Gingerbread Cookie Recipe

Why This Gingerbread Cookie Recipe Works

Two things you should find in every good gingerbread cookie recipe are ginger, naturally, and molasses. From there, recipes can vary. There may be a slightly different mix of spices. Some recipes have relatively more leavening (usually baking soda). Some recipes have eggs, some do not.

This recipe has a lot of ginger for big ginger flavor. A little bit of baking soda keeps the cookies from being dense, but there is not a big rise in these cookies. If you compare these cookies to my Gingersnap Cookies, you’ll find that recipe has 4x as much baking soda as the gingerbread cookies.

Gingersnap Cookies also have an egg in the batter to support the more open texture of that cookie. I do not use eggs in this recipe because I like gingerbread to be crisp with a snappy bite. You can adjust the texture of the cookie by how thick you roll the dough and by adjusting the exact baking time. See the details in the info box.

The cookies are absolutely delicious all by themselves, but of course they are perfectly suited to frosting and decorating. This is the dough to make traditional gingerbread men, as you can see in the photos.

Since the cookies keep quite well you can make a big batch and enjoy them throughout the holidays.

Ingredients

• All Purpose Flour — Medium-protein all-purpose flour gives the cookies some structure and prevents them from spreading too much in the oven. Bleached or unbleached AP flour is acceptable.
• Ginger & Spices — There’s a good dose of ginger in this recipe. The ginger and cinnamon are essential to the recipe. I like the note of clove and nutmeg but you can experiment with other warm spices, such as allspice or black pepper. But remember that the star of the show is the ginger. So keep a light hand with any other spice additions.
• Sugar — Granulated sugar absorbs moisture in the dough which helps produce a crisp cookie and minimizes oven spread.
• Molasses — Like ginger, the molasses is non-negotiable in this recipe. The combination of ginger and molasses creates the quintessential gingerbread flavor. Use standard unsulphured dark molasses. Do not use blackstrap molasses as the flavor is too overpowering.
• Butter — I use room temperature unsalted butter in this recipe. If you use salted butter eliminate the salt listed in the recipe. Room temperature butter should be pliable, but not soft and melty. The temp should be 65°-70°F.

How to Make Gingerbread Cookies

Here’s what the recipe process looks like at each stage. Refer to the recipe card below for measurements and exact instructions.

• Whisk together the dry ingredients and set aside.
• Cream the butter with the granulated sugar until light and aerated. Scrape the bowl and beater.
• Add the molasses.

• Mix until the molasses is incorporated. Scrape the bowl and beater.
• Add the dry ingredients. The mixture will look crumbly at first.
• Mix until it comes together.
• Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead it together. Form it into a disc. Wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour before rolling.

• Roll the dough 1/4″-1/8″ thick depending on your preferred texture. See the info box below for details.
• Cut as many cookies as you can. Re-roll the scraps and continue cutting until all the dough is used up.

• Arrange the cookies on parchment lined baking sheets. The cookies do not spread much so they can be as close as 1/2″ apart.
• For softer cookies, bake 1/4″ thick cookies about 4-6 minutes and remove from the oven when the edges are crisp and the center is still soft. For crisp cookies bake 1/8″ thick cutouts about 4-6 minutes.

Work Ahead Tips

Gingerbread dough needs to chill before rolling, so it’s a great work-ahead recipe. The dough can be refrigerated for 2-3 days and frozen for a month.

The cutouts can be arranged on a parchment-lined sheet pan and frozen until firm. Transfer the frozen cutouts to a freezer container and freeze for up to a month. No need to defrost before baking. You may need to add a minute or two to the baking time if the cutouts are frozen.

Decorating Gingerbread Cookies

In my opinion, these delicious cookies don’t need any frosting at all. But for the holidays it is fun to dress them up as gingerbread men or other festive shapes.

The traditional frosting for decorating gingerbread cookies is royal icing. This simple egg-white-based frosting dries completely to the touch. You can add sprinkles or shiny dragées to the icing before it sets for a festive touch.

The decorated cookies pictured in this post are easy enough for anyone to try. You will need a piping bag and small round tip to pipe the simple lines you see on my cookies. Find more tips for decorating in my Royal Icing post.

Want little ones to help with decorating? Let them simply ice a cookie with frosting then load it up with sprinkles. They’ll love it.

If you want to use the cookies as tree decorations, use a skewer to poke a small hole at the top of each unbaked cookie. After decorating, tie a loop of ribbon in the hole to use as a tree hanger.