Cookie baking continues! Today’s recipe is for soft gluten-free ginger cookies. These cookies are a favorite of my families, and I like that because they are quick, easy & cheap to make. All good things in my books. These cookies do taste better the second day, I think all spicy cookies taste better when they have had a chance to sit a bit and let the spices do their thing.
Yields approximately 48 cookies
Ingredients:
- 3/4 cup butter, softened but still cool (if the margarine is too soft, your cookies will be flat. Still taste great, but flat)
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 egg
- 1/4 cup molasses
- 1 cup brown rice flour
- 3/4 cup sorghum flour
- 1/2 cup potato starch
- 1/4 cup tapioca starch
- 1 tsp xanthan gum
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 2 tsp ground ginger
- 3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp ground cloves
- 1/4 tsp salt
- Additional sugar for rolling the cookies in.
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. Set aside.
- In a stand mixer, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add in the egg and molasses. Mix until blended.
- In a mixing bowl, whisk together the brown rice flour, sorghum flour, potato starch, tapioca starch, xanthan gum, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, cloves and salt.
- Gradually add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture, mixing until well blended.
- Roll the dough into 1″ balls (I used my small cookie scoop for this), and roll in the additional granulated sugar. Place on baking sheet, 2-inches apart.
- Bake in preheated oven for 10-12 minutes or until puffy and lightly browned. Remove to wire racks to cool. Store in an air-tight container once completely cool.
Source: Based on a recipe from AllRecipes.com
OOOOOH. I’ve been yearning for a ginger cookie. This looks so good.
Awesome! Perfect timing then.
Enjoy!
My mouth is watering!
I wish I could trade cookies for fudge. Mmm….
Ooohh, honey! I’m so ready for this cookie!!!!! What a treat! Thanks for posting this, Jeanine.
You are more than welcome, Tamara! Hope you enjoy them!
Are these like ginger snaps? I am looking for a spicy ginger snap cookie!
Thanks,
Wendy
These have the same spiciness as a gingersnap, but they don’t have the snap part, they are a soft cookie, not crisp. HTH.
These look delicious! I way prefer soft to crunchy ginger snaps.
Thanks, Elise! I don’t have a preference, as long as they are spicy.
I’ve been making our version of this allrecipes cookie for a couple of years. I use a slightly different flour mix and 1 Tablespoon of Orange Juice. It is AMAZING what that touch of orange flavour does to the whole cookie.
I was planning to make them next week, but have now been inspired to make them sooner!
Oh, I just made another batch tonight, and if I had orange juice on hand, I’d add that. Or even some orange zest. I bet that would be fantastic. Thanks for the suggestion!
This recipe came just in the nick of time. I was so wanting to try some soft molasses cookies. I halved the ginger to be on the milder side, but I think it would have been ok, cuz they weren’t that spicy. Mine didn’t turn out quite as thick or pretty as yours. But, I used butter instead of margarine. I might add a tad more sorghum flour next time to see if I can get the height. I was glad to see the sorghum in this recipe because it seems to thicken my cookies. The end of this batch was chilled a bit longer and they seemed slightly thicker and had more of that beautiful crackle. Yum! Thanks a bunch!
These cookies look so good! I have a question for anyone that wants to answer
I’m allergic to nightshades as well as gluten, so I don’t use potato starch and I don’t use corn starch either. That leaves Tapioca and Arrowroot. Arrowroot is a little pricey and too much Tapioca causes baked goods to be too “chewy”. Do you think that i could sub sweet rice flour for the potato starch? Thanks!
I would definitely try subbing the sweet rice flour for the potato starch.
Kind of disappointed that they didn’t turn out as expected. The only change I made was I used brown sugar instead of white, just because I prefer brown sugar in a cookie. They went flat and are a thin, crisp/chewy cookie. My husband loves them and they ARE pretty fantastic ~ just not big & soft. I put the dough in the fridge for a couple of hours to be sure the dough wasn’t too warm, so not sure what happened?
Sorry they didn’t turn out as hoped, Elaine. Sometimes, cookies are such a problem, between the size of eggs, the temp of your butter, the type of baking sheets, whether you line your sheets with parchment or not, there are so many factors. I hope that you give these cookies another try. The brown sugar will change the texture as well, that may have had something to do with it. Sorry, not much help here.
I made these today–they were AWESOME! I used Spectrum shortening because I can’t have dairy. They were exactly right. Thanks so much for this recipe!
Wonderful! Glad to hear that it works with the Spectrum shortening as well.
So glad you posted this! I’ve been nothing but disappointed with the gluten free gingerbread recipes I’ve tried this year and was really needing a successful ginger cookie for my Christmas dessert trays. These were super easy, tasty and smell so yummy. Even after chilling overnight mine came out a bit flat too, but are still awesome. I’ll try a bit more sorghum next time to see if that helps with the loft.
I made these yesterday and they turned out amazing, by far the best gluten free ginger cookie I have ever made!!!! I really messed up by adding 2 tsp of cinnamon by accident then realizing my mistake but they still tasted amazing.
These are fabulous. This made my GF 16yr old boy in “heaven” for Christmas. Thanks so much for sharing. Mine came out very flat however– what did I do wrong?
ok so now I feel a bit stupid — reading back through the recipe you said not to get the butter to soft or your cookies will be flat — oh yeah think that is what i did. Teach me to read thoroughly next time and not be in such a hurry
No problem, Teresa! I’ve heard of quite a few that had them go flat (but still good). I think cookies are one of the most difficult recipes to convert, there are so many factors (butter temp, baking pans, etc).
Just thought I would share that the dough for this recipe freezes wonderfully. After rolling in sugar placed them all on a cookie sheet and froze them — after freezing them for about three hours put them all in one freezer bag. Pulled them out 2 weeks later placed them on a cookie sheet ( w/ parchment) allowed to come to room temp then baked them as instructed. Yummy, Yummy Yummy and they were not flat !!!!
Interesting! Glad to hear that, Teresa! Great idea to freeze them, that’s a huge time saver when you want a few fresh cookies.
Hi, these cookies look amazing! I’ve been looking for a good cookie recipe
I was wondering if I could just use a cup for cup baking flour instead of adding all the different kinds. would the recipe work the same? Thanks in advance. -Sarah Ray
I can’t seem to find millet flour in my area. What else could I use?
The recipe calls for sorghum, but you could sub with millet, gluten-free oat, teff, or even more brown rice flour. HTH!
I am so glad I found some recipes to try. We just found in May our son has several allergies and I am trying to do a gingerbread manhunt. Would I be able to use this dough for shaped cookies as well or would to much handling break them down? The other gluten-free recipe I found takes 8 hours, kinda wanted them before then
.
Hi Ange, welcome here! This recipe will not work for rolled & cut out cookies, for that, I use this recipe here: http://onlysometimesclever.wordpress.com/2007/12/03/gingerbread-for-cookies-houses-gfcf/ (cut in half though, it’s a LARGE recipe).
For more holiday treats, check out the holiday round-up I posted last week: http://www.thebakingbeauties.com/2012/12/gluten-free-recipes-for-the-holidays.html