Gluten Free Gingerbread Ornaments

Turn your pantry staple ingredients into beautiful gluten free gingerbread ornaments! These easy homemade Christmas ornaments are allergy friendly and are a great holiday craft to make with kids.

Makes about 18 cookie ornaments (exact number will vary by thickness of dough and the size of your cookie cutters)

Gluten free, vegan; Free of: eggs, dairy, soy, wheat, peanuts, tree nuts

Course Cookies, Desserts

Cuisine English

Keyword christmas cookie ornaments, gingerbread ornaments, homemade christmas ornaments

Prep Time 15

Cook Time 16

Cooling time 10

Total Time 33

Servings cookie ornaments

Calories 63kcal

Author Sarah Jane Parker

Ingredients

⅓ cup dairy free butter, softened (we recommend using a firm DF butter, avoid using Earth Balance since it's too soft)
½ cup packed brown sugar
2 Tablespoons molasses
1 teaspoon vanilla
¾ cup Authentic Foods superfine sorghum flour
½ cup King Arthur gluten free all-purpose baking mix
1 ½ teaspoons ground ginger (use less if you want less ginger taste)
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon salt
⅛ teaspoon ground cloves
Dash allspice
1 to 1 ½ Tablespoons oat or rice milk
Peppermint starlight mints
Dairy Free Buttercream Frosting

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
In a medium bowl, beat together the dairy free butter, brown sugar, molasses, and vanilla.
In a separate small bowl, whisk together the flours, spices, and salt.
Add half the flour mixture to the butter mixture and blend together.
Add the rest of the flour mix to the bowl with the oat/rice milk and beat together until a thick dough forms that sticks together when pressed together. Mixing the flour in parts makes it much easier to mix the dough.
If the dough seems a little dry and doesn't come together, add more milk 1 teaspoon at a time, mixing and testing how cohesive it is after each addition, until a thick dough forms. It needs to be thick and able to rolled out (so not too soft or moist).
If the dough seems a little too moist to roll, add an additional 1-2 Tablespoons gluten free baking mix flour and chill the dough for 1-2 hours to help it firm up a bit before rolling.
Divide dough into 2 balls, flatten slightly into disks. While rolling one disc of dough, wrap the other one with plastic wrap to keep it from drying out.
Flour a pastry mat with some of the gluten free flour and roll out one of the cookie dough disks 1/8 to 1/4 inch thick and cut out with a round cookie cutter.
Cut out the center of the dough round with a smaller round cutter or a shape that fits inside but still leaves enough cookie for good structure.
Use a lightly floured spatula to lift the cut out cookies onto the baking sheet.
Poke a hole for ornament string or ribbon with a straw or chopstick.
Press the scraps together, roll out again, and cut again until most (or all) of the cookie dough is used up.
Repeat all steps with the other cookie dough disk until all the dough is used.
Bake the cookies for 8-10 minutes. It's ok if these cookies get harder since they are for hanging as ornaments and won't be eaten.
If the hole for the string has started to close up a little, use a straw or chopstick again to press into the cookie while it's still soft to open the hole again.
Allow the cookies to cool about 10 minutes on the pan. Keep these on the pan.
Add a piece of starlight mint candy to the center of each cookie ornament (using 2-3 pieces of candy if you are making larger ornaments).
Return the cookies with the candy to the oven and bake about 7-8 minutes until the candy is melted and has spread into the space inside the cookie. Make sure to have parchment paper on your pan for this part so it is easy to remove!
Cool the cookies on the pan for about 10 minutes until the candy is cooled.
Remove to a wire cooling rack and cool completely before adding frosting.

Video

Notes

*We used gluten free baking mix (vs. gluten free all purpose flour) that has baking soda, salt, and xanthan gum in the mix already.

Nutrition