I do enjoy a good bit of gingerbread at Christmas time. I always imagined it to be difficult to make, so I’ve never really tried baking it myself until now.
Recently stumbled onto a very simple gingerbread recipe that called for just six ingredients, all of which I conveniently had on hand already. I was sure the recipe was missing something, how could it be so simple? But my gingerbread turned out great!
With no egg included, this Gingerbread Recipe is egg-allergy friendly!
These would make great gifts packaged up in cellophane with a little bow. Dip them in dark chocolate to make them extra decadent.
The original recipe called for just ground ginger, but I’ve also added sweet mixed spice which also has cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and allspice.
Use whatever sweet spice mixture you have available. Make sure the butter is at room temperature (softened) and you won’t even need an electric mixer. I just threw everything into a bowl and mixed it by hand.
I’d say it would be easy enough to convert this recipe to be vegan friendly if you replace the butter with a non-dairy butter alternative like Nuttelex. I haven’t tried that substitution, but I’d be interested to hear how it works if you have.
The dark colour comes from the muscovado sugar and golden syrup, if you use regular soft brown sugar you may get a lighter gingerbread.
The dough comes together very easily. Knead on a floured surface and if dough is to soft (sometimes moisture content in brown sugars vary) add a little more flour or refrigerate for a while to help the dough firm up.
I couldn’t resist making little gingerbread men, and because I’m lazy I’ve left them un-decorated, except for a few buttons that I added pre-baking.
Make sure not to over bake. I took them out of the oven just as the outside was crisping up but still with a soft center. Cooling is the key.
Take them off the hot tray with a spatula immediately and straight onto a cooling rack for best results.
If you are using this recipe for making a gingerbread house, you may need to bake a little bit longer.
You may also enjoy:
Quick & Easy Christmas Gingerbread Recipe - Egg Free
A very easy Gingerbread cookie recipe that is egg free, and only required 6 ingredients.
Ingredients
- 125g unsalted butter softened
- 1/2 cup soft brown sugar or muscovado sugar
- 2/3 cup golden syrup
- 2 1/2 cups plain flour (and extra for rolling)
- 2 teaspoons ground ginger and/or sweet mixed spice
- 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
Instructions
- Preheat over to 160C (320F)
- In a large bowl combine butter, sugar, golden syrup, spices and bicarb.
- Mix well
- Sift in flour slowly and mix until just combined
- Take out of bowl and knead on a floured surface. if dough is to soft (sometimes moisture content in brown sugars vary) add a little more flour (or refrigerate).
- Roll out dough to 5mm thickness and cut with shaped cutter.
- Add button markings with a skewer if desired.
- Bake in batches for around 8 minutes on a cookie tray lined with baking paper.
- Cool on a wire rack and decorate if desired.
Notes
I added 1 tsp ground ginger and 1 tsp mixed spice.
Baking times may vary depending on cutter size used and your oven.
All My Poppet recipes use Australian standard 250ml cup measurements unless otherwise specified.
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Nutrition Information:
Yield: 24 Serving Size: 1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 124Total Fat: 4gSaturated Fat: 3gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 1gCholesterol: 11mgSodium: 7mgCarbohydrates: 20gFiber: 0gSugar: 8gProtein: 1g
Nutritional information is an estimate only and may vary depending on ingredients used.
I made these adorable gingerbread men today. They were perfect! I didn’t know what golden syrup was so I used molasses. They are yummy! Thank you for a great recipe!
Molasses is a bit darker but a good substitute. Thanks for sharing – your suggestion is helpful for other readers.
It is also good to use honey as a substitute. I tested used it instead of golden syrup and it still tasted good!
Thanks fort this wonderful recipe!
Thanks for testing the recipe with honey as a substitute. Very helpful for those readers that can’t easily access golden syrup.
This recipe was fantastic!! And so easy!! My 4 year old who has egg allergy made these delicious gingerbread cookies today for the first time!! They were amazing!! And she loved kneading the dough!! Thanks for such a fun and delicious recipe!!
Hi, Cintia,
Your ideas are so easy to follow-will be making the trees this week. This cookie recipe is the easiest I’ve ever seen, but here in New Jersey, I’ve never heard of “golden syrup”. I like that they’re not decorated because that’s so time consuming. I’ll be sending mine to Georgia and don’t want the icing to be destroyed – I’ll send an icing kit for my grandchildren to decorate themselves-they’ll freak! Thanks for the tips and ideas! Have a glorious holiday and a creative New Year. I’ll be checking back from time to time to see what other wonderful ideas you have. Bless you!
Thanks, what a great idea sending them with a decorating kit. Another reader substituted golden syrup with molasses. It’s a little darker but worked out fine.
Give that a try
Great recipe! Thanks and have a glorious, blessed holiday and creative-filled New Year!
Oooooh, and this happened to come up at the bottom of the page as a “suggestion” from the lemon sandwiches/ melting moments recipe that Mr Man made. Brilliant, now I don’t need to go searching for a recipe. My daughter keeps pestering for me to make some! 🙂 Thank you!
Perfect timing for me, too! I was thinking just yesterday that I need to find a gingerbread recipe, and then this morning I found this in my inbox! And thank you for the molasses idea, because I had no idea what golden syrup was either! I also really like the idea of poking holes for the buttons, because I honestly don’t know if I have the time and/or energy to deal with “real” decorating! 🙂 Lisa
Me too…
I’m 12 years old but I still want to bake!
