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HomeCourseDesserts

Fluffy Gluten Free Gingerbread

Cheryl Malik
Cheryl Malik Posted: 11/10/20 Updated: 01/02/23
4.50
/5
14 Comments
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GF Gluten Free V Vegetarian
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This gluten free gingerbread is deliciously spiced, sweet, and perfect for the holidays. Soft and moist with a dusting of powdered sugar, it’s as richly flavored as the traditional, but with absolutely no gluten.

Gluten free gingerbread on a plate

What Makes This Recipe So Good

  • This gingerbread is surprisingly easy to make and perfect for winter and Christmas. Spiced with traditional ginger, cinnamon, cloves, and a dash of molasses, it’s amazingly sweet and moist.
  • Made with gluten-free ingredients, it’s naturally vegetarian and easy to make vegan with a few simple swaps.
Slices of gluten free gingerbread

Chef’s Tips

  • Make sure your gluten free flour contains xanthan gum. If it doesn’t, you’ll definitely want to make sure you add some, otherwise the texture of your gluten free gingerbread will not be as light and fluffy as a traditional recipe!
  • To make this recipe vegan, use vegan butter and a flax egg.
Close-up of gluten free gingerbread

More Gluten Free Recipes

  • Peanut Butter Pancakes
  • Gluten Free Cornbread with Honey
  • Gluten Free Stuffing
  • Fluffy Gluten-Free Pancakes

I hope you love this recipe as much as we did! Be sure to give it a quick review & star rating ★ below. Make sure you follow me on Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook, too!

 

For more delicious, nutritious recipes, head over to our sister site, 40 Aprons.

4.50 from 4 votes

Gluten Free Gingerbread

Prep:15 minutes minutes
Cook:45 minutes minutes
Total:1 hour hour
This gluten free gingerbread is deliciously spiced, sweet, and perfect for the holidays. Soft and moist with a dusting of powdered sugar, it's as richly flavored as the traditional, but with absolutely no gluten.
Print Save Saved!
9 squares

Ingredients

Wet Ingredients for Gingerbread

  • ½ cup butter cubed, at room temperature
  • ½ packed cup brown sugar
  • 1 large egg at room temperature
  • 1 cup unsulphured molasses see Notes
  • 1 cup hot water water should be hot but not bubbling or boiling
  • 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar

Dry Ingredients for Gingerbread

  • 2 cups gluten-free all-purpose flour see Notes
  • ½ teaspoon xanthan gum omit if flour already contains xanthan gum
  • 2 teaspoons baking soda
  • 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
  • 1 ½ teaspoons ground ginger
  • ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
  • ½ teaspoon salt

Suggested Toppings (All Optional)

  • powdered sugar
  • whipped cream
  • whole fresh cranberries or cherries

Equipment

  • Oven
  • 9×9 baking pan or dish
  • spray oil or butter to grease pan
  • gluten-free flour to dust pan
  • stand mixer or hand mixer
  • bowl for stand mixer or large mixing bowl
  • flour sifter
  • Medium mixing bowl
  • Whisk
  • knife or toothpick to test doneness

Instructions 

  • Preheat oven to 350° Fahrenheit. Grease bottom and sides of 9×9 pan with cooking spray or butter, then line pan with parchment paper. Allow parchment paper to hang over sides of pan slightly, creating "handles" to make removing baked gingerbread easier.
  • Add softened butter and brown sugar to stand mixer bowl (or large mixing bowl). Using stand mixer (or hand mixer), mix ingredients together on low speed 30 seconds, then increase speed to medium and mix 2 to 5 minutes, until ingredients are creamed. Mixture should be fully combined, fluffy, and roughly doubled in mass. Note: Be careful not to overmix. Overmixing will make mixture greasy and soupy. If you overmix, discard mixture and start again.
  • Once butter and sugar are creamed, pause mixer and crack egg directly into mixing bowl. Resume mixing on low speed, until egg is just incorporated. Once egg is incorporated, pause mixer and add molasses, then resume mixer and mix until molasses is incorporated. Pause mixer.
  • Use flour sifter to sift flour into medium mixing bowl, making sure to break up any clumps. Once flour is completely sifted, add xanthan gum (only if needed), baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and salt to mixing bowl and whisk or stir to fully incorporate ingredients.
  • Slowly pour flour mixture into molasses mixture, adding in dry ingredients in increments. Mix well between each addition until all of flour mixture has been added and ingredients are fully combined.
  • With mixer on low, slowly add water and apple cider vinegar, and mix until fully combined.
  • Transfer prepared gingerbread batter to prepared pan and place pan in center of preheated oven. Bake, uncovered, 40 minutes. After 40 minutes, test doneness by inserting knife or toothpick into center of gingerbread. Remove and check for crumbs – gingerbread is fully baked when knife or toothpick comes out cleanly or with very few crumbs. If gingerbread is not ready after 40 minutes, return pan to oven and continue baking as needed, checking doneness every 5 minutes.
  • Once gingerbread is fully baked, carefully remove pan from oven and set aside. Allow gingerbread to cool in pan 10 to 15 minutes, or until completely cool. Once cooled, carefully remove gingerbread from pan.
  • If desired, use sifter to dust top of gingerbread with powdered sugar, then slice gingerbread into 9 even squares. Serve with whipped cream, cranberries, or cherries if desired.

