Laura's Vegan Ninja Bread Cookies

Ingredients

1/4 cup (56g) vegan butter or coconut oil
1/2 cup (100g) organic brown sugar
1/3 cup (100g) unsulphured molasses (if subbing agave, add a dash of stevia as it will be less sweet)
1 Flax egg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups (250g) all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp ground ginger
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp allspice
1/4 tsp ground cloves
*Optional: for an extra "kick", sub 1 tsp Saigon cinnamon instead of the (standard) Ceylon cinnamon, and/or add 1 tsp fresh ground ginger

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C).
Add the vegan butter and brown sugar to an electric mixing bowl and cream together.
Prepare your flax egg by mixing 1 tbsp Flaxseed Meal with 3 tbsp Hot Water and allowing to sit for a minute.
Add the molasses, vanilla, and flax egg to the electric mixer and beat together with the vegan butter and brown sugar.
Sift the flour into a bowl and add the baking soda, salt, ginger, cinnamon, allspice and cloves and mix together.
Add all the dry ingredients into the mixing bowl containing the wet ingredients and mix into a thick batter.
Flour a surface and your hands very generously and transfer the cookie dough onto the baking surface. Roll it into a ball, adding flour as needed so it doesn’t stick.
Roll out with a rolling pin to around a 1/4 inch thick and cut out some gingerbread men (for Ninjabread men, see http://a.co/d/06ZUOrK). Dip your cookie cutter in flour each time so it doesn’t stick. Move the gingerbread men to a parchment lined baking tray.
Gather the scraps of dough, form into a ball and roll out again, cutting out more men. Don’t be shy to add more flour each time, this dough can be quite sticky and you need it not to be as you roll it, so add flour as needed. Any excess flour on the gingerbread cookies will bake off.
Repeat this process until you have used all the dough.
Place into the oven and bake for 15 minutes and cool on rack for at least 15 minutes.

—submitted by Positive Change for Animals member Laura