Grace & Grit: Dairy & egg-free Gingerbread Cookies :)

It's been awhile since I made cookies for L. We just received a bunch of new cookie cutters, and since we are trying not to overdo it on the sugar still (it's cold season), I figured gingerbread cookies are a great alternative. I LOVE ginger, and it's so good for L's tummy!

I found this recipe here and tweaked it a bit to fit our needs and the ingredients in our own pantry.

Yes, we're in March, and it's almost SPRING, but sometimes you have to make cookies! ;)

Here's what I used:

1/2 cup coconut oil, room temperature

1/2 cup molasses
1/2 cup turbinado sugar (organic powdered sugar is best, but I worked with what I had on hand!)
1 tsp vanilla extract
5 tsp ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
pinch of nutmeg
3/4 tsp baking soda
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

Cream the coconut oil & sugar together until fluffy. Add the molasses and vanilla and mix well.

Combine the ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, and baking soda together in a separate bowl. Add gradually to wet mixture and combine. On the lowest setting, continue to beat mixture, while slowly adding in the flour, 1/2 cup at a time. Mix until dough just comes together.

Shape dough into to discs and chill for at least two hours before rolling (I wasn't patient enough to do this, and it didn't hold as well).

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Lightly flour a surface and choose your cookie cutters. My parents own a pig farm, so they brought a piggie cookie cutter for the little man I just had to break in :)

Roll out one disc to just over 1/8" thick.

Cut dough into desired shapes:

Place on a parchment-lined baking sheet:

Bake for 6 - 8 minutes until edges are firm to touch, but the center is still soft.

Allow to cool completely before decorating.

For the icing, I used about 3/4 cup of turbinado sugar (again, organic powdered is better if you have it), 1/4 cup organic corn starch, water, and 1/2 tsp of pure vanilla extract. I threw this together while the cookies were baking: