Gingerbread Cookies
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Ready, set, decorate! These festive gingerbread cookies are as fun to create as they are delicious to eat—with warm spices, a crisp edge, and a soft center, they’re a holiday classic.
Decorating holiday and Christmas cookies is one of my favorite things to do. I can spend hours happily piping colorful icing and adding sparkly candies to everything from dapper gingerbread men to cut-out sugar cookies. The trouble with iced holiday cookies, though, is that they’re often more about looks than taste—and gingerbread cookies especially can fall short. But not these!
Flavored with molasses, ginger, and warm spices, these cookies have a crisp-on-the-outside, soft-on-the-inside texture—they’re as delicious as they are adorable. When you want the same cozy flavor but don’t have time to decorate, my old-fashioned molasses cookies are a great choice.
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, and spices 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. (At this point, the cookie dough can be also frozen for up to 3 months.)
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.
Cut out shapes with a cookie cutter and transfer to parchment-lined baking sheets.
Bake the cookies for 8 to 10 minutes, then let the cookies cool on the baking sheets until set before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. Use royal icing or store-bought icing to decorate the cookies.
Gingerbread cookies will keep nicely stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 4 days; freeze for longer storage.
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Gingerbread Cookies
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
- ¾ cup (1½ sticks) unsalted butter, softened
- ¼ cup + 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
- ¼ cup + 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 (175°C); set two racks in 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-in (3-mm) thick (or for softer cookies, roll to ¼-in/6-mm 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 for up to 4 days.
Notes
- Nutritional information does not include the icing.
- Freezing Instructions: The cookie dough can be frozen for up to 3 months. Shape it into 2 discs, wrap each in plastic wrap, and place them in a sealable bag. When ready to bake, thaw the dough until pliable and proceed with the recipe. The baked cookies can also be frozen for up to 3 months. Once cooled, store in an airtight container, separating layers with parchment paper or foil. Before serving, let the cookies thaw to room temperature.
Nutrition Information
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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Too bland. We made 3 batches, playing with the douce ratio each time. They all taste too flat and floury.
I have been making gingerbread cookies for many years from an old recipe. This year I decided to switch and I used your recipe. They were a huge hit from my young grandchildren to my grown children to my husband. They absolutely disappeared before my eyes. Perfect spices and great texture. This recipe is a keeper!
Do you have to use ground cloves or would it be ok if I didn’t
Hi Linley, you can replace the cloves with more of one of the other spices. Hope you enjoy!
Hi Jen!! Love this recipe, I made it last Christmas and they turned out perfect! However, this year I was hoping to use pumpkin pie spice instead of the cinnamon, ginger, allspice, and cloves. Would that work out okay? Would the measurement just be all those separate ingredients combined? Thanks!
Hi Rebecca, Yes and yes. 🙂
I made this recipe last week and they were yet another winner, Jenn! I’ve always found gingerbread cookies to be pretty finicky but these rolled out easily and even with royal icing covering them, the ginger flavor and spices came through nicely. And I know why some people have spreading issues with them! The first batch we rolled to 1/4″ because we were thinking we’d prefer softer cookies, but they spread a ton and the men were essentially blobs. I scale my ingredients and followed the recipe precisely so figured it had to be something to do with my process. The rest of them I rolled to 1/8 inch and they came out perfectly! So we ended up with some soft gingerbread men who needed to go on a diet and some crispy ones who were in perfect shape 🙂 They were all yummy tho!
Can I substitute flour with Bob’s Red Mill 1 to 1 gluten free baking flour and get similar results?
Hi Yvette, I’ve never made these with gluten-free flour so I can’t say for sure. Often times readers will comment if they’ve made a recipe with gluten-free flour but it looks like you would be the guinea pig for this one! If you do go that route, many people have commented they’ve had good luck with this King Arthur all-purpose gluten-free flour. Please LMK how the cookies turn out if you try them this way!
Hi, Yvette: Came across your question re: using Bob’s Red Mill 1 – 1 GF flour blend. Did you do so, and how did they turn out? Did you have to add a TBS or more of the blend, or dough was “just right”? Would appreciate a response from you or any other onceuponachef fan who has done this.
Thanks! Have a great and safe holiday!: iris
Wow, great cookies! I never cared for gingerbread growing up as all the ones I tried were either bland, dry or hard as rock but these were flavourful with firm edges & slightly soft centres. I increased the spices (ca. 1.5 times), added a dash of nutmeg and made them slightly thicker as I have a convection oven. I ate 3 before I could deliver them to my nephew for decorating. Thanks Jenn for another fine recipe!
I made the gingerbread cookies. The flavor was great, but the cookies were very cake-like and they easily broke. I am looking for a more sturdy cookie, more like shortbread cookies. How can I adapt this recipie?
Hi Coral, It sounds like the dough wasn’t rolled thin enough. If you make the cookies again, just roll the dough a bit thinner and you’ll find them to be more crispy. Hope you enjoy!
Hello-
just a quick question: is it ok to substitute light brown sugar for the dark? We’ve enjoyed the snickerdoodle recipe ( I’ve made 5 batches!) and thought we’d try the gingerbread cookie. I have everything in the pantry except for the dark brown sugar.
Thanks in advance,
D S
Yes, that’s fine, DS. Enjoy!
I love the ease of making this cookie and the taste is complex yet traditional. I am going to keep this recipe for every holiday season! Thank you!
This is the best gingerbread cookie recipe I’ve found!! I made these cookies with my children and international law students. They were a hit. My daughters who do not generally like gingerbread cookies loved these. My son who loves gingerbread cookies declared these the best ever. And my international students who had never tried gingerbread cookies before preferred these to sugar cookies. I think the fresh ground pepper adds a depth of flavor and zing that other gingerbread cookies lack. We cooked half until they were firm and good for decorating. The other half my daughter pulled out a bit early so they remained soft and pliable, not great for decorating, but the flavor was even better, we thought. We ate them with no adornments. They were delicious. This recipe is a keeper.