Healthy gingerbread cookies with olive oil

There’s something comforting and delicious when cooking cookies, especially if they are as healthy as the ones we are showing you. Gingerbread cookies are an essential recipe when Christmas time is coming. The flavourful spices these treats include are simply magnificent. They will fill your kitchen with the most de heavenly aroma and satisfies any kind of sweet tooth.

This is why we have prepare a much healthier version with no butter or refine sugar. These cookies are completely guilt free so you can stack as many as your heart desires since they are packed with quality ingredients that will keep your sweet cravings at bay. For breakfast or a snack they are perfect and, in addition, they are suitable for vegans, so what are you waiting for to prepare them?

Ingredients for the preparation of gingerbread cookies

1 large egg

100 ml of extra virgin olive oil (better Arbequina variety)

50 g pitted dates

250 g of rice flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 orange

1 and ½ teaspoon ground ginger

1 tsp ground cinnamon

½ tsp grated nutmeg

¼ tsp ground cloves

1 pinch of allspice

1 pinch of salt

Process of making gingerbread cookies with olive oil

Start by making the date paste a few hours before or the night before. To do this, you must hydrate the dates with water. You only need to cover them with water and let them soak for at least an hour. You can speed up the process by using hot water. Later on, you will only have to grind the mixture until you get a paste.

To make the rest of the recipe, start by whisking the wet ingredients. Add the egg, the extra virgin olive oil and the date paste (approximately 75 grams).

PRO TIP! The Arbequina variety of extra virgin olive oil has excellent organoleptic qualities for the preparation of desserts. Its flavour is more moderate than other varieties, so your sweet recipes will not only be healthier, but will also retain an original flavour.

Next, add the baking yeast and mix. Follow with the rice flour, which we recommend that you sift first and finish with the spices, salt and pepper. Add a scoop and before the mixture is homogeneous add the orange zest. Then, keep integrating everything with your hands until you get a dough similar to plasticine.

Now is the time to stretch it. To do this, put the dough between two vegetable papers and use a pastry roller to flatten it. The idea is to make it thin, about 3 or 4 millimetres thick. Use the cookie cutters you want to shape the cookies and reuse the excess dough, repeating the process until you use it all.

To improve the consistency of the cookies, you should refrigerate them for about 30 minutes. 10 minutes before removing them from the fridge, preheat the oven to 180ºC. After this time, you can bake the cookies with heat up and down. They will be ready in about 10 minutes, so it is important that you do not take your eye off them so they do not burn.

Finally, you should let them cool completely before eating them. The result will be worth the wait.