These soft gingerbread cookies are sweet, soft, and lightly spiced. This is the perfect cut-out cookie recipe, and will quickly become a family favorite for the holidays!
Prep Time: 40 mins
Cook Time: 10 mins
Total Time: 50 minutes
Yield: 3 dozen large cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter, at room temperature (salted or unsalted)
- 1 cup granulated white sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 cup light or dark molasses (do not use blackstrap or cooking molasses)
- 2 tablespoons white vinegar
- 5 cups flour
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons ground ginger
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground cloves
Instructions
- Cream butter, adding sugar gradually. Beat until well combined and light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
- Beat in egg, molasses, and vinegar.
- Sift all of the dry ingredients together and then blend sifted dry ingredients into the wet ingredients.
- Divide the dough into two even pieces, wrap each piece of dough in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 30 to 90 minutes.
When the dough is done chilling, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Workingin sections , roll the dough to 1/2″ thick on a floured surface; cutinto desired shapes. Place shapes on a baking sheet lined withparchment paper or a baking mat. Gather and reroll “scraps” of dough as needed, using all of the dough.- Bake at 350 degrees for 9-11 minutes. Let the cookies cool on the pan for 5 minutes, and then move to a cooling rack.
- Repeat with remaining dough.
- Leave plain or decorate/
Notes
- If you like your gingerbread on the crispy side, roll it 1/4″ thick and bake for 11-12 minutes. If you like it nice and soft (though still very sturdy), roll the dough 1/2″ thick and bake for 10 minutes. If you play around with the thickness of the dough and the baking time, you’ll discover a cookie that meets your liking. I really like this thick and soft.
- The dough can be held in the fridge for 2 days before using without any issues.
- You may need to add up to a 1/2 cup more flour as needed so the dough is workable. I’m cooking from an arid kitchen.
- I’ve used both salted and unsalted butter for this recipe and haven’t noticed much of a difference, use what you have.
- You can substitute the white vinegar with apple cider vinegar without any issues.
Use light , dark, or “fancy” molasses in this recipe. Do not use blackstrap or cooking molasses as your cookies will be bitter if you use the latter two