Try these naturally-sweetened gingerbread cookies made with maple syrup or honey for a healthier, real food holiday treat.
If you like these naturally-sweetened gingerbread cookies, you might like our other real-food dessert recipes!
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Why Choose Naturally-Sweetened Gingerbread Cookies?
Naturally sweetened gingerbread cookies are the real food treat that your kitchen needs this holiday season. They are easy, delicious, full-bodied and flavorful, and they don’t have any weird ingredients!
It’s my favorite kind of real food recipe: simple ingredients, delicious flavor and texture, and easy to make.
Ingredients You Need for Healthy Gingerbread Cookies
Healthy gingerbread cookie ingredients:
- Flour (white or whole wheat, or a combination)
- Maple syrup or honey
- Molasses
- Egg
- Butter
- Ginger
- Cinnamon
- Nutmeg
- Allspice
- Salt
- Baking soda
And for the naturally-sweetened cream cheese icing:
- Cream cheese
- Butter
- Maple syrup
- Vanilla
Gingerbread Cookies with Honey or Maple Syrup: A Healthier, Sugar-Free Recipe
These gingerbread cookies are:
- Naturally-sweetened with honey or maple syrup!
- Real food
- Delicious, obviously
- Easy to make (just as easy as other gingerbread cookies!)
- Flexible – make it as healthy or normal as you like!
- No weird ingredients!
- Dairy-free option
- Whole grain options
- Egg-free option
- Easy to freeze and make-ahead
How to Make Naturally-Sweetened Gingerbread Cookies with Maple Syrup or Honey
Here’s how you make gingerbread cookies with maple syrup or honey:
First, follow the instructions on this recipe! I’ve done all the work for you, finding the right ratio of wet-to-dry ingredients with natural liquid sweeteners.
Second, here’s how to adapt any gingerbread cookie recipe to use honey or maple syrup:
- Replace the sugar with 1/2-2/3 the amount of honey or maple syrup. So if a recipe calls for 1 cup sugar, use 1/2-2/3 cup honey. Usually, I use 1/2.
- Remove 1 tablespoon of other liquid from the recipe for every 1/4 cup of honey or maple syrup.
- And you may have better results if you add 1/4 – 1/2 teaspoon baking soda per cup of honey or maple syrup
- When baking, lower the temperature of the oven by 25 degrees Fahrenheit and bake it a little longer than the sugar version calls for.
That being said, when I bake with honey instead of sugar, I rarely follow steps 2-4. Everything turns out great. These guidelines simply help ensure that your healthier baked good turns out consistently well.
How to Make Naturally-Sweetened Icing for Gingerbread Cookies
For the naturally-sweetened icing, I used a homemade maple-syrup sweetened recipe that uses cream cheese. Cream cheese icing goes really well with gingerbread. The tangy and sweet flavors play really well together – think about how good cream cheese icing is on cinnamon rolls.
For this gingerbread, I used my cream cheese icing from our real food french toast casserole recipe.
If you prefer traditional powdered sugar-based icing, feel free to use the recipe from our dairy-free sugar cookies!
Tips for Perfect Healthier Gingerbread Cookies
Here are some tips for making “healthy” gingerbread cookies:
- Honey is sweeter than maple syrup, so if you are worried about them being sweet enough (I promise, they will be!), use honey instead.
- If you use store-bought whole wheat flour, only replace up to half the flour with whole wheat. It will change the flavor and texture significantly for the worse if you replace 100% of the flour.
- If you use freshly ground whole wheat, I highly recommend using soft white wheat berries. This kind of wheat works best for cookies. And you can use 100% of that flour for the flour in this recipe! Just keep in mind that freshly ground flour has a lot more air in it than flour that has been sitting for awhile. You may need to add more flour to get the right texture.
- If you are dairy-free, use the palm shortening mentioned here!
- If you are egg-free, use the flax or chia egg from this recipe!
Go here for more tips on adjusting your favorite holiday treats with more real food!
Vegan & Dairy-Free Gingerbread Cookies
I mentioned this above, but for all you folks who just scan the headings of recipes (like me, lol), here’s how you make these cookies dairy-fee and/or vegan:
- If you are dairy-free, use the palm shortening mentioned here!
- If you are egg-free, use the flax or chia egg from this recipe!
Storing and Decorating Your Naturally-Sweetened Gingerbread Cookies
Here’s how to store gingerbread cookies:
- If you want to freeze the unbaked dough, simply shape it into a ball, wrap it in plastic wrap, then store it in a freezer bag. Label it with the contents and date and freeze it for 6-12 months.
- If you want to freeze baked and unfrosted cookies, let them cool completely (like overnight), then store them in a freezer bag or freezer-safe container stacked between layers or parchment paper. Label it with the contents and date and freeze it for 6-12 months.
- If you want to freeze the cream cheese frosting, scoop it into a freezer bag, press all of the air out, label it with the contents and date, and freeze it for 6-12 months.
