Our favorite holiday cookies are our soft and chewy spiced molasses cut out men and women Homemade Gingerbread Cookies. Learn our baking hacks for making the best gingerbread cutout Christmas cookies and how to decorate them too.
Finally, it feels like the holidays with the smell of fragrant gingerbread men cookies in the oven and steamed gingerbread date bread on the stovetop.
It’s snowing outside.
The Christmas tree is lit.
Bing Crosby is singing White Christmas in the background and a Tuscan Slow Braised Beef in Wine Sauce is cooking in the oven.
Ultimately, this is the perfect day to have a family and friend Gingerbread Girls and Boys Cookie decorating competition. Are you Ready? If not, check out our easy gingerbread recipe hacks below and video so you can be on top of your game.
Homemade Gingerbread Cookies
Family traditions and fun all start out with our delicious dough mix! Our homemade gingerbread cookie dough recipe has been in our family for many decades. This recipe has the perfect mix of warming spices like ginger, cinnamon, cloves, all spice and even black pepper. However, it is not too spicy, it’s just right. Most importantly, the kids love it.
Where did Gingerbread originate?
Di you know that the Chinese were the first to harvest ginger root? Ginger root is used as a Traditional Chinese Medicinal herb to treat various ailments like in our Tranquil Lemon Ginger Tea Recipe. This magical herb “Ginger” found its way to Europe via the Silk Road. As early as 500 B.C.E Molasses was around in India and found its way around the world.
According to the Public Broadcasting Service , the first known recipe for gingerbread came from Greece around 2400 BC. However, it finally made its way to England. The Queen of England was the first to make little gingerbread men in their shape to honor the people that came to visit her. How cool is that! The creation of Gingerbread men originated in England.
Ingredients for Classic Old Fashion Gingerbread Biscuits
Allowing all the ingredients to come to room temperature before blending is key to help everything mix well together.
All – Purpose Flour – Just the regular run of the mill flour. We have not tested this recipe for gluten free flours.
Dried Spices – Ginger, cinnamon, all spice, cloves and black pepper are the perfect blend for a delicately spiced gingerbread cookie.
Real Butter and Shortening – The real deal and have not testing the recipe with exchanges. We have been making this recipe consistently for years.
Brown sugar – We used light brown sugar for this recipe, but you can also use dark brown sugar.
Baking Soda- Make sure it is fresh so that your cookies rise just a little bit during the baking process.
Egg - just to bind everything together. We have not tested this recipe for vegan substitutions.
Molasses – Grandma’s unsulfured Original Molasses or Brer Rabbit Full flavored unsulfured molasses are both delicious in this gingerbread cookie recipe. This is an important ingredient as it adds flavor and makes the cookie chewy. Read below all about the different kinds of molasses and substitutions.
What is Molasses?
Molasses is a byproduct syrup that is made during the sugar making process. The more times that molasses is boiled down the darker, robust and more bitter it becomes.
After the first boil, this is the sweetest and lightest of the molasses. Then, after the second boil a little more sugar is separated and a little less sweet and darker. The second boiled molasses is the preferred type of molasses used for our homemade gingerbread cookies. Finally, after the third boil, this is called blackstrap molasses and it is least sweet, robust, slightly bitter and very dark. Blackstrap molasses has more vitamins, iron and minerals.
Molasses vs Blackstrap Molasses vs Treacle
You go to the grocery store to find molasses. It supposed to be a relatively easy task, right? Wrong!!! There is way too many types depending on where you live in the world. In addition, they all taste a little different. After living around the world, we have found some helpful solutions for the molasses dilemma.
Depending on what country you are living in, this can be really confusing.
In the USA, a couple of common molasses brands are Grandma’s Molasses and Brer Rabbit.
Grandma’s Molasses
- Original (this is the type we used for this recipe)
- Robust (Closer to the taste of blackstrap molasses so reduce the amount of molasses to ¼ and increase the amount of brown sugar to 1 cup to compensate for the bitter taste of the blackstrap)
Brer Rabbit
- Mild Flavor
- Full Flavor (this type would be best for our homemade gingerbread cookies)
- Blackstrap Molasses (this type of molasses can be used BUT you must reduce the amount of molasses to ¼ and increase the amount of brown sugar to 1 cup to compensate for the bitter taste of the blackstrap.)
Treacle is most commonly used substitution for molasses in the United Kingdom (UK) and other countries as well.
Lyle’s
- Golden syrup – light honey golden in color and really sweet and light compared to molasses – (don’t use this)
- Black Treacle – similar to a blackstrap molasses but a little sweeter. (Use this one for this recipe)
We have not performed any recipe testing with Bead Molasses or date molasses. If you do, please let us know how that goes? However, we love pomegranate Molasses in our Baked Pomegranate Glazed Salmon recipe.
