This classic gingerbread cookie recipe is soft and delicious. While I love crisp gingerbread for a gingerbread house, my preference for cookies is soft and chewy.
This recipe delivers perfect dough for cutout shapes (similar to sugar cookies) with all the cinnamon and spice flavor you love from gingerbread.
Gingerbread cookies are my husband’s favorite cookie, and I make this recipe multiple times each holiday season. I hope you enjoy it as much as we do!
Related recipes: Snowball Cookies, Pinwheel Cookies, Peanut Butter Blossoms.
Gingerbread Cookie Ingredients:
- 1 cup (2 sticks) salted butter, room temperature
- 1 cup granulated white sugar
- 1 egg
- 2 tablespoons white vinegar
- 1 cup dark molasses
- 5 cups all purpose flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons ground ginger
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
- 1 teaspoon ground cloves
How to Make Gingerbread Cookies:
- Mix the flour, baking soda, salt and all spices. Set mixture aside.
- In your stand mixer bowl, combine butter and sugar and beat until mixture is fully combined—about 3 minutes. Scrape down sides if needed.
- Slowly add the molasses, egg and vinegar until fully combined. It’s normal for the mixture to appear curdled.
- Add the flour mixture slowly, scraping sides as needed. Be sure the bottom and top of your bowl are both fully combined. If the dough is crumbly, it is not fully mixed.
- Divide the dough into 3-5 flattened balls and cover in plastic wrap.
- Chill the dough for at least 30 minutes before rolling. Chilling is an essential step to create cutout shapes with nice edges. If you skip this step, your cookies may lose some shape while baking.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Roll dough using as small amount of flour as necessary. I use parchment paper to roll if my dough is sticky at all. Dough should be about half an inch thick for a nice, soft cookie.
- Place cutout shapes on a parchment lined baking sheet. Gather and re-roll shapes as needed. You do not need to chill your dough again unless it becomes very soft.
- Bake cookies at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. Allow cookies to cool on pan for 5 minutes before transferring.
- Decorate your cookies as you like. I used this royal icing recipe. We also have a vegan royal icing recipe.
Tips for Making Gingerbread Cookies:
- If you prefer crispy gingerbread, simply roll the dough thinner (1/4 inch) and bake for 12 minutes instead of 10.
- You can use light or dark molasses, but do not use blackstrap or cooking molasses or your cookies will be bitter. I used the brand Grandma’s Original Molasses, which is easy to find in the U.S.
- Here’s a link to Christmas cookie cutters I used.
More Holiday Recipes:
Other recipes you may like:
FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
How long can you keep the dough refrigerated?
While the minimum time to chilling your dough is 30 minutes, there really is no maximum. You can keep your dough in the fridge for up to 3 days with no issues.
Can you freeze this dough?
Yes. This recipe makes a lot of dough, so if you aren’t able to use it within two to three days, freeze it for a future cookie session.
P.S. Love this post? Check out my Gingerbread House Decorating Party.
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Ingredients
- 1 cup salted butter (room temperature)
- 1 cup granulated white sugar
- 1 egg
- 2 tablespoons white vinegar
- 1 cup dark molasses
- 5 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons ginger
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
- 1 teaspoon cloves
Instructions
- Mix the flour, baking soda, salt and all spices. Set mixture aside.
- In your stand mixer bowl, combine butter and sugar and beat until mixture is fully combined, about 3 minutes. Scrape down sides if needed.
- Slowly add molasses, egg and vinegar until fully combined. It’s normal for the mixture to appear curdled.
- Add flour mixture slowly, scraping sides as needed. Be sure the bottom and top of your bowl are both fully combined. If the dough is crumbly, it is not fully mixed.
- Divide the dough into 3-5 flattened balls and cover in plastic wrap.
- Chill the dough for at least 30 minutes before rolling. Chilling is an essential step to create cutout shapes with nice edges. If you skip this step your cookies may lose some shape while baking.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Roll dough using as small amount of flour as necessary. I use parchment paper to roll if my dough is sticky at all. Dough should be about half an inch thick for a nice, soft cookie.
- Place cutout shapes on a parchment lined baking sheet. Gather and re-roll shapes as needed. You do not need to chill your dough again unless it becomes very soft.
- Bake cookies at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. Allow cookies to cool on pan for 5 minutes before transferring.
- Decorate your cookies as you like. I used this royal icing recipe. We also have a vegan royal icing recipe.
Nutrition
Notice: Nutrition is auto-calculated, using Spoonacular, for your convenience. Where relevant, we recommend using your own nutrition calculations.
Let me start with, I don’t actually enjoy baking…but I do enjoy making holiday memories with my kids. If I’m going to make a cookie it better be one I am going to enjoy and these. were. It. My 3 yearl old loved rolling the dough and my 4year old loves using all the cookie cutters. They came out great and were a big hit at our Christmas eve party.
So happy to hear it! :))
I made these today, they were incredible! Just the right blend of soft and chewy. They definitely hold their shape better when chilled. I did 4 sheets and my technique really improved by the end.
Yum – these are delicious! Chewy and the perfect flavor.
These are my first ever batch of gingerbread cookies and they baked up so well! Both Martha Stewart and Smitten Kitchen seemed too spicy for my family and the flavor on this recipe was delicious and hit the right note: not too intense, or mild.
Salted butter for sure? I normally see unsalted for baking, so salted with more salt added seems unusual.
Yes! I always write my cookie recipes with salted butter so I don’t have to buy unsalted butter :)) I promise the recipe works- I just used it this weekend! xx
Baked these today and they are delicious! Well balanced and not too much salt at all. Thank you!
I just made these gingerbread cookies for a cookie decorating party and they were a big hit! They were easy to make (especially with a stand mixer) and also delicious. The only tricky part for me was transferring the dough once I used the cookie cutter from the counter parchment to the pan. (I think I should have chilled/frozen the dough longer as Elsie suggests.) However, it wasn’t too big of a deal and they held up well to the decorating, so these are the ONLY gingerbread I’m going to make from now on. Thanks, Elsie!
Thank you so much!!! So happy you’re enjoying the recipe!
These cookies are so delicious! Baked them with my kiddos and we all had a blast. Yum!
My three-year-old asked to make “gingerbread girls” this year, and while I am an avid baker, I’ve never made gingerbread cookies. I was so excited to see this recipe pop up! It is so easy and so delicious. I think we are now definitely going to be a gingerbread cookie family! This one’s going in the family recipe box. Thank you!
This was a really easy recipe to whip up with my 8-year-old. My 3-year-old is now helping me roll out the dough and cut out the shapes. We’ve all had a blast and love the taste. Can’t wait to try the royal icing recipe next so we can decorate them!
I want to learn how to work with royal icing AND I want to add this cookie to my Christmas cookie box. Do you think this recipe would work with royal icing? I was thinking Garden Gnomes.
Thank you so much!!! 🙂
These are indeed the perfect gingerbread cookies! I made them with my 3 year old and we had so much fun. The recipe is easy, instructions are clear and the dough is VERY easy to work with. Cutouts held their shape and they are nice and chewy but still dense enough to hold up to a toddler’s aggressive decoration techniques. 🙂
I live at high altitude (9000 ft), made no changes to the recipe and they turned out perfectly.
The flavor is classic gingerbread; my daughter prefers them with plenty of icing to take the edge off the molasses flavor, but I love them as-is (preferably with a cup of coffee)!
Easy and fun to do with my little ones!
Best gingerbread cookie recipe!