I had a client ask if I could try to make her family's all time favorite cookie into a gluten free cookie with a little less sugar. Gingersnaps are a favorite in my family as well, so when they approved and her family did too, I knew it was a success!! These are a bit crunchy on the outside and oh so chewy on the inside with the perfect amount ginger. Gingersnaps are traditionally made with molasses. Molasses is made from the cane of a sugar plant, harvested and stripped of its leaves. Its juice is extracted usually by crushing or mashing, but also by cutting. The juice is boiled to concentrate it, which promotes the crystallisation of the sugar.
Molasses is an excellent source of manganese and copper. It is a very good source of iron, calcium, potassium and magnesium. In addition, molasses is a good source of vitamin B6 and selenium.
I choose to use Yacon Syrup in place of molasses in my recipes. It is a sweetening agent extracted from the tuberous roots of the yacon plant indigenous to the Andes mountains. I like using it because of its nutritional properties—few calories and low sugar levels. Yacon is composed primarily of water and about 50% FOS (fructooligosaccharide). These short chain sugars have a lower caloric value and high fiber content. FOS can be extremely helpful to the digestive tract as it is considered a prebiotic. Yacon Syrup is less strong than molasses. You may need to add a bit more of it in a recipe when substituting for molasses.
Recipe: Gingersnap Cookies
Ingredients
- 2 1/4 cups almond flour (Honeyville)
- 4 tbsp palm shortening
- 3 tbsp honey (use Nature's Hollow Xylitol Honey for lower sugar option)
- 1 tbsp coconut palm sugar or Swerve
- 1/4 - 1/3 cup yacon syrup or 1/4 cup molasses
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 1/2 tsp ground ginger
- 1 tsp ground cloves
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp celtic sea salt
Instructions
- Cream the shortening, honey, yacon or molasses and vanilla
- Combine the flour, ginger, cloves, cinnamon, coconut palm sugar or Lakanto, soda and salt
- Add the flour mixture to the wet mixture and stir until combined
- Scoop out the dough onto a parchment lined cookie sheet. (These will spread a tiny bit when cooked. If you prefer a flat cookie, press down with your palm. I pressed down just slightly)
- Bake at 350 for 8-10 minutes
Makes about 18 cookies
Most gingersnap recipes have you roll the dough in sugar before you bake them. The goal was to decrease the amount of sugar in these cookies, so I eliminated that step. We all think they are sweet enough as is. Let us know what you think!!!
