These classic Gingerbread Cookies are ultra thick, soft and deeply flavored! These cookies can easily be made vegan, and a simple trick makes rolling out the dough a breeze. Decorate these easy cookies with a dusting of powdered sugar or a quick royal icing, and watch them fly off the platter anywhere you take them. This truly is the BEST gingerbread cookie recipe.
This recipe was originally published in December of 2017, and got new photos in Dec of 2021, but I’ve just updated it again with extra tips & tricks!
These gingerbread cookies are easy to make – I’ve included tips and tricks for making the cutout cookie process much easier, along with lots of make-ahead tips. These festive, chewy cookies are the perfect thing to make for cookie exchanges or cookie decorating parties!
Why you’ll love this recipe:
- Soft Cookies – No hard cookies here! These gingerbread are perfectly soft-baked, and are nice and thick, with a chewy texture.
- Gingerbread Flavor – These gingerbread cookies are packed with classic gingerbread flavor and warm spice flavor.
- Decorating Options – These cookies are fabulous plain, but can also be dressed up a bit with powdered sugar, royal icing, or buttercream frosting.
Ingredient Overview
- Butter – I always use salted buter for the best flavor, but feel free to use unsalted butter if you prefer.
- Molasses – Find this in the baking aisle at your grocery store. Do NOT use blackstrap molasses! It’s not the same thing and will taste unpleasant.
- All-purpose flour – Spoon & level your flour for best results. Scooping the measuring cup directly in will lead to too much flour. Or use a scale, and weigh 135 grams of all-purpose flour per cup.
Ingredient Substitutions:
- Dairy-free – Swap the butter for your favorite dairy-free buter sticks.
- Vegan – This recipe is vegan with the swap above – there are no eggs!
How to Make this Recipe Step-by-Step:
Step 1: Make the Gingerbread Cookie Dough. Cream together the butter & sugar. Then, add your molasses and mix until well combined. Those are our wet ingredients, next we’ll add the flour mixture.
Mix in the dry ingredients until a semi soft dough forms. If it seems a bit dry, add 1-2 tsp of milk. (See photos below). If you measured your flour correctly, this shouldn’t be a problem.
Step 2: Chill & Cut Shapes. Divide dough in half, and roll each ball of dough out between two sheets of parchment paper as soon as you’ve made it -no more trying to roll out rock-hard cookie dough! Pop the rolled dough on a baking sheet to chill in the fridge or freezer, then cut out your shapes – make gingerbread people, trees, snowflakes, or stars!
Step 3: Bake the Cookies. Bake as directed in the recipe card below for soft cookie perfection! Let cookies cool completely on a cooling rack before decorating. They’ll look a tad underdone on the tops when they come out of the oven, but will set up as they cool.
Step 4: Decorate your Gingerbread. I’ve included directions and tips in the recipe card below for decorating your cookies. Use royal icing, a simple glaze, a dusting of powdered sugar, or leave them plain.
Royal Icing Tips: Royal icing is actually quite easy to make – requiring just powdered sugar, meringue powder (find this in craft or baking supply stores), and water. Pipe this onto your cookies using a very thin piping tip like a Wilton #1 or Wilton #2, and a pastry bag. The royal icing recipe can be found below. Before the royal icing sets, I like to sprinkle on a little white sanding sugar to give a beautiful sparkle to the cookies.
Expert Success Tips:
- Cookies that hold their shape – To ensure that the cookies turn out, and hold their shapes in the oven, it’s imperative that the dough is cold when it goes into the oven. If you’ve let the dough sit out for a while and it doesn’t feel cold anymore, pop the pan of your cut out cookies back in the fridge or freezer to chill for 5-20 minutes (depending on how long they’ve been out) before baking to ensure they hold their shape.
- Flour – Be sure to measure your flour as directed above (135 grams per cup), or by spooning and leveling it into your measuring cup.
FAQs:
- Can I make these cookies ahead? Yes! The dough can be made, rolled out, and covered well and stored in the fridge for 1-2 days before baking. The cut out shapes can be frozen on a lined baking sheet in a single layer, then transferred to a tupperware container, with parchment between layers, and frozen for 1-2 months. Bake from frozen or thaw in the fridge overnight. The cookies can be baked, cooled, and stored in an airtight container at room temp for 1-2 days before decorating.
- Royal Icing Make-Ahead Tips: Royal icing can be made and stored in the fridge in an airtight container, with plastic wrap over the surface, for 1-2 days before using, or leftovers can be stored in this same way and used for other decorating within 1-2 days. Simply re-mix for about 10-20 seconds with a mixer to loosen things back up after being in the fridge. The same guidelines from above can be used to adjust the consistency.
Recipe Variations:
- Glaze – If you want to use a glaze, use this plain glaze (feel free to swap the maple syrup for milk), or my buttery maple glaze, and lightly dunk cooled cookies into the glaze (or drizzle it on!) for a quick and easy decorating option.
- Powdered sugar: For a very simple decoration, lightly dust the cookies with powdered sugar just before serving.
- Plain – You can also serve these plain if you prefer not to add any decorations – they’re incredibly delicious on their own.
Serving + Storing this Recipe:
These sweet treats can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for 4-5 days. If they start to get a bit dry at the end, you can extend their life for a few more days by adding a piece of bread to the container. It keeps them soft!
Special Tools:
Affiliate links
- Baking Sheets – These are my favorite cookie sheets!
- Silicone Baking Mat – This is my favorite silicone baking mat. It reduces waste because it’s washable!
More Cookie Recipes to Love:
- Peppermint Hot Chocolate Marshmallow Cookies
- Bakery-Style Peanut Butter Chip Chocolate Cookies
- Key Lime Slice & Bake Cookies
- Blueberry Lemon Cookies
- Peanut Butter & Jelly Thumbprint Cookies
- Funfetti Cake Batter Cookies
- Cherry Pie Cookies
- Triple Chocolate Chunk Cookies
Did you make this recipe? Snap a photo and leave a comment!
Be sure to follow bluebowlrecipes on instagram and tag #bluebowlrecipes with your photo! You can also post a photo of your recipe to the bluebowlrecipes Facebook page. I’d love to see what you make!
Best Soft Gingerbread Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter, softened at room temperature I prefer salted
- 1 cup light brown sugar, packed
- 1/2 cup molasses do NOT use blackstrap
- 3 cups all-purpose flour, spooned & leveled or weighed out 405 grams
- 2 1/2 tsp ground ginger
- 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- pinch of nutmeg
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
Royal Icing
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 1 and 1/2 tbsp meringue powder See note below
- 4-6 tbsp water
Instructions
- Make the Cookie Dough: Beat butter in a large mixing bowl with an electric mixer on high speed until creamed. Add the brown sugar and mix until well creamed together, about 1 minute. Add the molasses and mix until combined. Add the dry ingredients, and mix until a dough forms. Add 1-2 tsp of milk if your dough is a bit crumbly (see photos above).
- Roll and Chill: Divide the dough into two halves, and roll each one out to 3/8" thickness between sheets of parchment paper. (Use a ruler to check this, or just eyeball halfway between 1/4 and 1/2 inch. This is the perfect thickness for these cookies – trust! Even 1/2" is perfect – but don't go lower than 3/8") Place the rolled dough, still sandwiched in parchment paper, on a baking sheet and cover loosely with a clean kitchen towel. Chill for 1-2 hours in the fridge or shorter in the freezer, until completely chilled and firm.
- Cut out Cookies: Preheat your oven to 350° F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. Cut shapes out of the chilled dough and place cookies a couple of inches apart on your prepared baking sheet. If the cookies are no longer firm and cold to the touch from working with the dough, pop the pan back in the fridge or freezer for 5 to 15 minutes to re-chill so that the cookies hold their shape when baked (it's fine to bake them from frozen).While the cookies are baking, combine your dough scraps, roll back out, and cut out more cookies. Repeat this until all remaining dough is gone! You will need to chill the dough for a bit again once you roll the scraps back out so that it's firm enough to cut the shapes easily. (Roll it back out between the parchment each time to keep things easy.)
- Bake: Bake cookies for 8-9 minutes. The cookies should appear just set, and will look a tad puffy. The centers may look a tad underdone. Don't be tempted to over bake them! They will set up to the perfect soft baked cookies. Let them cool on baking sheet for about 10 minutes before and transferring to a wire rack to finish cooling. Tip: Bake a single test cookie first if you’re worried you’ll underbake them – you’ll see that 8 minutes yields the perfect cookie!
- Decorate: Decorate by dipping the cooled cookies in this glaze (swap the maple syrup for milk, if desired), dusting them with powdered sugar, or piping them with royal icing.
- Make Royal Icing: Combine all ingredients in a large bowl, starting with 4 tablespoons of water, and mix on high speed with an electric mixer for about 1 and 1/2 minutes. When the icing is the right consistency, you should be able to drizzle some of it into the bowl, and watch it sit on the surface of the mixture for 5-10 seconds before melting back in. If it's too thick, add 1 tablespoon of water at a time. If it's too thin, beat it for another 30 seconds to a minute, or add a bit more powdered sugar, a little at a time, beating between each addition. Add the royal icing to a piping bag fitted with a wilton #1 or #2 tip (I used a #1 for my cookies) and pipe desired designs. You can even use gel food coloring to tint the royal icing. While the icing is still wet, sprinkle on a little white sanding sugar (optional, but that is what I used in the photos above).
- Serve + Store: Enjoy cookies once decorated! Be sure to let the icing set completely before storing. Store cooled, set cookies in an airtight container at room temp for 4-6 days.
- Cookie Dough and Cookie Make-Ahead Tips: The dough can be made, rolled out, and covered well and stored in the fridge for 1-2 days before baking. The cookies can be baked, cooled, and stored in an airtight container at room temp for 1-2 days before decorating. Royal Icing Make-Ahead Tips: The royal icing can be made and stored in the fridge in an airtight container for 1-2 days before using, or leftovers can be stored in this same way and used for other decorating within 1-2 days. Simply re-mix for about 10-20 seconds with a mixer to loosen things back up after being in the fridge. The same guidelines from above can be used to adjust the icing's consistency.
Notes
Brooke Ludwig says
Didn’t feel like rolling out cookies so formed into 1″ balls. Chilled in freezer for about 45 minutes. Then baked at 375. When partially cooked and soft, I made a thumbprint in each. Bake about 20-25 minutes. After cooling, frost with an eggnog frosting with extra ginger and nutmeg added. Delicious.
Stephanie Simmons says
Glad you enjoyed these, Brooke! I’m guessing at 20-25 minutes of baking resulted in crisp cookies rather than soft ones?
Mary says
Made these this morning. So soft and cheery! Now if I could just decorate like blue bowl!?
Stephanie Simmons says
Thanks for trying this recipe – glad you like them! This was my first time decorating with royal icing – it’s easier than you think! 🙂
Tater says
These came out perfect, honestly best gingerbread I’ve ever had. Even family that don’t care for gingerbread loved these. Also tried another gingerbread recipe without molasses, but these were by far the favorite. They had such a good texture, the slightest crisp on the outer edge and the rest soft and chewy. They’re great by themselves and with frosting.
Stephanie Simmons says
So glad to hear this, thanks so much for your rave review! ☺️
Meg says
Hi, made these. First time since my divorce that I have gotten out my mom’s Kitchenaid and baked Christmas cookies! Came out great. I made royal frosting with egg white so I did not have to buy another ingredient. Plan to try piping with the next batch of frosting.
Stephanie Simmons says
Hi Meg! I’m so glad that you enjoyed these cookies and that they got you back in the kitchen. Sending you a virtual hug!