Classic Gingerbread Cookies

Classic Chewy Gingerbread Cookies — Soft and chewy cut-out gingerbread cookies filled with plenty of ginger and warming spices! Decorated with a sweet, soft royal icing and topped with cinnamon candies, these gingerbread men are a nostalgic favorite Christmas cookie that everyone adores! 

The BEST Gingerbread Cookies 

I have fond childhood memories of making cut-out Christmas cookies with my mom and grandma. While other people may love Cut-out Sugar Cookies, my favorites are cut-out gingerbread cookies!

These gingerbread men cookies are soft and chewy rather than hard or crunchy. The edges are a bit firmer but overall they are soft gingerbread cookies.

There’s plenty of ginger, molasses, and warming spices like cinnamon and allspice to really give these gingerbread cookies a classic flavor profile.

I decorated the cookies with a basic royal icing that is soft and sweet but sets up enough so you can stack or pack your gingerbread men cookies as gifts or use them for cookie exchanges.

Cinnamon hearts and red and green sanding sugar complete the look of your classic gingerbread cookies.

This will become a family-favorite Christmas cookie recipe for years to come!

For anyone wanting a no-roll gingerbread cookie, you’ve got to try my Soft and Chewy Molasses Gingerdoodles or these Soft Molasses Coconut Oil Crinkle Cookies. Reader favorites every single year! 

Tip: This is a long and detailed post with lots of info and photos so you can make the best gingerbread cookies of your life. If you’re a cookie pro, keep scrolling down until you see the recipe card area with ingredient amounts listed and bypass my tips.

Ingredients in Gingerbread Cookies 

To make the soft and chewy gingerbread cookie dough, you’ll need the following common fridge and pantry ingredients:

• Salted butter
• Light brown sugar
• Granulated sugar
• Molasses
• Egg yolks
• Vanilla extract
• All-purpose flour
• Ground ginger
• Cinnamon
• Salt
• Baking powder
• Baking soda
• Allspice
• Nutmeg

For the royal icing used for decorating, you’ll need the following basic ingredients:

• Confectioners’ sugar
• Salt
• Light corn syrup, optional but highly recommended
• Vanilla extract
• Milk (2% or whole recommended)
• Red and green food coloring, gel recommended
• Red cinnamon candies, optional
• Red and green sanding sugar or sprinkles, optional

How to Make Gingerbread Cookie Dough

To make your Christmas gingerbread cookie dough, follow these simple steps.

1. Beat together the butter and sugars.
2. Add the molasses, egg yolks, vanilla, and beat.
3. Whisk together all the dry ingredients and then slowly add to the wet ingredients and mix.
4. Remove the dough, form a disc shaped patty, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 1 hour, or overnight.

How to Roll Out Gingerbread Cookies

After you’ve refrigerated the dough for your classic gingerbread cookies, you’re ready to roll it out by doing the following:

1. Sprinkle the counter with flour and sprinkle the top of the dough disk with flour.
2. Roll it out to 1/8-inch thick using your rolling pin.
3. Cut out as many gingerbread men as you can with your cookie cutter.
4. Gently remove the remaining dough in between the cookies and place the cutout gingerbread men on a prepared baking sheet.
5. Roll the remaining dough into a ball, roll it out again to 1/8-inch thick, and cut out as many cookies as you can. I discard any unused dough at this point rather than re-rolling it as there is not usually enough worth saving.
6. Place the cut-out gingerbread men on a baking sheet.
7. Bake for 8 to 9 minutes. The cookies will still be soft and may not be browned around the edges when they are baked, this is fine. The longer you bake these cookies, the harder and crunchier they get. 
8. Allow the cookies to cool completely before icing them. Make the royal icing while you wait.

How to Make Gingerbread Cookie Icing

To make traditional cut out gingerbread men, you’ll need the classic icing choice — royal icing! Royal icing is very easy to make, and I’ve outlined the process below. 

1. Whisk together the powdered sugar and salt.
2. Add in the corn syrup, vanilla, and whisk.
3. Add the milk and whisk extremely well until a smooth frosting has formed. This will take a few minutes so don’t get impatient with it and add  more milk.
4. Divide your frosting into 3 bowls, keeping one white, and adding red food coloring to another bowl, and green food coloring to the final bowl.

