Chocolate Stuffed Gingerbread Cookies (Vegan)

Cook Time: 10mins

Prep time: Up to 4 hours

Recipe makes up to 24 cookies

I had a lot of fun making these cookies. Getting to use the cookie cutter and create little trees and gingerbread men is a super fun, playful and a creative activity. These cookies taste great and ship well and last if you tend to give them as gifts or stocking stuffers for friends and family. A fine and enjoyable recipe all around and forgiving, if you make a mistake.

This dough I find is easy to roll out on a floured surface and if you over cook the cookies you have ginger snaps, which I personally love. So all around a very versatile recipe.

I actually used to be intimidated by the idea of making ginger bread. I used to think it looked complicated, because of the spices. In this recipe I decided to opt in pumpkin spice to sub out the allspice, cinnamon, snd clove you might find in other recipes.

A ingredient many people never really use that you may need to go buy to make these is unsulphured molasses and perhaps fresh ginger.

Otherwise, I was able to find everything in my cabinet. This recipe is also a great introduction to vegan baking as it uses a egg replacer option. I had chia seeds but sometimes I use flax seed ground or apple sauce, but you know what? If you do not have these items these cookie will still turn out. You will just end up with a softer cookie. How cool is that? This is because the gluten in the flour binds the dough together making it so eggs are totally unnecessary my personal addition of chia seeds is for added fiber and a personal choice. I also wanted my dough to be stiffer as I was making a gingerbread man with arms so I was going for a firmer and more solid cookie.

Recipe

Ingredients for the Gingerbread Cookie

• 2/3 Cup vegan butter (for this recipe I am using Earth Balance Vegan Butter)

• 3/4 Cup brown sugar (packed firmly into measuring cup) can sub coconut sugar

• 2 tablespoons of chia seeds soaked in 5 tablespoons of water for 5 mins (optional or can sub half smash banana, 2 tablespoons of ground flax seed, or 1/4 cup applesauce) NOTE: Like I mentioned these egg replacements are optional and not totally needed.

• 1 tablespoon of vanilla extract

• 1 pinch of salt

• 3.5 Cups of All Purpose Flour

• 1 tablespoon of freshly and finely grated ginger

• 1/2 tablespoon of ginger powder
  1 tablespoon of pumkin pie spice

• 20 drops of cocoa bitters chocolita brand (optional)

• 1 bar of your choice of chocolate
  

• Chia Seed Egg Replacement in Above Photo

Method for Gingerbread Cookies

1.) In a bowl begin by adding and combining dry ingredients such as flour, baking soda, salt and spices. Wisk well to combine.

2.) In a separate bowl combine softened room temperature butter, chia seed egg, brown sugar, molasses, cocoa bitters, vanilla, and fresh grated ginger. Wisk well to combine the wet ingredients until you have brown and syrupy like wet mix.

3.) Slowly add the dry mix to the wet mix and mix or stir to combine. If you need to you can add a tablespoon of water to make combining easier, the mixture should turn into dough. You can finish by kneading this dough gently with your hands to combine all the flour, but do not over knead the dough.

4.) Plastic wrap your dough and let refrigerate for up to 3 hours or at least 2 hours before using.

NOTE: When it comes to chilling the dough you can probably get away with 1 hour of fridge time the point is the gluten and ingredients chill and become homogeneous. This step is critical for the next steps, but if you know what you are doing and feel comfortable working with cookie dough 1 hour might be fine for you. BUT .. the longer the better I say.

5.) Pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees.

6.) On a clean work surface you can flour a rolling pin and add flour to the surface to begin rolling out the dough. Roll the dough into a 1/4 inch thick flat disk. If dough is sticky do not be afraid to add additional flour as needed Just so you can roll out the dough.

7.) Using your choice of cookie cutter cutout shapes and transfer to a parchment lined baking sheet. If you don’t have a cookie cuter you can use a glass cup as a cutter for the dough for round shapes or you can use your hands to roll little balls.

To make the chocolate stuffed cookies

1.) Simply wrap 3 tablespoons of dough around your choice of chocolate until all chocolate is covered.

NOTE:Essentially you are just wrapping the dough around chocolate you can choose how much chocolate you would like to put in your cookie. If you want to you may decide to break the bar of chocolate into smaller pieces up to you.

2.) Place cookies 1 inch apart on baking sheet.

3.) Using a fork you can press the top to imprint cross cross design. This looks pretty.

4.) Bake cookies at 350 in oven for 10 mins.

NOTE: Each oven is different and not all cookies will be the same size I recommend if you have a oven light just keep a eye on the cookies. They will expand a little bit. Baking time may very.

5.) When cookies are done let cool on pan for up to 15 mins.

6.) If you like you can add sugar icing to the top of the cookies or decorate as you wish.

Thanks for reading I hope you have a beautiful holiday and enjoy the recipe.