Gingerbread Cookies
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These festive gingerbread cookies are easy to make, and they taste as wonderful as they look.
I love to decorate holiday and Christmas cookies. Once I get started, I can get into the zone for hours, happily wielding colorful icing bags and sparkly candies to create everything from dapper gingerbread men to cut-out sugar cookies in the shape of adorable snowmen. The challenge with iced holiday cookies is that, usually, the prettier they are, the worse they taste—and gingerbread is often the worst offender! But that’s not the case with these adorable gingerbread cookies. Flavored with molasses, ginger, and warm spices, with a crisp-outside and soft-inside texture, they taste as wonderful as they look. If you love the flavor of these cookies but want a quicker turnaround, my old-fashioned molasses cookies will satisfy that craving.
“Literally flawless… They are amazing. Better than any gingerbread I have ever had.”
What You’ll Need To Make Gingerbread Cookies
- Flour: Forms the base of the dough, providing structure and stability to the cookies.
- Baking Soda: Helps the cookies rise.
- Ground Ginger, Cinnamon, Allspice, Cloves, Black Pepper: Infuse the cookies with warm, aromatic spices, giving them that classic gingerbread flavor.
- Butter: Adds richness and flavor to the cookies, ensuring they are tender yet crispy.
- Granulated and Dark Brown Sugar: Sweeten the dough and contribute to its moisture.
- Egg: Binds the ingredients together, adding structure and helping the cookies hold their shape.
- Molasses: Imparts hints of caramel and toffee flavors and adds moisture to the cookies.
- Royal Icing or Store-bought Icing: Used for decorating.
- Jump to the printable recipe for precise measurements
Step-By-Step Instructions
To begin, combine the flour, baking soda, salt, ginger, cinnamon, allspice, cloves, and black pepper in a medium bowl.
Whisk to combine.
Combine the butter and sugars in the bowl of an electric mixer.
Beat until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.
Beat in the egg and molasses.
Add the flour mixture and mix until combined.
The dough will be quite sticky.
Divide the dough into two discs, wrap in plastic, and refrigerate for at least one hour or up to a few days.
Remove the dough from the refrigerator and place on a lightly floured work surface. Dust more flour over the dough. Using a rolling pin, roll out the dough to about 1/8-inch thick, turning and adding more flour under and over the dough as necessary.
Cut out shapes with a cookie cutter and transfer to parchment-lined baking sheets.
Bake the cookies, rotating the sheets from top to bottom and front to back midway through, for 8 to 10 minutes or until they feel firm. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheets for several minutes, or until set, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Use royal icing or store-bought icing to decorate the cookies.
Make-Ahead, Freezing & Storage Instructions
The cookies will keep nicely stored in an airtight container at room temperature for 3 to 4 days. The cookie dough can be frozen for up to 3 months. Shape the dough into 2 discs, wrap each securely in plastic wrap, and place them in a sealable bag. When ready to bake, remove the disks from the freezer, thaw the dough until pliable, and then proceed with recipe. To freeze the cookies after baking, let them cool completely and store in an airtight container separating layers with parchment paper or aluminum foil. Before serving, remove the cookies from the container and let them come to room temperature.
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Gingerbread Cookies
These festive gingerbread cookies are easy to make, and they taste as wonderful as they look.
Ingredients
- 2¾ cups all purpose flour, spooned into measuring cup and leveled-off
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- Heaping ¼ teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons ground ginger
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground allspice
- ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
- ⅛ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1½ sticks (12 tablespoons) unsalted butter, softened
- ¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
- ¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons packed dark brown sugar
- 1 large egg
- 6 tablespoons unsulphured molasses, such as Grandma's Original
- Royal icing or store-bought icing, for decorating
Instructions
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, ginger, cinnamon, allspice, cloves, and black pepper.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or beaters, beat the butter and sugars on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Beat in the egg and molasses.
- Add the flour mixture and mix on low speed until combined. Divide the dough in half and shape into two discs. Wrap the discs in plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator until firm, at least 1 hour or up to three days.
- Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350°F ; set two racks near the middle of the oven. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Remove the dough from the refrigerator. (If the dough has been in the fridge for longer than an hour, you'll need to let it sit out at room temperature for 10 to 15 minutes and knead it briefly until it is supple enough to roll.) Place the dough on a lightly floured work surface. Dust more flour over the dough. Roll, turning and adding more flour under and over the dough as necessary, to about ⅛-inch thick (or for softer cookies, roll to ¼-inch thick). Cut out shapes with a cookie cutter and transfer the cookies to the prepared baking sheets, using a spatula if necessary. Gather the dough scraps and knead into a ball, then roll out and cut again, adding more flour as necessary. Repeat until scraps are used up.