Tip: The consistency of the frosting should be that of toothpaste. It should be thick enough to have to use some pressure to push it out of a piping bag and should not be thin enough to spill out.

Remember when adding the food coloring to the royal icing, if you are using a liquid and not a gel coloring, it will thin down the icing so avoid adding too much. This is why I recommend gel food coloring, apart from the better and more vibrant color results. Be sure to mix well after each addition of coloring.

Decorating Gingerbread Cookies with Royal Icing

Snip a hole in the tip of your piping bag or plastic bag, and hold the piping bag at a slightly tilted angle about ⅛” away from the cookie. Gently squeeze the piping bag to pipe the frosting in whatever design you so desire.

Keep in mind that the larger the hole you snip into the bag, the more icing will come out. When the hole is large and the icing comes out very thick, it makes it harder to be precise.

I like to pipe a white border around the edges and from there you can get creative! 

Tip: Start with a small snip before cutting it larger. 

6 Gingerbread Cookie Decorating Ideas

Not sure what gingerbread decorations you should try? For ideas and creative variations how to decorate your classic gingerbread cookies, here are 6 ideas with photos for reference.

Gingerbread Man Decoration #1 (photo below)

1. Pipe a thin, white border slightly inside of the cookie edge around the entire cookie.
2. Add two eyes, a smile, and 3 dots that will act as glue for buttons.
3. Add 3 red candies onto each dot for buttons.
4. Pipe scalloped green line halfway in on the arms and legs.

Gingerbread Man Decoration #2 (photo above)

1. Pipe a thin, white border slightly inside of the cookie edge around the entire cookie.
2. Add two eyes and a smile.
3. Alternate using the green and red frosting for the buttons.
4. Add a scalloped red line halfway in on the arms and legs.
5. If desired, add a scalloped green line next to the red line.

Gingerbread Man Decoration #3 (photo above) 

1. Pipe a thin, white border slightly inside of the cookie edge around the entire cookie.
2. Fill the entire cookie with frosting. Do not skip adding the border as just filling the cookie with frosting will cause it to lose its shape and frosting may spill off of the cookie.
3. Use a toothpick if necessary to join the inside frosting to the border or to eliminate any bumps or bubbles.
4. Pipe a thin red border around the entire cookie.
5. Add two red eyes, a smile, some buttons and scalloped lines on the arms and legs.

Gingerbread Man Decoration #4 (photo below) 

1. Use the white frosting to pipe two eyes, a smile, and some scalloped lines on the arms and legs.
2. Add green dots for buttons.

Gingerbread Man Decoration #5 (photo above) 

1. Use the white frosting to pipe two eyes, a smile and some scalloped lines on the arms and legs.
2. Pipe a red scalloped line next to the white scalloped lines on the arms and legs.
3. Pipe another white scalloped line next to the red lines.
4. Pipe three green dots for buttons.

Gingerbread Man Decoration #6 (photo above) 

1. Pipe a border for a glove on each arm. Start by piping a smooth edge around the sides before adding a scalloped edge at the top closer to the body.
2. Fill in with white frosting. If necessary, use a toothpick to smooth out any bumps or gaps in the frosting.
3. Sprinkle with red sprinkles.
4. Repeat the same steps using the white frosting for boots.
5. Sprinkle with green sprinkles.
6. Add a green scalloped edge next to the red scalloped edge for the gloves.
7. Add a red scalloped edge next to the green scalloped edge for the boots.
8. Add three red dots for glue for the buttons.
9. Place three red candies onto the dots.
10. Add a white smile and eyes.

Cut Out Gingerbread Cookies Bake Time

I use a 3.75-inch gingerbread cookie cutter and bake the chewy gingerbread cookies for 8 to 9 minutes, on the center rack of the oven, rotating once midway through.

I recommend also only baking one sheet of cookies at a time for optimal results. If you bake the cookies longer than the recommended baking time, you’ll wind up with crunchy, crispy, or downright hard cookies.

