real estate adviser: Week 5: Vegan and Gluten-Free Cookies

Week 5: How to Make Vegan and Gluten-Free Cookies That Are as Good as Any

Vegan and gluten-free baking are endeavors that require lots of creativity, patience, and experimentation. Luckily, vegan and gluten-free cookies are a lot easier to make than vegan and gluten-free cakes and breads. The goal with this kind of baking is always to swap out traditional ingredients like eggs, butter, and flour without sacrificing flavor or texture.

Let's dive into the science behind each of those three ingredients and their role in cookie baking to better understand what makes for good substitutes.

First up, butter. Cookies use butter for richness and density, not so much for lift the way cakes do. That makes substituting butter in cookie recipes pretty easy. Non-dairy vegan margarine will work well almost every single time. Not all margarines are vegan, however. So be sure to always read the ingredients list.

Eggs are a bit more difficult to substitute. Many cookie recipes depend on eggs for several things, including their leavening, emulsifying, moistening, and binding powers. They create stability within the batter. Most of our vegan cookie recipes use something called egg replacer which can be either a commercial powdered product specifically developed as a substitute for eggs in baking or a combination of ingredients that work to replicate the action of eggs in a recipe. You may have to experiment and find a brand you like.

Wheat flour is used in baking so that baked goods hold their shape. As cookies bake, they spread out on the baking sheet. The heat from the oven melts the fats and sugar in the dough, and gluten from flour helps hold them in. Removing gluten from your cookie dough will make it a lot less springy. The goal with gluten-free cookie baking is to add that springiness back in without using wheat flour. The most common way to do that is to combine gluten-free flours like coconut and almond flour or other milled grains with ingredients like tapioca flour, rice flour xanthan gum or guar gum. Luckily many brands make gluten free baking mixtures for just this purpose.

Today, we're making classic holiday gingerbread cookies that are completely vegan. They use egg replacer, vegan margarine, and molasses (which keeps them super soft). They're also perfect for rolling and cutting and decorating.

Hello, Cookies

Ingredients

1 cup vegan margarine
1 cup granulated sugar
1 Ener-G Egg Replacer for 1 egg, prepared according to package instructions
1 cup molasses
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
5 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon fine salt
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 tablespoon ground ginger
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon cloves
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

Let's Make Some Tasty Vegan Cookies

1. Beat together the vegan margarine and sugar in a large bowl.

2. Add the prepared egg replacer, molasses, and apple cider vinegar and set aside.

3. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, salt, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg to combine well.

4. Combine this flour mixture with the margarine and sugar mixture and stir until well mixed.

5. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours or overnight if possible. This will help the cookie dough to become firm. You can skip this step if you're baking regular ball cookies, but, if you're going to cut the dough into shapes, you won't want to skip the refrigeration.

6. Preheat oven to 375 F and form mixture into 1/2-inch balls and flatten or roll out onto a floured surface and cut into shapes using cookie cutters.

7. Place on cookie sheets and bake for 6 to 8 minutes until done.

8. Serve and enjoy.

More Cookie Recipes to Try

Vegan Double Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Gluten-Free French Madeleine Cookies

Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies

Gluten-Free Gingersnap Cookies

The Spruce Eats on YouTube

Sugar Cookies 3 Delicious Ways

Watch & Learn

This Week's Baking Essentials

All About Gluten and Its Role in Baking

What Is Egg Replacer?

Our Best Butter Substitution Baking Tips

Did somebody forward you this email? Sign up for A Cookie a Day by the Spruce Eats

Have feedback? Send us an email at contact@thespruceeats.com, subject line: Newsletter Feedback.