Do You Like Chewy Cookies?
Don’t you just love a cookie that has little crispy ends but a chewy center? The addition of deep rich molasses and brown sugar that makes for those delectable crispy ends and chewy center of the cookies. If you love a good chewy cookie, be sure to try our easy gluten free and vegan Chewy Black Sesame Cookies and our Chewy Mandarin Orange Cookies for your holiday baking. The best part of this biscuit recipe is that the cookie dough does not puff up too much during the baking process. The cutout gingerbread men and women cookies keep their cute shape and are ready for decorating.
Secret for Soft and Chewy Molasses Cookies
It is really quite simple, and it all comes down to math. If you like a soft and chewy cookie, roll the cookie dough out thicker (about ¼ inch thick) and bake for less time (8-10 minutes). However, if you like a crisper homemade gingerbread man cookie, then roll out dough thinner (about ¼ inch thick) or bake for a little longer (10-12 minutes). Baking time is also determined by the size of your cutout device. The larger the cookie cutter, the longer cooking time. On the other hand, if the cookie cutter is small it will need less time in the oven.
In addition, each and every temperamental oven can vary. Our suggestion is always to start out with less time in the oven. If needed, you can always reset timer and let bake a little longer.
Tools Needed
- Shaped Cookie Cutters
- Rolling Pin
- Baking Sheets
Our large gingerbread man and women cutout cookie cutters are approximately 4 inches tall by 3 inches wide (10.5 cm x 7cm). We usually roll out dough to about 3/16 inch thick (or between ⅛ and ¼ inches or ½ cm thick) and bake between 6 – 8 minutes for a chewy cookie. If you like a crispy cookie, then bake for 8 – 10 minutes.
We also have these adorable 2 inches tall x 1 inch in width (5.5 cm x 3 cm) little gingerbread men that we found in Japan. Because of their small size, they usually only need about 5 minutes in the oven.
How about other cookie cutters like trees, stockings, sleighs and Santa cutouts? You bet! Try them all, as the kids love this. Heck, so do the adults.
How to Prevent Cookies from Sticking?
To save yourself a headache later, either line your baking sheet with parchment paper, baking liners or grease the baking sheet to prevent cookies from sticking. If you decide to grease your pans, just do this lightly as if you have to much oil it can cause your cookies to spread.
Do not use waxed paper as your baking liner. Did you know that waxed paper and parchment paper are not the same thing?
Parchment paper is lined with silicone and makes for a great non-stick surface for baking. On the other hand, waxed paper is made with wax, not as good for preventing items in the oven from sticking in the oven and can actually stick to the bottom of cookies. (You have to trust us on that one. Waxed paper cookies are not that tasty.) However, waxed paper is nice to stack in between cookies before freezing in a freezer safe container.
Just as an FYI, aluminum foil will not prevent sticking. If you want to use aluminum foil, you will need to grease your pan too.
How to Make Gingerbread Man Cookies
There are basically 8 easy steps for making the best homemade cookies. For the full and complete recipe, please see the recipe card below.
- Mix together the dry ingredients
- Combine together the wet ingredients
- Blend the wet and dry ingredients together into a dough
- Refrigerate the dough for at least 3 hours (This is an important step so that the dough is easier to work with)
- Cut out the cookies
- Bake the cookies
- Cool the biscuits
- Decorate the gingerbread men
- Eat the cookies – This is our favorite part- Hands Down!
Gingerbread Cookies Decorating and Icing Ideas
- If you like to draw features on your gingerbread men and women, make it easy for yourself and buy a few tubes of the pre-made decorating icings in different colors. Make sure you buy the corresponding icing tip adapters and go to it! We usually buy a tube of green, red, white, yellow and blue with the corresponding tips. This is the easiest option. Check out our video for decorating inspiration.
- Sometimes, we like to make a little homemade royal icing and then let the kids decorate the cookies with sprinkles and candies. Add natural food coloring as desired to make red, green or other colors. If you make your royal icing thick, then you can decorate designs on your gingerbread cookies using a piping bag. Another option or easy icing hack is to make the icing a thinner. Then, just dip the front of the cookie right in the icing and there is no need to spread icing with a knife.
- Maybe you want to keep a few cookies plain without frosting too. We have left all of the little doggie bone gingerbread cookies plain for the Healthy World Cuisine clean-up crew.
