I am a darn good recipe ingredient adapter. This is likely because I was vegan for ten years, being health conscious, and having a child with food allergies. Fortunately, there are so many ways to adapt recipes and make "healthier" swaps. One guide I use for adapting recipes is to keep it simple. The more I can stick to my pantry staples, the better because it saves time. Plus, it's economical. This post shares the very best gingerbread cookie recipe I've ever made!
I am a big fan of the New York Times recipe app. I love love love their recipes and have had so much success with some that they have become my weekly staples--like their one pan go-to salmon recipe. It's so simple! Salmon, butter, salt, lemon... can't go wrong!
This holiday, I wanted to make a gingerbread cookie recipe to make the quintessential Christas cookie recipe and memories with my son. Homemade cookies are the perfect treat and gift for friends and family! So when I cam across this NYT Gingerbread cookie recipe and had no margarine in my fridge, I made a few quick ingredient swaps with my pantry staples that I already had and the cookies turned out...incredible!
In the recipe, I swapped:
-100% organic einkorn flour for the all-purpose flour
-Maple syrup for the molasses
-1/2 softened butter and 1/2 coconut oil for the vegetable shortening
-Coconut sugar for the brown sugar
Here is the New York Times recipe, now that you have my adapted swaps. If you want allergy-friendly swaps, you can join my Facebook group, Fear to Freedom, and ask away!
Pro tips:
-When you measure the flour, measure the flour first, then sift it through a sieve to loosen it up and make it fluffier before you mix it into the wet ingredients.
-Roll the dough out thinner than you think. It might be hard to transfer them to parchment paper when they're thin, but I believe in you. :) These cookies rise and they look best when they're thinner. But...I also love a chubby gingerbread man, too. This could even be a teachable moment with your child that we all come in different shapes and sizes. And bodies are bodies. Not good nor bad.
Enjoy and please let me know what you think! I want to see pictures of those little gingerbread men and women half eaten! :) As you can see, my son is really proud of his little gingerbread men!
