Gingerbread People

Print Recipe

Gingery and sweet and lots of fun to bake and eat.

Ease: involved Type: dessert, snack Prep Time: over an hour Total Time: 2 hours Yield: 3 dozen 3" cookies

Cook's notes

Date sugar can be found at most health food stores.

Apple juice concentrate can be found in the freezer section along with other juice concentrates. Make sure that there is no sugar or additives.

If you can find dried, ground lemon peel it saves a lot of time.

Neufchatel cream cheese has much lower fat than creme cheese. Both Horizon (circle U kosher) and Organic Valley (circle U kosher) make Neufchatel that tastes exactly like regular cream cheese. Unlike the conventional "Lite" cream cheeses, they have no chemicals and taste really good.

The dough can be stored in the refrigerator for up to a day. Bring to room temperature before rolling.

Instead of grating the zest off of a lemon, I get dried lemon peel in granulated form. It saves me a huge amount of time. You can get it at natural food stores or at Frontier Co-op

I like to use the organic blackstrap molasses made by Wholesome Sweeteners. It has loads of minerals, no chemicals, and is a bit sweeter than other molasses.

Ingredients

3 c whole wheat pastry flour
1 1/2 t baking powder
3/4 t baking soda
1 T ground ginger
1 3/4 t ground cinnamon
1/4 t cloves
4T date sugar

1/3 c safflower or canola oil
1 large egg
1/4 c organic molasses
1/4 c apple juice concentrate
1 T honey
1/4 c apple sauce
2 t vanilla
1 t lemon zest

1 c Neufchatel cream cheese
1 1/2 t maple syrup

Raisins for decorating

Steps

• Whisk together thoroughly the flour, baking powder, baking soda, spices and date sugar.
• In a separate bowl, beat together, until well blended, oil and egg. Add and beat until well combined molasses, juice concentrate, apple sauce, honey, vanilla and lemon zest.
• Gradually stir in the dry ingredients until well blended and smooth. Let the dough stand at room temperature for at least an hour.
• Preheat oven to 375° F, convection or regular. Oil cookie sheets. For nonstick, no need to oil.
• Place 1/3 of the dough on lightly floured work surface. Sprinkle flour over top of the dough and dust the rolling pin. Roll a little bit thicker than 1/4". Cut out the cookies in desired shapes and place on prepared cookie sheets. Repeat until all of the dough is used up.
• Bake 7-10 minutes until the edges are just browning. Let cool.
• In the meantime, prepare creme cheese frosting by beating Neufchatel and maple syrup until smooth .
• When the cookies are cooled, decorate as desired using frosting and raisins.

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