Healthier Gingerbread Cookies
These healthier soft gingerbread cookies are sweet, soft, and lightly spiced. They will quickly become a family favorite for the holidays!
NOTE: This post contains some links to Amazon, which means that I make a small commission off items you purchase from Amazon at no additional cost to you. I appreciate your support!
These homemade healthier gingerbread cookies are sweet, soft, and lightly spiced. They will quickly become a family favorite for the holidays!
This past weekend I found myself with a strong desire to bake, so I thought it would be nice to start a new tradition with my daughters… baking while watching Christmas movies on Netflix! We were quite the sight in the kitchen with my daughter’s iPad playing “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” while we scattered flour everywhere to make healthier soft baked gingerbread cookies…thank goodness for her Survivor case!
As the Grinch tried to steal Christmas, the girls and I discussed what the real meaning of Christmas was while we mixed, rolled, floured and cut out gingerbread men. We all agreed that doing exactly what we were doing: baking together, and spending time together was what Christmas was all about.
We decided that we should try to make our cookies healthIER. Cookies are a treat but with some adjustments they don’t have to be completely void of nutrition. We substituted almond butter instead of butter in our recipe because for a cookie recipe to work, you need some fat in it. By using almond butter we had a healthier fat. Then to make the cookies stay moist, we added apple sauce. For the flour we replaced 1/4 of the flour with whole wheat flour.
The results were AMAZING!!!
After we made our cookies and allowed them to cool, we cuddled up with our cookies and a glass of milk each to watch another holiday favourite of ours on Netflix: “Christmas with the Kranks”.
- egg
- brown sugar
- molasses
- almond butter
- butter, melted
- vanilla extract
- ground ginger
- cinnamon
- allspice
- baking soda
- all purpose flour
- wheat flour
- handful of turbinado sugar, for garnish
While we love Christmas with the Kranks, I must admit that we had quite a time (and quite the discussion) over what to watch – there are so many holiday movies on Netflix!
🌸 CELEBRATE Spring with
25+ Easy Salad Recipes for Spring
Spring is here, and do you know what that means? It’s time to enjoy the fresh Spring produce with salad ideas that your whole family will love!
More Christmas baking recipes:
- Christmas Double Chocolate Biscotti – You’re going to love this easy Double Chocolate Biscotti recipe that is perfect to serve with coffee or share as gifts during the holidays.
- White Chocolate Cranberry Almond Biscotti – With the irresistible combination of sweet white chocolate, buttery almond and tart cranberries, everyone will want to try these yummy White Chocolate Cranberry Almond Biscotti cookies!!
- Homemade Snickerdoodle Cookies Recipe – Bake up a batch of these snicker doodle cookies for an easy Christmas cookie your whole family will love!
And of course, here’s the recipe:
Healthier Soft Baked Gingerbread Cookies Recipe
Equipment You’ll Need
Ingredients
- 1 egg
- ½ cup brown sugar
- ¼ cup molasses
- ¼ cup almond butter
- 2 tablespoons butter (melted)
- 2 tablespoons applesauce
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 2 teaspoons ground ginger
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 2 teaspoons allspice
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 ¼ cup all purpose flour
- ½ cup wheat flour
- handful of turbinado sugar (for garnish)
Instructions
- In a bowl, add the egg, brown sugar, molasses, almond butter, melted butter, applesauce and vanilla extract; whisk vigorously to thoroughly combine.
- Add ground ginger, cinnamon, allspice, baking soda, all purpose four, and wheat flour to the wet ingredients and mix with mixer until well combined. Turn out onto plastic wrap and form into a rough ball; cover with plastic and chill for at least 1 hour, or overnight.
- Preheat oven to 350°F.
- Flour a flat surface and a rolling pin with lots of flour (as the almond butter makes the dough very sticky), then roll out the dough to about ¼-inch thick. Use cookie cutters to cut out gingerbread men, about 25-35 total. Place gingerbread men on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet and sprinkle with turbinado sugar.
- Bake for about 8 minutes, until puffed and slightly firmed. Let rest on the baking sheet for 2 to 3 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack.
- Store covered at room temperature for several days; freeze for longer term storage.
Notes
Nutrition
Disclosure
Recipes and photos are for your personal enjoyment only — please share the love by linking, not copying!SEARCH FOR RECIPES
What’s your favourite Christmas movie?
I love gingerbread cookies! I never would have thought to add almond butter – yum!
I want to watch Christmas with the Kranks.
I want to watch how the grinch stole christmas
I watched Christmas with the Kranks and A Christmas Story (which is also my favorite holiday film)
I plan to watch Christmas with the Kranks
How the Grinch Stole Christmas!
I plan to watch Home alone!
I can’t wait to watch ELF again with the kids 🙂
we plan on watching the Home Alone movies!
Elf will be one of them
I’m going to see and if Love Actually is on I’m going to watch it for sure!
I love the old classic movies we used to watch as kids, Home Alone, National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation etc.
We plan to watch How the Grinch Stole Christmas!
we plan on watching Christmas with the Kranks
I would like to watch Christmas with the Kranks
Will be watching Elf
We are planning on watching How the Grinch Stole Christmas.
Would love to watch ELf with my kids. Thanks!
You’ll shoot your eye out! LOL- Best.Movie.EVER!!!
How the Grinch Stole Christmas is a must watch for us!
We will be watching The Grinch and Santa Paws
Okay, how did I not notice you linked to SEVERAL of my recipes!? SO THANK YOU x 3!!! 🙂
Love Actually is on my must watch list this week! Hopefully I can enjoy it over some off these delicious cookies! Thanks for including my cookies in your round up 🙂
No problem, enjoy the movie & have a very Merry Christmas!
Love this. Your gingerbread cookies look so good! I will have to try it!
Yum I love love gingerbread cookies and love how you made these healthier. You can link them up to Meatless Monday if you’d like.
we are going to watch Elf
I ?????? love that movie!!
Yum love the sugar on top adds extra festive cheer to them
Thanks Miranda 🙂
We always love watching Rudolph every year.
Great movie, Merry Christmas!
Thank you so much for linking to my White Chocolate PB Bites, lovely!! These cookies look SO GOOD. I love soft baked gingerbread cookies! Usually I am a crunchy girl…but when it comes to gingerbread? SOFT and doughy allllll the way!!! Nice job!
No problem- I ate WAAAAY too many of them, they were so good!
Those gingerbread cookies sound amazing! I watched Home Alone 2 yesterday. One of my favourite Christmas movies.
Great movie! I introduced the girls to that series too. Merry Christmas!