Healthy Gingernut Biscuits

Name: Healthy Gingernut Biscuits
Prep time: 5 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 40 min
Ingredients: 70 g Unsalted cashew nuts; 70 g Whole almonds; 20 g Desiccated coconut; A pinch of sea salt; 0.5 tsp Baking powder; 1.5 tbsp Ground ginger; 1 tsp Lemon juice; 3 tbsp Pure maple syrup

Jump to Recipe Print Recipe

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.

Seven Gingernut Biscuits piled in a tower next to another one with a bite taken out of it.

Jump to:

Why should you try it?
What you will need
Step by step
Gingernut or Ginger Snap?
Healthy biscuits
Do Gingernuts contain nuts?
What to serve them with
FAQs
Extra tips
More snack recipes
Recipe

Why should you try it?

Low calorie, low fat and low carb
Really simple to make
kids will love them
Cheaper and healthier than store bought

What you will need

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

Small bowls of cashews and almonds, dishes of maple syrup, desiccated coconut and ground ginger and a lemon, all on a wooden surface.

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.

A blue plate with a pile of ground nuts on it.

Two: Add the salt, baking powder, ground ginger, lemon juice and maple syrup to the nut flour.

A large mixing bowl containing ground nuts, maple syrup and ground ginger.

Three: Mix well to form a dough.

A mixing bowl containing a biscuit 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.

Eight uncooked biscuits on a baking tray.

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.

Eight golden brown biscuits on a baking tray.

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:

Gingernuts next to a cup of coffee and a yellow towel.

FAQs

Can gingernuts be frozen?

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.

How many calories in gingernut biscuits?

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.

Do gingernuts help with morning sickness?

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.

Are they vegan and gluten free?

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.

Extra tips

Cooking times will vary depending on your oven and they can burn very quickly. So, keep and eye on them from 10 minutes and if they start browning, taken them out.
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.

More snack recipes

Do you want to be kept up to date on more delicious posts like this? Please subscribe to the blog mailing list (it takes 30 seconds).
Click here to sign up.

If you’ve tried these gingernut biscuits, or any other recipe on the blog, then let us know how you got on in the comments below, we love hearing from you!
Tag us in your creations on Instagram @hungryhealthyhappy - we love sharing photos when people make our recipes. You can use the hashtag #hungryhealthyhappy too.

DON’T FORGET TO RATE THE RECIPE ↓

Recipe