Sweet Potato Gingerbread Cutout Cookies

A unique twist on gingerbread cookies with sweet potato snuck into the batter for a healthier, tender, moist, chewy cookie. These gluten-free cutout cookies are still full of molasses and all the classic gingerbread baking spices, plus holiday decorated with an easy vegan “royal icing” recipe!

SPONSORED BY BAKO SWEET

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I wait all year for this favorite flavor, and I do believe the frosted cutout cookie is one of the top tier ways to capture its festive deliciousness. I don’t know if it’s the happy smiles or the peaceful slowness of decorating each cookie or the yummy combination of sweet/creamy contrasted against molasses/spiced, but if you ask me gingerbread doesn’t get any better than this (although of course I LOVE a gingerbread loaf or muffin too). So this year I wanted to get creative with a new gingerbread cutout cookie recipe, not messing with the classic flavor too much but perhaps adding a new ingredient that just melds in and enhances the cookie coziness naturally. And that perfect ingredient is: sweet potato!

How To Make Gingerbread Cutout Cookies with Sweet Potato

Sweet potato is a popular ingredient in October and November, but its baking powers don’t have to stop there. Even in December it can still offer lots of natural sweetness, moisture, and flavor that goes so well with warming spices like cinnamon and ginger. I started with a baked white sweet potato, and built the ingredient list from there…

• Bako Organic White Single Sweet Potato. An orange sweet potato would work perfectly too, the cookies may just have a slightly more saturated hue. I LOVE Bako’s Single Sweets for a recipe like this because instead of waiting 45 minutes for a tender sweet potato out of the oven, these are ready to go in less than 8 minutes – no washing or poking required. Pop the potato in the microwave still in its wrapping, and by the time you are done gathering the rest of your ingredients it will be ready. Peak convenience, and of course peak sweet potato flavor that I can always expect from Bako sweet potatoes.
• Molasses. Maybe my favorite ingredient, this is what makes gingerbread GINGERBREAD in my opinion. I used regular, not blackstrap, but either is fine just a more intense flavor with blackstrap.
• Coconut oil. The sweet potato adds a lot of moisture and takes the place of butter in a way, but to get those crispy cookie edges and a not-too-sticky dough you still need a little bit of fat. Coconut oil is perfect, make sure it’s melted when you add it to the batter.
• Coconut sugar. Or brown sugar would work just as well.
• Flax egg. Or a regular chicken egg if you aren’t vegan.
• Vanilla extract. Another Christmas cookie essential.
• Gluten-free flour. I tested them with oat and almond, neither puffed up in that perfect cookie way I wanted. So a gluten-free all-purpose flour blend is best for this recipe.
• Baking powder and salt.
• Spices. Cinnamon, ginger, allspice, and cloves.

Making The Gluten-Free Gingerbread Cookie Dough

After the sweet potato is baked and your flax egg is prepped, it’s really just a simple one-bowl process of mix the wet, add the dry, mix to form a ball of dough. You do want to let the sweet potato cool slightly before scooping out the flesh and mixing, and if you really have trouble getting rid of the lumps in your batter an immersion blender works great (a few small lumps are fine!) I always recommend measuring by weight for the most accurate measurements, especially for the flour in a recipe like this so you don’t risk overly sticky or overly dry dough. If you don’t have a kitchen scale, spooning instead of scooping your flour is second best.

This dough does need to chill for at least 4 hours before it’s ready to roll. This step makes it much easier to work with, and also helps the cookies bake up with better and crumb. Overnight is fine as well, that’s what I usually do. And try not to use TOO much flour when you are rolling it out, that can dry out your cookies. Wax paper on top and bottom can be a helpful hack for rolling without sticking too.

Making The Vegan Royal Icing

Or I guess it’s really “royal icing” because traditionally royal icing requires meringue powder (eggs), but I have the easiest hack that you are going to love: powdered egg replacer. I linked the one I used in the recipe, it’s essentially a mixture of starches that mimics the binding nature of eggs, and just one tablespoon makes all the difference in this icing. It’s easier to pipe, won’t slide off your cookie at all, and sets in about an hour to a hard glaze. You can even stack these cookies and it won’t get messed up! It can easily be colored with natural sources or regular food coloring, so feel free to get crazier with the cookie decorating than I did.

More Gingerbread Recipes You’ll Love

• Gingerbread Caramel Slice
• Frosted Gingerbread Cookie Bars
• Cranberry Gingerbread Crumb Bars
• Glazed Gingerbread Bundt Cake

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