Creating The Perfect Gluten & Dairy Free ANZAC Cookie
Over the summer these Ginger Coconut Cookies have been a pantry staple as I worked on perfecting the ultimate vegan ginger cookie recipe.
My goal was to create a crunchy ANZAC style cookie without any gluten, dairy or refined sugar – that still tasted just as good as the original!
This turned out to be harder than I thought. Banana for example, does not make a good sweetener for cookies unless you’re looking for a very cakey, soft cookie. Coconut flour doesn’t work either as it makes them extremely dry and crumbly.
Four batches (and a lot of cookie eating) later, I finally have a recipe that fits the bill!
Substituting Ingredients
For these winning Ginger Coconut Cookies I replaced refined sugar with coconut sugar and a little pure maple syrup, both of which have a lower glycemic index than standard sugar.
ANZAC cookies naturally contain no eggs, so I replaced the butter with coconut oil to make them vegan, which also means you can legit eat the cookie dough raw!
Instead of oats and flour I used dried coconut, buckwheat and brown rice flour to ensure these cookies are also gluten free.
Choose Your Texture With The Cooking Time
The texture of these cookies is entirely in your hands!
If you love a chewy, caramel flavoured cookie, bake them for the minimum 15 minutes. But if you like your cookie with a bit more crunch, leave them in the oven for another 5-10 minutes and you’ll have a lovely crisp ginger cookie.
I hope you love these cookies as much as I do, leave me a comment below and be sure to tag your pictures #swoonfood on Instagram or facebook.
Enjoy!
Ginger Coconut Cookies (Vegan/Gluten Free ANZAC Biscuits)
Makes: 20 cookies
Prep time: 10 minutes Bake time: 15-20 minutes
100g coconut oil
1 cup coconut sugar
1/2 cup desiccated coconut
1/2 cup thread coconut
1/2 cup buckwheat flour
1/2 cup brown rice flour
2 tsp ground ginger
pinch himalayan rock salt
1Tbsp pure maple syrup
1 tsp baking soda
2 Tbsp boiling water
Preheat the oven to 170ºC and line two baking trays with baking paper or silicone baking sheets.
If you’e making these in summer your coconut oil will already be soft and ready to use. If not, gently melt the coconut oil.
Combine the coconut oil with the coconut sugar in a large mixing bowl. Add the buckwheat and brown rice flours, ginger and salt, and stir to combine.
Mix the baking soda with the boiling water in a small bowl, add the maple syrup and combine with the dry mixture stirring well.
Shape the mixture into small balls and press into a flat cookie shape on the lined trays. Leave approximately 5 cm between each cookie to allow for spreading. Bake for 15 minutes if you’re after a chewy cookie or 20-25 minutes if you prefer them crunchy.
Store the cookies in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks, or the freezer for 1 month.
Yummmm! I make a very similar cookie to these using oats, but the buckwheat flour sounds like it would be a great addition. Thanks for sharing:)
Hi Laura, yes I replaced the oats with the thread coconut as lots of people don’t tolerate oats too well. Thanks for your comment!
WOW! These look amazing too. So glad I stumbled across your blog. Healthy and delicious!
Can u substitute another oil for coconut and gluten free or coconut flour for the buckwheat andbrown rice flour? Thanku
Hi Denice, I haven’t tried these cookies with another oil but you could try something like macadamia nut oil or a very light flavoured olive oil. However I can’t guarantee the texture would be the same as those oils aren’t solid at room temperature like coconut oil – so you could end up with greasy cookies.
As for the flour, yes you can substitute a gluten free flour mix for the brown rice and buckwheat. I wouldn’t recommend coconut flour as this behaves very differently, it’s much more absorbent so the cookies would likely be extremely crumbly…hope that helps! Let me know what you end up trying 🙂
Hi, these look perfect although I struggle to digest coconut, either desicated or thread. Am I able to use chopped nuts and quinoa flakes – would I need any extra liquid? Thanks
Hi Moira, yes you could substitute in either chopped nuts or quinoa flakes in place of the dried coconut. I would try adding 1/2 cup chopped nuts and 1/3 cup quinoa flakes. I don’t believe you’ll need any extra liquid, however, if does turn out dry and crumbly, try adding a little extra water. Let me know how they turn out! 🙂