Notes

  • Flour: Your gluten free flour absolutely must contain xanthan gum for this recipe. If the brand you use doesn’t already contain xanthan gum, you’ll need to add it. If your flour already does contain it, though, do not add more!
  • Molasses: Sulphured molasses has sulfur dioxide added as a preservative, which can alter the flavor of the molasses. Blackstrap molasses is the least sweet variety and can taste a little bitter. For the best gingerbread flavor and texture, use light or dark unsulphured molasses. Dark will give you a stronger flavor.
  • Make it Vegan: Use a vegan butter and replace egg with equivalent amount of flax egg.

Nutrition Information

Serving: 1 square | Calories: 345kcal | Protein: 2g | Fat: 11g | Saturated Fat: 7g | Trans Fat: 0.4g | Total Carbs: 62g | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 40g | Net Carbs: 60g | Vitamin C: 0.02mg | Cholesterol: 48mg | Sodium: 494mg | Potassium: 625mg | Calcium: 162mg | Iron: 21mg

Number of total servings shown is approximate. Actual number of servings will depend on your preferred portion sizes.

 

Nutritional values shown are general guidelines and reflect information for 1 serving using the ingredients listed, not including any optional ingredients. Actual macros may vary slightly depending on specific brands and types of ingredients used.

 

To determine the weight of one serving, prepare the recipe as instructed. Weigh the finished recipe, then divide the weight of the finished recipe (not including the weight of the container the food is in) by the desired number of servings. Result will be the weight of one serving.

© Author: Cheryl Malik

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Recipe Rating




  1. AvatarHeather says

    Posted on 2/15/23 at 8:09 am

    5 stars
    This has got to be one of the best GF recipes I’ve made! So yummy and I love how spongy it turned out! My husband raved when he tried it and said it was the best GF dessert he’s ever tasted. He was even blown away that it was GF! Well done and thank you for sharing this recipe!

    Reply
    • Megan | Easy Healthy Recipes TeamMegan | Easy Healthy Recipes Team says

      Posted on 2/15/23 at 1:21 pm

      Thank you so much, Heather! I’m so glad this one was a hit with you and your husband! This recipe went through quite a bit of retesting and fine-tuning a couple of months ago and it’s so nice to know it was worth it. Thank you so much for sharing your feedback!

      Reply
  2. AvatarBetsy says

    Posted on 12/19/22 at 3:39 pm

    4 stars
    Tasted great! Bake time was 45-50min for us. Used baking powder instead and omitted the acv, worked out well! Thank you!

    Reply
    • AvatarMolly | 40 Aprons Team says

      Posted on 12/22/22 at 8:01 am

      Happy to hear that, Betsy! Thanks for the review!

      Reply
  3. AvatarLinda says

    Posted on 12/9/22 at 9:36 pm

    4 stars
    Really great taste. Make sure you use a large enough baking pan; I used an 8×8 by accident and had spillovers. My fault. Also, I’m in a height altitude so I’ll be adding more flour, lowering the temperature and baking longer next time. And…there will be a next time. My neighbor and I really enjoyed it!

    Reply
    • AvatarMolly | 40 Aprons Team says

      Posted on 12/12/22 at 2:04 pm

      Glad you enjoyed and will be making again! Thanks so much for the review, Linda!

      Reply
  4. AvatarBarbara says

    Posted on 11/17/22 at 4:42 pm

    This recipe is a disaster. I reread/reviewed the recipe several times when I saw that it calls for 1/1/2 cups of hot water. Because the batter is so runny, the 350-degree oven boils instead of bakes. I will be throwing the pan and contents away. The inside of the oven is spattered with baked on molasses ( 1 cup) batter.

    Reply
    • Megan | Easy Healthy Recipes TeamMegan | Easy Healthy Recipes Team says

      Posted on 11/30/22 at 2:34 pm

      I’m so sorry, Barbara. We didn’t have that experience when we developed the recipe, but we’ll give it another test and see if we can troubleshoot what might have gone wrong for you!

      Reply
    • Megan | Easy Healthy Recipes TeamMegan | Easy Healthy Recipes Team says

      Posted on 1/2/23 at 12:33 pm

      Hi, Barbara! I apologize again for the results you had with this recipe. We retested it multiple times over the last few weeks, and we agree that the amount of water in the original recipe was much too high.

      We were able to get a decent bake with the 1 ½ cups the recipe originally called for, but we much preferred the consistency of the batter and the texture of the final gingerbread when only using 1 cup water.

      We’ve updated the recipe to call for only 1 cup. I hope you’ll be willing to give it another try with this change in the future. Thank you so much again for bringing this to our attention.

      Reply
  5. AvatarRene says

    Posted on 11/13/22 at 11:46 pm

    What is the purpose of the apple cider vinegar? Is it to help with the rise? Could another vinegar also work? TY, this looks interesting!

    Reply
    • Megan | Easy Healthy Recipes TeamMegan | Easy Healthy Recipes Team says

      Posted on 12/8/22 at 12:10 pm

      We didn’t test a different vinegar, but I would think something fairly neutral would work fine. It’s the acidity you really need!

      Reply
  6. AvatarAnna Claire | Easy Healthy Recipes Team says

    Posted on 12/17/21 at 9:26 pm

    5 stars
    Those should work!

    Reply
  7. AvatarAnna Claire | Easy Healthy Recipes Team says

    Posted on 11/7/21 at 6:47 pm

    Check Step 3 in the Instructions section on the recipe card! You’ll find it there. 🙂

    Reply

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Hi, I’m Cheryl! I've been developing healthy, family-friendly recipes at 40 Aprons for over 10 years. I believe food should be delicious and healthy eating doesn't have to be complicated!

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