Gingerbread Cookie Recipe
My husband is the chief gingerbread cookie maker in our house, he is the one who introduced me to this soft gingerbread cookie recipe.
The kids and I are the cookie shapers and gingerbread decorators! This year I think we outdid ourselves with gingerbread men, gingerbread Christmas trees, reindeer cookies, and star-shaped gingerbread.
Ingredients you will need
Ingredient Notes, Substitutes, & Alternatives
- Plain flour: I have successfully made these Gluten Free Gingerbread Cookies with gluten-free flour.
- Caster Sugar: These cookies are lovely made with brown sugar.
- Spices: I use a combination of ground ginger, nutmeg and cinnamon to flavor my gingerbread cookies. You can skip the nutmeg if you don't have it in your pantry. If you are doing this replace it with extra cinnamon.
- Golden Syrup: This can be substituted for molasses
- Royal Icing: I decorate my cookies with royal icing, food colouring, sprinkles, and sweets. To make your own royal icing you will need egg whites, icing sugar and lemon juice. You can of course decorate your gingerbread with buttercream or melted chocolate if you prefer.
Step-by-step instructions
Below are illustrated step-by-step instructions to make my soft gingerbread cookie recipe, if you prefer just the written instructions then head straight to the printable recipe card below.
Step one: Start by whisking the dry ingredients together: flour, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg.
Step two: Separate the eggs, gently whisk together the 2 egg yolks and 1 whole egg. Set aside the egg whites for making royal icing.
Step three: In a large mixing bowl beat/cream the butter, caster sugar and, golden syrup. I use an electric beater or stand mixer for this.
Step four: While beating slowly pour the whisked egg yolk mixture into the creamed butter, sugar, and syrup.
Step five: Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, one third at a time. By this I mean add one-third of the dry ingredients, mix until combined, and then add the next third until all the dry ingredients have been added. I use a wooden spoon for this stage, but you can also so it on low speed with your stand mixer.
Step six: Split the dough into two balls, flatten these into disks (makes it easier for rolling later) wrap in cling wrap or a beeswax wrap. Chill the dough in the dough for at least 30 minutes or up to 3 days.
Step seven: Preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius.
Bring the gingerbread cookie dough out from the fridge, allow it to soften. Roll out each disk to 5mm thick with a rolling pin. I do this between two sheets of baking paper. Use cutters to cut your gingerbread into Christmas shapes. Re-roll the offcuts until you have used all the dough.
Step eight: Bake the cookies on baking paper-lined baking sheets for 10- 15 minutes. They will be golden when cooked. Cool the cookies completely on cool racks.
How To Make Royal Icing
Step one: Whisk or beat the egg whites until frothy.
Step two: Add the icing sugar, one third at a time, beating between each addition until all the icing sugar has been added.
If your icing gets too stiff to beat at this point, add a little of the lemon juice.
Step three: Add the lemon juice onto tablespoons a at time beating between each addition, your royal icing should be smooth, white and glossy.
Decorate your cookies!
Gingerbread Decorating Ideas
Gingerbread Men
Of course a traditional choice would be to create gingerbread men. We went for simple gingerbread men, We used royal icing in a piping bag with a small tip to create a face, m and m's for buttons and they looked great.
Reindeer Cookies
Ok, so this is a great hack, if you have a gingerbread man cookie cutter then you also have all you need to make reindeer cookies. All you need to do is turn it upside down. The legs become antleers, the arms are ears, and the head forms the nose/mouth of the reindeer.
To decorate our gingerbread reindeer we used white and black royal icing, candy eyes and a red m and m for the nose.
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Christmas Tree Cookies
If I'm honest Christmas tree cookies are my favourite way to make gingerbread cookies with my kids.. as no matter what, they always turn out looking great!
We coloured some of the royal icing green. We piped a green zig zag from the top to the bottom of the tree. Sprinkled on some 100 and 1000s, and then added a few gold star sprinkles.
A little tip for the sprinkles, pop your cookies inside of a baking tray that has an edge, this contains the sprinkles so they don't end up everywhere!
Gingerbread Stars
I also love decorating gingerbread stars with my kids. I keep it simple, we just use white royal icing in a piping bag and then I let them go crazy, even white scribbles on the cookies still look awesome, and if you have them all decorated a little bit differently they look amazing when you put them together.
Tips For Decorating Gingerbread With Kids
Here is how you can make these gingerbread cookies with your kids perfectly every time!
- My top tip for making gingerbread cookies with your kids is to do it on a day when you aren't in a rush when you are feeling patient. Because honestly baking with kids doesn't always end up as fun as it looks on Instagram!
