These soft Gingerbread Cookies get more compliments than any other cookie recipes I have ever made. Even people who say they don’t like gingersnaps end up loving these easy homemade cookies!
No exaggerating, every time I make these gingerbread cookies, people go crazy for them. The responses are always the same. “These are the best ginger cookies I’ve ever had.” “I didn’t even know I liked gingersnap cookies until now.” “You have to give me this gingerbread cookie recipe.”
Hands down, these are the best gingerbread cookies that I, and most of my friends and family, have ever tasted. Truth be told I’ve never been a big fan of gingerbread. My feelings on gingerbread and ginger cookies have always been lukewarm at best.
Often in the past ginger bread cookies didn’t even make it on to my Christmas cookies list. These easy gingerbread cookies totally changed that. This past year at our Christmas gathering, my friends and family inhaled them so fast that I made a second batch Christmas night.
If you are wondering how to make soft gingerbread cookies or looking for the best gingerbread cookie recipe, I’ve got you covered.
Easy Soft Gingerbread Cookies
Gingerbread Cookies
Everyone seems divided on what to call these. Are they ginger cookies, gingersnaps or gingerbread cookies? Maybe they are molasses cookies or ginger molasses cookies! Clearly they aren’t gingerbread man cookies, but is there a hard fast rule on ginger cookie names? To me a gingersnap should have, well, some snap.
Given that these ginger cookies easy to make, and are soft and chewy gingerbread, I call them easy gingerbread cookies. Call them whatever you like, just make them. Trust me, you won’t regret it!
How To Make Gingerbread Cookies
The only thing that might be better than the taste of these cookies is how easy they are to make. There is nothing complicated about this gingerbread cookie recipe. They are quite similar to making snickerdoodles actually.
Chilling the dough isn’t even required for these, so as a result you can whip these cookies up in no time. If you need a great cookie for a cookie exchange or Christmas party but are short on time, I would certainly recommend these.
Ingredients At A Glance (printable recipe at bottom):
- Butter
- Sugar
- Egg
- Molasses
- Flour
- Baking Soda
- Salt
- Cinnamon and Ginger
Directions At A Glance:
- Combine the wet ingredients, then combine the dry ingredients, then mix together.
- Scoop dough into balls and place on baking sheet.
- Bake for 10-12 minutes.
Molasses Cookies
Molasses is not something I use often. These molasses cookies and my gingerbread bars are probably the only recipes I use it in. Growing up my Dad would put molasses on all the things. He’d use it on pancakes, in oatmeal, anything was fair game. Between you and me, for that reason it kind of always turned my stomach a bit.
If you think about it, molasses looks a lot like tar. That is probably why I steered clear of gingerbread recipes for a long time. However this gingerbread cookie recipe has helped me get over my molasses phobia. So if you are thinking I don’t like molasses, don’t worry, I don’t either. But I sure do love these ginger molasses cookies! Now let’s get baking!
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Want more delicious holiday and Christmas Cookie recipes? I have some great recommendations for you below the recipe card. Don’t miss them. And if you like this recipe, sign up to get my free Favorite Cookies e-Cookbook!
Gingerbread Cookies
Ingredients
- ¾ cup unsalted butter softened
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 large egg
- ¼ cup molasses unsulphured
- 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 2 tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp salt
- 1 tsp cinnamon if you like a strong cinnamon flavor, increase to 2 tsp total
- ½ tsp dried ground ginger if you like a strong ginger flavor, increase to 1-2 tsp total
- Optional: granulated sugar to roll cookie dough balls in
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- First, mix together butter and sugar until light and fluffy, approximately 2-3 minutes with an electric mixer.
- Next, add egg and molasses and mix well.
- In a separate bowl combine flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and ginger, stirring to combine.
- Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and mix until well combined.
- Form or scoop balls of dough that are slightly smaller than a golf ball. If desired, roll dough balls in granulated sugar after forming. Place them on a baking sheet approximately 2” to 3” apart to allow room for cookies to spread.
- Finally, bake for 10-12 minutes, remove from oven and allow cookies to cool on baking for approximately ten minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling.
Video
Nutrition
Disclaimer
Nutrition information is estimated as a courtesy. If using for medical purposes, please verify information using your own nutritional calculator. Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.
If you are looking for Gingerbread Man Cookies, I’ve got those for you as well!
I hope you and your family enjoy these delicious soft gingerbread cookies as much as my family does! Also check out all the cookie recipes and Christmas cookie recipes here on Love From The Oven!
Looking for more delicious gingerbread recipes? These are certainly some of my favorites!
- Fun Gingerbread Snowballs by Crazy For Crust
- Breakfast ready Gingerbread pancakes by Love From The Oven
- Easy Gingerbread Fudge by Spend With Pennies
- Slow Cooker Gingerbread Latte by The Cookie Rookie
- Crunchy Gingerbread Biscotti by She Wears Many Hats
- Gingerbread Loaf Cake by Crunchy, Creamy, Sweet
- Party ready Gingerbread Martini from Nutmeg Nanny
Now grab that ginger, run to the store for some molasses, and get baking!
Originally published September 2018
Sydney says
Can I use a cookie cutter instead of shaping these in balls?
Christi Johnstone says
No, you would want to us my gingerbread man cookie recipe for that. This cookie is a bit too soft.
Andrea R says
These are so good I’m making them a second time within the same week. Ever so slightly crisp on the outside… buttery soft inside. I went extra spicy with the ginger- perfection. Thank you for this recipe!
No name says
BEST RECIPE!!!👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼
Also Anonymous says
Fancy Molasses is made by Crosby’s and is a Canadian brand.
To Anonymous says – use the Fancy
Anonymous says
Blackstrap or fancy molasses?
Christi Johnstone says
Can’t say I’m familiar with fancy. But definitely not blackstrap. Just good, old fashioned, off the grocery store shelf, unsulphered molasses. The Grandma’s brand is probably the most common one.
Stephanie Hayes says
These are the most delicious perfect texture & balance of flavor! A definite keeper, thanks so much for this awesome recipe.
Christi Johnstone says
So glad you enjoyed them!
Bow says
what is the best way to store the baked cookies? And how long does it usually keep at room temperature?
Christi Johnstone says
I typically store cookies in an airtight container. As with any cookie, they are best in the first few days, after which they will start to harden. One tip, you can place a piece of plain sandwich bread in the container with most cookies and it will help keep them soft.
Andrea says
I do cooking programs with kids. I halved this recipe so kids can make in pairs and still have plenty of cookies. Now, I did a straight split, except did 1/3 cup butter and eye-balled half an egg (after beaten) because of the non- splitting friendly measurements 🙂 I just made my test batch. VERY yummy and soft cookies! But I really don’t taste molasses, ginger or cinnamon! Since I’ve never made a full batch, I have nothing to compare it to. In the full batch, do any of those flavors stand out– are recognizable– or is it more a cookie that perfectly blends the stronger tastes together so you don’t taste any one flavor? Thanks so much! Can’t wait to make them tomorrow with the kids!!
Haley says
So I just made these and they look amazing HOWEVER the after taste literally taste like poison what am I doing wrong??
Christi Johnstone says
You have some sort of wrong ingredient going on somewhere. These have been a really popular recipe that gets rave reviews, and I’ve made them a million times, and they most certainly don’t taste like poison. Let’s go through the ingredients and see if we can figure it out.
My first thought is your molasses. The most common one at the grocery store is a simple unsulphured molasses. This is what most of them will be. Grandma’s is the most common brand, but most at the grocery store will be unsulphured. If you somehow got sulphured, which is possible but it’s not a very common product, that can have what is described as a chemical taste. The other option would be that you have blackstrap molasses, also not super common at grocery stores, but it can be very bitter. So check and see if your molasses says “unsulphured”.
The other option would be the ginger. Just to verify, you are using ground, dried ginger, not fresh, correct? But I don’t think that’s what’s wrong because that would be spicy hot.
After that just double check your measurements. A good friend once made a recipe with one measurement incorrectly, and she did it three times in a row. Somehow she just misread it in her head each time.
Let me know if this helps, hopefully we can get it figured out!
Kristen says
Can you freeze these?
Christi Johnstone says
Of course!