For these cookies, you’re going to need an egg yolk, butter, sugar, molasses, flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, and nutmeg.
Cream butter and sugar. Add molasses and egg yolk. In a medium bowl, combine remaining ingredients. Add flour mixture to butter mixture. Chill for at least an hour. It’s a fairly sticky dough so you might need to chill it a little longer.
Place the dough on a sheet of wax paper or plastic wrap
and then place another sheet on top.
roll dough to 1/4″ thick
and chill for 1 hour.
Preheat oven to 350. Remove the dough from the refrigerator and cut in desired shapes with cookie cutters.
Place cookies 2″ apart on a baking sheet. Bake 8-10 minutes. If you bake them on the short end they will stay soft and chewy and if you bake them on the longer end they will be nice and crispy. They’re great either way!
Allow to cool about 5 minutes on pan and then transfer to wire rack and cool completely. Once they’re cooled you can decorate your heart out. Glace icing would be fun on these little guys.
Gingerbread Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 c. butter
- 1 c. sugar
- 1 c. molasses
- 2 egg yolks
- 4 c. flour
- 1 tsp. salt
- 1 tsp. baking powder
- 1 tsp. baking soda
- 1 tsp. cinnamon
- 1 tsp. cloves
- 1 tsp. ginger
- 1 tsp. nutmeg
Instructions
- Cream butter and sugar. Add molasses and egg yolk. In a medium bowl, combine remaining ingredients. Add flour mixture to butter mixture. Chill for at least an hour. It's a fairly sticky dough so you might need to chill it a little longer.
- Preheat oven to 350. Roll dough to 1/4" thick and cut with cookie cutters. Place cookies 2" apart on a baking sheet. Bake 8-10 minutes. If you bake them on the short end they will stay soft and chewy and if you bake them on the longer end they will be nice and crispy. They're great either way!
- Allow to cool about 5 minutes on pan and then transfer to wire rack and cool completely. Once they're cooled you can decorate your heart out.
Did You Make This Recipe?Snap a picture, and hashtag it #ourbestbites. We love to see your creations on our Instagram @ourbestbites!
Questions & Reviews
Oh you make me laugh! I too have a tiny lion that stalks the kitchen at night licking potato chips and sleeping on whatever is left out. I made a big batch of sugar cookies one year, frosted them, and then stored them in the oven to foil her. Then I forgot they were in there and pre-heated the oven. So sad! 🙁 Good thing I love her.
The BEST Gingerbread EVER!!! We loved it. The cookies were soft and just melted in our mouth. They were perfect. Thank you!!
I made these gingerbread cookies today. I have to say… 2 c flour is not enough. When rolling out, I found myself adding more and more flour because of how sticky it was. I left it in the fridge to chill overnight when I made them 2 weeks ago. I thought that maybe I left them in the fridge too long so this timeI only left it in for 1 hour like it says in the directions. Other gingerbread recipes call for a lot more flour. What do I do??
I was wondering… In the future, could you possibly make a tutorial for how to make and decorate gingerbread houses? I’d love to learn how 🙂
I made these last Christmas and this year twice already. My kids love this recipe!
Made these cookies for the first time using this recipe minus the nutmeg because I didn’t have any and they’re absolutely perfect! Thanks a bunch!
How many cookies (approx) does this recipe make??
I live in high altitude do you know how I would alter the recipe?
Thanks!
Delicious!!! We made these for our holiday plates this year and they were a hit. I love the butterscotch and gingerbread together. I will definitely be making these again!
Amelia–Yep, totally freezeable! I'd recommend either carefully rolling out the dough on a sheet of plastic wrap and then placing another sheet of plastic wrap on top of it. Freeze it that way and then let it stand on the counter for 30-45 minutes before cutting shapes OR chilling, cutting shapes, and then freezing the cut shapes and baking from frozen.
Hope that helps! 🙂
I have a question and I tried reading through all the comments in case someone else asked it already but didn't see anything so I apologize in advance if you have… Can you freeze this cookie dough and make them at a later date?
Thank you, thank you!!! Thrifty NW Mom just posted this, and I instantly fell in love with all your ideas! I can't wait to try these. My 5 year old says it's not Christmas without "gingermen". Our last batch was so pasty and bland. After a not so fun week, that set me over the top, and sure put me in a funk of my own. I think I'll use the rest of that dough for ornaments 😉 I can tell by looking at your recipe, where ours went wrong, and that this is exactly what I'm looking for! I saw Crissie's comment that they were crispy on the outside and soft in the middle. YAY!!! Thanks for getting me back in the Christmas spirit! I hope things turned around for you, and that you're feeling a bit more cheery 🙂
Thank you, thank you!!! Thrifty NW Mom just posted this, and I instantly fell in love with all your ideas! I can't wait to try these. My 5 year old says it's not Christmas without "gingermen". Our last batch was so pasty and bland. After a not so fun week, that set me over the top, and sure put me in a funk of my own. I think I'll use the rest of that dough for ornaments 😉 I can tell by looking at your recipe, where ours went wrong, and that this is exactly what I'm looking for! I saw Crissie's comment that they were crispy on the outside and soft in the middle. YAY!!! Thanks for getting me back in the Christmas spirit! I hope things turned around for you, and that you're feeling a bit more cheery 🙂
When I was little my family used to go to Kitchen Kettle Village in Lancaster, PA. They had a gingerbread decorating station there for kids and my sister and I would get to decorate a gingerbread cookie. They were SO yummy – and these cookies taste JUST like that! Thank you for a fantastic recipe and a new tradition for my family!
I made gingerbread cookies a couple of years ago, and they turned out a awful. I vowed to just stick with sugar cookies from then on, but after seeing your recipe I thought I'd give it another try. They were perfect and SO yummy!! Baking them for 9 minutes made them crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside. Thanks for renewing my faith in gingerbread cookies. 🙂
aryanna–It's tough to say just because every cookie cutter is a different size and everyone rolls their dough to a different thickness. But this is a small recipe–I'd say, on average, I get about 12-18 cookies, so if you need more than that, I'd definitely double it.
I am going to try your gingerbread recipe…ooooh, can't wait for the smell! I already broke one BeaterBlade but I bought another one. I still like it…I think I was making a double batch of chocolate chip cookies.
these are perfect for my son's class christmas party .Only 1 Question how many cookies does this recipe make ?
These are seriously the yummiest gingerbread men i have ever tasted! YUMMMM 🙂
those look delish! what a great idea about rolling it out first and then chilling it after!
I just found the beater blade on ebay for $22.99 with free shipping (for my kitchenaid tilt-head.) I think I may give it a shot!
i asked for one of those beater blades for christmas! i think it's be best invention EVER
Alisha, I totally imagine that you could. Don't take my total word for it because each and every gingerbread house I've ever made has ended disastrously, but I also overbaked some of my cookies the other day and they were break-your-teeth hard, so I bet it would totally work! If you do it, you'd better send us some pictures!!! 🙂