These ginger cookies are my new favorite thing. I found out about them about a month ago, in the midst of my lactose intolerance induced crisis. I have been sorely missing sweets and hunting down vegan recipes pretty much anytime I am on the internets. I found a vegan ginger cookie recipe on Healthy Happy Life and have modified it a tiny bit since I've made it a few times now. These vegan ginger cookies are tasty, quick and foolproof. (And this is coming from someone plagued by spread-y cookies)

Plus, they're not too sweet so you can eat lots of them at once. HOORAY!

This recipe will make around 24 cookies - depends on how big you make them.

Step 1: Ingredients!

The dry:

2 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar (brown or white!) + more for rolling in
1 1/2 tablespoons ginger powder
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon (optional if you don't like the taste)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder

The wet:

1/4 cup water + more as needed
1/4 cup molasses
1/3 cup melted Earth Balance or canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 tablespoons grated fresh ginger

You might notice I haven't included salt! The original recipe called for 3/4 teaspoon salt, but I found that crazy salty in combination with the vegan butter. If you're able to find vegan unsalted butter, or if you use canola oil, feel free to add a little bit of salt!

Step 2: Mix the Dry Ingredients + Preheat Oven to 375 F

Take a fork and mix mix mix the dry ingredients together in a large bowl. Make sure everything is well combined and you don't have any large patches of ginger powder or baking powder. That will not be tasty later on. :D

Step 3: Mix the Wet Ingredients!

Pour all the wet ingredients into a small bowl and mix well until the molasses dissolves and isn't clumpy anymore. This might take a minute or two if your melted butter has cooled a bit.

Step 4: Combine Wet and Dry!

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and stir like a mad person. This is the only tricky part of the recipe.

It will take a bit of stirring to get everything combined. After you've stirred for a minute or two, if it still looks crumbly, you can begin adding water a little at a time. I add about a tablespoon at a time.

You want the dough to be slightly gummy and firm when you're done and look like the third photo. :)

Step 5: Roll Into Balls and Bake.

Roll the dough into small balls, about 1 1/2 inches across. Once rolled, dip them into sugar and put them on a baking sheet. You'll bake them at 375 F for 8-10 minutes. I do 8 minutes if the balls are smaller, 10 minutes if I've made them kinda chubby. The cookies will be quite soft when you take them out - they firm up while they cool!

(You can easily fit 12 on a sheet, but I always do less the first round just in case the dough got too warm and they spread.)

Step 6: Let Cool and Eat!

Let the cookies cool on the pan for a few minutes - if you try to pull them off right away they'll stick to the pan! Once they're off the cookie sheet put them on a rack to cool the rest of the way.

They get firmer as time goes on but still stay soft in the middle! But they've only survived a few days in my house so I can't tell you how long they store for.

Enjoy!