- You can make the dough in advance, then just do the fun bits with the kids!
FAQs
Yes, you can make the dough in advance and store in your refrigerator for up to 3 days, or freeze it.
Yes! You can freeze the uncooked dough wrapped. in cling film for up to 3 months, you can also freeze baked cookies in an airtight container for up to 3 months.
How To Make This Recipe Suitable For Baby-Led-Weaning
- If you want to make gingerbread cookies for your little one try my low-sugar Christmas cookie recipe that also uses soft berries for the decorations
- For little ones I squash the blueberries!
If you tried this Gingerbread Cookie Recipe please leave a star rating and let me know how you go in the comments below. I love hearing from you!
Gingerbread Cookies
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Ingredients
- 550 g flour 3 ½ cups
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- 2 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon nutmeg
- 200 g butter softened
- 200 g caster sugar 1 cup
- 160 g golden syrup ½ cup
- 2 egg yolks
- 1 egg
Royal icing
- 2 egg whites
- 500 g icing sugar
- 2 lemons (juice only)
Instructions
Cookies
- Start by whisking the dry ingredients together: flour, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg
- Separate the eggs, gentley whisk together the 2 egg yolks and 1 whole egg. Set aside the egg whites for the royal icing.
- In a large mixing bowl beat/cream the butter, caster sugar and, golden syrup. I use an electric beater for this.
- While beating slowly pour the eggs into the creamed butter, sugar, and syrup.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, one third at a time. By this I mean add one third of the dry ingredients, mix until combined and then add the next third until all the dry ingredients have been added. I use a wooden spoon for this stage.
- Split the dough into two balls, flatten these into disks (makes it easier for rolling later) wrap in cling wrap or a beeswax wrap. Refrigerate the dough for at least 30 minutes or up to 3 days.
- Preheat your oven to 180 degrees celsius.
- Bring the gingerbread dough out from the fridge, allow it to soften. Roll out each disk to 5mm thick, I do this between two sheets of baking paper. Use cutters to cut your gingerbread into Christmas shapes. Re-roll the offcuts until you have used all the dough.
- Bake the cookies on baking paper-lined trays for 10-15 minutes. They will be golden when cooked. Cool the cookies completely on cool racks.
Royal Icing
- (This makes A LOT of royal icing, but means you have plenty for lots of colours, flood icing if you decide to. But you can halve the recipe) Whisk or beat the egg whites until frothy.
- Add the icing sugar, one third at a time, beating between each addition until all the icing sugar has been added. If your icing gets too stiff to beat at this point, add a little of the lemon juice.
- Add the lemon juice one tablespoon at a time, beating between each addition. Your royal icing should be smooth, white and glossy and ready for piping.
- You can now diivide the royal icing into smaller bowls and colour with food colouring if desired. Use piping bags to decorate your cookies.
Video
Notes
- My top tip for making gingerbread cookies with your kids is to do it on a day when you aren't in a rush when you are feeling patient. Because honestly baking with kids doesn't always end up as fun as it looks on Instagram!
- You can freeze the uncooked dough wrapped. in cling film for up to 3 months, you can also freeze baked cookies in an airtight container for up to 3 months.
Ingredient Notes
-
- Plain flour: I have successfully made these Gluten Free Gingerbread Cookies with gluten-free flour.
- Golden Syrup: This can be substituted for molasses
-
- Caster Sugar: These cookies are lovely made with brown sugar.
-
- Spices: I use a combination of ground ginger, nutmeg and cinnamon. You can skip the nutmeg if you don't have it in your pantry. If you are doing this replace it with extra cinnamon.
- Royal Icing: I decorate my cookies with royal icing, food colouring, sprinkles, and sweets. To make your own royal icing you will need egg whites, icing sugar and lemon juice. You can of course decorate your gingerbread with buttercream or melted chocolate if you prefer.
DECORATING IDEAS
Gingerbread Men
- Use white royal icing to dray eyes nose and a mouth
- Add squiggles on the arms and legs
- Use red or green sweets like m and ms for buttons.
Reindeer Cookies
- Take a gingerbread shaped cookie, turn it upside down
- Draw on antlers using white royal icing
- Add candy eyes and a red m and m nose
- Use white and black royal icing to decorate the rest of your reindeer face.
CHRISTMAS TREES
- Use green royal icing to draw a zig zag over your Christmas tree
- Add colourful sprinkles
CHRISTMAS Stars
- Use white royal icing to decorate your Christmas stars, any white decoration will look great
- Squiggles
- Polka dots,
- Spirals
- Solid white flood icing
- Add colourful sprinkles
Nutrition
Quick Start Guide To BLW
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