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Gingerbread Cookies

Step 1: Gather the ingredients

Several ingredients in glass bowls on top of a wooden table.

In order to make these Christmastime favorite homemade gingerbread cookies you will need the following ingredients:

  • Flour – Use all-purpose/plain flour.
  • Baking powder
  • Baking soda
  • Salt
  • Ground ginger – You can’t have gingerbread cookies without the ground ginger.
  • Cinnamon
  • Cloves
  • Butter
  • Dark brown sugar
  • Egg
  • Molasses – Or you can substitute with maple syrup instead.
  • Vanilla extract

How to make gingerbread cookies at home

Large glass bowl filled with gingerbread cookies wet ingredients.

Begin baking taking a large bowl and adding the softened room temp butter and the dark brown sugar to it. Use a stand mixer or hand mixer and mix until well combined. Creaming the butter and the sugar first is very common when making cookies.

Now add in the vanilla extract and egg into the bowl and mix again until well combined.

Finally add in the molasses or maple syrup if you choose to use that instead and mix until combined. Scrape the sides of the bowl with a spatula as needed to make sure everything gets mixed properly.

Flour being pour into a bowl of gingerbread cookie dough.

In a separate medium bowl whisk together the flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda, ground ginger, ground cinnamon, and ground cloves. You can also use a sifter too if you want and sift them all together.

Mix in the flour mixture to the main bowl a little at a time. If using a hand mixer, you will need to switch to a wooden spoon or your hands at some point because it will be too thick. Or you can use a stand mixer with a paddle attachment and it should be fine the whole time.

Pour the dough out onto a countertop or table. Knead the dough for a few seconds to make sure everything comes together. Divide the dough into half and then shape it into a fat disc.

Gingerbread cookie dough in a fat disc covered in plastic wrap on a wooden table.

Do the same thing with the other half of dough. The reason why I divide the dough in half is because it makes it easier to roll out later.

Wrap the dough tightly in plastic wrap and then place it in the fridge to chill for at least 2 hours or even over night.

Step 4: How to bake gingerbread cookies

Rolled out gingerbread cookie dough on a table with a gingerbread man cookie cutter

Preheat the oven to 375 ℉/190 ℃. With the rack in the middle position.

Remove the dough from the fridge and then cut each disc in half again, so you will wind up with 4 separate chunks of gingerbread cookie dough. Again, this just makes it easier to roll out.

Place the dough on a floured work surface and roll out the dough with a rolling pin until it is about 1/4th of an inch thick, or a bit thinner if you want. Or you can make them a bit thicker too, especially if you want them to be softer.

Now use your favorite cookie cutters and cut out the gingerbread cookies. Place them on a sheet pan lined with parchment paper or a silicone mat.

8 gingerbread men on a sheet pan lined with a silicone mat.

The cookies won’t spread a whole lot if any, but I usually still space them out a little bit. Make sure to ball up the cookie dough scraps and then roll them out again.

Bake the cookies, one rack at a time, for 7 to 10 minutes. Start with 7 minutes and go from there. If you want them crunchy you will wind up baking them a little longer.

It is always a good idea to start with just a few cookies at first so you can get the time down, before baking a ton of cookies.

8 freshly baked homemade gingerbread cookies on a sheet pan lined with a silicone mat.

Once the come out of the oven they won’t be really dark in color just slightly more brown then before they were baked. Allow them to cool for just a few minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely. They will keep cooking on the pan, so remove them sooner if you want the cookies to be softer.

Step 5: How to decorate gingerbread cookies

several decorated gingerbread men cookies on a white cake pedestal.

Time to decorate those awesome gingerbread cookies. There are several ways you can decorate them. And of course you can leave them plain and not decorate them at all.

Take a piping bag and add a round tip to it. Then fill it with white frosting. Pipe on the eyes and mouth and any other designs. Then you can place on red hots, sprinkles, etc.

You can use store-bought or a homemade frosting, it is totally up to you. Typically a nice royal icing is used. But you can use a homemade buttercream frosting as well.

Time to eat them! You can eat them as is, or dip them in some milk or hot chocolate, however you like them. Enjoy!

source: Megan

attribution: In the Kitchen With Matt