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Soft and chewy Gingerbread Cookies recipe made with a simple gingerbread recipe and decorated however you like! Everyone loves this classic recipe and they taste delicious!
Looking for more holiday treats? Don't miss our Ginger Molasses Cookies, Caramel Popcorn, or Chocolate Fudge! And don't miss my Christmas Dinner Menu Ideas!
When I was young, we often decorated the “kids” Christmas tree with gingerbread cookies and it made the house smell amazing. This is the BEST recipe for soft, chewy gingerbread cookies.
What I LOVE about them:
- Soft and Chewy: Gingerbread cookies have a reputation for being hard and crispy, but not this recipe! Follow my baking tips and they will turn out perfectly soft and chewy.
- Make Ahead or Freeze: You can prepare the chewy gingerbread cookies or dough in advance. See tips below in the post.
- Fun to Decorate: Kids of all ages love decorating Christmas gingerbread man cookies so plan it for your next Christmas party! You can make the soft gingerbread cookies and frosting ahead of time so that the kids can just enjoy decorating.
How to make Gingerbread Cookies:
Gingerbread is made with the following simple ingredients: brown sugar, flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, salt, butter, milk, and molasses!
Make the Gingerbread: Mix flour, brown sugar, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and salt in a large mixing bowl. Add chunks of butter and incorporate them with a pastry blender until the mixture resembles fine crumbs. Mix in the molasses and milk until combined.
Refrigerate: Cover the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate it for 2 hours or overnight.
Roll the Dough: When ready to bake, roll out the dough to ½ inch thickness, use cookie cutters to cut gingerbread men, and place them on your cookie sheet. Bake them for about 10 minutes at 350 degrees F. Once cool, frost and decorate, if desired! You can use any kind of frosting or icing, and candy. It really is the best gingerbread cookies recipe!
Make Ahead And Freezing Instructions:
To Make Ahead: Make the gingerbread and store it, well covered, in the refrigerator for 3-4 days. Roll out and cut into cookies when ready to bake. You can also bake the cookies and freeze them.
To Freeze: wrap the dough really well in plastic wrap and place in a freezer safe bag. Freeze for 2-3 months. Allow the dough to thaw overnight in the refrigerator before attempting to roll. Baked cookies can also be frozen for up to 3 months.
For more holiday magic, try roasting chestnuts!
Gingerbread Man Cookies
Equipment
- Stand Mixer optional
Ingredients
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 3/4 cup dark brown sugar, , packed
- 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 Tablespoon ground cinnamon
- 1 Tablespoon ground ginger
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 12 Tablespoons butter, , room temperature, cut into 12 pieces
- 3/4 cup molasses, (dark molasses)
- 2 Tablespoons milk
For the frosting:
- 2 Tablespoons butter, , room temperature
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 2 Tablespoons milk
Instructions
- Add flour, brown sugar, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, cloves and salt to a mixing bowl and mix.3 cups all-purpose flour, ¾ cup dark brown sugar, ¾ teaspoon baking soda, 1 Tablespoon ground cinnamon, 1 Tablespoon ground ginger, ½ teaspoon ground cloves, ½ teaspoon salt
- Add the butter pieces and use a pastry blender to cut the butter in until the mixture resembles fine meal.12 Tablespoons butter
- With a mixer running on low speed gradually add the molasses and milk and mix until combined, about 30 seconds.¾ cup molasses, 2 Tablespoons milk
- Divide the dough in half, forming each into a ball. Wrap each in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 2 hours or overnight, or place in the freezer for about 20 minutes, until firm, if you’re in a hurry. (Refrigeration is mandatory or the dough will be too sticky to handle).
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Remove one dough sheet from the fridge/freezer and place on a well floured counter. Lightly flour the top of the dough and the rolling pin and roll out the dough (dust with a little more flour if needed), until it’s about ½ inch thick. Cut gingerbread men and place them on prepared baking sheets.
- Refrigerate the gingerbread men for 5 minutes (meanwhile you can roll out the other dough ball).
- Bake the cookies until set in the centers and the dough barely retains and imprint when touched very gently with fingertip, 8 to 11 minutes (depending on the size of your cookie cutter). Do not overbake!!
- Remove the cookies to a wire rack. Allow to cool to room temperature before frosting.
- Store gingerbread cookies in an airtight container with parchment paper between the layers. Freeze for up to 3 months.
