Vegan Gingerbread Wreath and Shapes

Delicious warmingly spiced gingerbread biscuits with a good crunch but chewy inside, make these into an impressive gingerbread wreath or keep them as gingerbread shapes. This recipe is easy to follow and they’re naturally vegan.

Gingerbread are a staple this time of year, everybody is making gingerbread men, women, shapes and it’s so fun to see all of the fun decorations! I have to admit, the icing was the most stressful part of this entire recipe, making sure I got the thickness just right! But be patient and your first few biscuits may not be the best ones – I always feel I need some warm-up icing before getting it right. Either way, they’ll taste delicious.

Now, I wanted to take my love for this time of year and gingerbread a step further with this Vegan Gingerbread Wreath and Shapes. I’d seen a few edible wreaths on Pinterest and thought they looked so fun, so here is my gingerbread version.

You use the same dough for the shapes as you do for the wreath, so it’s really simple. Be warned, the recipe makes quite a few gingerbread men/shapes depending on the size of your cutters so just keep rolling out the dough to use it all up.

A few things make this recipe stand out to other gingerbread I’ve made before:

• Ground chia or flax seeds: recently, I grind my own chia or flax seeds to a fine meal before adding the water as it makes for a smooth gel to bind the dough meaning a better texture in the cookie.
• Date molasses: classic gingerbread cookies use blackstrap molasses which isn’t something I have to hand! So, in the past I’ve used maple or even golden syrup and the cookies are still great, but the molasses really adds that much-love gingerbread quality. This year, I had some date molasses and it’s delicious! If you can, I’d suggest investing in some date molasses for this recipe as it’s also great for topping on porridge.
• The right spices: I tried a few blends and ratios, and this is my favourite. Not too overpowering but with a lot of flavour. Ground ginger, cinnamon, mixed spices and salt are a dream combination.

That’s it for the more special elements of this Vegan Gingerbread Wreath and Shapes. The other dough ingredients are pretty standard but the way you use them is different to a normal cookie recipe. It’s all very straight forward:

1. Melt together the vegan butter or margarine, sugar and molasses until combined
2. Take off the heat and add in the vanilla and baking powder – it will start to smell already like gingerbread, and it will really bubble – keep stirring
3. Then add in the plain flour and spices to a sticky and pliable dough

Then it is time to start rolling and cutting out your shapes. For shapes, I used gingerbread men in 3 different sizes as well as some holly leaves and some various sizes of stars – but you can use whatever you like!

The wreath can be a little fiddly but all you need is a large bowl to cut out one round and a slightly smaller bowl to cut out a circle inside and leave you with a wreath/ring. Allow all of the shapes to bake before cooling fully and icing to your heart’s content! The wreath is only held together with the same icing sugar glaze that decorate the gingerbread shapes.

I am in love with this Vegan Gingerbread Wreath and Shapes as it’s so fun to make and makes an impressive centrepiece! The biscuits will store for a couple of weeks in airtight containers although they may turn a bit softer but still delicious.

If you are looking for more festive bakes, how about my:

• White Chocolate Macadamia Cranberry Snickerdoodles
• Cinnamon Roll Banana Bread
• Chocolate Pecan Fudge Bars
• Chocolate Peanut Butter Gummy Bear Rocky Roads
• Chocolate Orange Cookie Cups

Vegan Gingerbread Wreath and Shapes

• Servings: 1 wreath, 30+ shapes
• Time: 30 minutes plus cooling
• Difficulty: easy
• Print

Delicious warmingly spiced gingerbread biscuits with a good crunch but chewy inside, make these into an impressive gingerbread wreath or keep them as gingerbread shapes. This recipe is easy to follow and they’re naturally vegan.

Ingredients

Gingerbread shapes:
• 1 ½ tbsp ground chia of flax seeds
• 4 tbsp water
• 150g vegan butter/margarine
• 150g coconut sugar
• 3 tbsp date molasses or maple syrup
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 2 tsp vanilla essence
• 350g plain flour, plus extra for dusting
• 2 tbsp ground ginger
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• ½ tsp mixed spice
• A pinch of salt
Icing sugar glaze:
• 250g icing sugar
• 2 tbsp water
• Sprinkles

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 160fan/180*C and line 2-3 baking trays with parchment paper. You will work in batches so need to re-use some trays.
2. Stir together the ground chia seeds (blitz chia seeds in a blender to a fine meal) with the water and leave to one side.
3. Melt the vegan butter/margarine, sugar and molasses/syrup until fully dissolved. Take off the heat and stir in the vanilla essence and baking powder. It will bubble up and smell fragrant.
4. Stir together the flour, ground ginger, cinnamon, mixes spices and salt and pour in the wet mixture. Stir together to a sticky and shiny dough.
5. Transfer to a lightly floured surface and cut in half. Roll each piece of dough to about ½ cm thick and cut out your shapes. Carefully transfer to the sheets and bake for 8-10 minutes. Smaller shapes may cook quicker than the larger ones. You will need to cook them in batches. If making a gingerbread wreath, roll out a piece of dough onto floured baking parchment. Place a large bowl over one piece of the gingerbread dough and cut around out. Using a smaller bowl, cut out the middle to form a ring of dough and using the baking parchment, slide onto a baking sheet. Bake as the rest. Take the scraps of dough and re-roll to use all the dough.
6. Allow to cool fully on a wire rack.
7. Make the frosting by stirring together the ingredients until thick enough to hold its shape but runny enough to pour. Using a small nozzle, pipe on the decorations (or use a spoon and knife) and top off with the sprinkles.

I can’t wait to hear what you think of these Vegan Gingerbread Wreath and Shapes so please let me know in the comments below and tag me your gingerbread baking! I’m @nourishing.amy on Instagram and use the hashtag #nourishingamy. I’m also on Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest  – please say hello!

With gingerbread love x