Getting in the Festive Spirit
No matter which cookie decorating technique you prefer, one thing you can be certain is that these homemade gingerbread cookies taste fantastic. The kids and adults love every minute of it. In addition, the dads have fun going around augmenting all of the girl gingerbread cookies. (smiling)
There will be sprinkles, flour, frosting and those little silver balls everywhere for years to come… LOL!!! However, the fond memories and love will last for generations to come. Hot Cocoa, candy canes, Appetizers and Warmed Spiced Apple Cider spiked for the adults is simmering on the stovetop. If the mess from the cookie decorating experience stresses you out, just add more rum to your warmed apple cider.
Cutout Gingerbread Cookie Hacks
- We made our gingerbread girls and boys cookies dough a couple of days in advance as it needs to be refrigerated for about 3 hours before use. The refrigeration process makes the cookie dough easier to work with. As long as you have the cookie dough wrapped tightly in plastic wrap, you can make as long as 3 days in advance.
- You could even do the cut outs and baking on one day and then let your family and friends come over for a holiday cookie decorating party. This has been a family tradition for years.
- If the dough gets a little dry and cracks, add just a teaspoon of water at a time and rework the dough.
- Refrain from putting lots of flour directly over the gingerbread men and women before rolling. The reason being is that your cookies will bake with white flour streaks. Instead, use a sheet of waxed paper between to prevent sticking or use less flour.
- If at any time your dough becomes too sticky and too difficult to work with, wrap in plastic and place in the refrigerator for a little bit to chill.
- To allow time for the royal icing to set, we have found placing the cookies on plates with little cups in between and stacking more plates on top works great. This saves counter space. We then put these in the freezer for a couple hours until the icing sets. After that, you can use waxed paper or parchment paper between cookie layers and stack in your sealed freezer safe cookie containers.
Wishing your family a happy holiday filled with fun traditions from the Healthy World Cuisine Family to yours!
Frequent Asked Questions (FAQ’s)
Homemade baked gingerbread cookies can be refrigerated for up to 5 days in the refrigerator in a sealed container. Gingerbread cookie dough can be stored up to 3 days wrapped tightly in plastic wrap before baking.
Absolutely! Gingerbread men and cookies can be frozen up to 2 months.
As a very rare treat, if your dog has no underlying health conditions, your fur babies can be given unfrosted gingerbread cookies to eat.
More Delicious Christmas Cookies
Dark Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies (GF and Vegan)
Chewy Black Sesame Cookies (GF)
60 Cookie Recipes from Around the World
Hungry For More? Subscribe to our Newsletter and follow along on Facebook, You Tube, Instagram, and Pinterest for all the latest updates.
Homemade Gingerbread Cookies [Video]
Equipment
- flour sifter
- mixer
- baking sheets
Ingredients
Gingerbread dough
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
and a little extra to roll out the dough and prevent sticking. - 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
dried ground - 2 teaspoon ginger
dried ground - ½ teaspoon allspice
dried ground - ½ teaspoon cloves
dried ground - ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
ground - 8 tablespoon butter
at room temperature - ¼ cup vegetable shortening
at room temperature - ½ cup light brown sugar
packed, (If using blackstrap molasses increase to 1 cup) - ⅔ cup dark molasses such as Mrs. Baer's Rabbit Full Flavor Molasses or Grandma's Original. (If using blackstrap molasses, decrease amount to ¼ cup and increase brown sugar to 1 cup)
- 1 egg
large (room temperature)
Royal Icing (or can use pre-packaged decorating frosting tubes)
- 4.5 cups confectioners' sugar
- 6 tablespoon milk
- food coloring
(as desired) - edible candies for decorations (as desired)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (176 C). Use parchment paper or baking liners to baking sheets or grease lightly to prevent cookies from sticking.
- Sift the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, allspice, cloves, salt and pepper. Set aside dry ingredients.
- In a large bowl, using an electric mixer at high-speed, beat the butter and vegetable shortening. Add the brown sugar and beat until the mixture is light in texture and color, about 2 minutes. Beat in the molasses and egg. Gradually mix in the flour mixture to make a stiff dough. Divide the dough into two disks. Wrap each disk in plastic wrap. Refrigerate until chilled, about 3 hours. (The dough can be prepared up to 3 days ahead.)
- To roll out the cookies, work with one disk at a time, keeping the other disk refrigerated. Remove the dough from the refrigerator and let stand at room temperature until just warm enough to roll out without cracking, about 10 minutes. Place the dough on a lightly floured work surface. Avoid putting a lot of flour on the top of your dough or otherwise your gingerbread men will be streaked white. If you use a piece of waxed paper between the dough and the rolling pin, this prevents sticking. Roll out the dough about 3/16 inch thick (between ⅛ to ¼ inch thick). If you want a softer cookie, roll out dough a little thicker. If you want a crispy cookie, roll the dough out a little thinner.
