Does anything say Christmas like classic gingerbread cookies? These gingerbread men are made with molasses and homemade gingerbread spice for the perfect chewy and adorable cookies! They're easy to make, easy to decorate, and make an adorable garnish for holiday cupcakes or pies! I also love to eat them with a big mug of hot chocolate or eggnog!
You might also like these classic Christmas cookies or these pecan pie cookie bars!
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Ingredient Notes
You only need a few ingredients to make these classic gingerbread man cookies!
Molasses - This is one of the key ingredients for classic gingerbread! Molasses adds a distinct, rich flavor and color, and helps keep the cookies soft. Just be sure to use unsulphered molasses (do NOT use blackstrap molasses). The brand you're most likely to see at the grocery store is Grandma's Molasses, you can usually find it with the honey!
Brown Sugar - I like to use brown sugar for extra moisture and molasses flavor.
Egg - This helps bind the cookies and hold their shape.
Gingerbread Spice - Gingerbread cookies contain a delicious spice blend of ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, and cloves. I use my homemade gingerbread spice mix in these cookies but you can use whatever blend of spices you prefer! Pumpkin pie spice plus a little extra ginger is a great alternative.
The complete list of ingredients and amounts is located in the recipe card below.
How to Make Gingerbread Men
Using a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the room temperature butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy.
Then add in the egg and vanilla extract and mix until fully combined and smooth.
Then mix in the molasses until fully incorporated.
In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, gingerbread spice, baking soda, and salt.
Gently fold in the dry ingredients until the dough comes together into a ball. It should be very soft, but not sticky.
Divide in half and press the dough into discs. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight (or a minimum of at least 2 hours).
Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough to ¼ inch thick then cut out the cookies into your desired shapes. (For crispier cookies you can roll the dough thinner. For chewier cookies roll to about ½ inch instead.)
I like to use classic gingerbread men, but you can use whatever Christmas cookie cutters you want!
Place the gingerbread men 1-2 inches apart on your lined baking sheet. Place the baking sheet in the fridge or freezer for a minimum of 20 minutes before baking. This ensures the cookies keep their shape.
While the cookies are chilling, preheat your oven to 350°F.
Bake for 8-12 minutes or until the edges are set. Bake on the middle rack of the oven and rotate the pan halfway through baking for the best results.
Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for 2-3 minutes, then remove and let them finish cooling on a cooling rack. Let the cookies cool completely before decorating.
In a small bowl, mix together the powdered sugar meringue powder. Slowly drizzle in the water a little bit at a time until the icing flows slightly but still holds its shape.
Transfer to a piping bag fitted with a small round tip and decorate the gingerbread cookies as desired!
Tips for Perfect Cookies
Measure your flour correctly! It's most accurate to use a kitchen scale, but if you're measuring by volume you want to spoon and level! Fluff up the flour a bit with a spoon, and then spoon flour into the measuring cup. Once it's overflowing, use the back of a knife to level it off. Don't ever pack flour into the measuring cup or you'll end up with way too much! Improperly measured flour can lead to dry, crumbly cookies that don't spread.
Make sure your oven is the proper temperature! Use an oven thermometer to make sure your oven is exactly 350°F. If the oven is too cold, the cookies will spread too much and if it's too hot they centers won't bake all the way through. For example, my oven is about 20 degrees off. So I have to set the oven to 370°F in order to get it to bake at 350°F.
Use a lightweight, light colored baking sheet for best results! Believe it or not, a lighter pan makes the cookies bake more slowly than a dark pan, which helps keep them from spreading too much. My favorite pans for baking cookies are:
You also want to use either parchment paper or silicone mats on your cookie sheet to help keep the cookies from spreading.
Bake the cookies one sheet at a time, on the center rack. This will ensure all your cookies cook evenly and the bottoms don't burn. Then let the cookie sheet cool completely between batches. This ensures the cookies cook evenly and don't spread too much by being put on a hot pan.
Always under-bake the cookies! If you slightly under-bake the cookies (so the centers are still soft when you remove them from the oven), they'll stay soft and chewy for days!
Do the cookie scoot! In order to get perfectly round cookies, use a large cookie cutter to gently scoot them around as soon as they come out of the oven!
