Up for a major free-from challenge, the recipe creators at Allergy Cooks set out to create a holiday gingerbread treat that was free-from most top food allergens. The cut-out cookie recipe below is perfect for vegan, gluten-intolerant, or food allergic little ones (okay, big kids will probably like them too!). Since Allergy Cooks is a UK recipe site, we have done our best on conversions for U.S. viewers.  However, estimating the weight of the flour was a bit tricky.  If you are measuring in cups, start with just 1 cup of gluten-free flour (or all-purpose/plain flour if you aren't sensitive to gluten) and work your way up to the full 1 1/3 cups as needed ...

Gingerbread Teddies (Recipe from Allergy Cooks)

Makes: 6 large teddies
Cooking Temperature: 190ºC [375ºF]
Cooking Time: 12 mins 

Ingredients:
50g dairy-free margarine, softened [3-1/2 tablespoons]
20g soya cream cheese [1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon]*
75g soft brown sugar [3/4 cup packed]
2 tbsp golden syrup [can be substituted with molasses or corn syrup]
20ml dairy-free milk [1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon]
170g gluten-free plain white flour [1-1/3 cups]
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda [baking soda]
1 tsp ground ginger
1 glace cherry
30 currants

Method:
Cream together the margarine, soya cream cheese, sugar, syrup and milk. 

Sift together the dry ingredients and fold this into the creamed mixture a little at a time until you achieve a soft dough.

Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead it lightly to incorporate all the ingredients.

Roll out the dough to a thickness of ½ cm [1/8 to 1/4-inch].  Stamp out teddy shapes with a cookie cutter and transfer them carefully to a greased baking sheet. 

Halve the cherry and slice off a small piece for each teddy’s mouth.  Position two currants for its eyes and three more for buttons.

Bake in a preheated oven for 12 minutes or until the teddies are well risen and a light golden colour.  Once they are cooked, leave the teddies on the baking tray for at least 10 minutes to harden.

After cooling completely, the cooked teddies can be stored in an airtight container for a few days.

Cook’s Notes:  The soya cream cheese can be replaced with a 50g sachet of creamed coconut. If you can’t get hold of soya cream cheese, you can use plain soya yoghurt [or coconut-based yogurt] instead.

Vegans and vegetarians should use cherries that do not contain the colouring E120 Cochineal. If you can't find any suitable cherries, you could use a slice of dried cranberry instead.

The recipe and accompanying photo are reprinted with permissions from Allergy Cooks.  See their website for many more recipes with full color photography.