If you use a smaller or larger cookie cutter, baking times will vary. Keep an eye on your cookies to make sure they’re neither under nor overdone.

Can I Halve the Recipe?

Yes, you can. The Christmas gingerbread recipe makes about 30 cookies as written, but this depends on exactly how many gingerbread men you can cut out of the dough, the size of your cutter, and so forth.

Since you are going to the work of making cut-out Christmas cookies I say just make the recipe as written since the cookies keep extremely well, but do what you think is best.

What’s the Best Molasses for Gingerbread? 

I recommend a middle of the road unsulphered molasses like Grandma’s.

Some of the darker molasses varieties are incredibly strong and pungent tasting. Molasses already leans in this direction and you don’t want to select a brand that’s even more so in that direction because it could give the cookies a more bitter flavor.

Do I Have to Use Corn Syrup in the Royal Icing?

No you do not, although I strongly recommend it. If you omit it, there will be less of a pretty sheen to the final cookies.

Additionally, the texture of the icing will be slightly different and crunchier (not my thing) as corn syrup makes it smoother. 

Can Gingerbread Cookies Be Frozen? 

I don’t freeze the cookies because they do keep so well at room temp, I’ve never felt the need to freeze them, or the unbaked dough, although both are possible.

How to Store Gingerbread Cookies

Classic gingerbread cookies keep amazing well airtight at room temp for up to one month. Yes, 1 month.

This is because both the brown sugar and molasses in the dough are hydroponic (attract water or moisture) so they don’t dry out. If you’ve ever had a cake or cookies or some type of baked good that actually gets softer over time, this can happen with these cookies.

It’s a stretch, but if you don’t seal them in an airtight container or ziptop bag, they could actually become too soft to the point of getting soggy. Just seal them well and you will be fine. 

Tips for the Best Gingerbread Cookies

Don’t add extra flour: When making the dough, do not add any extra flour even if the dough seems too soft. Adding more flour will cause them to be hard and crunchy cookies. The dough should be soft and will firm up when in the fridge.

If the cookie dough seems to be extremely difficult to roll out (stiff and hard): Simply let the dough rest and warm up for a few minutes. This makes it more pliable.

Do not let the dough get too warm: When you cut the cookies, they can get stuck to the cookie cutter and lose their shape easier.

If the dough is sticking to the rolling pin: When rolling the cookies out, if they are sticking to the rolling pin, the dough may be too warm. Leave it on the cutting board and pop it back into the fridge for 10 minutes to chill. If they still seem to stick, you can very lightly sprinkle the top with some flour.

If your royal icing is too thin: Add in powdered sugar a tablespoon at a time ensuring that you whisk really well each time. You do not want such a thick icing that it cannot be piped.

If your royal icing is too thick: Add in a ½-1 tsp of milk and whisk well each time so as not to thin it down too much.

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4.91 from 10 votes

Classic Chewy Gingerbread Cookies

By Averie Sunshine

Soft and chewy cutout gingerbread cookies filled with plenty of ginger and warming spices! Decorated with a sweet, soft royal icing and topped with cinnamon candies, these gingerbread men are a nostalgic favorite Christmas cookie that everyone adores! 

Prep Time: 2 hours hours

Cook Time: 8 minutes minutes

Chill Time: 1 hour hour

Total Time: 3 hours hours 8 minutes minutes

Servings: 30

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Ingredients  

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Gingerbread Cookies

• ▢ 1 cup unsalted butter, softened to room temp
• ▢ ⅔ cup light brown sugar, packed
• ▢ ⅓ cup granulated sugar
• ▢ 1 cup unsulphered molasses
• ▢ 2 large egg yolks, whites discarded or saved for another use
• ▢ 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• ▢ 5 cups all-purpose flour
• ▢ 3 ½ teaspoon ground ginger, or to taste
• ▢ 2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• ▢ 1 teaspoon salt
• ▢ ½ teaspoon baking powder
• ▢ ½ tsp baking soda
• ▢ ¼ teaspoon allspice
• ▢ ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg

Royal Icing:

