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These Paleo Almond Flour Gingerbread Men Cookies are soft, chewy, perfectly spiced gingerbread cookies that are Grain-free, Gluten-free, and Dairy-free.
If I said that I loved these gingerbread men cookies, it would be an understatement. They are the BEST Paleo, Grain-free, Gluten-free, and Dairy-free gingerbread cookies that I’ve ever made.
These gingerbread men cookies are soft, chewy, and perfectly spiced cut outs of holiday joy and I am thrilled to be sharing this recipe with you guys! For more gingerbread flavor, try my gingerbread banana bread.
Table of contents
Why this recipe works:
- These Paleo gingerbread cookies are soft yet firm.
- They have a strong gingerbread taste that is not overpowering.
- This recipe is made with 10 ingredients.
- The dough comes together in the food processor.
- It’s allergy friendly. It is dairy-free, gluten-free and grain-free.
- These almond flour gingerbread men come together quickly.
- It is tried and true. It took me three years to develop this recipe!
- After several failed attempts, I was inspired by the shortbread cookie base that I made for my Paleo Cranberry Sauce Bars. I tweaked that recipe and it worked great!
- These cookies are kid friendly!
Recipe Ingredients:
- Extra light olive oil: I like baking with extra light olive oil. I use it to replace butter in baking. Make sure to use a light colored oil, so it doesn’t have an overpowering olive flavor.
- Blackstrap molasses: The key to the gingerbread flavor here is from the blackstrap molasses! Blackstrap molasses is an incredibly nutrient dense food. It contains iron, calcium, magnesium, vitamin B6, and selenium.
- An egg: Eggs help keep the cookies chewy.
- Vanilla extract: Make sure to use vanilla extract and not vanilla flavor. It’s healthier and the flavor is so much better.
- Almond flour: I prefer using blanched almond flour in my grain-free baking recipes. It has a better overall texture and flavor.
- Coconut sugar: I have found that coconut sugar is a great replacement for brown sugar.
- Cinnamon: When it comes to cinnamon, Ceylon cinnamon has the best smell and taste. It is much stronger than the generic cinnamon found in many stores.
- Ground ginger and cloves: these spices give the cookies a great taste. Some people like using allspice as well.
- Baking soda– This helps the cookies rise.
- Tapioca flour or arrowroot flour: this ingredient isn’t in the cookie batter itself. The batter tends to be sticky, so tapioca flour helps you roll out the cookie dough more easily.
See recipe card below for a full list of ingredients and measurements.
Is blackstrap molasses Paleo?
Blackstrap molasses is a byproduct that forms when sugar cane is refined. The juice that comes from mashing sugar cane is boiled to create syrup. It is boiled three times to make blackstrap molasses.
It’s funny because sugar has no nutritional value but blackstrap molasses is a superfood that contains many vitamins and minerals such as: iron, calcium, magnesium, vitamin B6, and selenium.
Since it is such a superfood, many consider it beneficial to have in their diet.
Check out this post on blackstrap molasses and if/why it is considered to be Paleo.
How to make these almond flour gingerbread cookies:
Step 1– Put the wet ingredients ( the olive oil, molasses, egg, and vanilla) into a food processor and mix.
Then, add the dry ingredients ( the almond flour, coconut sugar, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and baking soda) to the food processor and mix again until a dough forms.
Step 2- Take the dough out of the food processor and put it into a bowl.
Step 3– Shape the dough into a ball with your hands, then refrigerate for 30 minutes.
Step 4– Sprinkle tapioca flour or arrowroot flour onto parchment paper. Put 1/2 of the dough onto the parchment paper. Sprinkle with more flour.
Step 5- Put parchment paper on top of the dough and roll it out with a rolling pin.
Step 6- Take a cookie cutter and push it into the dough.
Step 7- remove the gingerbread man cut out and place on a cookie sheet.
Step 8- Bake and then decorate!