Could you use whole meal flour? Anyone tried, would it change the consistency?
I haven’t tried it with wholemeal flour. If you give it a try, please report back.
Hi there, if I would like to put choco chips as it’s buttons, any idea when should I put it in so that it doesn’t melt away?
I’d say pop them in as soon as the cookies are out of the oven. The gingerbread should be slightly soft so they should go in easily and then firm up as they cool. Tell me how they turned out if you try this method.
And this is an awesome recipe! It’s easy! My first time baking on my own!
Thanks for this recipe – my youngest son has an egg allergy so it was fab to find a good recipe he could get involved in! And both my boys had a ball decorating them (and my kitchen!) 😄 x
Great to hear. I’m glad your boys had fun.
I’ve just made vegan ones and they taste great. We cut them into dinosaurs because my son is Dino mad.
Awesome! What did you substitute instead of butter?
We made these today with my egg-allergic 4-year-old. He LOVED them! All the more so because he had to skip the gingerbread baking at his preschool recently. I loved them too – honestly just as good as the eggy variety!
I made these last week and they looked amazing! I made big ones and mini ones and they turned out perfect, they were so easy and kept their shape perfectly! I actually used the cookies to do a Christmas themed pregnancy announcement picture 😉
how on earth did you keep these from crumbling apart? the dough felt dry/ crumbly… had to add 2.5 egg substitute to get it to kind of stick, still crumbly/easy to fall apart… what went wrong?
I’ve never had any problems with this recipe, did you use soft brown sugar or regular?
Thanks so much for sharing this recipe, my daughter has several allergies, and this one is safe and so easy to make! She absolutely loves them! I can’t wait for her to be able to share them with her friends! Thank you!
How many cookies does this recipe make?
Depends on the size of your cutter. I made about 24 in this batch.
I tried this recipe with nuttelex (a dairy free buttery table spread) instead of butter as suggested, because my nephew is allergic to eggs and dairy and I am happy to report that it worked. The dough was very wet and sticky (not sure if it’s due to the muscovado sugar I used or the nuttelex) so I had to add extra flour (almost another 1/2 cup) but it was still very soft, so I just whacked it in the fridge to chill overnight, dough was a little more manageable the next day but still had to roll it out between two pieces of baking paper and then chill the cut pieces in the freezer for about 15-20 mins before baking. They did spread in the oven but the cookies were very soft and chewy and smelt deliciously sweet and spicy. I was able to make a mini gingerbread house without it collapsing, I like that it is soft enough to eat unlike the rock hard ones that make sturdier houses. I used a vegan royal icing recipe found on the net to glue the house together (icing sugar, water, corn syrup and lemon juice).
My parents liked the cookies so I can’t wait for my nephew to try them closer to xmas for his verdict!
Cintia was awesome with helping out with my queries as I was going along with great suggestions. Thank you again 🙂
Hi,
Just wondering if you can freeze the dough?
Sorry for the delayed reply. I haven’t personally tried freezing the dough, but I think it would freeze ok. I’d probobably recommend defrosting in the fridge before use.
This recipe is just as delicious vegan with the buttery nuttelex! Just substitute the same amount and it’s super easy!
Excellent. Glad my vegan friends can enjoy delicious gingerbread too.
Great recipe! We used this in my cooking class with 5yr olds for the story of the Gingerbread man! They loved it. We didn’t have any golden syrup so I replaced it with honey. My 6yr olds used the recipe to make groundhog biscuits too. We have lots of kids with egg allergies so this was perfect!
Thanks for sharing!! We made it with honey and it was delicious!!! It is definitely a recipe we plan to make again!!
Made these today with my 3 yr old while in isolation lock down. Great time filler plus with decorating after wards.
Due to dairy intolerance we used Nuttelex but the strong artificial taste came through stronger than the ginger (which I had 3 tsps of). Would make again but use -a lot- more ginger. Otherwise a great recipe thankyou.
Absolutely lovely! I made them shaped like cats and then mushrooms and both worked perfectly! We didn’t have golden syrup so we mixed equal parts honey and maple syrup.😁🍄
This recipe turns out perfectly every time! I was just wondering if it could be used to build a gingerbread house for Christmas? And any changes you’d make to the recipe?
My daughter has an egg allergy & also looking to find an egg-free royal icing alternative – something that will hold strong for building!
Thank you!
Glad you enjoyed it. I found that i was a little to soft to make structurally sound houses, but you can try baking just a little bit longer for a firmer biscuit. I’ve seen some people make eggless royal icing with aquafaba (chick pea water), but you may need to google to find a suitable recipe. You could always use melted chocolate to stick the walls together?
I’ve used this recipe for eggless frosting and it’s worked very well, the whole website uses egg-free recipes!https://mommyshomecooking.com/eggless-royal-icing/
I tried this recipe as I had no eggs! They turned out so great. So chewy which I love, and not overly sweet. Thanks for the great recipe.
This is a fantastic recipe, thanks! My dough was initially super crumbly (almost the texture of brown sugar). Your recipe mentioned more flour might be needed depending on the water content of your sugar. I figured it might work the other way, too (it is VERY dry in Western Canada in the winter). So I added water, a little at a time, until the dough came together. Thanks, again!