Our list of best healthy Christmas cookies has something for everyone, from soft gingerbread cookies to buckeyes with a healthy spin!
Are you looking for the best healthy Christmas cookies for your cookie tray? If you know Alex and me, you know we’re into healthy cookie recipes…or really, healthier cookies! Here are our top healthy Christmas cookies that we think would be perfect for your cookie tray. They all have a healthier spin…but they’re so delicious, you’d never know it! Don’t forget to serve with healthy hot chocolate or hot cider (or the slow cooker version).
So what are healthy cookies?
Honestly, we wish there were a better word than healthy. Because cookies in themselves are not a health food! Alex and I like to use a few strategies for making healthy– that is, healthier cookie recipes! Here’s our approach:
- Use nutrient dense real food ingredients. We love incorporating nutrient dense ingredients to counteract the typical loads of butter, white flour and refined sugar. Almond butter, peanut butter, oats, almond flour, and maple syrup all make appearances in our best Christmas cookie recipes.
- Amp the flavor. We use spices and natural flavors to bring in big flavor, instead of relying just on sugar. For example, there are abundant chai spices in our snowball cookies, or lots of gingerbread spices and molasses in our soft gingerbread cookies.
- Use just enough sugar. For every Christmas cookie recipe we make, we adjust the sugar content so that it tastes amazing: not too sweet, but just right.
And even though they’re healthier, we hope you’ll find all our best healthy Christmas cookies are just plain delicious. Here are our top favorites:
And now…our best healthy Christmas cookies!
First up in our best healthy Christmas cookies : these soft gingerbread cookies! In this healthier version of gingerbread, we’ve used almond butter to stand in for much of the butter, and thrown in some wheat flour a few extra nutrients. A bit of applesauce helps keep them soft. And this gingerbread cookie recipe is finished with turbinado sugar instead of icing, which is a more natural sugar (plus, it’s much easier than icing!).
Another version of this cookie? Try our Narwhal Gingerbread Cutout Cookies, a playful tribute to the season's best Christmas movie.
Here's a healthy spin on the classic that’s so good, we’ve called it “the best”. And we think you’ll agree! These almond thumbprint cookies are made with almond flour, homemade berry jam, and sweetened with maple syrup. If you’d like, add our easy powdered sugar glaze, which takes them from good to amazing! With just the right chewy texture from the almond flour, these cookies are one of our top healthy Christmas cookies.
Hello and welcome to our new favorite cookie recipe…spiced Applesauce Cookies! These are so moist and irresistible, you’ll forget about everything else and you savory each chewy bite. The applesauce makes them ultra moist, and they’ve got a little oatmeal to balance the sweet. But make no mistake: these aren’t a health food. They’re more like a lighter version of an oatmeal cream pie: which is AOK in our book.
What’s your ultimate cookie? These vegan peanut butter cookies are where it’s at for us! They’re soft but perfectly crumbly, and salty sweet. Decorated with the classic criss-cross pattern, they’ve got a sparkle of sugar. And a chocolate icing drizzle makes them look even more fun. How are they a healthy Christmas cookie? They're made with just enough coconut oil and sugar so they're just rich enough.
Also try: 3 Ingredient Peanut Butter Cookies (gluten-free)
These almond snowball cookies are spiced Christmas cookies with a twist: they’re naturally gluten free, made with almond flour and cozy chai spices! The cardamom is the star of the show here; it’s what gives chai spice its familiar zing. Even though they’re made entirely of almonds, these cookies are light and crumbly: undoubtedly one of our best healthy Christmas cookies!
This healthy peanut butter buckeye balls recipe takes the classic chocolate peanut butter buckeyes and adds a healthy twist! Essentially peanut butter balls dipped in chocolate, they’re little bites of heaven. Instead of the traditional butter and sugar, this recipe uses Medjool dates: large, sweet dates that are used to make natural sweets like Larabars and raw brownies. Add a little peanut butter, and voila — instant buckeye filling!
These peanut butter cups are seriously delicious, perfect on a cookie tray or as handmade Christmas treats. How to make perfect homemade peanut butter cups? Basically, take tempered chocolate and let it harden around a peanut butter filling in a mini muffin tin. The filling has maple syrup and a hint of powdered sugar. Then to bring in a complexity, we added some allspice and vanilla extract. They taste better than any peanut butter cups you'll find.
These pecan butter millionaire bars have 3 layers: shortbread, caramelized maple pecans, and chocolate! This easy vegan dessert recipe couldn’t be tastier. Here, the shortbread layer is simply flour, coconut oil, and maple syrup. And instead of a caramel layer, it’s got caramelized pecans! Nutrient rich pecans are caramelized with a bit of maple syrup, then blended into a pecan butter. And then of course, top with chocolate! It’s a crowd pleasing dessert that's one of our best healthy Christmas cookies.
This one is as natural as they come: dark chocolate, dried tart cherries, quinoa, and pepitas. We love how adding quinoa gives this chocolate bark a little crunch. With the red and green of the cherries and the pepitas, it’s perfect for the holidays: and so simple to put together.
We talk about these a lot around here, but they’re our most popular recipe on the website. Essentially the baby of a peanut butter cup and a no-bake cookie, they’re also gluten-free, vegan, and naturally sweet. We love seeing people all over the world share photos of the bliss bites they’ve made with us on Instagram! The ingredient list is short and simple: cocoa powder, peanut butter, oats, coconut oil, and maple syrup. (And yes, you can substitute other nut butters to compensate for allergies!)
These stunning meringues are healthy Christmas cookies to the max: they’re filled almost entirely with air! This makes the calorie count extremely low (head to the recipe to see!). Basically sugar, egg whites, and air, they’re a great treat when you’re looking for a little sweet. When adding the red stripe, look for natural food coloring if you can find it.
Healthy Gingerbread Cookies
- Prep Time: 1 hour 25 minutes
- Cook Time: 8 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour 33 minutes
- Yield: 25 to 35 1x
Description
These soft gingerbread cookies use almond butter to replace most of the butter, wheat flour for a few extra nutrients, and applesauce to keep them soft.
Ingredients
- 1 egg
- ½ cup brown sugar
- ¼ cup molasses
- ¼ cup almond butter
- 2 tablespoons butter, melted
- 2 tablespoons applesauce
- 2 teaspoons ground ginger
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 2 teaspoons allspice
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 ¼ cup all purpose flour
- ½ cup wheat flour
- Turbinado sugar (for garnish)
Instructions
- In a medium bowl, add 1 egg, ½ cup brown sugar, ¼ cup molasses, ¼ cup almond butter, 2 tablespoons melted butter, and 2 tablespoons applesauce; vigorously whisk to thoroughly combine.
- To the wet ingredients, stir in 2 teaspoons ground ginger, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 2 teaspoons allspice, ¼ teaspoon kosher salt, ½ teaspoon baking soda, 1 ¼ cup all purpose flour, and ½ cup wheat flour until well combined. Turn out onto plastic wrap and form into a rough ball; cover with plastic wrap and chill at least 1 hour, or overnight.
- Preheat oven to 350°F.
- Flour a flat surface and a rolling pin, then roll out the dough ¼-inch thick. Use a cookie cutter to cut out gingerbread men, about 25-35 total. Place gingerbread men on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet and sprinkle with turbinado sugar.
- Bake about 8 minutes, until puffed and slightly firmed. Let rest on the pan for 2 to 3 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack. Store covered at room temperature for several days or freeze for several months.
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baked
- Cuisine: American
Keywords: Healthy gingerbread cookies
More Christmas recipes
We hope you enjoy our best Christmas cookie recipes! Here are a few more resources from around the web: