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.
- dough is done chilling, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Working , roll the dough to 1/2″ thick on a floured surface; cut shapes. Place shapes on a baking sheet lined with 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.
- , 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