Gingernut Biscuits (or Ginger Snaps) with a freshly brewed cup of coffee is the perfect afternoon treat. We love the fiery taste from the ginger and the crunchiness of them and they also hold together really well when dunked. These are Healthy Gingernut Biscuits, and vegan and gluten free too.
Jump to:
Why you will love them
- Low calorie, low fat and low carb
- Really simple to make
- kids will love them
- Cheaper and healthier than store bought
Ingredients needed
- Nuts - We used cashews and almonds.
- Desiccated coconut - Helps with binding the mixture, but doesn't give a coconut flavour.
- Ground ginger - Obviously for the fiery ginger flavour.
- Maple syrup - To sweeten the biscuits. You could use honey, but they wouldn't be vegan.
- Baking powder
- Lemon juice
A full ingredients list with measurements is in the recipe card below.
Step by step
One: Place the cashews, almond and coconut in to a food processor and blend until a flour like consistency. Transfer in to a large bowl.
Two: Add the salt, baking powder, ground ginger, lemon juice and maple syrup to the nut flour.
Three: Mix well to form a dough.
Four: Using your hands roll the dough in to 8 equal sized balls and place on a baking tray lined with baking paper, evenly spaced.
Five: Using the palm of your hand, flatten each ball so they have a diameter of about 3 inches; this will ensure they crisp up nicely.
Six: Put the baking tray of biscuits in a preheated oven at 180C/350F/Gas 4 for 20 minutes until golden. Leave to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes and then transfer to a cooling rack and allow to cool completely before eating.
Gingernut or Ginger Snap?
There may be some confusion for our American readers. A biscuit in the UK is a cookie in the US and a gingernut is a ginger snap. Whatever you call it, you'll be sure to make this ginger snap recipe over and over again.
Healthy biscuits
What makes these biscuits healthy? Well, they are not packed with sugar and butter like regular biscuits are and instead they use a little bit of maple syrup to sweeten them. I have also skipped the regular flour and used almond and cashew flour instead, which means they are gluten free and vegan too.
Do Gingernuts contain nuts?
Traditionally, gingernut biscuits don't actually have nuts in them. Weird! Apparently they are called gingernuts because they are hard like a nut shell. Well, we have actually used nuts in the recipe for ours, so we can safely call them gingernuts.
What to serve them with
These are the perfect biscuit to dunk in a nice hot drink. Here are some of the ones on the blog that would go really well with it:
- Cinnamon Coffee
- Slow Cooker Hot Chocolate
- Peppermint Hot Chocolate
- Pumpkin Spiced Latte
- Cinnamon Mocha
- Chai Tea Latte
FAQs
We have frozen gingernut biscuits, and whilst they are a perfectly acceptable biscuit when defrosted, they do lose their crunch. A gingernut is all about the crunch for us, so I would say these are best made from fresh. Store them in an airtight container to maintain their crunch.
These aren't the most low calorie biscuits, at 137 calories per biscuit, because they are made with nuts. However, they are bigger than a store bought gingernut, which has 55 calories in it, and are much more filling because of the nuts. So, it's not all about the calories, it's the ingredients too.
When I was pregnant with my first, I lived on these for about the first 10 weeks of pregnancy. I suffered awful morning sickness and gingernut biscuits were the only thing that settled my stomach.
Ginger is known to help with stomach issues and whilst I could have had some ginger tea or ginger ale, I opted for ginger biscuits because, well, pregnancy. Instead of raiding a whole pack of shop bought ones, I made them myself.
I can sometimes find vegan and gluten free biscuits a little bland, and sometimes soft - these are neither. By making a flour with nuts, they are gluten free and everything is vegan too.
More snack recipes
If you’ve tried these homemade gingernut biscuits, let us know how you got on in the comments below.
Tag us in your creations on Instagram @hungryhealthyhappy - Use the hashtag #hungryhealthyhappy too.
Recipe
Healthy Gingernut Biscuits
Ingredients
- 70 g Cashews
- 70 g Almonds
- 20 g Desiccated coconut
- 1 pinch Sea salt
- 0.5 teaspoon Baking powder
- 1.5 tablespoon Ground ginger
- 1 teaspoon Lemon juice
- 3 tablespoon Maple syrup
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4. Line a large , flat baking sheet with baking parchment.
- Place the cashews, almond and coconut into a food processor and process to a fine, floury consistency. Transfer the mixture to a large mixing bowl.
