These Easy Gluten-Free Ginger Snaps Fight Inflammation With Every Bite

These nutrient-packed gluten-free ginger snaps are about to be your new favorite holiday cookie.

We may have to go without many things during the holidays this year—like visiting family and kissing strangers under the mistletoe—but COVID-19 will not taking away our festive cookies, damnit. On this episode of Well+Good’s YouTube series Alt-Baking Bootcamp, chef and nutrition coach Mia Rigden tackles one of her favorite holiday recipes: gluten-free ginger snaps.

Rigden calls her recipe “ghee-gan” because they’re almost vegan…aside from the fact that she uses ghee. These cookies are also made with gluten-free flour, a flax egg instead of an actual egg, and molasses as a sweetener. “Molasses is a really cool sugar option, which I don’t think we’ve used in Alt-Baking Boot Camp to date,” she says. “What I love about it is that it’s full of minerals—we have potassium, iron, selenium, magnesium, copper… I mean so many wonderful, wonderful minerals.” It also provides a unique depth of flavor key to any good ginger snap.

Another important element in these cookies is the spices. Ridgen uses cinnamon, ginger, and five-spice powder—the last of which is a spice blend traditionally used in Chinese and Vietnamese savory cooking. But five-spice powder—which is made of cinnamon, star anise, fennel seed, cloves, and Sichuan peppercorns—also pairs nicely with the ginger and molasses to make a really delicious ginger snap.

Plus, all the spices all offer health benefits in addition to flavor—especially when it comes to ginger. “Ginger is fantastic for your digestion and also really great for nausea,” Rigden says. Ginger also contains a compound called gingerol that has been shown to reduce inflammation and swelling.

Cookies that are full of anti-inflammatory ingredients that also taste good? Sign us up. Watch the video to get the full gluten-free gingersnap cookie recipe.

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