Christmas Gingerbread Men

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Recipe by our Naturopath Kate Bird

Christmas homemade gingerbread cookies on wooden table

Last week I made these gingerbread men for my children. I left 2 trays of them to cool in the kitchen while I went to do a few jobs around the house. When I came back to the kitchen, I found my son (4 years old), standing on a chair he’d pushed into the room and my younger daughter waiting eagerly next to him…

They had eaten an entire tray and a half of biscuits while I’d been gone. Needless to say, this one gets a big tick of approval from my two cheeky monkeys.

Ingredients

1/4 cup water
1/4 cup coconut oil
1/2 cup maple syrup
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup tapioca flour
1/2 cup coconut flour
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
¼ tsp ground cloves
pinch of salt
1/3 cup well-mashed sweet potato (about 1/2 a medium sweet potato)

Coconut oil icing

1/4 cup softened coconut oil
2 Tbs honey or maple syrup
1 tsp vanilla extract

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 180C
2. If you don’t have already mashed cooked sweet potato, take one medium sweet potato, peel, dice and then steam for about 15 minutes or until soft. Mash with a fork.
3. In a small saucepan on low heat, add the water, coconut oil, maple syrup and vanilla extract together until the coconut oil is melted. Add the mashed sweet potato, and blend.
4. In a mixing bowl, combine the tapioca, coconut flour, ginger, cinnamon, cloves and salt.
5. Slowly add the liquid mixture into the flour mixture until a dough forms.
6. Roll the dough between two sheets of baking paper. For chewier biscuits, roll the dough to about 1/4″thick, for crispier biscuits roll the dough thinner. Cut with cookie cutters.
7. Bake on tray lined with baking paper for 20-25 minutes.
Optional: allow biscuits to cool thoroughly and decorate with icing.

Icing:

1. Beat together softened coconut oil with maple syrup or honey and vanilla until fluffy.

2. Put in a small piping bag, or alternatively in a small sandwich bag, and cut a tiny hole to squeeze icing out onto the gingerbread men.

Enjoy x