Description
Gingerbread Cups with Spiced Pears are an elegant yet simple Christmas dessert with warming gingerbread spices and sautéed pears. Best served warm with ice cream and a drizzle of molasses!
Ingredients
For the cookie cups:
- 1/4 cup almond butter, room temperature
- 1/4 cup virgin, cold-pressed coconut oil, softened (not melted)
- 1/4 cup coconut sugar
- 2 tablespoons molasses
- 1 large egg, room temperature
- 3/4 cup whole wheat flour
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
- 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/8 teaspoon kosher salt
For the spiced pears:
- 2 teaspoons virgin, cold-pressed coconut oil
- 2 medium-sized Bosc pears, peeled and chopped into 1/2-inch pieces
- 2 teaspoons coconut sugar
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1/8 teaspoon ground allspice
- 4–5 teaspoons water
- Dairy-free ice cream and molasses for topping
Instructions
Prepare the gingerbread cups:
- Preheat oven to 375F and grease a standard size 12-cavity muffin pan.
- Add the almond butter, coconut oil, sugar and molasses to a large mixing bowl and use an electric mixer to beat together until creamy. Add the egg and beat until smooth.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, allspice, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
- With the mixer on low-speed, gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture and beat until a dough forms.
- Using a 1 1/2-inch cookie scoop, place mounds of the dough into each muffin cavity. Using your fingers, shape the dough around the bottoms and sides of the muffin cavities to form cups.
- Bake for 5 minutes. Remove from oven and use a spoon to carefully reshape the cups. Bake for another 3 minutes and reshape the cups again, if necessary.
- Let the cups cool fully in the pan before lifting them out using the edge of a knife.
Prepare the filling and assemble the cookie cups:
- Melt the coconut oil in a skillet.
- Add the pears to a bowl and toss with the lemon juice, coconut sugar and spices.
- Place the pears in the skillet along with the water.
- Cook over medium-low heat for 10-15 minutes, or until the pears are tender and caramelized. (Add more water to the pears, if necessary).
- Place a spoonful of the warm pears into a cookie cup and top with ice cream and molasses. Repeat with the desired amount of cups. Serve immediately.
Notes
- The unfilled cookie cups can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for 2-3 days, or frozen for up to 3 months.
- You should have enough pears to fill all 12 cups. If you’re not using all 12 cups, you can always add more pears to each cup, or sauté one pear instead of two.
- Make sure the cold ingredients for the cookie cups are at room temperature. If your ingredients are cold, the coconut oil may start to harden as you mix together the cookie dough.
- Generously grease the muffin pan to ensure the cookie cups don’t stick.
- To reshape the cookie cups, use a metal teaspoon instead of a plastic spoon or your fingers (the cookies will be hot).
- Instead of ice cream, you can top the pears with coconut molasses cream. To make it, use a 400 ml can of full fat coconut milk that has been refrigerated overnight. Scoop out the solidified coconut milk and add to a mixing bowl along with 1 tablespoon of molasses, and 1/2 teaspoon each of ground ginger and cinnamon. Use an electric mixer to beat until creamy.
- The total recipe time includes time for the cookie cups to fully cool.
- Be sure to check out the detailed sections above the recipe card for additional advice and suggestions for making this recipe.
The recipe for the gingerbread cookie cups is adapted from Liv for Cake’s eggnog cheesecake cookie cups.
