Our greatest gingerbread cookie recipe! These festive treats are tender and warmly spiced, with a wealthy molasses taste. Good for spreading vacation cheer!
What might be extra festive than gingerbread cookies?! With Christmas just some weeks away, I’m prepared to show up the vacation cheer round right here, and making this gingerbread cookie recipe looks like an ideal place to start out. For one, it makes the home odor superb, filling it with the comforting aroma of cinnamon, ginger, and cloves. It’s additionally a blast to make–rolling out the dough, slicing out gingerbread individuals, baking them, and adorning them as soon as they cool.
However extra necessary than all of that, these gingerbread cookies are scrumptious! They’re tender, warmly spiced, and richly flavored with molasses and brown sugar. To me, they’re the proper vacation deal with, particularly with a mug of sizzling chocolate to drink. I hope you’re keen on them too.
Gingerbread Cookie Recipe Substances
Right here’s what you’ll must make this gingerbread cookie recipe:
- All-purpose flour – Spoon and degree it to keep away from packing an excessive amount of into your measuring cup.
- Unsalted butter – Enable it to come back to room temperature earlier than you begin to bake.
- Brown sugar and molasses – They sweeten the cookies and add wealthy molasses taste. We’ve had success baking these cookies with Healthful and Brer Rabbit blackstrap molasses.
- An egg yolk – It makes the cookies extra-soft and chewy.
- Baking soda – It helps the cookies rise.
- Floor ginger, cinnamon, and cloves – They provide these gingerbread cookies their signature spice.
- Vanilla extract – For heat depth of taste.
- Almond milk – For moisture. Another milk, akin to cow’s milk or oat milk, would work right here too.
- And sea salt – To make all of the flavors pop!
Discover the entire recipe with measurements beneath.
Tips on how to Make Gingerbread Cookies
When you’ve assembled your elements (is your butter at room temperature?), this gingerbread cookie recipe is easy to make:
First, make the dough. Utilizing an electrical mixer or a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and brown sugar collectively till mild and fluffy. Combine within the molasses, egg yolk, and vanilla.
In a separate bowl, whisk collectively the dry elements–the flour, spices, baking soda, and salt. Regularly add the dry elements to the moist combination, mixing after every addition. Lastly, combine within the almond milk.
Then, chill the dough. Divide it into two equal disks, wrap it tightly in plastic wrap, and refrigerate it for at the very least 2 hours. Chilling the dough permits it to agency up, making it simpler to roll out.
Subsequent, roll out the dough. Use a rolling pin to roll out the primary disk on a evenly floured floor till it’s 1/4-inch thick. Use cookie cutters to chop out your required shapes (I all the time do gingerbread males and snowflakes!). Re-roll and minimize out the dough scraps as crucial. Repeat with the remaining dough disk.
Lastly, bake the cookies. Prepare the cut-outs on parchment-lined baking sheets, and bake in a 350°F oven till the sides are simply set however the middles are nonetheless tender. I wish to bake one sheet at time on the middle oven rack in order that the cookies bake evenly. Allow them to cool for five minutes on the baking sheet earlier than transferring them to wire racks to chill fully.
Adorn, or take pleasure in as they’re!
Gingerbread Cookies Recipe Ideas
- Don’t skimp on the chilling time. I’m normally all for not chilling cookie dough (you get to eat the cookies quicker that means!), however on this recipe, it’s 100% crucial. The dough is tender and sticky whenever you first combine it collectively. Chilling it for at the very least 2 hours provides it an opportunity to agency up so as to simply roll it out. The cut-outs additionally maintain their form higher when baked.
- The timing will rely in your cookie cutters. In another way sized and formed cookies bake at completely different charges! For an ideal tender texture, I sometimes bake a 3-inch gingerbread man for 8 minutes. When you have smaller cut-outs, you’ll seemingly must bake your cookies much less. When you have bigger cut-outs, you would possibly must go a bit longer.
- Adorning is half the enjoyable. As scrumptious as these tender gingerbread cookies are plain, they’re even tastier (and extra festive!) with icing on high. For detailed strains and patterns like those in these photos, use the royal icing recipe from this publish. For an easier glaze, stir collectively 1 cup powdered sugar and a couple of tablespoons almond milk, including extra milk as wanted to succeed in your required consistency. Sprinkles, gumdrops, and different candies are enjoyable decorations too!
Make-Forward and Freezing Directions
Make-ahead choice 1: Make the gingerbread cookie dough forward of time! Wrap it in plastic wrap and refrigerate for as much as 2 days, or freeze it for as much as 3 months. Enable frozen dough to thaw in a single day within the fridge earlier than rolling it out.
Make-ahead choice 2: Make the cookies forward! Gingerbread cookies hold nicely in an hermetic container at room temperature for as much as 5 days. (I really like them finest on day 2 or 3! They grow to be even softer and chewier, and their spiced taste deepens.)
These cookies additionally freeze nicely. Sealed in a freezer bag or container, they hold for as much as 3 months. They thaw completely at room temperature.
Extra Favourite Christmas Cookies
Should you love these gingerbread cookies, attempt one among these festive cookie recipes subsequent:
Gingerbread Cookies
Serves 24
Our BEST gingerbread cookie recipe! These festive treats are tender, warmly spiced, and stuffed with scrumptious molasses taste. Adorn with icing (see the guidelines within the publish above for recipes), or take pleasure in plain.
- ½ cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
- ⅔ cup packed darkish brown sugar
- ⅓ cup unsulphured blackstrap molasses, we just like the Healthful model
- 1 giant egg yolk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2¼ cups all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- 2 teaspoons floor ginger
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon superb sea salt
- ¼ teaspoon floor cloves
- 1 tablespoon almond milk, or any milk
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Within the bowl of a stand mixer, or utilizing an electrical mixer, cream the butter and brown sugar. Add the molasses, egg yolk, and vanilla and blend once more.
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In a medium bowl, whisk collectively the flour, cinnamon, ginger, baking soda, salt, and cloves. Regularly add the dry elements to the moist elements, mixing after every addition. Combine within the almond milk.
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Kind the dough right into a ball, divide the ball in half, and flatten every half right into a 1-inch-thick disk. Wrap in plastic and chill for at the very least 2 hours.
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Preheat the oven to 350°F and line two giant baking sheets with parchment paper.
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Roll out the dough on a evenly floured floor till about ¼-inch thick. Use cookie cutters to chop out desired shapes, then switch the cut-outs to the ready baking sheets, re-rolling the dough scraps as crucial.
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Bake, one sheet at a time, for 7 to 9 minutes, or till the sides of the cookies are simply set however the middles are nonetheless tender. The cookies might sound underdone, however taking them out at this level will make sure that they keep tender as soon as they cool. I sometimes use a 3-inch cookie cutter and bake my cookies for 8 minutes. The precise timing will rely in your oven, the scale of your cookie cutters, and the way tender or crunchy you want your gingerbread cookies.
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Let cool on the baking sheet for five minutes earlier than transferring to a wire rack to chill fully. Adorn as desired.