Expert Tips:
- Make sure to pack your almond flour into the measuring cups. This means you scoop the measuring cup into the bag and press against the side of the bag to fill the almond flour.
- Roll the dough into a ball prior to refrigerating.
- Be generous with the tapioca flour or arrowroot flour! Since this dough is sticky, using a lot of this flour on the parchment paper and on top of the dough, ensures it doesn’t stick.
- Use parchment paper or silicone mats to put the cookies on before baking.
Kid-friendly gingerbread cookies:
I did a taste-test to see how non Paleo people liked this recipe.
My husband, mother and sister loved them, and actually didn’t believe me that they were Paleo.
My 2.5 year old nephew loved them the most! He ate 2 in 5 minutes. Now I make them for my own kids that are 2 and 4 every year.
Other holiday cookie recipes you’ll love:
These Gluten-free Ginger Molasses Cookies by a Dash of Megnut. They are a Vegan and Gluten-free twist on the holiday classic.
These Paleo Cut-Out Cinnamon Maple Sugar Cookies are sugar cookies but made with maple sugar instead of refined white cookies.
These Paleo Snickerdoodles are a reader favorite. They have all that great cinnamon flavor!
I personally love these Soft Paleo Pumpkin Molasses Cookies, they have the best taste and flavor!
These Sable Cut Out Sugar cookies are lower on sugar but not on flavor.
Did you try this recipe? Please leave me a ⭐ review below!
Paleo Almond Flour Gingerbread Men Cookies (Gluten-Free)
Ingredients
- 2 Tbs extra light olive oil
- 3 Tbs blackstrap molasses
- 1 extra large egg
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 2 cups packed almond flour
- 1/3 cup coconut sugar
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp ground ginger
- 1/4 tsp ground cloves
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- tapioca flour , (to sprinkle on the dough prior to rolling it)
Instructions
- Put the wet ingredients ( the olive oil, molasses, egg, and vanilla) into a food processor and mix. Add the dry ingredients ( almond flour, coconut sugar, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and baking soda) to the food processor and mix until a dough forms.
- Remove the dough from the food processor and form into a ball shape with your hands. It can help to use a rubber spatula and put the dough into a bowl and then, grab it and form it into a ball. Put the ball into a bowl, cover the bowl in cling wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a cookie sheet with a silicone mat.
- Sprinkle some tapioca flour on a piece of parchment paper. Cut the dough in half ( put the other back in the fridge) and put it on the parchment paper with tapioca flour on it. Sprinkle tapioca flour on top of the dough. Then, roll the dough out between the 2 pieces of parchment paper with a rolling pin, until ¼ inch thick. Cut the dough with gingerbread man cookie cutters. Note: If the dough is too sticky and sticks to the cookie cutter, wet the cookie cutter. If the dough sticks to the parchment paper, sprinkle a little tapioca flour onto the parchment paper. I noticed that using metal cookie cutters was easier than plastic ones.
- Repeat with the other half of the dough. Once all the gingerbread shapes are cut from the dough, take the dough scraps and form into a ball and roll it out again. Keep doing this until all the dough is used up and cut into shapes. Note: you may need to put the dough in the fridge or freezer in between rolling it out to harden it a bit.
- Place the gingerbread men shapes onto a lined cookie sheet. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes or until edges of cookies are set and just begin to brown. Cool on the cookie sheet for 1 – 2 minutes. Remove and put on wire racks to cool. Decorate cookies once they are cooled.
- This recipe yields 15 cookies, using a 9 x 3 inch gingerbread man cookie cutter.
Video
Notes
- * Make sure to pack your almond flour into the measuring cups. This means you scoop the measuring cup into the bag and press against the side of the bag to fill the almond flour.
- * Roll the dough into a ball prior to refrigerating.
- * Be generous with the tapioca flour or arrowroot flour! Since this dough is sticky, using a lot of this flour on the parchment paper and on top of the dough, ensures it doesn’t stick.
- * Use parchment paper or silicone mats to put the cookies on before baking.
