A simple and delicious recipe for classic Gingerbread Men! These Gingerbread Cookies are made with all butter (no shortening!) for the best flavor. Perfectly spiced with molasses, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg, and decorated with a sweet and simple (not royal icing!) frosting.
Gingerbread cookies are a must for your holiday cookie tray. We make them every year to serve alongside my favorite sugar cookies, peanut butter blossoms, and chocolate chip cookies.
Gingerbread Men
Anyone else feeling incredibly overwhelmed this holiday season? Zach reminded me this morning that there are less than 12 days until Christmas, and there’s so much left to do!
Not helping at all: the fact that I spent last night playing Super Mario Bros. with Zach on the throwback console my mom gave me for my birthday (I turned 29 on Sunday) instead of internet shopping. Helping a little bit: the fact that I at least have the Christmas cookie tray locked down this year with these Gingerbread Men Cookies.
So at least if I can’t find Christmas gifts for my siblings and husband, they’ll be consoled by the fact that there are Gingerbread Cookies to eat. Right? Right.
This gingerbread cookie recipe came about after a lot of trial and error. I started by working with a recipe that my Mom used to make when I was a kid, but quickly decided that despite the rich molasses and plentiful spices, the recipe just wasn’t cutting it in terms of flavor. Personally, I blamed the shortening.
A ton of testing ensued. A lot of butter made its way through my KitchenAid.
I went through batch after batch of gingerbread cookies that were too dry, too hard, and too bland (those were the worst!). Finally I landed on this perfectly soft gingerbread cookie recipe that I’m sharing with you today. Below, I want to cover some of what I think are the most helpful tips that I learned along the way.
How do you Decorate Gingerbread Men?
With a simple icing and colorful candy, of course! Gumdrop buttons are always optional, as well. 😉 I applied just a small amount of icing to each of my gingerbread men, and before it could set I pressed candy pieces onto their “buttons”.
The icing recipe that I provided is essentially the same as the one that I used for my Sugar Cookie Recipe. It’s simple to make, and hard to mess up. It also makes a lot of frosting, more than you’ll need to decorate your cookies the way that I have here. You can cut the recipe in half if you’d like, but I wanted to provide enough that you could fully decorate to your heart’s content.
I kept my frosting white and used colored candies to add some color to the gingerbread men. You can easily add food coloring if you’d like to pipe on colorful bow-ties or bright red and green buttons, though!
Tips for No-fail Gingerbread Men
Add flour when you’re rolling out your Gingerbread Cookies
Don’t be afraid to generously dust both the surface that you are working on and the gingerbread cookie dough with flour. This will keep the dough from sticking, and any excess flour will bake off in the oven. There are few things as frustrating as a perfectly cut out gingerbread man that’s stuck to your counter!
When cutting out your gingerbread men cookies
Keep your cuts as close together to get as many gingerbread men out of your dough as possible. Once you’ve cut out as many cookies as you can, gather the scraps together and re-roll them out again. You want to get as many cookies as possible out of this dough!
Watch the edges
I provided a baking time in the recipe below, but it can vary depending on a lot of things. Take into account how large your cookie cutters are (mine are about 3.5″) and how thick you actually roll out your dough.
A good way to know that your cookies are done is to look for the edges to just be beginning to turn a darker shade of brown. This will yield cookies that have slightly crisped exteriors and soft, chewy interiors. Be sure to let them cool a bit on their baking sheets before trying to move them, otherwise they may break!
When making the frosting
As I mentioned above, it’s hard to mess this one up. If you make the frosting too thin, just add more powdered sugar. If it’s too thick, just add more milk! Play with the consistency until it is easily manageable for you.
Enjoy!
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How to Make the Best Gingerbread Cookies
Gingerbread Men
Ingredients
- ½ cup unsalted butter (113g)
- ½ cup light or dark brown sugar, tightly packed (100g)
- ½ cup molasses (120ml)
- 1 large egg
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 ¼ cups all purpose flour (313g)
- ¾ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 ½ teaspoon ground ginger
- 1 ½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
- ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
For Icing:
- 3 cups powdered sugar sifted (375g)
- 2-4 Tablespoons milk
- 2 Tablespoons light corn syrup
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Decorative candies and sprinkles as desired
Instructions
For Gingerbread Men:
- Using a stand mixer or electric mixer, combine butter and sugar and beat until well-creamed.
- Ad molasses and beat until combined (mixture may look piecey, this is OK).
- Stir in egg and vanilla extract.
- In a separate, medium-sized bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, salt, and spices.
- With mixer on low speed, gradually add dry ingredients to wet until completely combined.
- Scrape dough roughly into a ball (it will be sticky, use a spatula), wrap completely in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 3 hours or overnight.
- Once dough has chilled, preheat oven to 375F (175C).
- Flour a clean surface and lightly flour the dough as well.
- Use a rolling pin to roll the dough to ¼” thickness, and use a cookie cutter (my cookie cutter for these was about 3.5” long) to cut out shapes. Transfer to a parchment paper lined cookie sheet (or an ungreased cookie sheet), transfer to 375F oven, and bake for 8-10 minutes.
- Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for at least 5 minutes then transfer to cooling rack to cool completely before decorating.
- Once cookies have cooled, prepare frosting and decorate.
