Prep time: 20 min (plus one hour to chill) • Cook time: 10 min • Yield: Approximately 14 to 15 5-inch gingerbread people or 20 to 24 round cookies

Ingredients

• 1/3 cup molasses
• 1/3 cup maple syrup
• 3 tablespoons pasture-raised butter or ghee
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 3 cups almond flour
• 1/3 cup arrowroot (plus an additional ½ to ¾ cup to roll out the dough)
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon ground cloves
• ½ teaspoon nutmeg

1. Preheat oven to 350º F and move baking rack to the center of the oven.
2. Pour molasses and maple syrup into a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Add butter and stir to melt then remove from heat. Add vanilla and set aside to cool.
3. In a large bowl combine almond flour, arrowroot, baking soda, salt, and all spices. Pour wet ingredients into dry and mix until evenly blended.
4. Divide dough into 5 equal sized balls and refrigerate for at least one hour. Remove one dough ball from refrigerator, flatten with your hands, sprinkle both sides generously with arrowroot, and roll out to about ¼-inch thick between two sheets of parchment or waxed paper, sprinkling on additional arrowroot as needed so dough doesn’t stick. Cut into rolled out dough with cookie cutter, carefully pulling away any remaining dough and replacing in refrigerator. Continue until all cookies are cut out.
5. Line baking sheet with parchment or a SILPAT™ mat and bake for about 10 to 11 minutes. Let cool and decorate if desired. Store in a sealed container.

Notes

These are truly good old-fashioned gingerbread cookies. Please note that the dough will be somewhat sticky even after it has been chilled and you will need arrowroot to evenly roll out the dough. You might find it helpful to dust a very thin spatula with arrowroot to slip under the cut outs to transfer to the parchment-lined baking sheet. Optionally you can pour arrowroot on a flat plate or cake pan so you can tap your cookie cutter into the arrowroot before cutting the cookie. Using this method, you may find the cookie will lift up with the cutter and you can gently place it on the baking sheet. Be sure to clean any dough off the edge of the cutter before cutting the next cookie. Decorating is up to you. You can use my recipe for Chocolate Ganache Frosting.

Simply delete the cacao or cocoa and add the coconut cream one tablespoon at a time until the desired consistency is reached. (You will need less coconut cream than the recipe specifies.) You can also use my recipe for Creamy Vanilla Frosting. If you don’t want to use frosting, you can use raisins, dried cranberries, chocolate chips, and sliced or slivered almonds. You can put them on before baking except for the chocolate chips. Put these on as soon as the cookies come out of the oven. If you want gingerbread cookies without making cutouts, form dough into 1- to 1 ½-inch balls, place on parchment-lined cookie sheet, and flatten with the bottom of a glass that has be dusted with arrowroot.