As you know, I’m not a great cake or cookie person (actually, that’s a lie – I love cookies, I just don’t like making them because then I see exactly what goes into them and then I’m thinking HOW MANY CALORIES?)
But then Discount Supplements asked me to make something healthy for Christmas, using one of their products. They gave me a list of recipes to choose from and I chose the vegan gingerbread men because a) it looked the easiest; and b) I fancied playing with men-shaped cookie cutters.
I didn’t quite follow the provided recipe (and when I say ‘quite’, I mean ‘disregarded 99% of it’) so this recipe is how I made the gingerbread men, using the ingredients I had available (e.g. I used applesauce as an egg replacer instead of a flax egg, wholemeal flour instead of gluten-free flour and Golden Syrup instead of molasses).
I’m not sure I’ve ever had a gingerbread man before (not sure I’ve had a ginger man before – bread or otherwise, actually, but let’s not go there, eh?) so I don’t know if these are how they’re supposed to be, but if gingerbread men are supposed to be crispy on the outside and soft in the middle, then I’m the boss at making gingerbread men.
- 350g wholemeal flour
- 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 2 tsp ground ginger
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 125g dairy-free spread
- 175g demerara sugar
- ¼ cup applesauce
- 4 tbsp Golden Syrup
- ⅛ cup almond butter
- Preheat the oven to 180C and line two baking trays with greaseproof paper.
- Put the flour, bicarbonate of soda, ginger and cinnamon into a food processor. Add the butter and blend until the mix looks like breadcrumbs. Stir in the sugar.
- Beat the applesauce, Golden Syrup and almond butter together, add to the food processor and pulse until the mixture clumps together. Tip the dough out and knead until smooth. Wrap the dough in clingfilm and leave in the fridge for 15 minutes.
- Lightly flour a chopping board or worktop and roll out the dough to a thickness of about 0.5cm.
- Using cookie cutters, cut out the gingerbread men shapes and place on the baking tray, leaving a gap between them.
- Bake for about 13 minutes, or until a light golden-brown.
- Leave on the tray for 10 minutes, then cool on a wire rack.
- Either use a skewer to make eyes and buttons, or decorate with icing.
Thanks to Discount Supplements for supplying me with the almond butter used in this recipe.