This post contains affiliate links.
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.
Text me new recipe ideas!
Simple, tasty ideas sent once a week. No spam.
Follow Me
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.
These cookies turned out great, plus had amazing flavor. They got easier to work with the second time under the rolling pin. The dough was easy to work with and the results nicely gingerbready. We plan to make them again.
I’ve made these every year during the holiday season for the last 3 years. Who ever said they taste bad I would like to respectfully disagree with. I’ve gotten nothing but compliments from very real people and they are all gone super quickly.
I get experimental and have variously sized star and/or snowflake cookie cutters. Next year I plan to bake all the similar sizes together, as I over did it a little on the smaller ones. I’ve not found an attractive way to use the frosting, but they taste so great! Maybe one day I will get them to look attractive too.
Too much molasses! Way too much! The dough was too sticky to work with even after chilling for 3 hours and the resulting cookies tasted awful and looked like blobs of bubbling sugar. Had to put the whole lot in the bin, what a waste! I tried another recipe with only 80g of molasses and they turned out great.
Amazing recipe! I used Lau’s tip “modified the making- I beat the butter, molasses, milk and sugar together for 2 minutes. Then integrated the dry ingredients.” Super easy
The best gingerbread cookie recipe I have ever made!
i make these every year! delicious on their own, we usually only frost a third of them. I do refrigerate them closer to 10 minutes after I cut them because we do have some Star Wars cookie cutters that have a lot of detail and that way they hold the imprint better.
hi there,
so this recipe was fine to make, the methods and everything worked out okay – no big deal… but for real, they taste like diesel. i feel like i could crush them up, put them in my gas tank and get better fuel economy out of them than actual petroleum. please take it down.
i’m quite certain that your “5 star” average rating is accumulated from old people whose tastebuds have decayed to the point where they can only taste things that are super intensely flavoured.
if my taste buds had been around since world war 2, or maybe if i had been smoking 3 cigars a day since 1990, i’m sure they’d be delicious to my otherwise complete inability to taste things.
please. take this recipe down or at least make your average rating reflect actual people who have actually made them who actually have tastebuds.
thanks so much!
Perfect recipe
They taste incredible and they’re the perfect chewy texture. I followed the recipe exactly and have been a professional baker in the past. All my batches spread and sank down flat, which has never happened. Tried a second and third time with extra chilling and double checking the butter. Same result. Didn’t work for me for classically thick gingerbread cookies to decorate, but again, they taste so good.
no idea what went wrong but i followed the recipe to a T and the dough was extremely crumbly and dry so i had to readjust and add a bit more butter 🙁