating butter is a quick way to soften it. It takes 5-10 minutes to soften butter using a grater.
- To ensure your cookie top is crinkly and cracked, be sure to roll it in either turbinado or granulated sugar. Coating the cookies with either type of sugar draws out moisture from their surface, promoting cracks by drying out the top of the cookie before the interiors set. Granulated sugar actually achieves this more efficiently due to its coarse, crystalline structure
- If the dough seems overly sticky. Refrigerate it for an hour until it is firm enough to scoop. Chilling the dough usually fixes the problem!
Nutrition
Nutritional information is based on third-party calculations and should be considered estimates. Actual nutritional content will vary with brands used, measuring methods, portion sizes and more.
Jay
These cookies are amazing!! Great snack after dinner.