• 2 Tbs thick honey
• 2 Tbs tapioca flour
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla Add the coconut oil to a small bowl. Mix in 1 Tbs honey, then mix in the 2nd Tbs honey. Add the tapioca flour and vanilla to the bowl and mix until frosting forms.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Is there any suitable substitute for the blackstrap molasses?
You could us maple syrup but then you’d lose a pretty distinct flavor that makes these cookies.
You could also use treacle
Anyone know if you can use butter instead of olive oil? what about a Cuisinart to mix vs a food processor?
I’ve never tried using butter or a cuisinart to mix it. Let me know if you do use those and how it works out!
I had the wet/stickiness problem too, and the only thing I changed in the recipe was using brown sugar instead of coconut. The dough was impossible to cut out cleanly, and spread so much in the oven that the men lost their shape. I didn’t have tapioca flour or arrowroot in the house, so just ended up adding enough KAF 1:1 baking mix to make the dough manageable (and dusting it with that as well). Still, rolling it out on constantly-shifting parchment was painful enough that I gave up on cutting them out and instead rolled the remainder out into a large circle, cut it into diamonds with a pizza cutter, spread out the pieces, and baked them. The flavor was great – almost like a ginger marzipan – but I can’t imagine doing this again.
Ugh sorry to hear that! I know brown sugar has more moisture in it than coconut sugar so it is possible that this could have affected things. I’m not sure why it was so wet for you. I make these several times a year and haven’t had that issue. I wish I could know how to help troubleshoot this.
These are absolutely incredible!!!! So soft and delicious. My only problem is that I want to eat the entire batch in one sitting!!
I have the same problem!! 🙂
I made these with a few substitutions and they were fantastic. I subbed ghee for the oil, and used King Arthur Baking’s sugar alternative (a blend of ethrytol, monk fruit, allulose, stevia and fructan fiber- prob not paleo but bakes up wonderfully!). I subbed these in at a 1:1 ratio. I also upped the spices- a heaping teaspoon of ginger, and also added allspice, clove and cardamom (I love a nice spicy ginger cookie!). I then reduced the baking time to 7 minutes as the sugar alternative cooks up quicker and then turned off the oven to let them sit as it cooled. Spot on!!!
I will agree with reviewers who said the dough was too sticky to work with- I had to knead in an additional 1/2C of almond flour to make it useable- was perfect after that. Also, I was surprised at how dark the wet dough was- however it lightened up beautifully.
I will be making these again. Thank you!!
Thanks for sharing!!
These are delicious! I just made drop cookies as I didn’t have the cookie cutters. Flavor and texture are perfect! Thank you!
Hi, these looks so good! I was just wondering, would I be able to substitute pure maple syrup for the coconut sugar, or would the consistently be too different since one is a liquid, and not granulated? Thanks!
I think the consistency would be too different. You could use maple sugar or brown sugar if you have that!
My family and I loved this recipe! The dough was great, fantastic flavor. My husband was surprised of how good they were. I had the sticky problem too. But I think it just need to be in the fridge a bit longer and perhaps roll them in the cooking paper directly. That’s my next batch plan!
Hi!
Do you think it would work to use avocado oil in place of the olive oil? I only have darker olive oil!
I don’t see why not!
OK thanks!
🙂 Also i just made the dough and its super dark! is that how its supposed to be or maybe I did something wrong?
I think it could depend on how dark your molasses or coconut sugar is. It should be ok!
How did you make the white icing to decorate with please? Is that paleo also?
The frosting in the photos isn’t Paleo, but I have a recipe for frosting in the notes of this recipe! I’ll post it below:
• 2 Tbs coconut oil (not melted) • 2 Tbs thick honey • 2 Tbs tapioca flour • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
Add the coconut oil to a small bowl. Mix in 1 Tbs honey, then mix in the 2nd Tbs honey. Add the tapioca flour and vanilla to the bowl and mix until frosting forms.