These Gingerbread Cookies are ultra thick and soft, full of classic gingerbread flavor, and incredibly easy to make! A simple trick makes rolling out the dough easier, too. Decorate these with a dusting of powdered sugar or a quick royal icing, and watch them fly off the platter anywhere you take them. They are truly the most incredible gingerbread cookies I’ve ever had!
This recipe was originally published in December of 2017, but I just updated it with clearer directions, tips for using royal icing, make-ahead tips, and new photos!
These are my all-time favorite cookies. I could eat them year round! They have the most perfect, deep flavor and are amazingly soft. Everything we could wish for in a gingerbread cookie. And, they’re so easy to make. Let’s dive in!
How to make the Best Gingerbread Cookies:
First, cream together your butter and sugar. I use all brown sugar in this recipe to keep the cookies ultra soft and flavorful! Then, add your molasses and mix until everything is combined. Do NOT use blackstrap molasses – it’s very different from regular molasses and has a bitter taste.
Next, add your dry ingredients. The dough will look pretty crumbly (pictured below, left.). Add 1-2 teaspoons of milk to help it come together. You want it to look a little more like a cohesive dough (pictured below, right).
Do I need to chill this cookie dough?
Yes – you absolutely must chill this cookie dough for the cookies to turn out, just like with any cutout cookies. But, a few years ago, I learned a trick from Smitten Kitchen that makes these cookies even easier! Roll the dough out between two sheets of parchment paper as soon as you’ve made it, and chill that. No more trying to roll out rock-hard cold cookie dough!
Then, once the dough has chilled, you can move right into cutting out your shapes. 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 to chill for 5-20 minutes (depending on how long they’ve been out) before baking to ensure they hold their shape.
Bake the cookies and let them cool, then decorate however you like! We have a few options here.
Decorating your Gingerbread Cookies:
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.
Royal Icing: 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. The royal icing recipe can be found below with the cookie recipe. Before the royal icing sets, I like to sprinkle on a little white sanding sugar to give a subtle yet beautiful sparkle to the cookies.
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.
Can I make these into vegan Gingerbread Cookies?
Yes! This one is easy since there’s no eggs in this dough. Just swap the butter and the splash of milk out for your favorite non-dairy butter and milk.
Gifting these cookies:
Gifting these cookies: Along with being a fabulous cookie to bake for your family, they make a wonderful & delicious gift! Just pop them into some holiday tupperware or add them to a festive paper plate – cover, add a ribbon or bow, and deliver to friends, family, teachers, postal workers, neighbors, or anyone else you want to spread some joy to this holiday season.
There you have it! Everything you need to know to make the best ever Soft Gingerbread Cookies. Now it’s time to sit back, relax, enjoy some cocoa and cookies while we wait for the snow to fall.
More Christmas Cookies to Love:
Perfect Peppermint Mocha Cookies – Thick, soft, rich, and full of chocolate and peppermint flavor, with no dough chilling!
Cranberry White Chocolate Slice & Bake Cookies – Made with just 5 ingredients, these beautiful cookies are tender and buttery in the middle, and perfectly crisp around the edges.
Funfetti Christmas Cookies – These are soft, so easy to make, and loaded with white chocolate chips and festive sprinkles.
Cherry Pie Cookies – Made with a simple 5-ingredient dough, these cookies are beautifully festive and have no dough chilling!
Cinnamon Spiced Maple Cutout Cookies – Perfectly soft, lightly spiced with cinnamon and flavored with maple, and they always hold their shape when baked!
Did you make this recipe? Snap a photo and leave a comment below!
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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
- 2 1/2 tsp ground ginger
- 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- pinch of nutmeg
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tbsp milk
Royal Icing
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 1 and 1/2 tbsp meringue powder See note below
- 4-6 tbsp water
Instructions
- Prep: Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Make the Cookie Dough: Add butter to a large mixing bowl and beat with an electric mixer on high speed until creamed. Add the brown sugar and mix until well creamed together. Add the molasses and mix until combined. Add the dry ingredients, and mix until combined. The dough will be a bit crumbly (see photos above). Add 1 tbsp of milk to help it come together better - 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!) Place the rolled dough, between the two pieces of parchment, on a baking sheet and cover loosely with a clean kitchen towel. Chill for 1-2 hours, until completely chilled and firm.
- Cut out Cookies: Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Cut shapes out of the chilled dough and place cookies a couple of inches apart on a parchment paper lined baking sheet. If the cookies are no longer firm and cold to the touch from working with the dough/having it out of the fridge, pop the pan back in the fridge for 5 to 15 minutes to re-chill so that the cookies hold their shape when baked.While the cookies are baking, combine your dough scraps, roll back out, and cut out more cookies. Repeat this until all the dough is gone! You may 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 for 9-10 minutes. The cookies should appear just set, and will look a tad puffy. Let them cool on baking sheet for 5-10 minutes and then transfer to a cooling rack to finish cooling.`
- 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 if you want a colored icing. While the icing is still wet, sprinkle on a little white sanding sugar for that sparkling look (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
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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! 🙂
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!