How to make the best soft, moist, and delicious vegan gingerbread recipe for breakfast or dessert. People are always shocked when I tell them it’s dairy free, egg free, and vegan, because it seriously does not taste healthy at all!
Try this homemade gingerbread recipe the next time you have company.
People go crazy for it every time, and leftovers freeze well too.
The comforting festive flavor and super soft texture will remind you of a pastry you’d get from a fancy bakery. Yet it’s secretly good for you at the same time!
Also try this holiday Vegan Pumpkin Bread
Oil Free vegan gingerbread loaf
In addition to having no eggs or butter, the gingerbread can also be gluten free, soy free, oil free, and refined sugar free.
This is actually the oil free version in the photos… you cannot tell at all.
And I say that as someone who doesn’t normally like oil free baked goods.
While desserts without oil can so often be gummy or dry, the molasses in this recipe keeps the loaf deliciously moist and decadent even if you decide to skip the oil.
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Vegan gingerbread ingredients
You will need flour, cinnamon, ground ginger, allspice, salt, white or apple cider vinegar, sugar, plant based milk of choice, flax seeds, baking soda, and molasses.
If you are a raisin lover like I am, stir half a cup of raisins into the gingerbread batter along with the dry ingredients.
The recipe works with spelt flour, white flour, or gluten free all purpose flour. Oat flour works but yields a denser result.
I have not tried the recipe with whole wheat flour, coconut flour, or any other flour not listed and therefore cannot recommend any of these substitutions.
For a low carb loaf, try this Almond Flour Banana Bread
What type of molasses?
Blackstrap molasses is my preference for its myriad health benefits, including being high in both calcium and iron. (I also use this sweetener in my Bran Muffins.)
If you cannot find blackstrap molasses or prefer the sweeter taste of regular light or dark molasses, either of these is fine to use instead.
While substituting pure maple syrup, agave, or another liquid sweetener might yield a delightful spice cake, it will lose some of the classic gingerbread flavor. So I do not recommend swapping out the molasses in this recipe.
Frosting options
Serve the gingerbread unfrosted or topped with almond butter, coconut butter, powdered sugar and strawberries, vanilla frosting, or vegan cream cheese.
I frosted the vegan gingerbread loaf in the pictures with the dairy free cream cheese icing recipe from my post on Vegan Cinnamon Rolls.
Just one slice of this secretly healthy gingerbread supplies 10% of the RDA for iron and 9% for calcium, thanks to the addition of the blackstrap molasses, which also gives the recipe its familiar gingerbread taste.
How to make vegan gingerbread
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit, and grease an eight inch square baking pan or a nine by five inch loaf pan.
In a large mixing bowl, combine the milk of choice, oil, vinegar, molasses, and flax meal. Let this mixture sit at least ten minutes (or even overnight in the fridge).
Whisk dry ingredients, either in a separate bowl or directly into the same bowl. Stir everything together until just evenly mixed. Spread into the prepared pan.
Bake on the oven center rack for twenty five minutes in a square pan or one hour in a loaf pan, or until cooked through. Test to see if it’s done by inserting a toothpick into the center of the loaf. The toothpick should come out mostly clean.
Let cool, then slice and frost if desired. The taste and texture are even better the next day, if you can wait that long!
The gingerbread recipe is also really great to serve with Vegan Hot Chocolate.
- 2 cups spelt, white, or gf ap flour
- 1 tbsp each cinnamon and ginger
- 2 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp allspice
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 cup sugar, unrefined if desired
- 1 3/4 cup milk of choice
- 1/4 cup oil OR additional milk
- 1/4 cup ground flaxseed
- 2 tbsp white or cider vinegar
- 1/2 cup regular OR blackstrap molasses
- optional 1/2 cup raisins
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Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease an 8×8 pan (or a 9×5 loaf pan). In a large bowl, combine all liquid ingredients and flax, and let sit at least 10 minutes. Whisk dry ingredients in a separate bowl, then stir all ingredients together until just evenly mixed. Spread into the pan. Bake 25 minutes (or 1 hour in a loaf pan) or until cooked through. Let cool. Taste and texture are even better the next day, so I highly recommend waiting if you can!View Nutrition Facts
More Holiday Favorite Recipes
Sweet Potato Brownies
Applesauce Muffins
Healthy Pumpkin Pie or Vegan Pumpkin Pie
Vegan Pecan Pie
Vegan Peanut Butter Cookies
Apple Bread
Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies