Health-Bent

Paleo Gingersnaps

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by

Megan Keatley
in

paleo gingersnaps

I had promised a friend at our CrossFit affiliate that I would develop a gingersnap recipe for him months ago. I have finally perfected the recipe after lots and lots and lots (my voice trailing off) of trying. I tried fresh ginger and powdered, but found crystallized to be the best. If you can’t find crystallized ginger, use 2 teaspoons of powdered ginger, but you’ll need to add a bit of sweetener, otherwise the snaps will taste straight up spicy. These are even easier to make than our Chocolate Chip Bakies.

Yield: about 20 cookies

Ingredients

  • 3 oz crystallized ginger (add more ginger if you’re a big ginger fan)
  • 1 c almond butter
  • 1 egg
  • 1/4 cup coconut sugar
  • 1 t cinnamon
  • 1/4 t ground cloves
  • 1/4 t nutmeg

Method

Get your oven to 350ºF. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone mat.

Finely chop the crystallized ginger and add to your mixer. Add the rest of the ingredients and thoroughly mix–about 3 minutes.

Use a small ice cream scoop, spoon or your hands to form about a tablespoon of the dough into a ball. Place it on the baking sheet and with a clean hand, press down on the cookie until it reaches the desired thickness. Why? Because there is no baking powder or baking soda in this recipe, the cookies won’t go anywhere when they’re baked in the oven; that makes it necessary to shape the dough into a round cookie shape before it goes in the oven.

Bake for about 12 minutes.

Comments

32 responses to “Paleo Gingersnaps”

  1. Liz N

    Wow, Eric is gonna love this! I love how you are able to create Paleo sweet treats. Would this recipe work using raisins? Might be a nice alternative to oatmeal raisin cookies?!

    Reply
    1. megan keatley

      you’re jumping ahead of me liz! definitely something i’m going to try out.

      Reply
  2. Shawn

    Megan:

    Made this one this weekend and I loved the flavor of the crystallized ginger but had problems keeping the cookies from crumbling apart. Any thoughts?

    Reply
    1. megan keatley

      the only thing i can think is that i didn’t specify to make sure you thoroughly mix all the ingredients in the mixer. i must have mixed everything together for about 2 minutes. another thing, maybe we use different almond butters? does this help?

      Reply
  3. Shawn

    I mixed them by hand and just used the 365 almond butter from whole foods. I’ll try my mixer and use different almond butter and maybe add another egg and see if that helps.

    Reply
  4. Alycia

    These are fantastic!! I have a family recipe for pumpkin pie that calls for a gingersnap crust; I am absolutely going to try this as the crust instead this year. Though, I’ll probably give it a test run before Thanksgiving just to be safe. Bummer, more pie for us.

    Reply
    1. megan keatley

      i was planning on trying a similar thing. i don’t see why it wouldn’t work. we’d love to hear how to turns out for you.

      Reply
  5. Amy

    I may need to try this with dry or fresh ginger instead of the candied – I’m on keto with a 2.5:1 (total fat:total carb + protein) for seizures and finding things that are vaguely cookie like can be hard. 🙂

    Reply
    1. megan keatley

      even if you add 0 g of sugar, almond butter still has carbs in it. i don’t know the specifics b/c mine doesn’t have a nutrition label.
      just be careful, hard to stop at one.
      good luck on the ketogenesis, i know it can be hard.

      Reply
      1. Dana

        Almonds are very low-carb. It’s easy to find unsweetened almond butters and sometimes they even have palm oil added which cuts down the carb further.

        Almond + 0 sugar is always going to be lower carb than almond + sugar. That said, I appreciate there was no sugar in this recipe other than the crystallized ginger. Quite awesome.

        Reply
  6. Stacy

    I made these and they turned out very crumbly for me also. Tasty, but it was impossible to keep a cookie intact. I thought with some added butter, they’d probably make a great pie crust.

    So I tried again, and this time I added 1 more egg white, and a Tbsp of rum. This time they turned out very differently, with a glossy finish, and not crumbly at all.

    Reply
    1. megan keatley

      from other reader comments, seems the problem stems from the almond butter. it has to be the freshly ground kind from the bulk section at grocery stores and not the jarred kind by the peanut butters, etc.

      Reply
  7. Alycia

    The crumbling issue for me was solved by not touching the cookies until they are COMPLETELY cool. if they’re still hot, or even warm, they definitely crumble into a million pieces. i used the jarred almond butter, and if you let them cool fully, they’re good to go. But, literally, do not touch them sooner that that.