• ▢ 1 ⅔ cup confectioners' sugar, sifted
• ▢ ¼ teaspoon salt
• ▢ 1 ½ teaspoon light corn syrup
• ▢ ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
• ▢ 3 tablespoons milk
• ▢ Red and green food coloring, gel recommended
• ▢ Red cinnamon candies, optional but recommended
• ▢ Red and green sprinkles or sanding sugar, optional but recommended

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Instructions 

Cookie Dough

• To the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, or large bowl and heavy duty handheld electric mixer, add the butter, brown sugar, sugar, and beat on medium-high speed for 3-4 minutes or until smooth and creamy. Scrape the sides down.
• Add the molasses, egg yolks, vanilla, and beat on medium-high speed for another minute to fully incorporate; set aside.
• To a separate, medium sized bowl, whisk together the flour and the remaining dry ingredients.
• Once combined, add to the wet ingredients.
• Mix on medium-low speed to avoid whipping flour everywhere for about 1 minute or until the flour is just incorporated and then mix just until the flour is incorporated. Do not overmix as the cookies will become hard rather than soft and chewy.
• Remove the dough from the mixing bowl and roll into a rough disc-like patty shape, about 3 or 4 inches thick. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap and place it in the fridge to chill for at least one hour, or up to overnight.

Rolling Out The Dough

• Once the dough has chilled, remove it from the fridge, preheat the oven to 350F, and prep several baking sheet pans by lining them with Silpat liners or parchment paper and spraying them with baking spray; set aside.
• Place the dough disc onto a lightly floured surface. For the first roll out, you can lightly sprinkle the top of the disc with flour. Using a rolling pin, roll out into a rough rectangle about ⅛” thick.
• Using a 3.75-inch gingerbread cookie cutter, cut as many cookies out of the dough as you can. Be sure not to overlap the cutter onto any of the previously cut out cookies. If you accidentally cut out one cookie on top of another, simply roll them back into the dough after you have removed all of the other good cookies.
• Once you have cut out all the cookies possible, gently remove all of the remaining dough from around the cookies. Doing this makes it easier to pick the cookies up.
• Place all of the cut out cookies onto the prepared baking sheets ensuring to space them about ½” apart.
• Roll the remaining dough back into a ball to roll out again.
• Cut out as many cookies as possible before repeating the same steps until all of the cookie dough is used. I don't re-roll the dough additionally after this second roll out because there's usually hardly enough left to bother. But do as you see fit for the amount of dough you have leftover.

Baking

• Place into the oven to bake for 8-9 minutes. The cookies will still be soft and may not be browned around the edges when they are baked, this is fine. The longer you bake these cookies, the harder and crunchier they get. Tip - For optimal results, bake one sheet of cookies at a time, in the center rack, rotating once midway though cooking. If you have the space for it in your fridge, place the cookie sheets in waiting in the fridge; if not that's fine. Cold dough always spreads less than warm dough.
• Once baked, remove from the oven and place onto a cooling rack to cool completely. Cool cookies completely before icicng them. While you wait, make the icing.

Royal Icing

• In a medium-sized mixing bowl, whisk together the confectioners' sugar and salt.
• Add the corn syrup, vanilla, and whisk.
• Add the milk and whisk extremely well until a smooth frosting has formed. This will take a few minutes so don’t get impatient with it and add milk. The consistency of the frosting should be that of toothpaste. It should be thick enough to have to use some pressure to push it out of a piping bag and should not be thin enough to spill out.
• Equally divide the icing into 3 bowls.
• Add a little bit of red food coloring to one bowl and green food coloring to another bowl. Whisk together well to fully and evenly color all of the icing.
• Once the icing is colored, spoon into 3 separate piping bags. Tip - You can use plastic baggies however they are more fragile and more prone to bursting or rupturing with squeezing pressure so use at your own risk.

Decorating

• Snip a small hole in the bottom of each piping bag. Tip - The larger the hole you snip into the bag, the more icing will come out. When the hole is large and the icing comes out very thick, it makes it harder to be precise. So start with a small snip before cutting it larger. To make it easier for decorating, place each of the bags of frosting upright into 3 separate cups. Doing this will keep the frosting in the bags and not drizzle or leak out.
• To ice, hold the piping bag at a slightly tilted angle about ⅛” away from the cookie. Gently squeeze the piping bag to pipe the frosting in whatever design you so desire. See Notes Below for 6 Decorating Ideas.

