These Soft and Chewy Gingerbread Cookies are an incredibly delicious way to enjoy the holiday season! Each cookie gives you that classic gingerbread flavor with a simple vanilla bean glaze brushed over the top.
Table of Contents
Reasons You’ll Love These Gingerbread Cookies
The Flavor. This homemade soft and chewy gingerbread cookie recipe uses full-flavor molasses and a combination of spices to give them their classic gingerbread taste!
The Texture. What you’ll love about these gingerbread cookies—besides the flavor—is the soft and chewy texture! And when you top it with the simple vanilla bean glaze, you have the best cookie ever!
Easy to Make. This soft and chewy gingerbread cookie recipe is easy to make and a fun one to do with family or friends!
And if you love these gingerbread cut-out cookies, be sure to check out my gingerbread whoopie pies, small-batch gingerbread cupcakes, gingerbread cake, and homemade gingerbread houses (not for eating, just enjoying)!
Ingredients Needed
- Vegetable Shortening. You can use plain shortening or butter-flavored shortening.
- Unsalted Butter. Room-temperature unsalted butter is best, but you can also use salted butter. Just omit the salt from the recipe, then.
- Baking Powder and Baking Salt. Leavening agents were added to give the cookies some height and shape.
- Granulated Sugar. Helps give the cookies their sweetness to balance out the flavors from the molasses and spices!
- All-Purpose Flour. