Made with molasses and brown sugar, these soft gingerbread cookies are an ultimate Christmas sweet treat recipe that’s both delicious and fun to make with the family. These cookies are perfectly flavored with ground ginger, cinnamon, and cloves.
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Ingredients and substitutions
Flour - I use all-purpose flour for this gingerbread cookies recipe, but you can replace it with bread flour if you want a chewier texture.
Baking soda - It will make the texture a bit chewy and fluffy and the same time.
Spices - Nothing fancy here. I just add very common spices to my cookie dough, such as ground ginger, cinnamon, and cloves. Additionally, you can add ½-1 teaspoon of allspice.
Salt and vanilla - I like to add a little bit of vanilla extract to my gingerbread cookies but you don't have to do it if you don't want to. However, salt is a must-add ingredient, so don't skip it!
Butter - Use unsalted butter at room temperature so it's easier to beat with sugar.
Sugar - I use light brown sugar to make this gingerbread cookie recipe. You can use dark brown sugar if you like to add more molasses flavor to your cookies.
Molasses - I use unsuphured dark molasses (not blackstrap) as it provides extra sweetness and tons of flavor to our gingerbread man cookies.
Egg - It should be at room temperature or your butter will solidify and won't emulsify with the rest of the ingredients.
Cooking tips
Chill the dough well. This dough is sticky, so you have to chill it to be able to roll it out properly. You can make it the day before baking and store it in the fridge, but if you're in a hurry, you can freeze it for 20-30 minutes instead. The butter will solidify and it will be easier to work with the dough.
Dust everything that touches the dough with flour. As I mentioned previously, this dough is sticky and, even if you chill it, it will stick to everything it touches. So, you want to flour: the surface that you roll the dough on, the top of your dough, the rolling pin, and the cookie cutters. You might need to flip the dough in the early stages of rolling and add more flour to the surface to make it less sticky.
Try to re-roll the dough as little as possible. The more you re-roll the dough, the more flour you add to it. It makes the texture of the cookies tougher, so you want to try to work with the dough as little as possible. I cut out 24 medium-sized cookies by rolling the dough two-three times. Also, I like to dust the working surface with flour but I often use plastic wrap on top of the dough so my rolling pin doesn't stick. It also helps me to decrease the amount of flour I add to my cookie dough.
Don't overbake your cookies. Once they spread, puff up, and start changing color on the edges, it's time to take the baking sheet out of the oven. Your cookies will continue baking for a couple of minutes while resting on the sheet.
Step by step directions
1. In a bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, salt, ground ginger, cinnamon, and cloves. Set aside.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, add the brown sugar, butter, and vanilla extract. Beat on medium-high for 3 minutes or until paste-like in consistency.
3. Then, add the molasses and beat to combine for 10 seconds. Scrape the sides and the bottom of the bowl and briefly beat again.
4. Add the egg and beat until homogenous in consistency.
5. Add the dry ingredients and mix on low just until the cookie dough has formed and there are no dry ingredients visible.
6. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap in a disc shape and freeze for 20-30 minutes or until well chilled but still pliable.
7. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 180C (355F) and line the baking sheet with parchment paper.
8. Roll the dough out with a floured rolling pin to ¼ inch or ½ cm thickness on a lightly floured surface. Cut out the desired shapes and transfer them onto the prepared baking sheet. Collect all scraps and freeze again for 15 minutes while the first batch of cookies is baking.
9. Bake right away on the middle rack for 11-12 mins or until golden around the edges. Remove from the oven and let rest for 2 minutes on the sheet. Then transfer to a cooling rack using an offset spatula to cool down completely.
10. Re-roll the scraps and cut out a new batch of cookies. Place them on a completely cooled baking sheet. Bake again.
11. Decorate completely cooled ginger molasses cookies as desired.
Decoration variations
There are so many ways you can decorate your ginger cookies. The most popular is to use a simple powdered sugar icing or royal icing that you can color with gel food colorings and use to draw on your cookies. However, I went for another decoration method.
I glued colorful chocolate sprinkles to my cookies using melted dark chocolate. If you choose to do the same, melt a little bit of chocolate in the microwave in short increments, mixing in between, just until a few solid bits are left. Then, mix to help them melt from the residual heat. We do this to prevent overheating of the chocolate.
Apply a little bit of chocolate on top of the cookie first. After, place your sprinkles on top. The chocolate will be set within 30 minutes to 1 hour at room temperature.
FAQ
Store completely-cooled cookies in an air-tight container lined with a paper towel at room temperature for up to one week.
You can store this dough wrapped in plastic wrap in the fridge for up to three days.
This dough is freezer-friendly! The cookie dough can be frozen for up to 3 months. Thaw in the fridge overnight before rolling out and baking.
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Recipe card
Gingerbread cookies
Equipment
- Digital kitchen scale
- Stand mixer or hand mixer and a large mixing bowl
- Rolling Pin
- Cookie cutter
Ingredients
- 300 g all-purpose flour
- ¾ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 ½ teaspoon ground ginger
- 1 ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground cloves
- 135 g unsalted butter at room temperature
- 100 g brown sugar
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 135 g unsulphured molasses
- 1 large egg
Instructions
- In a bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, salt, ground ginger, cinnamon, and cloves. Set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment (or use a hand mixer and a large mixing bowl), add the brown sugar, butter, and vanilla extract. Beat on medium-high for 3 minutes or until paste-like in consistency.
- Then, add the molasses and beat to combine for 10 seconds. Scrape the sides and the bottom of the bowl and briefly beat again.
- Add the egg and beat until homogenous in consistency.
- Add the dry ingredients and mix on low just until the cookie dough has formed and there are no dry ingredients visible.
- Wrap the dough in plastic wrap in a disc shape and freeze for 20-30 minutes or until well chilled but still pliable.
- Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 180C (355F) and line the baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Roll the dough out with a floured rolling pin to ¼ inch or ½ cm thickness on a floured working surface. Flip the dough a couple of times and sprinkle on more flour if the dough sticks too much. Cut out the desired shapes and transfer them onto the prepared baking sheet. Collect all scraps and freeze again for 15 minutes while the first batch of cookies is baking.
- Bake right away on the middle rack for 11-12 mins or until golden around the edges. Remove from the oven and let rest for 2 minutes on the sheet. Then transfer to a cooling rack using an offset spatula to cool down completely.
- Re-roll the scraps and cut out a new batch of cookies. Place them on a completely cooled baking sheet. If you only have one baking sheet, you’ll need to either wait until it’s at room temperature again or place it under ice-cold water, dry it, and line it with parchment paper again. I rolled the dough two times in total and managed to cut out 24 medium-sized gingerbread men.
- Decorate as desired. I glued chocolate sprinkles to my cookies using melted dark chocolate. If you choose to do the same, melt a little bit of chocolate in the microwave in short increments, mixing in between, just until a few solid bits are left. Then, mix to help them melt from the residual heat. Apply a little bit of chocolate on top of the cookie first. After, place your sprinkles on top. The chocolate will be set within 30 minutes to 1 hour at room temperature.
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