Storage

• Gingerbread cookies keep amazing well airtight at room temp for up to one month. If you don’t seal them in an airtight container or ziptop bag, they could actually become too soft to the point of getting soggy. Just seal them well and you will be fine. 
• I don’t freeze the cookies because they do keep so well at room temp, I’ve never felt the need to freeze them, or the unbaked dough, although both are possible.

Notes

Six Decorating Ideas:

1. Pipe a thin, white border slightly inside of the cookie edge around the entire cookie. Add two eyes, a smile, and 3 dots that will act as glue for buttons. Add 3 red candies onto each dot for buttons. Pipe scalloped green line halfway in on the arms and legs.
2. Pipe a thin, white border slightly inside of the cookie edge around the entire cookie. Add two eyes and a smile. Alternate using the green and red frosting for the buttons. Add a scalloped red line halfway in on the arms and legs. Add a scalloped green line next to the red line.
3. Pipe a thin, white border slightly inside of the cookie edge around the entire cookie. Fill the entire cookie with frosting. Do not skip adding the border as just filling the cookie with frosting will cause it to lose its shape and frosting may spill off of the cookie. Use a toothpick if necessary to join the inside frosting to the border or to eliminate any bumps or bubbles. Pipe a thin red border around the entire cookie. Add two red eyes, a smile, some buttons and scalloped lines on the arms and legs.
4. Use the white frosting to pipe two eyes, a smile, and some scalloped lines on the arms and legs. Add green dots for buttons.
5. Use the white frosting to pipe two eyes, a smile and some scalloped lines on the arms and legs. Pipe a red scalloped line next to the white scalloped lines on the arms and legs. Pipe another white scalloped line next to the red lines. Pipe three green dots for buttons.
6. Pipe a border for a glove on each arm. Start by piping a smooth edge around the sides before adding a scalloped edge at the top closer to the body. Fill in with white frosting. If necessary, use a toothpick to smooth out any bumps or gaps in the frosting. Sprinkle with red sprinkles. Repeat the same steps using the white frosting for boots. Sprinkle with green sprinkles. Add a green scalloped edge next to the red scalloped edge for the gloves. Add a red scalloped edge next to the green scalloped edge for the boots. Add three red dots for glue for the buttons. Place three red candies onto the dots. Add a white smile and eyes.

Tips for the Best Classic Gingerbread Cookies

• When making the dough, do not add any extra flour even if the dough seems too soft. Adding more flour will cause them to be hard and crunchy cookies. The dough should be soft and will firm up when in the fridge.
• If the cookie dough seems to be extremely difficult to roll out (stiff and hard), simply let the dough rest and warm up for a few minutes. This makes it more pliable.
• Do not let the dough get too warm however as when you cut the cookies, they can get stuck to the cookie cutter and lose their shape easier.
• When rolling the cookies out, if they are sticking to the rolling pin, the dough may be too warm. Leave it on the cutting board and pop it back into the fridge for 10 minutes to chill. If they still seem to stick, you can very lightly sprinkle the top with some flour.
• If your royal icing is too thin, add in powdered sugar a tablespoon at a time ensuring that you whisk really well each time. You do not want such a thick icing that it cannot be piped.
• If your royal icing is too thick, add in a ½-1 tsp of milk and whisk well each time so as not to thin it down too much.
• Remember when adding the food coloring to the royal icing, if you are using a liquid and not a gel coloring, it will thin down the icing so avoid adding too much. This is why I recommend gel food coloring, apart from the better and more vibrant color results. Be sure to mix well after each addition of coloring.

Nutrition

Serving: 1, Calories: 222kcal, Carbohydrates: 38g, Protein: 3g, Fat: 7g, Saturated Fat: 4g, Polyunsaturated Fat: 2g, Cholesterol: 35mg, Sodium: 130mg, Fiber: 1g, Sugar: 21g

Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.

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