Today’s post is the sort of cookie recipe that you make when the pantry is close to bare. Without egg, dairy, wheat, gluten, nuts, soy, or peanuts (someone might put fish in cookies…but…), they are close to allergen free. I did add ground flaxseeds, as gluten-free bakery generally benefits from their stickiness. The original recipe doesn’t have the add-ins of cranberries and candied ginger, either in Fannie Farmer or on Quick Easy Cheap Healthy, but I couldn’t resist. Chocolate and almonds might be another good combination.
The resulting cookies are good: chewy and spicy. The molasses is a dominant flavor, so a light molasses might be better if you want to emphasize the ginger more than the molasses. They would make delicious ice cream sandwiches! The brown rice flour does add a little grittiness to the texture, so I’ll probably use my standard flour mixture the next time I make them. Best of all, they hold together.
The recipe was selected from adapted from Quick Easy Cheap Healthy‘s blog for the Secret Recipe Club. While her blog contains plenty of wheat, she does have a small child with a wheat allergy, so some recipes have a gluten-free version. The following was one of them.
On a side note, she did a lovely post on how to be a good host for someone with food allergies and a fun series on packed lunches. (Oh, btw, I was one of those kids who ate PB sandwiches for lunch every day! As an adult, that translates to eating the same pot of bean/lentil soup all week for lunch.)
Ginger Cookies
1/3 cup molasses
3 T coconut oil
1 c brown rice flour + 2 T tapioca starch
1/8 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
1 t ginger
1/4 t cinnamon
2 T flaxseeds, ground
1/4 c chopped candied ginger
1/4 c dried cranberries
Dash ground cloves
Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease cookie sheets, or place liners in muffin tins. (I’ve found cookies and bars baked in muffin tins hold together better. The extra structure helps compensate for the lack of gluten.)
Mix together the flour, starch, spices, salt, and baking soda. Pour the molasses into a medium saucepan and bring to a boil. Remove from the heat and stir in the coconut oil. When it is mixed, add the dry ingredients, cranberries, and candied ginger. Spoon into muffin tins (~1 T per full size muffin cup or ~ 1 t per mini-muffin tin), or roll into balls and bake for 8 -10 minutes. Cool until warm and them remove promptly. If you remove them immediately, they’ll fall apart. If you let them cool too long, you’ll never get them out.
I’m glad you liked my recipe! It’s funny about the brown rice flour being gritty… normally I find that to be the case when used in baked goods, but what I always love about this recipe is that I dont’ find it gritty at all. I think the difference must be shortening vs coconut oil – you should try it with palm shortening and see if you still find it gritty. And I have been intending to add candied ginger to these since the very first time I made them months ago… and despite the fact that I make them all the time, I have yet to do that! And I never thought to add cranberries; great idea! Good tip, too, about using the muffin tin.
It might also be the fineness of the flour– I’ve heard of superfine brown rice flour, and apparently with different brands grind vary quite a lot. I have arowhead mills, which does seem to be gritty whenever I use more than 30% of it in anything flour-based.
I definitely love the minimal pantry commitment! It’s a great recipe to revive.
Yummy, I love ginger cookies. Those look totally good.
These cookies look fantastic, love your photos! What a great recipe for SRC! 🙂
I adore ginger cookies and yours look wonderful.
If you haven’t already, I’d love for you to check out my SRC recipe this month: Cilantro Lime Chicken
Lisa~~
Cook Lisa Cook
My hubby actually takes PBJ everyday now! :-). I love Ginger molasses cookies. My grandmother made them along with a few other types on a regular basis.
This is a great fall cookie. Great with a cup of hot tea or coffee!
I didn’t used to be a fan of ginger cookies, but then again, i was used to those cardboard-like storebought versions as a child. The cranberries and ginger in these sound so good, i might have to give ginger cookies a second change =)
I’m a eat one meal all week kinda gal too. These cookies look awesome. I love the ginger + molasses combination.
I forwarded to my sister who’s on a GF diet and is vegan. They look excellent.
I recently made molasses spiced cookies too and loved them. Great pick for SRC!
This cookie calls for ingredients I’ve never tried before. I would love to try this if ever I could get me hands on this stuff. They look lovely!
I’ve never baked with ingredients other than your standard all-purpose flour, sugar, etc, but you make these cookies sound great! I will have to keep them in mind to try!
Yum, these look really tasty…I love ginger cookies but I rarely add in things like dried fruit…sounds super delicious!
Lovely healthy recipe! I bet they were delicious!
Looks delicious!
These would be great for the winter holidays! I love ginger cookies! Looks fab!
Those cookies look fantastic! I love a ginger cookie in the winter months… just says holiday time to me! Yum!
These sound scrumptious. Thanks for sharing
Jennifer
http://www.jennifersikora.com
I have made these stunning & tasty cookies & they were real winners! 🙂 My family & parents loved them so much! 🙂