Cookie Decorating Tips
I am by no means an expert cookie decorator, so I like to keep things simple!
I use my basic royal icing recipe and place it in a piping bag fitted with a small size 3 decorating tip! Then I use several simple lines and top with sprinkles for buttons. They only take a few minutes and look great!
Simple Royal Icing
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 2 teaspoons meringue powder
- 2-3 teaspoons water
Meringue powder is a super important component in royal icing! It helps keep the icing stable and it makes it dry super quickly! It's honestly the best secret ingredient that I keep in my kitchen at all times! You can find it on amazon or craft stores for just a couple dollars and it lasts forever!
All you have to do is mix together the powdered sugar and meringue powder and add in water 1 teaspoon at a time until your desired consistency is reached. For these cookies I used icing that was pretty thick and would just barely fall of a spoon (think super thick honey).
Recipe FAQ's
Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to a week.
Chilling the cookie dough allows the flour to hydrate a bit and ensures the butter is super cold. This keeps your cookies from spreading too much and completely flattening out. It also ensures the gingerbread men keep their shape!
Yes! You can freeze either the dough or the baked cookies! The freeze the dough, wrap tightly and then place in a freezer safe bag for 2-3 months. Let thaw in the fridge overnight before using. Baked cookies can be stored in the freezer for up to 3 months (I like to freeze them before decorating).
Tips for Success!
For best results I always recommend using weight measurements (especially when baking) because it's the most accurate. Kitchen scales are super affordable and also reduce the number of dishes you have to do! However, all my recipes also include US customary measurements for convince. Use this chart to convert measurements for common ingredients!
Substitutions: In all my recipes, I've included substitutions that I know will work, but I cannot guarantee results if you substitute ingredients that I have not recommended. [For example, granulated sugar and honey are indeed both sweeteners but they have very different properties so they can not always be swapped 1:1. Using honey in a cookie recipe that calls for granulated sugar will yield a giant mess.] In the recipe card you'll find links to the specific ingredients/brands that I use.
A note on salt: I almost exclusively use Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt because it's the best all-purpose salt for cooking and baking. If you're not using kosher salt, consult this handy guide for a conversion chart! When in doubt, if you're using table salt just reduce the amount by half for baked goods. When cooking, I prefer to under-salt because you can always add more! If you've over-salted, adding a little bit of acid (like lemon juice) can help.
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Recipe Card
Gingerbread Cookies
Special Equipment
Ingredients
Gingerbread Cookies
- ¾ cup unsalted butter, room temperature
- ¾ cup light brown sugar
- 1 large egg, room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ cup molasses
- 3 ½ cups all purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon gingerbread spice
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
Royal Icing
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 2 teaspoons meringue powder
- 1-3 tablespoons water
Instructions
Gingerbread Cookies
- Using a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the room temperature butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy.
- Then add in the egg and vanilla extract and mix until fully combined and smooth. Then mix in the molasses until fully incorporated.
- In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, gingerbread spice, baking soda, and salt.
- Gently fold in the dry ingredients until the dough comes together into a ball. It should be very soft, but not sticky.
- Divide in half and press the dough into discs. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight (or a minimum of at least 2 hours).
- Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
- On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough to ¼ inch thick then cut out the cookies into your desired shapes. (For crispier cookies you can roll the dough thinner. For chewier cookies roll to about ½ inch instead.)
- Place the gingerbread men 1-2 inches apart on your lined baking sheet. Place the baking sheet in the fridge or freezer for a minimum of 20 minutes before baking. This ensures the cookies keep their shape.
- While the cookies are chilling, preheat your oven to 350°F.
- Bake for 8-12 minutes or until the edges are set. Bake on the middle rack of the oven and rotate the pan halfway through baking for the best results.
- Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for 2-3 minutes, then remove and let them finish cooling on a cooling rack. Let the cookies cool completely before decorating.
Royal Icing
- In a small bowl, mix together the powdered sugar meringue powder. Slowly drizzle in the water a little bit at a time until the icing flows slightly but still holds its shape.
- Transfer to a piping bag fitted with a small round tip and decorate the gingerbread cookies as desired!
- Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to a week.
Notes
Nutrition
The nutritional information on this website is only an estimate and is provided for convenience and as a courtesy only. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed.
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