Fine scents from the kitchen announce: The season of Advent has arrived and it is time to start baking for Christmas time. My vegan sugar-free gingerbread not only smells promising; it is packed with wholesome ingredients but without any refined sugar at all. My gingerbread is sweetened with dates and applesauce and makes an ideal gift for all with a sweet tooth.
A fine classic presented in a contemporary dress
I start my baking for Christmas with cookies that have been baked and valued throughout Europe for hundreds of years. High time to come up with a recipe for vegan gingerbread without sugar! The gingerbread spice is their core. Finest ingredients such as hazelnuts, cocoa, dates, apple pulp and cinnamon all contribute to the delicious, nutty, sweet and spicy taste.
To my liking, I shape little gingerbread men, cut out hearts or turn my gingerbread into stars. What is your favorite shape? A family classic or a newly created one?
Happiness and indulgence
Now comes the first moment of happiness the gingerbread cookies come out of the oven and the kitchen fills with their scent. A fragrance that promises true indulgence! As soon as your cookies have cooled down, you can start to decorate them. Enjoy your gingerbread cookies at home in frosty, gray weather with a fine tea or a chai latte. As you like as a spiced chai latte, turmeric latte or pumpkin spice latte. Or pack them for your friends and family in a nice tin or a box as a lovely Christmas bring-along.
I wish you a nice Advent season and loads of fun baking and enjoying delicious vegan Christmas cookies!
Vegan Sugar-Free Gingerbread
Ingredients
- 200 g hazelnuts
- 200 g wholegrain (spelt) flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 2 tsp gingerbread spice
- 1 ½ Tbsp cacao powder
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- ¼ tsp salt
- 50 g canola oil alternatively coconut oil
- 100 g dates
- 150 g apple sauce sugar-free, home-made
- 1 tsp lemon juice
- 1 organic orange 1 Tbsp orange zest
Chocolate coating easy to make yourself
- 40 g cocoa butter
- 2 Tbsp cocoa powder
- 1 tsp almond butter or any other nut butter
- 2 Tbsp maple syrup
- 1 pinch salt
- optional: chopped pistachios or walnuts
Instructions
- Soak the dates in hot water for 10 minutes.
- Finely grind the hazelnuts.
- Roast the ground hazelnuts in a pan until they are fragrant.
- Then mix all the dry ingredients from hazelnuts to cinnamon in a large bowl.
- Finely puree the dates with the apple pulp, lemon juice, oil and orange zest.
- Mix the dry with the wet ingredients and knead everything into a ball of dough. The dough is still very soft and sticky and has to be put in the fridge (ideally wrapped in cling film and kept overnight in the cold).
- The next day or after a few hours, the dough should be firmer. Now roll it out on a lightly floured surface (approx. 1 cm thick) and cut out gingerbread stars, man, hearts or whatever shapes you like.
- Place the cut out gingerbread cookies on a baking sheet lined with baking paper. Then bake in the preheated oven at 180 ° C convection for 8-10 minutes and then leave to cool on a rack.
- For the home-made chocolate coating: Melt the cocoa butter in a small saucepan or in the microwave and mix the remaining ingredients with it. Dip the cooled gingerbread stars in the chocolate and use them to decorate or cover the stars. (Alternatively, you can simply melt the vegan chocolate you have bought in a water bath and cover and decorate your gingerbread stars. I have chosen both variants for the photo.) You may also like to decorate the gingerbread stars with chopped pistachios or other chopped (preferably roasted) nuts.
Notes
It is a blend of spices that has no fixed composition and is often a well-kept secret. It also differs from country to country: In German recipes, you often find a lot of cinnamon in them, which is almost or completely missing in Northern Europe. In Eastern Europe, on the other hand, pepper is often part of the spice mix. A mix of nine spices is popular for gingerbread:
A nine-mix mix of allspice, cinnamon, ginger, anise, coriander, cardamom, nutmeg, cloves and fennel is popular for gingerbread: pimento (allspice), cinnamon, ginger, anise, coriander, cardamom, nutmeg, cloves and fennel.
