Soft Gingerbread Cookies

Recipe

Gingerbread Boy

 

My go-to gingerbread cookie is firm on the edges and soft and chewy in the middle. It has a robust molasses flavor and plenty of ginger, cinnamon, cloves, and other spices. This recipe is all that.

Recipe

Ingredients

    COOKIE DOUGH

    6 tablespoons (86g / 3 oz) butter, softened

    ¾ cup (165g / 5¾ oz) packed dark brown sugar

    ½ cup (156g / 5½ oz) molasses

    1 egg (50g out of shell)

    2 teaspoons vanilla extract

    1 teaspoon grated lemon zest

    1 tablespoon ground ginger

    1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

    ¼ teaspoon ground cloves

    1½ teaspoons baking powder

    ½ teaspoon baking soda

    ¼ teaspoon salt

    Icing and candies of your choice.

    EASY VANILLA GLAZE
    FOR PIPING AND DECORATING COOKIES

    2 cups (8 oz / 250g) confectioners’ sugar

    1 tablespoon (24mL) light corn syrup

    2 tablespoons (30mL) water

    1 teaspoon clear vanilla

    Food coloring (optional; gel food coloring recommended)

Yield: about 3 dozen

Prep Time: 15 min.

Bake Time: 20-30 min.

Total Time: 35-45 min.

Type of Recipe:
Cutout Cookies

 

Instructions

Cookies
  1. In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and brown sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy (about 3 minutes). Beat in the molasses, egg, vanilla, and lemon zest.
  2. Combine the flour, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; with mixer on low speed, gradually add the dry ingredients to the creamed mixture and mix well.
  3. Divide the dough in half and shape each portion into an oval-shaped ball. Roll each ball between two sheets of parchment paper to ¼-inch thick. Place the cookie sheets with the rolled dough into the refrigerator for 30 minutes to 2 hours until firm and easy to handle. I sometimes freeze the rolled-out dough overnight.
  4. Preheat oven to 350°F during the last 10 minutes of refrigeration. Cover baking sheets with parchment paper.
  5. When the dough is chilled, remove the parchment from the top and cut out the cookies into desired shapes. Remove the cookies from the bottom sheet of parchment paper and place them 2 inches apart on the prepared baking sheets. Roll the remaining pieces of dough as described above, refrigerating the dough if it gets too soft to work with.
  6. Bake at 350°F for 7-10 minutes, rotating the baking sheet halfway through, until the edges are slightly firm and the centers are puffed up and no longer shiny. They will still be very soft, but will firm up as they cool. If baking frozen cookies, bake for 6 minutes, turn baking sheet and bake an additional 5-7 minutes.
  7. Remove to wire racks to cool completely. Decorate as desired.

 

Vanilla Glaze
  1. Combine confectioners’ sugar, corn syrup, water, vanilla, and food coloring (if using) and whisk until fully combined.
  2. Spoon the glaze into a piping bag equipped with a decorator tip (I use #1 tip for very delicate lines, a #2 for outlining, and a #3 for flooding).
  3. The glaze will spread very little, and will harden fairly quickly to a hard semi-shiny finish. Let glaze dry for about 4-6 hours before packaging or stacking the decorated cookies.

 

Recipe Notes

  • This is a relatively soft dough, so refrigerate or freeze it before cutting out the shapes.
  • DO NOT OVERBAKE or the cookies will be too hard to eat. Trust me on this!
  • I often use Silpat baking mats, but I don’t recommend using them for these cookies because the spices tend to “linger” on the Silpat mats and will affect subsequent recipes. If you do use Silpat mats, wash them with baking soda to get out the odor.
  • For the glaze, I add a drop or two of white food coloring to make it opaque. Adding white will cut down on the shine, though, so if you want a shinier finish, leave out the white food coloring. You can, of course, use gel colors and these will not affect the shine.

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