These vegan gingerbread cookies are both delicious and fun to make! Soft, chewy, and packed with spices, they're the perfect treat for celebrating the holidays.
Stir the flour, baking powder, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and salt together in a large mixing bowl. Set it aside.
In a separate large mixing bowl, use an electric mixer to beat the butter and brown sugar together until smooth and creamy, for about 1 minute.
Add the molasses and vanilla. Beat the mixture again, just until uniform and creamy.
Begin adding the flour mixture to the butter mixture, about a cup at a time, fully beating in each addition before adding the next. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed. By the time all the flour has been added the mixture should form a dough.
Divide the dough into two halves and roll each into a ball. Wrap each ball tightly in plastic wrap.
Place the dough halves into the fridge to chill for at least 3 hours and up to 2 days.
When the dough has fully chilled, preheat the oven to 350°F and line a couple of baking sheets with parchment paper.
Sprinkle the counter lightly with flour, remove one of the dough balls from the fridge, unwrap it and place it on the counter.
Flour a rolling pin and use it to roll the dough until it's about ⅛ inch thick (it'll be about 12 to 14 inches in diameter).
Cut the dough using cookie cutters, then transfer the cookies to the baking sheets, leaving at least ½ inch between cookies.
Reroll the excess dough and repeat steps 9 and 10 until all of the dough has been used.
Bake the cookies for 8 to 10 minutes, then transfer the baking sheets to cooling racks.
Repeat steps 8 to 12 for the second dough ball.
While the cookies cool, mix the frosting ingredients together in a medium bowl. Use just as much water as you need, and keep the mixture relatively thick so it pipes easily.
When the cookies are cool, transfer the frosting to a pastry bag and pipe it onto the cookies to decorate them. Alternatively, you can simply spread the frosting on the cookies.
Let the cookies sit for a few minutes for the frosting to set, and then serve.
This recipe makes about 36 medium-sized cookies. I made a mix of small, medium and large cookies and that's about how many I got. If making larger cookies, you won't get as many, and if making all smaller cookies, you'll get more.
This recipe makes enough frosting to spread it on all of the cookies. If you're planning on piping it you'll probably have extra. You can cut down on the batch size or freeze the extra for another use.