For the frosting:
- Add butter, milk, and 1 cup of powdered sugar to a bowl. Mix until smooth. Add additional cup of powdered sugar and mix until smooth. Add frosting to piping bag if desired.2 Tablespoons butter, 2 cups powdered sugar, 2 Tablespoons milk
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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I originally shared this recipe December 2018. Updated December 2020 and November 2022.
Process photos by Nikole from The Travel Palate
This is my second year making this recipe and it is a winner. The softest and best tasting gingerbread cookies.
horrible. the molasses took over the whole cookie, i felt nauseous making them. Save your time, energy and ingredients and choose a different recipe. if i could give this a zero i would. Horrible.
I agree! I was so disappointed with this recipe. The amount of molasses gives these cookies an unpleasant, overpowering flavor and the kick of spice at the end just burns your mouth. No one in my family liked them!
I don’t know how this recipe get the stars it does. I ended up throwing my out. I couldn’t even roll them out. And yes I had them in the fridge for over 8 hours. I tried adding flour and an egg to see it that would help, nope. Don’t recommend this recipe.
Honestly a great easy recipe for my first attempt at gingerbread! I did trust my gut and added an egg as it seemed odd not to have one, and I’m glad that I did. Otherwise, I followed the recipe completely and thought it was great. Dough is a bit crumbly but once it was worked in a bit I found it very easy to roll out and cut. Baked evenly and turned out great! Perfectly chewy and crisp on the edges. Would make again 🙂
I followed the recipe exactly (weighed ingredients per metric measurements) and they were phenomenal! The only note I have is that I made one batch and chilled the dough (plastic wrapped in tupperware) for 48 hours, and made a 2nd batch where I chilled the dough only 2 hours. The cookies made from the 48 hour dough were soooo much chewier and softer, which I enjoyed more than the crunchier 2 hour cookies.
How does this recipe have good reviews??
Way too much molasses! Tastes awful and the cookies don’t hold their shape during cooking. Waste of ingredients and so disappointing.
Hi Justine, yes, gingerbread cookies will have a strong molasses flavor. I’d recommend a different Christmas cookie recipe if you don’t like that strong flavor.
I left in refrigerator overnight. Got the dough out and it is dry as a bone followed the recipe wrapped in plastic wrap could not even roll out. Garbage it went will try another recipe. Maybe leaving overnight was the downfall
Gingerbread cookies are meant to taste like spices and sweet, not like you’d be spooning molasses put pf a jar. This reply actually annoyed me so much, own up for your disgusting recipe.
I’m sorry Isa, but this recipe has been beloved by my family for over 3 generations, so I’ll only own up to it being a really special, delicious recipe that we all love and make every year. There are so many different variations of this type of recipe though, so you are welcome to share you own on your own website :-).
I agree! I was so disappointed with this recipe. The amount of molasses gives these cookies an unpleasant, overpowering flavor and the kick of spice at the end just burns your mouth. No one in my family liked them!
The recipe is very simple and great for the holidays. I added a little ground pepper and maple extract to kick it up a bit. The dough is SUPER sticky, so be prepared to use copious amounts of flour. It worked so much better when I rolled individual dough balls and cut each cookie separately too. It’s way too sticky to do it otherwise. They turned out perfectly chewy and everyone loved them!
Kind of shocked by all the positive reviews! I followed the recipe exactly without thinking too much due to the high rating. Only when we took the dough out from being chilled did I notice that a) it was unworkably sticky due to the very high molasses ratio compared to other gingerbread cookie recipes and b) it had no egg! We tried to cut cookies anyways but the dough was just too sticky. We threw it back in the blender to try and backwards work it based on other recipes I’ve used in the past. Definitely skip this one unless you are confident adjusting ratios based on prior experience. And for goodness’ sakes, add an egg and vanilla!
Hi Caitlin, I’m having trouble understanding why you put the dough in a blender? You will need to use flour when rolling it out.
Why were these so STICKY?? My daughter and I were unable to cut out any shapes. We followed the written recipe exactly. Dough was wayyy too wet.
This didn’t work for me at all. My dough is so much darker and stickier than in the video. Had to use very small cutters as anything big like a gingerbread man would stick/tear but still took longer to cook to avoid being raw. The clove is very overpowering. Not my favourite, my kids don’t like it as quite cakey and a bit bitter from the molasses and cloves (followed metric recipe exactly)