Gluten Free Gingerbread Skeletons

How cute are these Gluten Free Gingerbread Skeletons? They’re just as tasty as any gingerbread cookie, but decorated for Halloween!

gf gingerbread skeleton cookies on orange cloth napkin

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I used to never really care for gingerbread cookies. They were “okay” but not something that I’d consider tasty or one of my favorite cookies of all time or anything. But these cookies are something different. They’re actually good! And soft. They have the perfect amount of spices and are in no way stale or boring. Of course they always remind me of Christmas, but they can be made for other holidays, too, just like these are for Halloween.

What You’ll Need to Make These Cookies

The Cookie Dough

Kim’s Gluten Free Flour Blend–a store bought blend may be substituted, but hasn’t been tested
Butter
Brown sugar
Molasses
Eggs
Baking soda
Salt
Ginger, cinnamon, and allspice
Orange zest
Vanilla extract

The Royal Icing

Powdered sugar
Meringue powder — I use LorAnn Meringue Powder (affiliate link) because it’s gluten free.
Water

Making Gingerbread Skeletons

This dough is an absolute breeze to work with! There’s no need to chill it so you can roll it out right after you mix it up. It’s soft, not too sticky, and rolls out beautifully.

Make the dough. Cream the butter, sugar, and orange zest in a large bowl until light and fluffy. Add the eggs and beat until incorporated. Add the molasses and vanilla and beat until combined. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Slowly add the dry ingredients, pulsing until fully incorporated.
Divide the dough into two. Cover half and set aside while you roll out the other half.
Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface into roughly 3/8th of an inch thick (for crisper cookies, roll thinner).
Cut out cookies with gingerbread cookie cutter.
Place cookies on parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake at 350 degrees F for 10-12 minutes, or until puffed and set. They won’t spread and won’t change much in color.
Cool and decorate with white royal icing.

pile of gingerbread dough dumped out onto floured surface

green gingerbread man cookie cutter on rolled out cookie dough

Piping Skeletons

While the cookies are cooling, prepare the royal icing per recipe instructions. Then simply fit a pastry bag with a writing tip. You can use whatever size tip you want, but the tip number I used was a Wilton tip 2. I got the idea for doing these skeleton gingerbread men from Betty Crocker’s website here. I thought they were absolutely adorable and definitely wanted to try to make them, although I’m not as good as I used to be at piping apparently, haha! Anyway, they turned out cute enough, but if you want a better picture, pull up the above link for a good visual on how they should look.

Gingerbread Skeleton FAQs

Can I Use Buttercream Instead of Royal Icing to Decorate?

You certainly can use buttercream, but it won’t dry to a hard finish like royal icing will.

Can Cookies be Frozen?

Yes, the cookies can be frozen for up to 3 months, well wrapped, but if you’re using royal icing you should freeze them before decorating. Buttercream will freeze well on cookies, however.

stack of undecorated and decorated gingerbread skeletons on orange cloth napkin

Who says gingerbread cookies are just for Christmas? We can make a Halloween version of the traditional cookies with these Gluten Free Gingerbread Skeletons, and everyone will love them just the same (maybe more).