Gingerbread Cookies are a Holiday classic for a reason! They’re just as delicious as they are adorable and make a great activity with kids for the Holidays!
It was always a tradition when I was growing up to make holiday cookies come this time of year. I used to love rolling out the sugar cookie and gingerbread dough with my mother, cutting the cookies into fun shapes and then decorating them.
I wanted to continue that tradition with my own kids, but the thought of making cookies with tons of sugar didn’t seem like such a good idea (kids jumping off the walls at bed time never appeals to me), so we stuck with gingerbread. This recipe does have some sugar, but not a lot. It also contains molasses, which is full or iron, a bonus for kids.
This recipe makes dozens of cookies (more or less, depending on the size of the cookie cutters you use), so you’ll have plenty for friends and your family during the holidays.
Gingerbread Cookies
Ingredients
- 3 1/2 cups all purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2/3 cup Unsulphered Molasses (to prevent molasses from sticking to measuring cup, first spray the cup with a non stick veggie spray)
Icing:
- 2 cups confectioner’s sugar
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
- 2-3 tablespoons milk
Instructions
- Sift the dry ingredients into a bowl.
- With a standing mixer using the paddle attachment OR by hand, cream the butter and sugar until fluffy.
- Add the egg, vanilla, and molasses, beating until combined.
- Gradually add the flour to the butter, beating until combined.
- Divide the dough in half and form into 2 disks. Refrigerate in plastic wrap or parchment paper for 2 hours or overnight.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper or silpats.
- On a lightly floured surface OR between 2 pieces of parchment paper, roll out one of the disks until it’s 1/4 thick all around.
- Cut out cookies with different shapes (gingerbread men, stars, christmas tree, etc) and using a spatula transfer cookie to the baking sheet.
- Bake the cookies for 10-12 minutes.
- Remove to a cooling rack. Decorate the cookies after they have cooled.
Icing:
- Place ingredients in a bowl and whisk to combine.
- Place in a ziplock bag and cut a tiny whole at one end to squeeze and draw with the icing.
caster she said……not confectioners sugar.
These cookies are delicious! My family had a great time making and decorating the cookies. I use Weelicious recipes all the time as my entire family loves them and they turn out great. Thank you!
Okay, so I’m commenting 7 years later. lol! But I thought I’d comment for future readers. It has worked perfectly for us to build a gingerbread house, 2 years in a row now. BEST tasting gingerbread house you will ever have! We eat every last bite.
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I just made these yesterday for the first times, and they are awesome! I even used whole wheat pastry flour, and they were still so good. These will definitely be in my holiday baking routine from now on. Thanks for sharing them!
Hello, took the dough out of the fridge and when we tried to roll it out it just cracked all over. Measured carefully, but is it just too dry and if so can it be saved? Also, your description said what is great about these cookies is that the dough need not be refrigerated before rolling/baking, but then the recipe said to refrigerate 2 hrs or overnight. Strange as only 1 stick butter so not a moist dough.
What type of flour did you use? Wondering if something other than AP flour could be used.
About 1 week!
Hey 🙂 how long does this cookie last for once baked?
Made the dough and put in the fridge a few days ago; still haven’t found the time to bake them! How long do you think it will keep before I need to put in the freezer?
For the icing recipe – are you supposed to melt the butter? I didn’t melt mine and it came out looking like really thick dough. 🙁