Gluten Free Christmas Cookies
I know we have a lot of blog readers here that have been making my gluten-free sourdough starter. So I wanted to make some gluten free sourdough cookies for those readers.
Gluten Free sourdough Christmas cookies are simply the best. Gingerbread is my favorite, and after taking stock of what I have in my pantry, I decided to whip up this gluten-free sourdough cookie recipe.
Gluten Free Gingerbread Cookies
Gingerbread is my favorite type of Christmas cookie. Okay, fine, gingerbread cookies are my favorite cookies of all time. I’d eat gingerbread cookies year-round, but then they wouldn’t feel as special during the holidays.
I’ve only ever made gingerbread cookies with all-purpose wheat flour. I had a big bag of organic buckwheat flour, though. After a quick google search, I found out that buckwheat flour substitutes evenly in most baking recipes.
You should stick to the recipe as written, but some people have subbed the buckwheat flour for other types of gluten free flour with good results.
Gluten Free Sourdough Cookies
Before this recipe, I had never baked cookies with buckwheat flour. BUT Y’ALL… It’s so good! The rich flavor of the buckwheat goes so nicely with the zingy ginger and thick sweet molasses. I consider these a holiday cookie, but feel free to make them all the time, because they are fantastic.
Gluten Free Sourdough Cookies with Molasses and Ginger
A good molasses cookie starts with good molasses.
I really enjoy this Steen’s molasses straight out of Louisiana.
Here are a few tips for making gluten-free sourdough cookies:
- Make sure you mix those wet and dry ingredients separately before combining.
- Don’t skip the chilling of the dough. It needs to be cold going into the oven.
- Use a real egg if you can, but for vegan cookies just evenly sub with any vegan egg substitute
More Holiday Recipes You Might Like:
- Autumn Spiced Dark Chocolate Bark
- Simple Sourdough Carrot Cake Banana Bread
- Sourdough Apple Pumpkin Cobbler with Cranberries
Ginger Molasses Gluten Free Sourdough Cookies
These Ginger Molasses Gluten Free Sourdough Cookies are the easiest holiday cookies you’ll bake this year. They have a gingerbread flavor with a soft and gooey cookie texture. You can prep this gluten-free cookie dough in just 10 minutes!
- Prep: 10 minutes
- Cook: 15 minutes
- Total Time: 25 minutes
Ingredients
- 340 g Buckwheat flour
- 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- 2 teaspoons ground ginger
- 3/4 tsp baking soda
- 1.5 tsp salt
- 120 g natural creamy peanut butter
- 80 g unsalted butter, room temperature
- 150 g cane sugar
- 120 g molasses
- 1 egg + 1 egg yolk
- 14 g vanilla extract
- 100 g gluten-free sourdough starter (active, hydrated)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.
- In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or with a hand mixer, beat the softened butter, peanut butter, cane sugar, and molasses together until combined.
- Scrape down the bowl and add the egg, egg yolk, vanilla extract, and sourdough starter.
- Mix well until light and fluffy.
- In a separate bowl sift together the flour, baking soda, spices and salt.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and fold together with a spatula until combined.
- Pour some extra granulated sugar into a separate small bowl. Using a cookie scoop, scoop the dough out into 1-inch balls, rolling them in the granulated sugar first before dropping them 2 inches apart on the prepared cookie sheet.
- Press the cookie dough balls down slightly, this helps to shape them since they don’t spread out a lot while baking.
- Bake at 350°F for 12-15 minutes or until the cookies have puffed up and are set on the edges, but are still gooey in the middle.
- Allow to cool completely on the pan before eating!
Notes
- You can sub the peanut butter for any creamy nut or seed butter. The cookie dough may be dry depending on the nut butter you use, some are more thin and creamy than others. peanut butter and sunflower seed butter work best.
- for vegan cookies, evenly substitute with a vegan egg replacer or a flax egg and vegan butter.
- Not GF? you can sub with all-purpose flour and regular sourdough starter.
- You can ferment the cookie dough over night in the fridge before shaping and baking.
- Any granulated sugar, like coconut sugar or organic cane sugar, works in this recipe.
The whole family loved these. I had substituted half of the buckwheat for arrowroot flour because I had ran out, and it was still a great batch of cookies.
Ahhh! I forgot all about this recipe until you commented on it! I’m so happy the substitution worked and everyone loved them. 🙂
I used triple the amount of nutmeg and cinnamon (Ceylon) and a little extra ginger. (A herbalist once told me that spices and herbs are nature’s vitamin pills so you should double or triple the amount called for in the recipe). Turned out most excellent! Thanks for the recipe
i loved these!! i used sorghum cause that’s what i had. i think i went just a little heavier on the spices. i used brown sugar instead of white sugar since i had used sorghum instead of molasses. just don’t over bake. they were so good!
I stumbled onto your website and boy do I love ginger and molasses! I’m still recovering from covid and I lost my senses so I couldn’t quite taste these cookies all the way but my gluten eating husband absolutely loved them! And I love buckwheat flour. I used coconut sugar, almond butter, Nutiva shortening as I can’t do dairy and blackstrap molasses. The first tray I left in a bit long and my husband said it tasted a bit burnt – but 13 minutes the following time was perfect. I used a glass to press them down, but they didn’t rise like yours did. So next time I may just lightly tap down the tops. I used coconut sugar and merely dipped the top of the cookie out of my scoop in coconut sugar. I didn’t mind that the tops weren’t white from granulated sugar. But the cookies were a big hit with all of my health related subs!
I will absolutely be trying more recipes from this site! Thanks so much, Mindy
Kaitlynn,
I made these for my mom’s birthday and the flavor is delicious but the cookies are too dry. Ideas on how to solve that? My mom loved them anyway, but I would love to perfect this cookie for next time! Thanks for the recipe, Anna
hey! I would need to re-test the recipe to be sure. I would say try using a GF all purpose flour instead of buckwheat.
Oh! Do you think chilling/not chilling the dough could be a factor? I just saw in your tips section it says not to skip chilling the dough, but that doesn’t appear to be mentioned on the recipe card and I didn’t see to do it. How long should it chill for?
These were good but very dry. I used buckwheat flour. Chilled 3 hours in the fridge. Any tips?
might just be the nature of buckwheat flour! You can try upping the fat in the recipe a little. So a little more butter or peanut butter.
Is there a way to sub the sugar with honey? Or possibly increase the molasses and skip the sugar?
I’m not sure! I haven’t tested it without sugar. Since honey is a liquid, that would change the recipe a good bit.