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These Vegan Gingerbread Bear Cookies are beautifully spiced with a moreish soft and chewy texture. They’re quick and easy to make and fun to decorate! A perfect winter treat to make with kids.
With Christmas just around the corner, these holiday-inspired gingerbread cookies are the perfect treat to share with family and friends. They’re flavoured with warming ginger and cinnamon and baked lightly to give a beautifully soft and chewy texture that keeps you coming back for more!
Use the simple 2-ingredient icing to decorate the cute bears with winter scarves, or cover them in icing to create polar bears. This easy vegan gingerbread recipe takes just 10 minutes to make and 10 minutes to bake, plus cooling and decorating. They’re simple, satisfying and delicious; a great recipe to make with kids!
Quick links:
Why you’ll love these Vegan Gingerbread Bear Cookies
Quick and easy to make. These vegan gingerbread cookies are quick and easy to make – first you cream together the wet ingredients and then stir in the dry ingredients. Bring the mixture together into a dough, roll it out, cut out your cookies and then bake them for 10 minutes.
They’ve got a moreish texture. These cookies are lightly baked to give a soft and chewy texture that is incredibly moreish. Let them cool completely (if you can resist tucking in!) to take full advantage. They truly are the best vegan gingerbread cookies!
Simple ingredients. These vegan gingerbread cookies are made without molasses and use just 7 simple ingredients – dairy free margarine, brown sugar, golden syrup, flour, ginger, cinnamon and bicarbonate of soda.
Child friendly. This simple recipe is a great one to make with kids and they can create a range of gingerbread animals if they like, no need to stick to bears! Just remember that if your cookie cutters are smaller than 10cm then the cookies will likely take a little less time to bake.
How to make these Vegan Gingerbread Bears
Preheat the oven to 150°C. Cream together the margarine, sugar and syrup. In a separate bowl stir together the flour, spices and bicarbonate of soda.
Add the flour mixture to the margarine mixture and stir together.
Bring the mixture together into a ball. Roll it out to 0.5cm thick and cut out your cookies. You should get 8 x 10cm bears.
Place them on a tray lined with baking paper and bake for 10 minutes until lightly golden. To make the icing, stir together the icing sugar and dairy free milk until smooth. Decorate your gingerbread cookies once they are fully cooled.
Top tips
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Don’t overmix or knead the dough: Over mixing the dough can lead to a tough cookie. Once you’ve added the flour and spices to the margarine and sugar mixture, stir it together just enough to combine.
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Keep the dough cool: Place the cookies in the fridge for 15 minutes before baking.
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Don’t overbake: Baked goods continue to cook as they cool down so take these out when they’re just starting to colour on top (around 10 minutes for a 10cm bear-shaped cookie). They’ll be soft to start with but as they cool they’ll develop a fantastic chewy and soft texture.
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Cooling: These cookies will be relatively soft straight out of the oven so leave them to cool on the tray for 15 minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack.
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Storing: Store in a cool, dry place at room temperature. The icing may remain tacky so it’s best to ice the cookies on serving.
FAQs
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Can I use butter instead of margarine? These vegan gingerbread cookies use spreadable margarine rather than solid block butter, just make sure the margarine is cold before using.
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Can I switch out the golden syrup for another syrup or molasses? No, molasses has a very strong flavour and makes the cookies crunchier so please use golden syrup for this recipe. Other syrups such as agave and date syrup would not result in the desired texture.
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Loved these Vegan Gingerbread Bear Cookies? Here are some more delicious vegan sweet treats to try
- Don’t miss our article – The Top 3 Vegan Mince Pies in the UK in 2024!
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Looking for more vegan cookie recipes? Try these one-bowl Chocolate Chip Pecan Cookies; deliciously chewy with a crisp edges and a gooey centre.
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If you’re a fan of a fudgy brownie, look no further! These Fudgy Vegan Chocolate Brownies are easy to make and have a deliciously rich centre and is filled with dark chocolate chips.
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These Biscoff Billionaire’s Shortbread are to die for! With buttery vegan shortbread, silky smooth Biscoff spread and a layer of glossy dark chocolate. Yum!
I hope you LOVE this recipe for Vegan Gingerbread Bear Cookies! Share this recipe with someone you think will enjoy it and don’t forget to tag @aveganvisit on social media when you try out the recipe – I absolutely love seeing your re-creations! Enjoy 🙂 x
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The Video Recipe:
The Vegan Gingerbread Bear Recipe:
Vegan Gingerbread Bear Cookies
Ingredients
For the cookies:
- 90 g soft light brown sugar
- 75 g dairy free margarine (cold)
- 3 tbsp golden syrup (45g)
- 170 g plain flour
- 2 tsp ground ginger
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- ½ tsp bicarbonate soda
For the icing:
- 130 g icing sugar
- 2 tbsp dairy free milk
Instructions
- In a bowl beat together the sugar, margarine and golden syrup until the mixture is smooth and creamy.90 g soft light brown sugar, 75 g dairy free margarine, 3 tbsp golden syrup
- In a separate bowl stir together the flour, ginger, cinnamon and bicarbonate of soda.
- Add the flour mixture to the bowl of wet ingredients and stir together until fully combined.
- Bring the mixture together into a ball and place on a floured surface.
- Dust a rolling pin with flour and then roll the dough out to approx 0.5cm thick. Don’t roll the dough thinner than this otherwise the cookies will end up crunchy.
- Cut out the cookies using bear-shaped cookie cutters (or whatever shape you desire). To stop the dough sticking to the cookie cutter, dip it in flour before each cut. Bring the remaining dough back together, re-roll it and cut out more cookies - you should get 8 x 4” (10cm) bears in total.
- Place the bears on a tray lined with baking paper. Leave a little bit of space between the cookies because they will expand a bit in the oven.
- Place the tray in the refrigerator for 15 minutes whilst you preheat the oven to 150°C fan (170°C conventional / 325°F / gas mark 3).
- Bake for 10-12 minutes until they are a light golden brown, which will give you a soft and chewy biscuit once cooled.
- Let the cookies cool on the tray as they’ll be quite soft to start with. Transfer them to a cooling rack after 15 minutes and make sure they’ve cooled completely before decorating.
- Make the icing by stirring together the icing sugar and dairy free milk. Add this to a piping bag with a fine nozzle and decorate the bears with scarves or with icing all over if you want to make them polar bears!130 g icing sugar, 2 tbsp dairy free milk
Notes
Nutrition
Tara
Hi, I’m Tara! I’m taking you on a trip around the world in vegan cuisine and bringing the world’s most delicious dishes to your kitchen.