- Add the salt, baking powder, ground ginger, lemon juice and maple syrup to a bowl and mix well to form a dough.
- Using your hands, roll the mixture into 8 equal-sized balls and place, evenly spaced, on the baking sheet.
- Using the palm of your hand, flatten each ball to a diameter of 7.5cm/3 inches; this will ensure that your biscuits crisp up nicely.
- Transfer the biscuits to the oven and bake for 20 minutes until golden. Leave to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack and allow to cool completely before eating.
Notes
- Add some dark chocolate chips or raisins for a little extra flavour.
- Don't feel like you have to stick to almonds and cashews - try using walnuts and pecans too.
[email protected]
I also love a good ginger nut biscuit and they always bring back memeories of scholl days. I spotted these in your book which I am enjoying and have plans to make these and other tasty recipes over the next few weeks!
Rachel
OOh now these look like something I would absolutely love, I love that they are healthy too x
Emma White
oh I love ginger biscuits you need to come here and make some mine never come out looking like this
Alison
One of my favourite biscuits and I have not had them for ages. I really must rectify that!
Ceri @Natural Kitchen Adventures
Fact: First thing I ever learned to cook was gingernut cookies. Sugar, butter, golden syrup, flour the lot. Brilliant memories, but these look so much better for the 2016 me! Love it! Best of luck with the book launch!
Anna @AnnaTheApple
It always makes me chuckle when I see what Americans call biscuits (I suppose they must laugh at us too!). That said, American biscuits are AMAZING. So good but probably very bad as well.
I love the sound of these. I'm not a huge biscuit fan unless it comes with a cup of tea for dunking as I find them a bit too dry, but these sound a lot more exciting!
Laura ~ RYG
We'll, I've never had gingernut biscuits and feel like I'm missing out! I love every ingredient in there! Chock-full of good-for-you stuff. Nice. The perfect snack for my daughters school lunch. I have to pack her a "healthy" snack everyday since school is so long and this would be PERFECT! Tasty, but still healthy. Just what I'm always looking for.
Charlie @ The Kitchen Shed
MMmmmm! These sound great! I always loved a good old Gingernut Biscuit too so to have a healthy version is a bonus!
[email protected]
Bets wishes with the official book launch. What a great recipe to share, showing that healthy doesn't mean boring or worthy. I now prefer nut-based biscuits myself. Not with gravy ;-)
Vanessa Kilan
I can't wait for Thursday to head to W H Smith to get your book. I have set myself the goal of losing 50lbs this year and your recipes are going to help me to do that.
Harriet Emily
Gingernuts are my favourite type of biscuit. I'm obsessed with ginger in baked goods! These cookies look so beautiful Dannii and I love that they're vegan and healthy!
[email protected]
Like you Dannii, I've got such good memories of gingernut biscuits being an after school treat. :-)
But, they were the shop bought ones and I'd much rather have home made healthy ones like these.
Thanks for sharing the first recipe in your book. I've pointed it out to Lynne and stuck it in my Amazon wishlist. Fingers crossed for my birthday in May! (She says I've already had enough cooking stuff at christmas :lol: )
Charlotte Braithwaite
Goodness! These look so lush and perfect!
I need to get my baking on this year - Why not start with these.
Pinned and will try them this week minus the nuts though.
Thanks for sharing hun
Charlotte x
Kari @ bite-sized thoughts
These sound like a delicious take on the classic gingernut - and I do like that they actually have nuts in them. I go through phases with gingernuts but they are always a biscuit I go back to eventually. And yes, your photo was worth sharing twice ;)
Bec
I absolutely love ginger biscuits so I'm going to bake these. Thank you.
Love bec xx
helen @ scrummylane
I absolutely love this recipe dannii! I too used to dunk gingernuts as a child. Used to love them when they went soft! Healthy versions? I'm in!
Elizabeth
Sounds like a lovely recipe - I like that it's made from nuts and no flour.
Tandy | Lavender and Lime
So glad you shared this as I love a decent biscuit. I will also pass the recipe on to my sister as she prefers recipes without refined sugar in them
Annie @ The Garlic Diaries
These have my mouth watering!! They look so, so yummy :). Pinned!
Natasha
I wish I wasn't such a lazy cook, I'm far too inclined to just grab cookies and such from the shops! These look yummy though :)