- Dip your cookie cutters into a little flour to prevent sticking. Using boy and girl cookie cutters (or any cut out shapes desired), cut out the cookie dough all the way through and do a little wiggle back and forth to remove. Carefully transfer your cutout gingerbread man to nonstick cookie sheets 2 inch apart. Keep up with process until you cannot fit another cookie cutter on the dough. Then, gently knead the scraps together. Form into another disk and roll out to make more cookies. If at any time your dough becomes difficult to work with, wrap it in plastic wrap and place it in the refrigerator for a few minutes. If your dough becomes dry, add 1 teaspoon of water at a time into the dough and knead in gently.
- Bake cookies on the middle rack for about 8-10 minutes for chewy cookies and 10-12 minutes for crisper cookies. (Cooking time depends on the size of your cookie cutter and the thickness of your dough) Bigger cookie cutters and thicker dough needs more time. Smaller cookie cutters and thinner dough needs less baking time. (our little mini gingerbread only took 6 minutes to bake.) It's best to set your timer for the lowest time and then add more time as needed. Cool on the sheets for 2 minutes, then transfer to wire racks or set on parchment paper to cool completely.
- Decorate with Royal Icing or prepackaged decorating icing tubes. (The cookies can stored in a sealed container for about 1 one week in the refrigerator or placed in the freezer for up to 2 months. (However, in our house, we will be lucky if we can even just save a couple of cookie for Santa)
- Enjoy!
Video
Notes
- Original (this is the type we used for this recipe)
- Robust (Closer to the taste of blackstrap molasses so reduce the amount of molasses to ¼ and increase the amount of brown sugar to 1 cup to compensate for the bitter taste of the blackstrap)
- Mild Flavor
- Full Flavor (this type would be best for our homemade gingerbread cookies)
- Blackstrap Molasses (this type of molasses can be used BUT you must reduce the amount of molasses to ¼ and increase the amount of brown sugar to 1 cup to compensate for the bitter taste of the blackstrap.)
- Lyle’s Golden syrup – light honey golden in color and really sweet and light compared to molasses – (not the best solution as it is more sweet and does not have that depth of flavor)
- Lyle’s Black Treacle – similar to a blackstrap molasses but a little sweeter. (Use this one for this recipe)
- If you like to draw features on your gingerbread men and women, make it easy for yourself and buy a few tubes of the pre-made decorating icings in different colors. Make sure you buy the corresponding icing tip adapters and go to it! We usually buy a tube of green, red, white, yellow and blue with the corresponding tips. This is the easiest option. Check out our video for decorating inspiration.
- Sometimes, we like to make a little homemade royal icing and then let the kids decorate the cookies with sprinkles and candies. Add natural food coloring as desired to make red, green or other colors.
- If you make your royal icing thick, then you can decorate designs on your gingerbread cookies using a piping bag. Another option or easy icing hack is to make the icing a thinner. Then, just dip the front of the cookie right in the icing and there is no need to spread icing with a knife.
- Maybe you want to keep a few cookies plain without frosting too. We have left all of the little doggie bone gingerbread cookies plain for the Healthy World Cuisine clean-up crew.
- We made our gingerbread girls and boys cookies dough a couple of days in advance as it needs to be refrigerated for about 3 hours before use. The refrigeration process makes the cookie dough easier to work with. As long as you have the cookie dough wrapped tightly in plastic wrap, you can make as long as 3 days in advance.
- You could even do the cut outs and baking on one day and then let your family and friends come over for a holiday cookie decorating party. This has been a family tradition for years.
- If you dough gets a little dry and cracks, add just a teaspoon of water at a time and rework the dough.
- Refrain from putting lots of flour directly over the gingerbread men and women before rolling. The reason being is that your cookies will bake with white flour streaks. Instead, use a sheet of waxed paper between to prevent sticking or use less flour.
- If at any time your dough becomes too sticky and too difficult to work with, wrap in plastic and place in the refrigerator for a little bit to chill.
- To allow time for the royal icing to set, we have found placing the cookies on plates with little cups in between and stacking more plates on top works great. This saves counter space. We then put these in the freezer for a couple hours until the icing sets. After that, you can use waxed paper or parchment paper between cookie layers and stack in your sealed freezer safe cookie containers.
Kevin says
I like the history that you talk about here. IT seems like all foods can be traced to the Greeks or the Chinese?? Haha. I thought the Germans made this recipe so I am supposed to see this comes from England? Have you ever been to the Christmas markets in Germany?
