Gingerbread Cookie Recipe – Love and Lemons

Our best gingerbread cookie recipe! These festive treats are sweet and warmly spiced, with a rich molasses flavor. Perfect for spreading holiday cheer!

What’s more festive than gingerbread cookies?! With Christmas just a few weeks away, I’m ready to pump up some holiday cheer around here, and making this gingerbread cookie recipe seems like a great place to start. On the one hand, it makes the house smell amazingfilling it with the comforting aroma of cinnamon, ginger and cloves. It’s also a pleasure to make: roll out the dough, cut out gingerbread men, bake them and decorate them once cooled.

But more importantly than all that, these gingerbread cookies are delicious! They’re sweet, warmly spiced, and richly flavored with molasses and brown sugar. For me, it’s the perfect holiday treat, especially with a cup of hot chocolate to drink. I hope you like them too.

Gingerbread Cookie Recipe Ingredients

Here’s what you’ll need to make this gingerbread cookie recipe:

• All-purpose flour – Pour it and level it to avoid putting too much in your measuring cup.
• Unsalted butter – Let it come to room temperature before starting cooking.
• Brown sugar and molasses – They sweeten cookies and add a rich molasses flavor. We successfully made these cookies using Wholesome and Brer Rabbit Molasses.
• An egg yolk – This makes the cookies extra soft and chewy.
• Baking soda – This helps the cookies rise.
• Ground ginger, cinnamon and cloves – They give these gingerbread cookies their characteristic spice.
• Vanilla extract – For a warm, deep flavor.
• Milk – For humidity. Any genre you like! I have had great results with regular milk, almond milk, and oat milk.
• And sea salt – To bring out all the flavors!

Find the complete recipe with measurements below.

How to make gingerbread cookies

Once you’ve assembled your ingredients (is your butter at room temperature?), this gingerbread cookie recipe is simple to make:

First, prepare the dough. Using an electric mixer or stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the butter and brown sugar until the mixture is light and fluffy. Stir in the molasses, egg yolk and vanilla.

In another bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients: flour, spices, baking soda and salt. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture, mixing after each addition. Finally, add the milk.

Then cool the dough. Divide it into two equal disks, wrap it tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate it for at least 2 hours. Cooling the dough allows it to firm up and make it easier to roll out.

Then roll out the dough. Use a rolling pin to roll out the first disk on a lightly floured surface until it is 1/4 inch thick. Use cookie cutters to cut out the desired shapes (I always make gingerbread men and snowflakes!). Reroll and cut off any scraps of dough if necessary. Repeat with the remaining disk of dough.

Finally, bake the cookies. Arrange the cutouts on parchment-lined baking sheets and bake at 350°F until the edges are just set but the middle is still soft. I like to bake one sheet at a time on the center rack of the oven so the cookies bake evenly. Let them cool for 5 minutes on the baking sheet before transferring them to wire racks to cool completely.

Decorate or eat as is!

Gingerbread Cookie Recipe Tips

• Don’t skimp on cooling time. I’m generally all for not chill the cookie dough (so you can eat the cookies faster!), but in this recipe it’s 100% necessary. The dough is soft and sticky when you first mix it. Chilling it for at least 2 hours gives it a chance to firm up so you can easily spread it. The cuts also retain their shape better when cooking.
• The timing will depend on your cookie cutters. Cookies of different sizes and shapes bake at different rates! For the perfect soft texture, I usually bake a 3-inch gingerbread man for 8 minutes. If you have smaller cutouts, you will probably need to bake your cookies less. If you have larger cutouts, you may need to go a little longer.
• Decorating is half the fun. As delicious as these chewy gingerbread cookies are plain, they’re even tastier (and more festive!) with frosting on top. For detailed lines and designs like those in these images, use the royal icing recipe in this article. For a simpler frosting, mix 1 cup powdered sugar and 2 tablespoons milk, adding more milk if necessary to reach desired consistency. Sprinkles, gumballs, and other candies also make fun decorations!

More Favorite Christmas Cookies

If you love these gingerbread cookies, then try one of these festive cookie recipes:

Gingerbread cookies

Preparation time: 22 minutes minutes

Cooking time: 8 minutes minutes

Cooling time: 2 hours hours

Total duration: 2 hours hours 30 minutes minutes

Serves 24

Our BEST gingerbread cookie recipe! These festive treats are sweet, warmly spiced and full of delicious molasses flavor. Decorate with icing (see tips in the article above for recipes), or enjoy plain.

Cooking methodStop your screen from going dark

• In the bowl of a stand mixer or using an electric mixer, cream the butter and brown sugar. Add the molasses, egg yolk and vanilla and mix again.

• In a medium bowl, combine flour, cinnamon, ginger, baking soda, salt and cloves. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, mixing after each addition. Add the milk.

• Form the dough into a ball, divide it in half, and flatten each half into a 1-inch-thick disk. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

• Preheat the oven to 350°F and line two large baking sheets with parchment paper.

• Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface until about ¼ inch thick. Use cookie cutters to cut out the desired shapes, then transfer the cutouts to the prepared baking sheets, re-rolling any scraps of dough if necessary.

• Bake, one sheet at a time, for 7 to 9 minutes, or until the edges of the cookies are just set but the middle is still soft. The cookies may seem undercooked, but removing them at this point will ensure they stay soft once cooled. I usually use a 3 inch cookie cutter and bake my cookies for 8 minutes. The exact timing will depend on your oven, the size of your cookie cutters, and how soft or crunchy your gingerbread cookies are.

• Let cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. Decorate as desired.

Nutrition Facts

Gingerbread cookies

Amount per serving

Calories 118
Calories from fat 36

% daily value*

Fat 4g6%

3g saturated fat19%

Trans fat 0.2 g

Polyunsaturated fat 0.2 g

Monounsaturated fat 1g

Cholesterol 18 mg6%

Sodium 99 mg4%

Potassium 95 mg3%

Carbohydrates 19g6%

0.4g fiber2%

Sugar 10g11%

Protein 1g2%

Vitamin A 131 IU3%

Vitamin C 0.01 mg0%

Calcium 21mg2%

Iron 1mg6%

*Percent Daily Values ​​are based on a 2,000 calorie diet.