Gingerbread Men Icing
- Combine sugar, 2 Tablespoons of milk, corn syrup, and vanilla extract in a medium-sized bowl and stir until combined. If frosting is too thick, add more milk, about a teaspoon at a time, until the frosting is thick but pipeable. If you accidentally add too much milk, add powdered sugar until desired texture is reached.
- Transfer to a piping bag with a piping tip (I used Wilton #5), or place in a Ziploc bag and snip a small piece of the corner off (not as neat, but this will still work, just take care that the frosting isn’t so thick that it breaks open the seam of the bag when you are squeezing).
- Pipe frosting on cookies and decorate with decorative candies, if desired.
- Allow frosting to harden before enjoying (this took only about 30 minutes for me, but may take longer if your frosting is wetter)
- Keep uneaten cookies sealed in an airtight container at room temperature.
Notes
On my YouTube channel there is a mistake in my Gingerbread Cookie video 🙈 I say to use 1 cup (2 sticks of butter) but really you should only use 1/2 cup (1 stick). Working on getting this video re-shot!
Nutrition
This Gingerbread Cookie recipe was originally published 12/06/2017, text updated to include more notes 12/13/2018.
Maureen says
Can i freeze the cookies? How long will they stay fresh in a container? Do i store on counter or fridge? I have baked the cookies but I’m not using them with the children for 6 days so not sure how I should store them.
Sam says
Hi Maureen! They stay fresh in an airtight container for about a week if not frozen, so if you’re using them in 6 days I would probably just store in an airtight container at room temperature. I would not refrigerate them but they may be frozen.
Jamie says
My family loved these!! They were previously not fans of gingerbread cookies, but they now love them (only these ones though, because they are soft and the flavor is not too strong). I did use a lot of flour when rolling these out like you mentioned.
Sam says
I’m so glad to hear they were such a success, Jamie! Thank you for commenting and letting me know how they turned out, I appreciate it 🙂
Stephanie Ann Villalpando says
Can you use salted butter? its all I have and don’t want to go to the store lol!
Sam says
Hi Stephanie! You can use salted butter, just cut the salt by about 1/4 teaspoon. 🙂
Molly says
My dough is very sticky. I added a lot more flour and tried chilling the dough more it is still to sticky, I could roll it out but not cut the dough. Do you know why it is so sticky, I did chill it overnight.
Sam says
Hi Molly! Hmm, it definitely should not be that sticky, especially not after chilling overnight. Is it possible an ingredient might have been measured incorrectly? If it’s a little bit sticky you should be able to firm it up by dusting the dough with additional flour and working that into the dough when rolling it out.
Kris says
Hi Molly–
What brand of flour did you use? I have found that flour can vary widely by brand. I would stick with Gold Medal or Pillsbury or King Arthur brand white all-purpose unbleached flour for this. White Lily flour is wonderful for biscuits but does not work up the same for other baked goods like cookies or pie crust–it’s a different kind of wheat than is used for other brands (if you want to get really nerdy, you can research it, but I’ll spare you the details!).
Jennifer says
This recipe sounds delicious! I’m looking for a recipe that won’t be too strong in flavor for my young granddaughters. Would you suggest me halving the amount of spices for their sensitive tastebuds or do you think making it as is will be okay? If I make a basic cream cheese frosting to decorate them do you think that would work?
Celina says
Oh so Wonderful!! This recipe is almost exactly the same as the one I got from my granny – mine uses also cardamom and ground bitter orange peel, but otherwise it’s the same. And yes – this recipe truly makes the Best Gingerbread Cookies Ever!! 🙂
Thank you for sharing it with those heartwarming photos 🙂
Have a Very Merry and Restful Christmas 🙂
* Greetings from Finland *
Sugar Spun Run says
Thank you so much, Celina! I am so glad that you enjoyed the gingerbread men cookies. I really appreciate the warm wishes. I hope that you have a wonderful Christmas! 🙂
Donna says
I made these exactly by the recipe and they came out perfect! My family loves them! They are soft and have a great gingerbread flavor!
Sugar Spun Run says
I am so glad that everyone enjoyed the gingerbread cookies, Donna! Thank you for commenting. 🙂
Heather says
How long will the dough keep in the fridge?
Sugar Spun Run says
Hi, Heather! The gingerbread dough will keep for a few days in the fridge. I hope that you enjoy! 🙂
Clare says
Some recipes suggest freezing the gingerbread dough instead of refridgerating to cut the time. Would that work with your recipe? If so how long should I freeze?
Sugar Spun Run says
Hi, Clare! If you are trying to cut down the chill time of 3 hours, you can try it. I have not, I would be afraid that the dough would be too hard. Let me know how it works for you. 🙂
Swati says
Hi, I made the ginger bread men…turned out great.! Though had a question about the frosting… You have used powdered sugar…not icing sugar.. right? Just wanna confirm!
Clare says
Absolutely delicious! They came out great, not too soft or hard, and very flavorful. This is one of the best gingerbread recipes I have ever tasted! The frosting also came out delicious and together the two made one great cookie! They did not last very long here! Maybe next year I’ll have to triple the recipe!
Sugar Spun Run says
I am so glad that you enjoyed the cookies, Clare! Thank you so much for commenting. 🙂
Clare says
Sounds really delicous, and I can’t wait to make. Do you know of anything to subsitute for cloves?
Sugar Spun Run says
Hi, Clare! Unfortunately, I haven’t tried substituting the cloves. Possibly allspice? Again, without messing up the flavor, I am not certain. 🙂