Christmas just ain’t comin’ without a batch of these Gluten Free Ginger Molasses Cookies. If anything, the smell of these fabulous cookies will send Santa packing your way!
ME BEFORE THE RECIPE…
Christmas has come and the goose is FAT! Goose?? What goose? Really, who eats a goose for Christmas?! I just don’t get that song.
Now if you want to say something like Santa is getting fat or my wallet’s getting fat (receipts galore!) or even I’M getting fat (bring on ALL the Christmas goodies!)…those could maybe make sense. But goose???
And speaking of fat…poor Ben; Emry likes to run up to him, pat his belly, and say something along the lines of, “Oh, I love your FAT tummy!”
First of all, I don’t even know where she gets off calling anyone “fat” because that’s not a term we use around our house. We actually try to focus very little on body image because it’s not worth the stress or anxiety that it causes. Instead, we just like to focus on staying healthy.
And second of all, Ben isn’t even fat! The dude works out daily with his beefy band of Crossfit brothas. He’s pretty obsessed. Whatever may be hanging around his midsection is most definitely a good portion muscle. He likes to say he has a six pack, but I bring him back down to planet earth and tell him it’s not quite there yet. Gotta keep him motivated. Hehe.
But back to Christmas around here. Did you hear me? I said Christmas CAME! Not Christmas is coming. I’m telling you, all the holiday wonder and magic came to the Gundersen household last night and my girls couldn’t be more excited! Braelyn received a drum set, so I can’t say that Ben and I are as equally stoked.
You see, I encouraged Braelyn about a week ago to leave a note for our elf Jingles informing Santa that it would probably be a good idea to come early with the majority of their presents. There’s just no way we would be able to pack up Santa gifts and return them home from Utah. So being the responsible little elf that Jingles is, he gave that note to Santa and that jolly old man delivered!
It’s funny how you have to drag your kids out of bed every morning for school, but the minute Santa comes they’re up before the sun is even peeking through. It was an early morning indeed.
So, the best part of “Christmas” was Emry running into our room nearly naked with just a blanket draped over her shoulders, beaming that, “Santa came! Santa came!!!” I think the poor kid forgot about him coming and while she was in the middle of getting dressed for the morning, Braelyn must have reminded her. She didn’t even put her clothes on and came bounding down the stairs in nothing but panties.
Maybe a new tradition??? Who needs Christmas jammies when you got Christmas panties?!
Well I’ll tell you one thing, our house ain’t EVER gonna be the same after this yuletide holiday. Like I said, jolly old St. Nicholas brought DRUMS! What was that guy thinking???! I’ll tell you what he was thinking, “This kid has asked for THREE YEARS for drums. If I don’t FINALLY bring her drums this year, I’m gonna be TOAST!”
And thus the drums.
Emry ended up with some gymnastics equipment, a “do my hair” doll (hidden agenda: she can stop brushing mine), and a few other odds and ends. The girls got a giant Jenga game to share. You know, the stacking game where you try to remove the blocks and build the tower higher without it toppling over? Yeah, Santa thought that would be a genius idea since Emry LOVES our standard sized version. Then, as the girls were playing with it this morning, Santa had a vision of large wooden blocks crashing down onto children’s heads and multiple visits to the ER for stitches. We decided we would leave a polite note along with the game next to our elf tonight and see if Santa could perhaps “exchange” this gift for a more responsible gift in his toy shop.
HERE COMES THE RECIPE…
Aside from the wonder that accompanies waking up and discovering that Santa has left your most favorite present, I think an equal amount of magic occurs the moment you realize Santa has eaten your cookies, taken a sip of your milk, and fed your carrots to his reindeer. Emry couldn’t get over the pure joy she felt knowing that Santa ate HER cookie…a cookie she made just for him.
Now we played it easy this year and just pulled out some frozen sugar cookies the girls had made a few weekends ago, but if you really want to make sure Santa comes to your house this Christmas, there isn’t another Christmas cookie out there that compares in scent and flavor to these Gluten Free Ginger Molasses Cookies.
The aroma of these cookies has me drooling in two seconds flat. Really, it may not even matter how these cookies taste if you could just smell them all day. But trust me when I tell you, they taste as heavenly as they smell.
