here come ninjabread men!

in my last post, i mentioned making ninjabread men with my girlies
as one of our new Christmas tradtions

well today is the day that i share the recipe with you!
(note:  you should be very excited, this is the best gingerbread recipe i have ever tried...no joke, peeps!)

and it's quite fitting that i broke out the ninjabread man cookie cutters

not just because ninjas make everything more awesome, 

but because these guys are surprisingly both delicious + healthy!

imagine chewy, spicy, perfectly sweetened gingerbread men

that are free of grain, soy, dairy, egg and refined sugar

i wondered if it was too good to be true when i stumbled upon the original recipe

then i figured i'd give it a shot - if they didn't work out, i never had to make them again, right?

let's just say, i will be making these again....and again, and again!

dry ingredients:
2 1/4 cups (packed) almond flour
1/2 cup organic, non-gmo coconut sugar
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp sea salt 

wet ingredients:
1 1/2 tbsp organic applesauce
1 tbsp pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 tbsp blackstrap molasses


directions:

- preheat your oven to 325* then line your biggest baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside

- combine dry ingredients in a large bowl and mix well

- add wet ingredients and stir, stir, stir!
(at first, it'll look really dry, but just keep on stirring - eventually, you'll begin to see a dough forming...we used our favorite spoonula so the girlies could help stir, but i'm sure you could get your hands dirty and knead to help speed it up)

- roll out said dough between two sheets of parchment paper until it is about a 1/4 inch thick, then put your cookie cutters to work! (once again, i used ninjabread cookie cutters, but any will do) 

- repeat until you're all out of dough - try not to eat all the dough in the process (we had to convince the kiddos to save some for baking!)

- place the cookies on your prepared baking sheet and bake for 12 minutes; try to let them cool completely before removing them from your tray
...we may or may not have snuck a couple before that point... 

the cookies can be stored at room temperature in an airtight container
ours only lasted two days (oops), but i can vouch for their freshness that far!