Gingerbread Gluten Free Fudge Puddles

These gingerbread gluten free fudge puddles are lightly spiced miniature gingerbread cookie cups with a simple fudge filling. Sink your teeth into the best flavors of the season!

A new favorite

Fudge puddles are the sort of cookie that looks much more fussy to make than it actually is. I’m willing to put in some effort for an interesting cookie plate, and these aren’t as easy as drop cookies, but they’re still simpler than they look.

The cookie part is often made with a peanut butter flavor, but I went in a different direction. These are gingerbread gluten free fudge puddles, and they fit right in with all the gingerbread men, cakes, and houses that we already have in our recipe archive.

How to make a cookie cup

I’ve shared many recipes for cookie cups over the years, and I especially appreciate the ones made in a miniature muffin tin. Small is adorable, and it’s also less of a commitment for the eater.

Some methods are better than others, and I’ve found (through lots of failure) the easiest and most successful method. First, roll the portions of dough into a ball and place them in a greased miniature muffin tin.

Press a hole in the center of the ball of dough, pressing it up against the sides of the well. Bake for ¾ of the total baking time (here, 9 minutes) and remove the pan from the oven.

How to recreate the center hole

The holes you created will have swollen nearly shut, leaving a dimpled piece of risen cookie dough. Working quickly, press the underside of the bowl of a teaspoon into the center of each well to recreate the hole.

Instead of a teaspoon, you can use the bowl of a small ice cream scoop, if you have one. A small pestle from a mortar and pestle would also work.

Be sure to press down enough to create a significant hole, but don’t press all the way to the bottom of the muffin tin well. You could create a hole in the finished cookie cup.

Even though the hole closes up quite a bit in the first bit in the oven, creating it in the raw dough prevents the cookie cup from cracking on the edges when the hole is recreated. Baking for another few minutes afterward sets the hole properly.

The fudge filling

Since these are fudge puddles, I like to make an actual fudge filling to place inside each miniature cookie cup. I’ve included a recipe for the simplest fudge, made with only a few ingredients and without any sweetened condensed milk.

All you do is heat butter, chopped chocolate, and cream, stirring frequently until everything is melted and smooth. Remove the pan from the heat, add vanilla and confectioners’ sugar, and stir.

If you don’t sift the confectioners’ sugar, you will most likely see lumps in your fudge. To reduce or eliminate those lumps, you can beat the fudge filling with a hand mixer until it becomes smooth.

Be sure to pour the fudge while it’s still warm, or it will be difficult to pour. If it cools too much, try scooping it into small portions using a small ice cream scooper or melon ball.

If you’d prefer to make a similar fudge-like filling, simply make a chocolate ganache by pouring heated cream over chopped chocolate. The darker filling you see in some cups in the photos is chocolate ganache.

If you look closely, you’ll even see one or two cups with an unwrapped Hershey’s milk chocolate kiss in the center. It wasn’t my favorite filling, though, but it was fast!

Ingredients and substitutions

Dairy

If you can’t have dairy, be sure any chocolate you use is dairy-free. I really like Hu Kitchen brand chocolate, which is gluten free and dairy free.

In place of the butter in the cookie cups and in the fudge filling, I recommend trying vegan butter. Miyoko’s Kitchen brand and Melt brand are my favorites.

In place of the heavy whipping cream in the fudge filling, try using canned coconut cream (full fat). Otherwise, you can try using 2 tablespoons (28 g) more vegan butter, but reduce the confectioners’ sugar by a couple tablespoons.

Egg

Since there’s only one egg in this recipe, I think you should be able to replace it with a “chia egg.” Place 1 tablespoon ground white chia seeds and 1 tablespoon lukewarm water in a small bowl, mix, and allow to gel.

Corn

If you can’t have corn, be sure that your confectioners’ sugar is made without cornstarch. Most organic confectioners’ sugar is made with tapioca starch rather than cornstarch, but read labels carefully.

Molasses

There is only 1 tablespoon of molasses in these cookie cups, but it provides a ton of gingerbread-like flavor. You could try using honey in its place, but you’ll lose that flavor.

If you’re in a country like the U.K. in which molasses doesn’t seem to be very available, I understand that dark treacle has a similar flavor. Whatever you do, don’t use blackstrap molasses, which has an overpowering and rather bitter flavor.