Vegan Gingerbread Men (& trees!)

Serves: 60 cookies Serves: 60_Cookies Prep: 30_mins Prep: 30_minutes Cook: 10_mins

Info

What could be more Christmassy than gingerbread men? This month in the Biona Kitchen we share our healthy take on this easy to make vegan recipe, perfect for adults and children alike!

Watch the video here.

Ingredients

105g Biona Organic Coconut Oil

105 g Biona Organic Coconut sugar

45 ml reduced aquafaba (from tin of Biona Organic chickpeas)

110 ml Biona Organic agave syrup

330 g all purpose flour

¾ tsp baking soda

3 level tsp ground ginger

3 level tsp ground cinnamon

¾ tsp ground all spice

¾ tsp ground cloves

¼ tsp fine sea salt

FOR THE ICING:

200g icing sugar

Matcha powder, for green colour

Beetroot juice, for pink colour

Very finely chopped pistachios

Method

To make the reduced aqaufaba, simply simmer with a lid on, until excess water evaporates and aqaufaba becomes like an egg white. Cool it completely before using.
Melt the coconut oil over a low heat, then let it cool.
Sift the flour into a medium sized bowl, and add the baking soda, all the spices and salt and mix well.
Place the melted coconut oil, coconut sugar and reduced aqaufaba in a bowl. Cream them together with an electric whisk until well combine and slightly thickened. Add the agave syrup and whisk until smooth.
Fold 1/3 of the flour mix into the wet ingredients and once combined add the remaining two thirds, one by one. The dough will be quite loose and sticky. Divide into 2 portions, wrap and place in the fridge for at least 1 hour. This can be left overnight too.
Preheat the oven to 175c and line two baking trays with baking paper.
After resting, take the first portion of dough out of the fridge. Leave it for a few minutes then roll it out gently with a rolling pin on a lightly floured surface. Roll the dough out quite thick (about 5 mm / 0.2 inch) and cut the cookies out with cookie cutters. If you want the cookies to be crunchy, roll them out a bit thinner and bake them for longer.
Arrange them on the trays. You don't need to leave too much room between them as they don't spread much. Bake small cookies for 7-9 minutes and larger cookies for 10-12 minutes.
To make the icing, mix icing sugar with a very small amount of water (added very gradually) until you obtain a thick paste. Use beetroot juice instead of water to make pink icing and a touch of matcha powder (and water) to make green icing. If you want to do that divide the icing sugar between 3 bowls.
Place your icing into a small icing bag and decorate your cookies