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These easy Gingerbread Cookies are soft, chewy, and full of holiday goodness! A classic Christmas cookie recipe that’s perfect for decorating.
- Soft, chewy, cozy, and sweet. I’m a little picky when it comes to the texture of my gingerbread cookies. They MUST be soft and chewy! Also, you don’t want them to spread, and there has to be the right amount of molasses and spices for great flavor.
- Kid-approved cutout cookies. Cutout cookies in general are just so perfect for the holidays, whether they be these gingerbread ones or my cutout sugar cookies. They are both easy to decorate with frosting, sprinkles, and more. So much fun!
- Great for sharing! I love popping these soft gingerbread cookies into a festive tin or bag, along with some other Christmas cookies, to give to friends and family. They’re a guaranteed hit!
What You’ll Need
This gingerbread recipe requires molasses, some spices, and a few other ingredients. Here’s a quick look at what you’ll need along with my notes. Scroll to the recipe card below for a printable list.
- Flour – I use all purpose flour in these cookies.
- Baking soda and baking powder
- Spices and molasses – I like to use a mix of ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves.
- Salt – A touch of salt adds dimension to the flavor profile in these cookies.
- Vanilla extract
- Dark brown sugar – You could use light brown sugar in a pinch, if you like.
- Egg – Adds structure and chewiness to the cookies.
- Butter – An important base for a cookie that gets creamed together with the brown sugar.
What Kind of Molasses Do You Use for Gingerbread Cookies?
I use unsulphured molasses in these gingerbread man cookies. This kind of molasses is made from mature sugarcane, which is clarified and concentrated. By contrast, sulphured molasses is made from sugarcane that isn’t quite mature. As a result manufacturers need to add sulfur dioxide to the mixture when processing the immature sugarcane.
Let’s take a quick look at how to make the best gingerbread cookies ever. Here’s how to do it:
- Combine your dry ingredients. Whisk the flour, spices, and salt together and set them aside.
- Add the wet ingredients. Start by creaming the butter and sugar together, then add the egg and vanilla extract. Next up is adding the molasses and combining everything well. Add the dry ingredients and mix everything together just until combined.
- Roll out the cookie dough. Divide the cookie dough into two halves and roll them out to about 1/4 inch thickness between two pieces of parchment paper (no flour-covered messes! yay!). It can help to mold the cookie dough into a little bit of a thick log before rolling it out so that it covers the parchment paper well. You’ll leave the cookies on the parchment paper to bake.
- Chill the cookie dough. Once your dough is rolled out, pop it in the freezer for about 7-8 minutes.
- Cut out your cookies and bake them. With the cookie dough nice and firm, it should be quick to cut out the cookies using your favorite cookie cutters. Move the parchment paper with the cut cookies over to a cookie sheet and bake them.
- Decorate. Once your cookies are baked and cooling, make the simple icing and decorate your cookies as you like.
Decorating Ideas
There are endless options for decorating gingerbread man cookies. I’ve included a simple cookie icing below, but you could also use my royal icing recipe and see my tips for decorating using royal icing.
Beyond the icing, you can use sprinkles, color your icing, or use little candies for adding eyes, buttons or other decorations. I used the red, white, and green sequins from a pack like this one. You could even just dust them with powdered sugar for something super simple.
Tips for Success
- Measure accurately. I say this all the time and will say it again – the best way to measure this is with a food scale. A HUGE influence on how your cookies turn out is having the right amount of flour. Too much, and the cookies will turn out dry. Too little, and they’ll spread too much. Even a difference of a couple tablespoons can make a big impact, especially if another ingredient is measured a little inaccurately (like the sugar – which adds more moisture and would make a cookie spread more as well).
- Use both baking soda and baking powder. After testing these cookies with just baking soda and just baking powder, I can say that I much preferred the resulting texture of using both. Just baking powder made a cookie that was a little firmer, more cakey, and that dried out more quickly. Just baking soda made the cookies feel a little flimsy and just not the right texture I wanted. So I used mostly baking soda (which lends a more tender cookie that stays softer for longer), with a little baking powder (to be sure they had the best chewy texture).
- Don’t over-bake. Your cookies are done when the edges are slightly crisp. It’s tempting to bake them until the middles are also crisp, but this results in a hard, crunchy cookie. If you pull your gingerbread cookies just when the edges are done, then allow them to cool completely, you will end up with that ideal combination of soft and chewy.
- Cool completely before decorating. Wait until your cookies have come to room temperature before decorating them. It’s tempting to rush the decorating, but if you try and put icing on warm cookies it will just melt and slide off the sides of your cookie. Best to wait until they are cool and then go to town with the icing!
Proper Storage
- Room temperature. If the cookies are kept in a well sealed container, they should be good for 5-7 days. If you were to cover them in royal icing, it seals in the moisture and they’d probably be good for a few more days.
- Freezer. You could also freeze them for up to 6 months, but it’d probably be best to freeze them in a single layer.
Recipe
- Prep Time: 2 hours
- Cook Time: 6 minutes
- Total Time: 2 hours 6 minutes
- Yield: 30-32
- Category: Cookies
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: American
Description
These soft and chewy gingerbread cookies are perfect for a Christmas party. They’re almost as fun to decorate as they are to eat!