    Also, the pie crust worked great! Thanks again.

    Reply
    1. megan keatley

      interesting fix. whoda thunk that…thanks for playing around with it for us. appreciate it for sure…thanks alycia!

      Reply
    2. Jill

      Hi Alycia! I am hoping to make these gingersnaps into a crust … did you crumble them and add butter or just make the entire recipe into the crust? Thanks … any advice would be great!!

      Reply
      1. Colleen

        I made this into a pumpkin pie crust. I made the stated recipe but also added 2 tsp ground ginger and grated a small amount of fresh to give it more of a ginger kick plus approximately 2 tsp almond flour to help make the dough stiffer. I didn’t think to add butter. To make the pie crust, I mixed it like the recipe states then added the almond flour, working it into the dough. Dump into a coconut oil-greased pie pan and work it with your fingers to form the crust. The given recipe makes enough for a 9 inch deep dish pie pan. I didn’t pre-bake. Pour the pumpkin pie filling into the crust and bake until the pie filling is firm, about 1 hour. Put a pie shield or aluminum foil around the edges to keep the crust from burning if the crust sticks up above the filling. The consistency isn’t like a flour pie crust, more like a graham cracker crust but I didn’t have any issues removing slices from the pan.

        Reply
        1. megan keatley

          my goodness, that sounds amazing!!!!

          Reply
  8. Virginia

    I made these this weekend, and they taste great (although next time I’ll probably add almost twice as much ginger). Like others, I found they were very crumbly. They stayed intact from the sheet to the cooling rack, to the container, but you have to be sure to eat them over a plate, because they start falling apart almost as soon as you bite them. I used jarred almond butter also, so there’s one more data point for you. Thanks for the recipe!

    Reply
    1. megan keatley

      sorry they didn’t turn out as hoped virginia. i’m doing some more investigative work on this one. i’ll definitely update the recipe if any solutions turn up.

      Reply
  9. Virginia

    Don’t get me wrong – they’re delicious, so it’s hard to be too disappointed. You just need to eat them over a plate. I made them small enough that you COULD just eat them in one bite and save the trouble, but then you couldn’t SAVOR. We’re both still enjoying them!

    Reply
  10. Sandra

    OMG..!!!

    Reply
  11. Kathy Wright

    They sound delicious and great as a Thanksgiving treat!

    Can you use ginger powder to make these?

    -Kathy

    Reply
    1. megan keatley

      most definitely. a trio of ginger. powdered, crystalized and fresh…would be soooo good.

      Reply
  12. Edward

    Chopping the crystalized ginger in a blender or a food processor until it sticks and balls up helps make a firm cookie. Doesn’t fall apart and gives a really shiny finish. I recommend doubling the ginger though.

    Reply
  13. Heidi @ kaprise.com

    Oh!! I am so glad that I found this recipe. My sisters and I love gingersnaps, and since they’ve gone paleo they’ve been doing without. Will have to try these ASAP!

    Reply
  14. Jessica

    I’m really anxious to try several of your awesome looking recipes, but I’m in a rural area, not a lot of food store options, and I’ve never seen bulk almond butter! Can I make my own almond butter? Do you have a recipe/instructions for that, or do I just zap them in the food processor until they’re creamy? Thanks for your great ideas!

    Reply
  15. Theresa

    Can you use fresh ginger in place of the crystallized? If so, would you use the same amount? Thanks!

    Reply
  16. Darlene

    Hi Megan

    I feel there is something missing in the ingredients. I’m reading some of the comments and some mention almond flour. I don’t see this in the ingredients list. Is there almond flour and if so how much. Can’t wait to make these.

    Reply
  17. Gingersnap TWO ways! | Skinny Mini Piggy

    […] I did!  Here is the link to the recipe which is AMAZING; I’ve made them the last 2 weekends! (https://www.health-bent.com/treats/paleo-gingersnaps).  It was this recipe that got my mind thinking…what else could I make with that gingersnap […]

    Reply
  18. Laurie

    I just made those they are quite nice! I added 1/4 tsp ground ginger because I like ginger a lot…great little cookie!

    Reply
  19. Jacqui

    For the egg free crowd…..I used a rounded 1/4 cup canned pumpkin instead of the egg, and it works well. I added 1 tsp of ground ginger, and I wish I had added more like 1+ Tbsp.

    Reply
  20. Cameo

    I made this with homemade coconut butter (which is WAY more economical for my family than almond butter) and subbed molasses for half the coconut sugar for deeper colour. Yum-o!

    Reply

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