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This simple recipe for Paleo Soft Baked Gingersnaps produces soft, moist, and delicious healthy paleo gingersnap cookies. They’re completely gluten and dairy free, are sweetened with natural sugar, and are ready in less than one hour.
Healthier paleo soft baked gingersnaps
‘Tis the season for all of the cookie eating, all of the spiced wine drinking, and all of the indulgent treats! If I can help out a little by showing that there can be indulgent cookies with a healthier twist, I have done my job! I swear to you that no one will even know that these aren’t made with your typical butter, flour, and white sugar.
So, thatโs part of the reason why I decided to make this week Cookie Week, and share a new healthier holiday cookie each day (see Chocolate Mint Cookies and Peanut Butter Blossoms here!). My family has grown to love my treats so much that they will often request a certain treat for me to make ‘healthier,’ and I absolutely love that challenge.
My family typically asks for healthy cookies, so I started collecting a list of flavors that I wanted to make a little bit healthier for the holidays. And yes, I still enjoy the “normal,” less healthy options too, because hey – thatโs the best part of the holidays! But, I love bringing healthy options along to create a balance between the two.
Name a more nostalgic cookie than the good old gingersnapโฆ I seriously can’t! Every year around fall, my family picks up a box of our beloved Ivin’s gingersnap cookies, and I swear I could seriously go through an entire sleeve in one sitting.
They’re crunchy, thin, and sooo gingery – which I love. I’m obsessed with dipping them in my coffee and then letting them get slightly soft before eatingโฆ bonus points if a few pieces fall off into the actual coffee and there is some left over at the end!
How to make gingersnaps video
Ingredients required to prepare this recipe
Making this recipe is actually quite easy. From start to finish, it requires less than an hour. Ingredient-wise, youโre probably already stocked with many of these items! Hereโs what youโll need to bring these cookies to life:
- Almond Butter (or a nut butter of your choice)
- Coconut oil
- Coconut sugar
- Molasses
- Egg
- Vanilla
- Almond flour
- Coconut flour
- Baking soda
- Salt
- Cinnamon
- Ground ginger
- Allspice
Kitchen tools required to make paleo treats
To make your tasty ginger treats, you’ll need the following kitchen tools:
- Baking sheet
- Parchment paper
- 2 small mixing bowls
- Medium mixing bowl
- Whisk
Perfectly soft and chewy cookies
As much as I love crunchy and chewy gingersnaps, I realized that I love them even more when theyโre soft and chewy, hence my dipping into coffee. I decided that I wanted to make a version that would be just melt-in-your-mouth delicious!
And, since itโs cookie week over here at Erin Lives Whole headquarters, I figured now would be a perfect time to share these healthier gingersnap cookies.
What makes these cookies healthy?
These cookies are completely grain, gluten, and dairy free, and they’re sweetened with natural sugar! I love using natural sugar in place of other artificial options.
To make things even better, they come together in less than an hour! It always amazes me how I can go from nothing to a full tray of deliciously warm cookies in under an hour.
How to prepare healthy paleo gingersnaps
First, preheat the oven to 350F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. In a small bowl, whisk together the almond butter, coconut oil, coconut sugar, and molasses. Add the egg and vanilla, and whisk.
Next, in a medium bowl, mix together the almond flour, coconut flour, baking soda, salt, and spices. Add the wet ingredients to the dry, and stir until completely combined. Place the mixture in the refrigerator to chill for 30 minutes.
While chilling, mix the coconut sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl.
Once the first mixture is chilled, roll the dough into balls, and then dip them in the coconut sugar mixture. Place on baking sheet and flatten with hand.
Bake for 9-11 minutes. Tada!
How to make vegan gingersnaps
Itโs quite simple to make a vegan version of this healthy cookie recipe. To do so, you wonโt even need an extra ingredient! To make this recipe vegan-friendly, simply omit the egg, and add an extra 3 tablespoons of your preferred nut butter. Your treats will be vegan and extra delicious!
How to store these healthy cookies
Store extra treats in an airtight container. Feel free to leave them on the counter, as they will stay fresh at room temperature.
Looking for some more holiday treat ideas? Try these!
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Paleo Soft Baked Gingersnaps
This simple recipe for Paleo Soft Baked Gingersnaps produces soft, moist, and delicious healthy paleo gingersnap cookies. They’re completely gluten and dairy free, are sweetened with natural sugar, and are ready in less than one hour.
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup almond butter (any nut butter would work)
- 1/4 cup coconut oilย melted
- 1/4 cup coconut sugar
- 1/4 cup molasses
- 1 egg – room temperature
- 1ย tsp vanilla
- 1 cup almond flour
- 1/3 cup coconut flour
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- 1/4 tsp allspice
For rolling
- 1/4 cup coconut sugar
- 2 tsp cinnamon
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper
- In a small bowl, whisk together the almond butter, coconut oil, coconut sugar, and molasses.
- Add in the egg and vanilla and whisk.
- In a medium bowl, mix together the almond flour, coconut flour, baking soda, salt, and spices.
- Add wet ingredients to dry and stir until completely combined.
- Place in refrigerator for 30 minutes to chill.
- While chilling pour coconut sugar and cinnamon in small bowl.
