How to Make Gingerbread Cookies?

How to make gingerbread cookies is a common question that comes up a lot during the holiday season. With Christmas cookie exchanges in the air, this winter cookie is an all-time favorite.

When brainstorming for unique Christmas cookie ideas, gingerbread cookies are always at the top of the list. Tis the season for these warm, spiced, soft, and chewy holiday cookies.

We have got the best homemade gingerbread cookie recipe for you and the best part about it is, it is super simple and easy to make.

What are Gingerbread Cookies Made Of?

Making gingerbread cookies from scratch can be intimidating but never fear it’s actually not that hard. It may be one of the simpler Christmas cookie recipes that we know. 

The key ingredients in this Gingerbread cookie recipe are:

1. Spices- Ginger, Cloves, Cinnamon, & Nutmeg: The combination of these spices form the foundation of the unique Gingerbread flavor.  

2. Eggs, Flour, and Butter: These ingredients are used in the majority of cookie recipes. For this recipe, they come together to provide the structure and stiffness of this cookie as well as to enhance the richness of the dough. 

3. Sugar: Two types of sugar are used in this recipe: granulated and brown sugar. The granulated sugar serves to enhance the texture of the Gingerbread cookie dough while the brown sugar serves to enrich the flavor. 

4. Molasses: The star of the show in this recipe is the molasses. Molasses is another sweetener, like sugar, but it serves to add moisture and further magnify the unique flavors of the spices.
5. Vanilla: Adding vanilla provides a complementary layer of flavor to both the molasses and spices.

 As you can see Gingerbread cookies are packed with rich and decadent flavors that come together to form a crispy yet soft centered chewy holiday cookie.

What Makes Them So Special?

Here are a couple of reasons why we think Gingerbread cookies are such a special Christmas recipe: 

• Flavor: They are packed with a sugary spiced flavor that keeps bringing you back for more. They also are not your average everyday cookie. The ingredients used are different from your basic cookie elements and create a unique type of cookie. 

• Texture: These cookies are crispy around the edges but soft and chewy in the middle. Which is not always the case for Gingerbread cookies. Follow our recipe and you can avoid the hard, crunchy texture that sometimes is associated with this Christmas cookie. 

• Experimentation: With these cookies, you can add more spice or less spice depending on your taste buds. You can make the traditional round cookie or you can roll the dough out and use cookie cutters to cut fun festive shapes. There is a lot of room for taking this basic recipe and making it your own.

How to Make Gingerbread Cookies?

See below for the full recipe. Check out our video on how to make this easy, Gingerbread cookie recipe.

Gingerbread Dough Creation

The first step is to assemble the dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, salt, and nutmeg) for the Gingerbread cookie dough in a bowl and set to the side. In another bowl, combine all the wet ingredients and the sugars (granulated sugar, brown sugar, egg, butter, molasses, and vanilla) and mix very well. The consistency of the wet mixture should be thick and smooth. Pour half of the dry mixture in and mix until just combined. Then add the remaining dry mixture and continue to mix. The dough should form- its consistency should be a soft, fluffy somewhat stiff texture.

The Wrap

Take a piece of saran wrap, lay it flat on the counter then scoop out the dough onto it. Wrap the dough firmly in the saran wrap forming a 1-inch thick disk. 

Chilling

Don’t skip this step, refrigerate the dough for 1-2 hours. This ensures that you get the right texture when you bake the cookies.

Baking

Preheat the oven to 350° F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking sheet. Using a small ice cream scoop, scoop the dough then roll it in granulated sugar and place it on the baking sheet. This recipe can make up to 24 cookies.

Tips and Tricks

Dough and Gingerbread Men

Our recipe does not call for rolling out dough, we prefer to keep it simple and use an ice cream scoop to portion out the dough. With that said, don’t let us stop you from rolling the dough and using cookie cutters to make fun Christmas shapes. If you decide to make the fun holiday cookie shapes we recommend keeping the dough in the refrigerator for at least three hours.

Ahead and After

This recipe can be made in advance. We recommend refrigerating for the initial hour and then scooping the dough onto parchment paper and storing it in the freezer in an airtight container or zip lock until ready to bake. The baked cookies can also be stored in the freezer for up to a month. We would not recommend any longer than that just to ensure max integrity and flavor.

Decorating

This can be a fun activity to do with the family. 

• Icing: You can make a quick powdered sugar icing from scratch or buy the prepackaged icing in the baking aisle at the supermarket. You can also use other specialty kinds of icing such as royal icing, maple icing, or homemade frosting/store-bought frosting. 

• Powdered/ Granulated Sugar: Something we like to do is dust the cookies pre and post-baking with granulated sugar. This takes the cookie to the next level. You can also use powdered sugar. If you opt to use powdered sugar we recommend only using it after the cookie is baked. 

• Red Hots/ Gum Drops: Red hots and gumdrops are the traditional decorations used to spruce up Gingerbread houses and cookies. They add another layer of texture and flavor to the cookies. They also make them even more festive and embody the holiday spirit. 
• Sprinkles: Sprinkles are an easy way to add pops of color and further enhance the basic Gingerbread cookie recipe.

We think this is the best Gingerbread Christmas cookie around. Try it out and let us know what you think!

Looking for more recipe inspiration? Check out our recipe for Sweet Potato Casserole with Pecans and Marshmallows and Caramel Apple Cheesecake.

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