Ingredients
Gingerbread Cookies
- 3 3/4 cups (488g) all purpose flour
- 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 tablespoon ground ginger
- 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 cup (168g) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 10 tablespoons (140g) packed dark brown sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup (172g) unsulfured molasses
Easy Cookie Icing
- 1 1/2 cups (173g) powdered sugar
- 1 1/2 – 2 tablespoons water or milk
- 1 tablespoon corn syrup
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and salt in a medium sized bowl and set aside.
- Cream the butter and sugar together in a large mixer bowl on medium speed until light in color and fluffy. You should be able to see the change in color happen and know it’s ready.
- Add the egg and vanilla extract mix until well combined.
- Add the molasses and mix until well combined.
- Add the dry ingredients and mix just until the dough is well combined. Dough will be thick.
- Divide the cookie dough into two equal parts, then roll each out to about 1/4 an inch thickness between two pieces of parchment paper. It helps to shape the cookie dough into a bit of a log and then roll it out.
- Transfer the parchment lined cookie dough onto a cookie sheet and into the freezer for about 6-8 minutes.
- Remove cookie dough from freezer and immediately cut into shapes. You’ll leave the cutouts on the parchment paper to bake them, so try to space them as they should be for baking with about an inch between each cookie.
- While cookie dough is still cold, transfer the parchment paper/cookies onto a cookie sheet and bake for 6-8 minutes.
- Remove cookies from oven and allow to cool on baking sheet for 3-4 minutes, or until you can transfer them. Transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Repeat process with remaining cookie dough.
- When cookies are baked and you’re ready to decorate them, making the icing. Add the powdered sugar to a small-medium sized bowl, then add 1 tablespoon of water, the corn syrup and vanilla extract and whisk until well combined. It will be thick to start, just keep whisking together. Add additional water as needed, for it to come together. You want to be careful not to thin it out too much. You can always add more liquid, but you can’t remove it once you add it. You want the icing to just be drip-able (and therefore pipeable), but not so thin it won’t stay in place.
- Add the icing to a piping bag fitted with a small round piping tip (I used Wilton tip 3) and decorate your cookies. Add sprinkles or other decorations, if you’d like.
- Allow cookies to dry, then store in an airtight container. If well sealed, cookies should be good for 5-7 days.
Notes
- To store. If the cookies are kept in a well sealed container, they should be good for 5-7 days. If you were to cover them in royal icing, it seals in the moisture and they’d probably be good for a few more days.
- To freeze. You could also freeze them for up to 6 months, but it’d probably be best to freeze them in a single layer.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 cookie
- Calories: 138
- Sugar: 10.9 g
- Sodium: 72 mg
- Fat: 4.6 g
- Carbohydrates: 22.5 g
- Protein: 1.8 g
- Cholesterol: 17.3 mg
Made these for Christmas and everyone loved them! Thank you.
Glad to hear that!
The flavor wonderful combination of spice, molasses and butter.
Am this recipe be cut in half?
Yes, but you might have a little trouble cutting one egg in half. If you have a food scale, you could try dividing it in half by weight.
Can I use salted butter if the salt is lowered in the recipe & can I use light brown sugar?
You can use salted butter, just leave out the additional salt. As for the brown sugar, dark brown sugar has more molasses and therefore more moisture. If you use light brown sugar, it may affect the softness of the cookies a little bit.
I just made this recipe! OMG! Complete no fail ! Perfection all the way! I’ve tried other recipes in the past and they have failed or not kept there shape. This recipe is a keeper for me! And whole family love them
So glad you enjoyed them!
Saving this recipe for life! Thank you
Can I skip molasses?
No, sorry.
Dough is sticky and hard to work with. What am I doing wrong
Most likely an ingredient was mismeasured. Often is the flour. If it is sticky, you may need to add a touch more flour or the cookies may not hold their shape when baked.
I found rolling the to correct thickness between both baking papers & then popping in the freezer for a few minutes . Take out then press your cutter in & straight into the Oven. That worked for me anyway. The dough is much easier to work with the colder it is . Hope this helps
My boys ate them before I was able to Frost them!
So glad they were a hit!
Hands down my new fav gingerbread recipe! I’m not sure is weighing some of those ingredients instead of measuring with a spoon/cup is what did the trick, but the dough was beautiful to handle and the cookies were soft and just the right amount of sweetness.
So glad you enjoyed them!
Could this recipe be cut in half? Baking recipes can be tricky so I wanted to ask ahead of time!
I haven’t tried it, but I would think it’d be fine.
Can this recipe be used for a gingerbread house? Since the cookies are chewy, I am wanting to build a gingerbread house
I’m not sure. They are softer. You could try baking them longer so that they are firm.
I am making these cookies today and wondered how long the dough stays good in the fridge? Can I make the dough ahead of time and fridge until I need to roll it out and bake?
It should be fine in the fridge for up to a week.
I had mine in the fridge for a week and just rolled them out. Perfectly fine!
Are they crunchy or more soft and chewy?
Soft and chewy
This was my first time making gingerbread cookies and I’m happy I found this recipe. The cookie is soft and loaded with such great flavors! Thank you for sharing 😊
I made a double batch, 52 cookies and baked 8 mins.
So glad you enjoyed them!
These are so delicious. I have a question though. At the 6 min mark they were perfectly puffed up and looked amazing. As soon as I pulled them out of the oven, they went flat. What am I doing wrong?
It sounds like you may have just needed to bake them about a minute longer.