- Once chilled, roll dough into balls and then into the cinnamon sugar mixture.
- Place on baking sheet and flatten with hand.
- Bake for 9-11 minutes.
- Let cool completely before eating.
- Store at room temperature in airtight container.
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Angela Luo says
The perfect soft gingersnaps! So delicious and will be a holiday staple. I did make a couple of changes: I didn’t use a room temp egg (used a cold one from the fridge because I didn’t take out the egg early enough) and applesauce for the oil. Amazing recipe as always Erin! Thank you
★★★★★
Erin says
Hi Angela, I am so happy you loved them! ๐
Steph says
I doubled the recipe and made for my family for Christmas – everyone LOVED them! They stayed soft and chewy for days. Will definitely make again!
★★★★★
Erin says
Hi Steph, I am so happy everyone liked them!
Anne Westbrook says
I made these exactly as directed, and I canโt taste any of the spices. Truly. It just tastes like an almond molasses cookie. The texture is really nice, though, and they are soft.
If I try it again, I think Iโd change the allspice to being a full teaspoon. It might help at least. Then adding more into the rolling sugar at the end.
Thanks for providing a good base recipe.
★★★
Kellen says
These are a hit! I used 2 cups (plus maybe a tad bit more) of almond flour and no coconut flour and they turned out great!
★★★★★
Erin says
Hi Kellen, I am so glad to hear that! Thank you for sharing!!
Patty says
I loved how these turned out and Iโll post IG IG. My question could we use gluten free all purpose flour instead of almond flour?
★★★★★
Erin says
Hi Patty, yes that should work! Let me know how they come out!
Kathryn Schoenfeldt says
These were great! My husband said these were the best ginger snaps he has ever had!!
★★★★★
Erin says
Hi Kathryn, I love hearing that! Glad you both like them!
Jo Ann says
Hi Erin,
Thank you for this delish recipe. However, how come my dough is flat. Is it maybe because I put butter? Then I realized after it calls for BUTTER NUT
Megan says
These are PHENOMENAL!! Everyone in my family loved them. They are melt in your mouth delicious!!
★★★★★
Erin says
Hi Megan, thanks so much for your kind words! I am thrilled everyone loves them!
Kayla says
These are AMAZING! Chewy and soft and the perfect amount of spice.
★★★★★
Erin says
Hi Kayla, so happy you loved them so much!!
Sarah Rucker says
I made these for Christmas and they were delicious. My picky husband liked them too. ???? Thank you for sharing this recipe.
★★★★★
Erin says
Hi Sarah! I am thrilled you and your husband both enjoyed them! ๐
Alex says
Love these cookies! Just what I needed in this holiday season. Next time I will make them mini cookies because I enjoyed the hard outer shell and the soft inside. And also, I had to stop myself from eating all of them! Thank you for the recipe!
★★★★★
Erin says
YAY! So glad that you liked them. Thanks for sharing!! ๐
HC says
Best paleo cookies Iโve made. I used a flax egg and they turned out great. I do recommend flattening the dough on the pan to look more like โnormalโ cookies since, like most paleo cookie recipes, they donโt flatten out as they bake.
★★★★★
Erin says
So glad you liked them! Thanks for the comment!
Jill says
Could I sub a flax egg for the one egg in this recipe to make it vegan?
Erin says
Yes!!
Denise says
My daughter has a tree nut allergy. What can I use instead of almond flour? Will using all coconut work?
Erin says
I would try a gf or whole wheat flour.
Jenny says
Do you think you could substitute coconut oil with unsweetened applesauce?
Erin says
You can definitely try! I have not tried myself but please let us know if you do.
Angela Luo says
I subbed unsweetened apple sauce for coconut oil and still delicious! Soft and moist (sorry I know ppl don’t like that word)
★★★★★
Erin says
Hi Angela, thanks for sharing and so glad you enjoyed them!!
Kaitlin says
These were delicious! Perfect healthy sub for gingersnaps.
★★★★★
Erin says
Thank you, Kaitlin!!!
Sharon Belove Daley says
Is coconut flour a must, can I sub anything else in? (I have and love almond flour)
Sarah B says
Question about the size of balls to make – 1tbsp? How many cookies does it make?
Thank you!
Erin says
Between 1-1.5 tbsp should be perfect and you should plan to get between 14-16 cookies!
Lindsay says
Could I use this recipe to make gingerbread men?
Erin says
I have seen lots of people do it with this recipe!! Should work well.
Dylan says
Hi! Any thoughts on what I could sub instead of a nut butter?
Erin says
sunflower seed butter or coconut butter should work.
Megan says
Hi Erin! These look great. I have all the ingredients except the almond flour. Do you think I could substitute it for anything else?
Megan says
I ended up making these last night and they are SO GOOD! I used ~ 1 1/4 cup of all purpose flour and then came out perfectly.
Erin says
Sorry I missed your comment!! But I am SO glad they worked with that! Did you make any other adjustments?
Megan says
I also did not take the 30 minutes to chill the dough (it was late and I really wanted a cookie haha!). But I followed the rest of the recipe exactly as stated
Megan says
I also did not chill the dough at all (it was late and I was impatient haha!) but they stayed nice and fluffy! Other than that I followed the recipe as you wrote it ๐