These ginger molasses cookies bake up into perfect discs of soft and chewy on the inside, crisp and crunchy on the edges, totally addictive rounds of goodness. There’s really just no other way to describe them. They are GLORIOUS!
I made about 4 batches of these cookies in the past two weeks. They came to be our main neighbor gifts these season, along with a few random batches of muffins, banana bread, sugar cookies, and cupcakes that we handed out to friends. Okay, so maybe I’ve been on a slight (uh, major) baking kick lately. But hey, ’tis the season!
But even amidst our other delicious treats, I kept coming back to these babies. Part of the reason I love these cookies is they keep fresh for days. I’m a huge cookie snob to the point I won’t eat a cookie unless it’s baked that day. However, these ginger molasses cookies soften and stay fresh day after day. I even ate one THREE days later! Who am I???! Of course, I will admit, I still like them best the day of because I love the crisp edges of cookies that are still soft and chewy in the center, and you lose those scrumptious edges if you wait a day. Little sacrifices.
This recipe is also a perfect plan ahead recipe. You can make the dough ahead of time and then bake right before you go cookie crazy. The dough needs to chill for at least an hour and can be kept in the fridge for 2-3 days before baking. Just make sure you have the dough covered tightly so it doesn’t dry out. Easy peasy.
And also, I made these cookies using pre-made gluten free all-purpose flour and it worked wonderfully. I even used a few different brands and ended up with similar results for each. So pick your poison and get to baking. I will say, Better Batter produced the best consistency with the prettiest crinkly cookies.
Oh, and the best part of these cookies is rolling that delicious dough in crystals of pure turbinado sugar. I’m telling you, the coarse sugar is worth buying for these cookies. If you love a crunch on your cookies, you most definitely don’t want to skimp on this ingredient. You’ll thank me later.
Now off to baking! Get your house all ready for Kris Kringle and eat a few of these bad boys while you’re at it. We’ll be joyfully enjoying the rest of this season thinking about the true meaning of Christmas. I guess that’s one nice thing about celebrating the gifts early. You can spend the rest of the time praising our Savior. Merry Christmas and God Bless!
YOU MIGHT ALSO ENJOY…
- Gluten Free Vegan Gingerbread Muffins
- Gluten Free Chewy Gingerbread Molasses Cookies
- Gluten Free Super Soft Ginger Molasses Cookies
- Gluten Free Caramel Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Gluten Free Cinnamon Oatmeal Cookies
- 1½ sticks butter, room temperature (3/4 cup or 12 tablespoons)
- 2 oz. cream cheese, softened
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- ¼ cup dark brown sugar
- ¼ cup molasses
- 1 large egg
- 1½ teaspoons vanilla
- 1¼ teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
- ¼ teaspoon ground allspice
- ¼ teaspoon cardamom
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- 2 cups high quality gluten free all-purpose flour (add 1½ teaspoons xanthan gum if your blend doesn't already contain it)
- turbinado sugar or granulated sugar for rolling
- In a large mixing bowl or stand mixer, beat together butter, cream cheese, sugar, and brown sugar until light and fluffy, scraping down sides as needed. Add molasses, egg, and vanilla and mix on low until well combined.
- In a separate smaller mixing bowl, sift together baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, allspice, cardamom, salt, and flour. Add dry ingredients to mixing bowl and mix on low until combined. Increase speed to medium and mix for 2 minutes, scraping down the sides as needed. Cover and chill dough for at least 1 hour and up to 2-3 days.
- Once ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
- Remove dough from fridge. The dough should only be slightly sticky, but should easily form balls. If dough is too sticky, add 1-2 tablespoons flour and stir with wooden spoon to incorporate. Form about 1½ tablespoons dough into a ball and roll in coarse sugar. Arrange 9 cookies on a baking sheet and bake at 350 for 11-13 minutes until edges are set and cookies have cracked and crinkled. Do not over bake.
- Remove cookies from oven and allow to sit on baking sheet for 5 mins. Remove cookies with parchment paper onto cooling rack and allow to cool completely. Repeat with remaining dough, keeping dough chilled in fridge between batches.
