Gingerbread Cookies are a classic cookie for the holidays! These beautiful cutouts are flavored with molasses, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves, to create a slightly sweet spice cookie that is fun to decorate and fun to eat. One of my favorite Christmas cookie recipes!
Ingredients for Gingerbread Cookies
- Unsalted butter: Room temperature for easy creaming.
- Brown sugar: Adds sweetness and chew to the cookies.
- Molasses: Molasses gives the cookies the classic gingerbread taste.
- Egg: Large egg, room temperature for easy creaming.
- Vanilla extract: Pure vanilla extract adds great flavor.
- Baking soda: Helps the cookies rise and spread slightly.
- Salt: Enhances the flavors in the cookies.
- Spices: Cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves add warm flavor and a little spice to the cookies.
- All-purpose flour: Be sure to level your measuring cups.
Tools & Supplies for Making Gingerbread Cookies
How to Make Gingerbread Cookies
To make the gingerbread cookie dough, I recommend using an electric hand mixer or a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and line a baking sheet pan with silicone baking mat or parchment paper.
- Cream together butter and brown sugar.
- Add in egg, vanilla extract and molasses and mix.
- Add in baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves. Mix until well combined.
- Add in flour. Mix on low speed until the dough is formed.
- Form the dough into 2 discs and wrap in plastic wrap. Chill for approximately 1 hour.
- Use a rolling pin to roll the dough to about 1/4 inch thick on a floured surface. Cut out cookies with a cookie cutter.
- Place cookies on prepared baking sheet pan. Bake for 10 minutes.
- Allow the cookies to cool on the pan for 2 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Decorate the cookies with royal icing.
Gingerbread Cookies Recipe Tips
Yield and baking time will differ depending on the size cookie cutters
Depending on the size of your cookie cutters, your dough may yield slightly more or slightly less cookies than indicated in the recipe. You may also need to vary your baking times very slightly depending upon on the size. For larger cookies, add an extra minute of baking and for very small cookies, reduce one minute of baking time.
Chill the cookie dough
Chilling the dough is an important step in this recipe! Chilling prevents the cookies from spreading and allows them to maintain their shape while baking.
Royal icing
I love keeping the decor on gingerbread cookies simple, but feel free to add as much or as little icing and decorating as you would like. Be sure to check out my recipe for Royal Icing to learn how to make this easy and delicious icing. If you are not a fan of royal icing, you could also dust the cookies with powdered sugar.
Storing the cookies
Store cookies at room temperature in an airtight container for up to 3 or 4 days. If the cookies are iced, be sure that the icing is completely dry before storing the cookies. I also recommend placing parchment paper in between to cookies to ensure they do not stick together.
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Gingerbread Cookies
Equipment
- Electric hand mixer or stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment
- Rolling pin/Cookie cutters
Ingredients
- ¾ cup unsalted butter room temperature
- ¾ cup brown sugar
- 1 egg room temperature
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- ½ cup molasses
- 1 tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp salt
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp ginger
- ¼ tsp nutmeg
- ¼ tsp cloves
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and line a baking sheet pan with silicone baking mat or parchment paper.
- In a large mixing bowl with an electric hand mixer or a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream together butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy.
- Add in egg, vanilla extract, and molasses. Mix until combined.
- Add in baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and nutmeg. Mix until combined.
- Add in all-purpose flour. Mix on low speed until the dough forms.
- Form the dough into 2 discs and wrap in plastic wrap. Chill for approximately 1 hour.
- Use a rolling pin to roll the dough to about 1/4 inch thick on a floured surface. Cut out cookies with a cookie cutter.
- Place cookies on prepared baking sheet pan. Bake for 10 minutes.
- Decorate the cookies with royal icing.
Notes
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