It’s December so you know what that means: Christmas baking! I like to mix it up with old favourites and healthier takes on old favourites. These crispy gingerbread cookies have a hint of chocolate, lots of spice and are low in both fat and sugar in comparison to a regular cookie. They’re also gluten free if you’re into that sort of thing;)

They’re made with a mix of chickpea and buckwheat flour but you could easily sub in a wholemeal or spelt flour if you’re not gluten free. The chickpea flour does make them extra crispy though so you may need an extra minute or two in the oven with a different flour.

I’ve used olive in these instead of butter so they’re full of the good fat. They’ve also only got 3 Tbs of sugar in the whole batch . I think they’re best eaten with a cup of chai tea or a glass of milk as they’re a crispy cookie. They’re filled with yummy Christmas spices and are the perfect treat to leave out for Santa. They also make cute gifts!

What are you baking this Christmas?

Ingredients

3 Tbs cacao or cocoa powder

3/4 cup besan/chickpea flour

1/2 cup buckwheat flour

1/4 tsp baking powder

2 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp ground cinnamon

pinch nutmeg

2 Tbs maple syrup

1 Tbs coconut or rapadura sugar

1/4 cup water

2 Tbs olive oil

60g 70-85% Dark Chocolate

Directions

Preheat oven to 190 degrees celsius and line a sheet pan with parchment paper.

Sift together all dry ingredients excluding sugar. In a medium sized pot combine the maple syrup, coconut oil, water and sugar. Stir over meidum heat until dissolved. Remove from the stove and mix in, 1/3 at a time, the dry ingredients using a wooden spoon. Once roughly combined, kneed gently with your hand, in the warm pot, until the dough easily comes away from the pot edges and a smooth ball of dough has formed.

Line your counter top with some parchment paper and tip dough out on to this. Roll until it is about 3mm thick, a cookie cutter in your preferred shape to cut cookies from your dough. Place on prepared sheet pan. Recombine dough scraps roll out and repeat again until there’s no dough left. You should have approximately 20-30 cookies, depending on the size of your cookie cutter.

Bake for 8-10 minutes in your preheated oven or until firm to touch. Set aside to cool.

Once cool, melt your chocolate by roughly chopping and enclosing in a sealed zip lock bag. Submerge the bag in warm water on low heat until melted. snip a corner off and drizzle over the cooled cookies. Leave on a wire rack to set.

Store in an airtight container.

HH. x