You can store baked and frosted cookies in the fridge for up to 1 week (the weak link here is the cream cheese icing because that is what will likely go bad first).
Here’s how to decorate gingerbread cookies:
- If you have kids, I highly recommend releasing them to their creative energy (real-life example here) and letting them destroy your expectations of perfectly decorated gingerbread cookies. Instead, let them build resiliency and fun core memories in the kitchen!
- Actually, to be fair, I do both: I let my kids decorate some of the cookies and I decorate others the way I wanted. Mom’s dreams are important too.
- There is no wrong way to do this. You can ice them with a butter knife (I prefer the taste of more icing over the cutesy piping in these pictures if I’m honest).
- You can also scoop the icing into a quart-size freezer bag, cut the tip of the corner off the bag, and pipe the icing onto the cookies. Note: it has to be a freezer bag, not a storage or sandwich bag, because it has to be strong.
- You can also get a reusable cake decorating kit like this or this one (these are affiliate links). No more throwing out piping bags or trying to hand wash them! I got a similar one from Aldi years ago, and I love it.
Healthy Christmas Cookies
Here are more of my favorite “healthy’ and Christmas holiday cookies!
- Dairy-Free Frosted Sugar Cookies
- Clean-Eating Freezer Chocolate
- Dairy-Free Gingerbread Cookies
- Dairy-free Thumbprint Cookies
If you try this recipe, let us know! Leave a comment, rate it, and tag a photo #cheapskatecook and @cheapskatecook on Instagram.
Gingerbread Cookies (Naturally-Sweetened)
Try these naturally-sweetened gingerbread cookies made with maple syrup or honey for a healthier, real food holiday treat.
Ingredients
- For the Gingerbread Cookies:
- 1/2 cup butter
- 1/2 cup maple syrup or honey
- 1 egg
- 1/4 cup molasses
- 3 1/4 cups flour
- 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 2 tsp ginger
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp allspice
- 1/2 tsp nutmeg
- 1 tbsp milk (optional)
- For the Cream Cheese Icing:
- 8 oz. cream cheese, softened
- 1/2 cup maple syrup or honey
- 1 1/2 tsp vanilla
- 3 tbsp butter, softened
Instructions
To Make the Cookies:
- Place the butter, maple syrup, and molasses in a stand mixer and beat it until smooth and uniform. Beat in the egg.
- In a separate bowl, sift together the dry ingredients. Gradually add them to the wet ingredients until well-blended. If the dough is too thick (this can happen if you use whole-grain flour) mix in milk, 1 tbsp at a time, until the dough is smooth.
- Cover the bowl (I usually use a cutting board or cookie sheet to avoid using plastic wrap) and refrigerate the dough for at least one hour.
- Preheat the oven to 325 F.
- Split the dough into two halves. On a well-floured surface, roll out one-half of the dough until it is 1/8-inch thick.
- Cut into desired shapes, tapping the cookie cutters in flour first so they don’t stick to the dough (Tip: if you don’t have cookie cutters, use the top of a round cup or jar to cut circle shapes - just remember to use plenty of flour on it first!).
- Place the cookies on a cookie sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes. Gather all of the cookie dough scraps and knead them back into a ball. Repeat the rolling and baking process for the rest of the dough.
- Cool the cookies on the cooling rack. When they are cooled, make the icing and ice the cookies as desired.
To Make the Cream Cheese Icing:
- Beat cream cheese with a hand mixer until soft and fluffy. Add maple syrup and mix thoroughly. Then beat in the vanilla and butter until smooth.
- This should be the perfect consistency for icing the cookies. However, if it turns out too thin, you can add powdered sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time until it thickens. If it turns out too thick, try adding milk, 1 teaspoon at a time, until it thins to your desired consistency.
Notes
- If you use store-bought whole wheat flour, only replace up to half the flour with whole wheat. It will change the flavor and texture significantly for the worse if you replace 100% of the flour.
- If you use freshly ground whole wheat, I highly recommend using soft white wheat berries. This kind of wheat works best for cookies. And you can use 100% of that flour for the flour in this recipe! Just keep in mind that freshly ground flour has more air in it than flour that has been sitting for a while. You may need to add more flour to get the right texture.
- If you are dairy-free, use the palm shortening mentioned here!
- If you are egg-free, use the flax or chia egg from this recipe!
- If you prefer traditional powdered sugar-based icing, feel free to use the recipe from our dairy-free sugar cookies!
Nutrition Information
Yield 24 Serving Size 1Amount Per Serving Calories 210Total Fat 10gSaturated Fat 6gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 3gCholesterol 33mgSodium 218mgCarbohydrates 28gFiber 1gSugar 14gProtein 3g
Please note: The actual calories and nutrition of this dish will change depending on what ingredients you use. Additionally, the nutrition information in this card is generated automatically and is not always accurate.