Our greatest gingerbread cookie recipe! These festive treats are smooth and warmly spiced, with a wealthy molasses taste. Excellent for spreading vacation cheer!
What may very well be extra festive than gingerbread cookies?! With Christmas just some weeks away, I’m prepared to show up the vacation cheer round right here, and making this gingerbread cookie recipe looks like a terrific place to begin. For one, it makes the home scent superb, filling it with the comforting aroma of cinnamon, ginger, and cloves. It’s additionally a blast to make—rolling out the dough, slicing out gingerbread folks, baking them, and adorning them as soon as they cool.
However extra vital than all of that, these gingerbread cookies are scrumptious! They’re smooth, warmly spiced, and richly flavored with molasses and brown sugar. To me, they’re the right vacation deal with, particularly with a mug of sizzling chocolate to drink. I hope you’re keen on them too.
Gingerbread Cookie Recipe Substances
Right here’s what you’ll must make this gingerbread cookie recipe:
All-purpose flour – Spoon and stage it to keep away from packing an excessive amount of into your measuring cup.
Unsalted butter – Enable it to come back to room temperature earlier than you begin to bake.
Brown sugar and molasses – They sweeten the cookies and add wealthy molasses taste. We’ve had success baking these cookies with Healthful and Brer Rabbit blackstrap molasses.
An egg yolk – It makes the cookies extra-soft and chewy.
Baking soda – It helps the cookies rise.
Floor ginger, cinnamon, and cloves – They offer these gingerbread cookies their signature spice.
Vanilla extract – For heat depth of taste.
Milk – For moisture. Any sort you want! I’ve had nice outcomes with common milk, almond milk, and oat milk.
And sea salt – To make all of the flavors pop!
Discover the entire recipe with measurements under.
Find out how to Make Gingerbread Cookies
When you’ve assembled your substances (is your butter at room temperature?), this gingerbread cookie recipe is straightforward to make:
First, make the dough. Utilizing an electrical mixer or a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and brown sugar collectively till gentle and fluffy. Combine within the molasses, egg yolk, and vanilla.
In a separate bowl, whisk collectively the dry substances–the flour, spices, baking soda, and salt. Progressively add the dry substances to the moist combination, mixing after every addition. Lastly, combine within the milk.
Then, chill the dough. Divide it into two equal disks, wrap it tightly in plastic wrap, and refrigerate it for no less than 2 hours. Chilling the dough permits it to agency up, making it simpler to roll out.
Subsequent, roll out the dough. Use a rolling pin to roll out the primary disk on a flippantly floured floor till it’s 1/4-inch thick. Use cookie cutters to chop out your required shapes (I all the time do gingerbread males and snowflakes!). Re-roll and minimize out the dough scraps as mandatory. Repeat with the remaining dough disk.
Lastly, bake the cookies. Organize the cut-outs on parchment-lined baking sheets, and bake in a 350°F oven till the perimeters are simply set however the middles are nonetheless smooth. I prefer to bake one sheet at time on the middle oven rack in order that the cookies bake evenly. Allow them to cool for five minutes on the baking sheet earlier than transferring them to wire racks to chill utterly.
Embellish, or get pleasure from as they’re!
Gingerbread Cookies Recipe Ideas
Don’t skimp on the chilling time. I’m often all for not chilling cookie dough (you get to eat the cookies sooner that approach!), however on this recipe, it’s 100% mandatory. The dough is smooth and sticky while you first combine it collectively. Chilling it for no less than 2 hours provides it an opportunity to agency up in an effort to simply roll it out. The cut-outs additionally maintain their form higher when baked.
The timing will rely in your cookie cutters. In another way sized and formed cookies bake at totally different charges! For an ideal smooth texture, I sometimes bake a 3-inch gingerbread man for 8 minutes. When you have smaller cut-outs, you’ll doubtless must bake your cookies much less. When you have bigger cut-outs, you may must go a bit longer.
Adorning is half the enjoyable. As scrumptious as these smooth gingerbread cookies are plain, they’re even tastier (and extra festive!) with icing on prime. For detailed traces and patterns like those in these photos, use the royal icing recipe from this publish. For an easier glaze, stir collectively 1 cup powdered sugar and a pair of tablespoons milk, including extra milk as wanted to succeed in your required consistency. Sprinkles, gumdrops, and different candies are enjoyable decorations too!
Make-Forward and Freezing Directions
Make-ahead choice 1: Make the gingerbread cookie dough forward of time! Wrap it in plastic wrap and refrigerate for as much as 2 days, or freeze it for as much as 3 months. Enable frozen dough to thaw in a single day within the fridge earlier than rolling it out.
Make-ahead choice 2: Make the cookies forward! Gingerbread cookies hold properly in an hermetic container at room temperature for as much as 5 days. (I truly like them finest on day 2 or 3! They change into even softer and chewier, and their spiced taste deepens.)
These cookies additionally freeze properly. Sealed in a freezer bag or container, they hold for as much as 3 months. They thaw completely at room temperature.
Extra Favourite Christmas Cookies
If you happen to love these gingerbread cookies, attempt one in all these festive cookie recipes subsequent:
Gingerbread Cookies
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