You Can’t Catch Me, I’m the Gingerbread Man

It was universally agreed – and by universally, I strictly mean the universe that is our home – that we absolutely needed gingerbread this Christmas. At first the kids kind of balked at the idea of raw gingerbread but that didn’t last for long. I always remind them that they’ve never had a raw dessert that they didn’t like. I just knew that gingerbread would not be the exception. In fact, I was imagining eating the stuff right out of the bowl. Honestly, who knew if we would ever get to making cookies!

The thing that kept us going was all that vibrant icing. Melissa went crazy making all kinds of colors. You can’t put anything like that in front of a child and not have them oozing creative juices. Albeit, the other side of that creativity is all about getting through the decorating as quickly as possible to pave the way for eating all the stuff you made. This accounts for the first cookies being decorated so thoughtfully while each of the following ones were kind of… well… haphazard. Jackson Pollack would have loved them.

At some point Melissa and I took over, seemingly the only ones present who had any control over the icing which was now all over the kids faces, hands and clothes. Far from realizing our dreams of perfection, what we had was playschool gingerbread. And all this was done to the tune of ‘White Christmas’ that easily must of played ten times on the radio station we were listening to.. we never knew so many artists sang that song! Oh well. The best laid plans, thwarted again. But it was fun thwarting them, I must say.

Finally…

In the end, there is no end. Because once we got a few of those gingerbread cookies looking like they weren’t made by apes, everyone wanted to make more. In fact, now they want to make a gingerbread house. The kids suggested their geckos could live in it. That’ll be something to behold, I’m sure. Not every gecko gets such a tasty home. Similarly, not every gecko has their home eaten out from under them. Because that’s what would happen, for sure. This is really good gingerbread.

Unfortunately, we’re all out of dough. Not enough scraps to make even the tiniest of tiny gingerbread houses. So I know what I’ll be doing this weekend. Making more gingerbread. And beginning construction on the Gecko residence.

Wish me luck.

RAW VEGAN RECIPE: Holiday Gingerbread Cookies

2 cups almonds

3/4 cups oats

2-3 Tablespoons ground flax seed

1/4 cup maple syrup

1 packed tablespoon grated fresh ginger

1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/2 Tablespoons molasses

pinch clove

pinch salt

1-3 Tablespoons water

Add almonds. oats and flax to food processor and process until finely ground.

Add remaining ingredients except water to food processor. Process until thoroughly combined. Ingredients should be attempting to form a ball at this point.

Add water if mixture is too dry and process to combine. Use only as much water as is necessary. Mixture will be slightly sticky but should not be too wet.

Form into a ball and refrigerate for an hour.

Put gingerbread ball on wax paper. Use another sheet of wax paper to place on top. This will prevent mixture sticking. Roll out gingerbread ball gently through wax paper till about 1/8 inch thick.

At this point you may use cookie cutter to cut whimsical shapes or even just mold with your hands. (The dough can also be formed into smaller balls and just chilled and eaten as such.)

Set dehydrator to 115 degrees Fahrenheit. Place cut gingerbread cookies on Teflex lined dehydrator sheets and leave to dehydrate for about 24 hours.

Decorate with icing or serve plain. Best if kept refrigerated.

Gingerbread Icing

1 1/2 cups cashews

2 Tablespoons coconut oil plus 1 Tablespoon coconut oil

8 Tablespoons maple syrup

1 Tablespoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup almond milk

natural food coloring*

Soak cashews in warm water for 4 hours. Drain and blend till smooth, adding all ingredients except coconut oil. Divide up to make multiple colors.

Warm the 2 Tablespoons coconut oil in the dehydrator for ten minutes or let sit in a container of hot water . Add coloring of choice to oil and mix with other ingredients. (Once again, divide up to make varied colors).

Place in refrigerator for 15 to 30 minutes. Remove and blend again with additional Tablespoon of coconut oil. Refrigerate until ready to work with.

*You may use store-bought natural food coloring or use:

red- beet juice : please note that you can’t get a real red… more like pink

green- chlorophyll

blue- blue spirulina

yellow- turmeric

Chocolate Icing

1 Tablespoon raw cacao

2 Tablespoons maple syrup

1 Tablespoon cocnut oil

Mix thoroughly until smooth.

NOTE: piping bags would be great to use for the icing, We used Ziplock bags instead, with a little bit cut off at one corner, Don’t cut off too much though or the icing will come out too thick!