HWC Magazine says
Thanks Kevin. You know that is strange we also thought the gingerbread men were created in Germany first, too. However, German gingerbread called Nürnberger lebkuchen usually has that dried candied citrus and sometimes nuts and the kids are not too fond of those flavors. So we stick with this basic gingerbread instead. Stay well and take care
Larry says
When I was little we would make sugar cookies for christmas and a vaiety of other treats from our family history in Europe. Some are different from what you see today at store. Many have lots of memories.
HWC Magazine says
Thanks Larry. The holidays do bring about some fond memories of our childhood, don't they? We used to make both cutout sugar cookies and also cutout gingerbread cookies too as part of our holiday tradition. However, the kids really like the spiced gingerbread. Be sure to check out our 60 cookie recipes from around the world for more holiday baking inspiration. https://www.hwcmagazine.com/recipe/60-cookie-recipes-from-around-the-world/
Raul says
Wow. Dog biscuit — he must love them
HWC Magazine says
Thanks Raul. The cleanup crew is spoiled rotten! (smiling) Stay well and take care
ken says
These are so much better than the reader's digest version.
Chewy and yummy
HWC Magazine says
Thanks so much Ken. These little Homemade Gingerbread Cookies are fantastic with a little afternoon coffee or tea. Enjoy the holidays.
Karen (Back Road Journal) says
I love the idea of a holiday cookie decorating party...well, maybe it won't be a party. Perhaps just a friendly competition between my husband and I. 😊
HWC Magazine says
Thank you Karen. A little husband and wife competition is always a good thing. Did you notice that the males in the family have augmented all of our women gingerbread? They are very sneaky and competitive!
Liz says
Perfect timing! I have gingerbread men on my baking list. I have some blackstrap molasses in my pantry from some ancient blog post...and I've never used it since. I hope mine turn out as cute as yours!!
HWC Magazine says
Thank you Liz. Happy digging in the back of the pantry today to find out what you have in inventory. If you do use the Blackstrap molasses, please reduce amount to 1/4 cup and increase the brown sugar to 1 cup. This type of molasses is strong. Happy Holiday baking to you!
Hannah Kaminsky says
These are so adorable! I do love gingerbread, but I wasn't even sure I would make cookies this year. Half the fun is the decorations of course, and the experience really loses something when you have to do it all alone... Maybe I can coordinate with my mom to decorate cookies with me on Zoom. Your post is inspiring me!
HWC Magazine says
Thanks so much Hannah. These cookies did not even last 48 hours. Went to check the freezer a moment ago and all that was left in the Tupperware was the waxed paper we used to stack the cookies. Zoom sounds like a great idea! Enjoy even those virtual moments with your mom. Cherish all those moments. The bonus of decorating yourself is at least you don't have cookie monsters eating them behind your back. Thank goodness, we were able to get a few photos first.
The-FoodTrotter says
What a wonderful recipe I really want to try this for Xmas! I will definitely keep it in mind 🙂
HWC Magazine says
Thanks so much. It's our kids favorite baked treat for sure. Wishing you a super weekend ahead.
Gerlinde de Broekert says
Happy holidays to you and your family.These cookies are so cute, I just love them.
thecompletecookbook says
Too cute for words! Strange how gingerbread figures taste nicer than just a plain ginger cookie.
🙂 Mandy
Healthy World Cuisine says
Thanks Zoe. Have a great Holiday!
Zoe @ Pantry and Fridge says
Wow, amazing and adorable... 🙂
Healthy World Cuisine says
Thank you. Looking forward to seeing your cute little gingerbread cookies as well. Listening to Christmas music on the CD is so much better than listening me hum out of tune Christmas hits while baking. I love the classics.
Just A Smidgen says
So adorable, I love the little swirly dresses and hair in royal icing;) So festive and colorful!
Healthy World Cuisine says
Thank you. We had so much fun decorating them. Even my husband got into the Christmas spirit this year. He was very creative and talented in his cookie decorating skills.
Just A Smidgen says
Very cute!!
gardenfreshtomatoes says
It DOES look like Christmas hit your kitchen!
Thanks for the Royal Icing recipe - I've been on a hunt for mine, to no avail...
Healthy World Cuisine says
Yes there is frosting and sprinkles everywhere in my kitchen. Christmas has arrived...!! Royal icing traditionally has raw egg whites in it, but I do not like to use raw eggs in my dishes. However, if where you live you can get access to egg white powder that would be great to add as it adds a nice gloss and helps the icing firm up faster. We live in Asia and just getting powdered sugar was a feat. I think I bought the last remaining container on HK Island. Take Care