- Bake the cookies, rotating the sheets from top to bottom and front to back midway through, for 8 to 10 minutes or until they feel firm. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheets for several minutes until set, then transfer to a rack to cool completely. Repeat with the remaining dough.
- When the cookies are completely cool, decorate with icing. Let the icing set completely, a few hours, then store in an airtight container.
- Freezer-Friendly Instructions: The Cookie Dough can be Frozen for up to 3 Months: Shape the dough into 2 discs, wrap each securely in plastic wrap, and place them in a sealable bag. When ready to bake, remove the disks from the freezer, thaw the dough until pliable, and then proceed with recipe. To Freeze After Baking: Let the cookies cool completely and store in an airtight container separating layers with parchment paper or aluminum foil. Before serving, remove the cookies from the container and let them come to room temperature.
Nutrition Information
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- Serving size: 1 cookie without icing
- Calories: 78
- Fat: 3 g
- Saturated fat: 2 g
- Carbohydrates: 11 g
- Sugar: 6 g
- Fiber: 0 g
- Protein: 1 g
- Sodium: 73 mg
- Cholesterol: 12 mg
This website is written and produced for informational purposes only. I am not a certified nutritionist and the nutritional data on this site has not been evaluated or approved by a nutritionist or the Food and Drug Administration. Nutritional information is offered as a courtesy and should not be construed as a guarantee. The data is calculated through an online nutritional calculator, Edamam.com. Although I do my best to provide accurate nutritional information, these figures should be considered estimates only. Varying factors such as product types or brands purchased, natural fluctuations in fresh produce, and the way ingredients are processed change the effective nutritional information in any given recipe. Furthermore, different online calculators provide different results depending on their own nutrition fact sources and algorithms. To obtain the most accurate nutritional information in a given recipe, you should calculate the nutritional information with the actual ingredients used in your recipe, using your preferred nutrition calculator.
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I made these for the first time and the dough was SO DELICIOUS I could literally eat the whole thing raw…but when they baked, they lost all flavor 🙁 My toddlers even felt the same, and they eat EVERYTHING. Then I made another batch and doubled the spices, and they were GREAT! The whole family loves the baked ones now 🙂 We are going to use this recipe for gingerbread houses this weekend!
Can I double this recipe?
Sure!
Literally flawless. I made these and a traditional sugar cookie and my kids 2 and 4 chose these over sugar cookies. They are amazing. Better than any gingerbread I have ever had.
Do these have to be rolled and cut out or can you use a scoop? I really loved them, but wonder if they could be made the other way for when I don’t have the time to roll and cut
Hi Kerry, You could try rolling the dough into balls and pressing flat with the bottom of a glass (flour it or dust with confectioners’ sugar so it doesn’t stick).
Hi Jenn, I am in Canada and we don’t have unsulphured molasses here – just Fancy, Cooking and Blackstrap. I have used Fancy in the past for recipes but I’m wondering whether our Cooking molasses might be better? Which one would you use if you had to choose from just these three?
Hi Jill, I’d go with the cooking molasses. Hope you enjoy the cookies!
For future reference, use fancy molasses. If you read the back of the container, it says unsulphured molasses.
Agreed, the fancy molasses is unsulphered. Cooking molasses would be way too overpowering for baked goods. (From Canada and do alot of baking.)
This recipe is fantastic! The dough is so easy to work with and it tastes fantastic!
Hey Jenn so I’m confused. I was hoping to make some of these cookies today only to compare your old-fashioned molasses cookie recipe to this recipe and they seem very very similar. What am I missing? The reason I ask is I wanted to make spice cookies which is something my husband grew up with with his mom but I don’t sadly have her recipe. Needless to say, she was an excellent cook, God rest her soul. So I was looking for something and everything keeps coming up with these molasses cookies. So I thought I’ll look at gingerbread in the meantime and because I love your recipes, I looked up both of these recipes, spice cookies and gingerbread, and got molasses cookies recipe for spice cookies, and like I said the recipes for both look the same. I’m not a big “fancy“ cookie maker at Christmas and this was my first kick at it. So is molasses cookies the same as spice cookies? And am I wrong in saying that the gingerbread recipe seems the same as your Old fashioned molasses cookies recipe? Last but not least, in both recipes you have to chill the dough? Completely unprepared for that, so I’m wondering, is that a necessity for highly recommend it? TIA.
Hi Judy, The flavors are pretty similar but the crispy ginger cookies are more buttery and crisp, and a tiny bit richer.
Love this recipe. I make it every year . However, I don’t put black pepper in. And I substitute 2Tbls molasses with honey.
Hi Jen,
I just made a double batch of these fabulous gingerbread cookies!
Thank-you for another great recipe!
Happy Holidays. Robin