A little bit of Sweet, a little bit of Spice: Gingerbread Recipes
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A little bit of Sweet, a little bit of Spice: Gingerbread Recipes

ginerbread+cookies

As you well know, it’s Christmastime! Your music is playing, the stockings are hung, your tree is decorated and it’s time to get baking!

When I think about baking during this season, my first thoughts are about gingerbread houses and cookies. I love the spicy, sweet flavor. They are adorable, although they are full of white sugar and decorated with artificial flavoring and color frosting usually.

Did you know that it is possible to make these little guys while removing some of the bad ingredients?

A few things about ginger. Ginger is anti-inflammatory and has immune boosting powers. Ginger also aids in gas relief as well as motion or morning sickness and has many more healing effects to take advantage of. Eating gingerbread or gingerbread cookies will probably not give you the exact same health benefits as eating ginger raw but  it’s a lot more fun, especially this time of year!

Instead of the typical white or colored icing to decorate your gingerbread men, why not a chocolate icing?

sucanat+icing

If cookies aren’t your thing, how about some bread?

Healthy+Gingerbread+Loaf

A little bit of Sweet, a little bit of Spice: Gingerbread Recipes
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Gingerbread Recipe

Course: Baked Goods
Author: Ann Timm

Ingredients

  • 1 3/4 C whole wheat flour
  • 4 tsp cinnamon
  • 2 1/2 tsp ginger
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 egg white
  • 1/2 C butter
  • 1/2 C sucanat
  • 1/3 C honey
  • 1 1/4 C puree pumpkin or 1 can

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
  • Combine dry ingredients except for sucanat in a medium bowl, mix and set aside.
  • In a large bowl, cream butter, sucanat. honey, pumpkin puree, and egg.
  • Fold dry ingredients into wet a little at a time.
  • Pour in your greased baking 9x9 pan or 9x5 loaf pan. Mixture will be very thick!
  • Bake for 45-50 minutes or until done.
  • Cut a slice and enjoy!
  • For further indulgence, add some easy whipped cream cheese frosting!

Notes

To reduce sugar, use apple sauce in place of one or both sweeteners or check out this recipe, you could just add a few teaspoons more of ginger and cinnamon.

All of these recipes are super simple and won’t take too much time to make in your already busy holiday schedule. You could add a few gingerbread cookies in a clear festive bag or make some bread in mini loaf pans for frugal gifts.

Here are some Gingerbread activities I found:

What’s your favorite gingerbread recipe? Do you plan on making any gingerbread cookies or bread this year?

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15 Comments

    1. Thanks Brittnie! I was checking out your blog the other day! So exciting about your baby coming soon after all you went through!

  1. These looks so yummy! I love how you’ve made the recipes healthier! I bet your kiddos love this at Christmas! Thanks for sharing, Rachel!

  2. I wish my mom would have made gingerbread cookies w/butter. She was a Crisco baker… (a wonder I’m still alive, LOL).

    1. Crystal, I made about 50-60 cookies. But it really depends on the size of your cookie cutter. Mine are about 2 1/2 inches by 1 or so. Hope you have fun making them!

  3. Tee hee – having come here from your post about Dr Axe’s book, I was surprised to see ‘ww flour’ …. as most of the food blogs I frequent are GF!!

    Both these recipes would be simple to ‘switch’ using a GF flour blend (I love sorghum, tapioca & potato/arrowroot/or corn starch, some coconut flour, & perhaps a nut flour – hazelnut or almond …. & coconut or palm oil …
    I use ‘flax eggs’ – 1 Tbsp fresh ground flax & 1 Tbsp liquid (coconut milk, pumpkin puree, etc) per ‘egg’ (we’re all gluten intolerant, & my grown
    daughter is allergic to egg yolks)
    For awhile I used xanthan gum in GF recipes – but you really don’t need it (& a number of folks are sensitive to those!) for quick bread/cookie recipes! A bit of carob powder is a simple way to add some ‘binding,’ & the flax helps in that regard as well!

    1. Yes, Dia, we do GF about 65% of the time, other times I make things with fresh whole wheat. Thank you for your suggestions on switching these recipes to GF! Next time I will try that!

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