Soft and moist cake-like gingerbread bars with that classic gingerbread flavor and scent. Paleo, gluten free, dairy free, and delicious! Serve with a big scoop of Gingerbread Ice Cream for even more gingerbread goodness.
Who here associates gingerbread with Christmas? Go on, raise your hand. Let’s see… one, two, twenty, everyone. Got it. I used to be the same way.
For the longest time, I believed that gingerbread was meant to be strictly in cookie form, in the shape of little men with no phalanges or neck, decorated with royal icing, and eaten only at Christmas.
You draw little worried faces on them, eat their legs and arms, and make quiet screaming noises until you bite off their heads when they can no longer feel pain.
… what, just me? If you haven’t figured it out yet, I have a dark sense of humor, you guys.
But anyway – then one day I discovered gingerbread. Not gingerbread cookies, but gingerbread. I fully recognize that’s totally backwards since it originally started as a moist loaf cake and not anatomically incorrect cookies.
I never realized that it could be a perfectly fluffy cake with the same flavors, and could be topped with any number of frostings – cream cheese, brown butter, maple buttercream, etc.
Just look at that crumb – it’s everything I never knew I needed in a gingerbread bar.
Now that I knew that, I had to come up with a paleo version so I could continue to enjoy it post-PCOS diagnosis. I will admit, some of you might not believe these are truly paleo because of the molasses, but like I’ve mentioned before I believe that moderation is key. Just make sure you’re using pure blackstrap molasses and everything will be a-okay.
I’ll be honest – I haven’t come up with a frosting that I like yet, since everything I’ve tried has to be refrigerated or is just too runny for my taste.
But the great thing about these gingerbread bars is that they really don’t need to be topped with anything. If you underbake them just slightly, they’re so moist and flavorful that you’ll be perfectly content without frosting.
However, I did come up with another use for these already – add in chunks of these gingerbread bars to my gingerbread ice cream!
Want more gingerbread flavor?
- Gingerbread Linzer Cookies with Cranberry Filling
- The North Pole Cocktail from Half Baked Harvest
- Gingerbread Cake Roll with Eggnog Cream Cheese Filling
- Super Fluffy Gingerbread Donuts from Hunger Thirst Play
- Chewy Ginger Molasses Cookies
- Gingerbread Hot Cocoa from Kim’s Cravings
After you’ve made this recipe, please leave a comment below with a rating – and if you came from Pinterest, add a photo to the Pin of what you make to the pin to share your experience!
PrintPaleo Gingerbread Bars
Soft and moist cake-like bars with that classic gingerbread flavor and scent. Paleo, gluten free, dairy free, and delicious!
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 9–16 bars 1x
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Bake
- Cuisine: American
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup almond butter (aff link)
- 1/3 cup coconut sugar (aff link)
- 2 tablespoons coconut oil, solid
- 2 eggs, room temperature
- 1/4 cup molasses
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 3/4 cup almond flour (aff link)
- 1 tablespoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon ginger
- 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1/4 teaspoon cloves
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Line an 8×8” square pan with parchment paper. Set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together almond butter, coconut sugar and coconut oil until smooth.
- Add eggs, molasses, and vanilla extract and mix on medium speed to combine.
- In a large bowl, whisk together almond flour, cinnamon, baking powder, ginger, nutmeg, clovers and salt.
- Add dry ingredients to bowl of wet ingredients and stir until completely combined.
- Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for 20 minutes, or until center is set and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out with only moist crumbs.
- Let cool in pan for 15 minutes, then transfer to wire rack (aff link) to cool completely. Cut into 9-16 squares and enjoy!
Notes
Note: Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to a week.
Keywords: gingerbread bars
Joanne Pinette
Sunday 28th of March 2021
I loved the recipe but baked them about 5 minutes longer to get a good cake texture. Also thought that they could use more spice not sure which ones but reminded me of my mom's back in the day. She always topped gingerbread cake with applesauce so that's what I did too.
Sneha
Wednesday 24th of March 2021
This was delicious - we went through them way too quickly. Will definitely make them again in the future.
Leslie Kiszka
Wednesday 24th of March 2021
That's always the case for us, too! Thanks so much for coming back to share your experience.
CB
Thursday 4th of March 2021
I absolutely love these bars and have been making them over and over for breakfast and snacks. I can make them cake like or more dense in texture depending on my mood. I am not a great cook so this might be a weird question: do you have different flavors you can make this cake, if you were to swap out spices? For example, could you make a vanilla flavor or an apple cake or coffee cake flavor? I'd be into suggestions or recipes like that so I could change it up-- now that we are moving into spring.
CB
Thursday 29th of April 2021
@Leslie Kiszka, thank you! Going to make those coffee cakes right now lol..love ur recipes!
Leslie Kiszka
Tuesday 9th of March 2021
I've never to change any of the flavors with this cake since it was intended to be gingerbread flavored, so I haven't messed around with that myself.
However, I do have a cranberry coffee cake and an apple cinnamon coffee cake recipe if you're interested in either of those flavors: https://stressbaking.com/paleo-cranberry-coffee-cake-2/ https://stressbaking.com/paleo-apple-cinnamon-coffee-cake-2/
Deb
Thursday 24th of December 2020
Can you use blackstrap molasses?
Leslie Kiszka
Thursday 24th of December 2020
Yep, that's what the recipe calls for!
Sabra
Monday 2nd of March 2020
I could not find my coconut sugar so I used a raw honey, 1/3 of the amount called for in the recipe. I had to bake it for 10 minutes longer than the recipe states too, maybe bc of the liquid honey. But I will make these again!
Leslie Kiszka
Tuesday 3rd of March 2020
Glad you were able to make it work with a substitute!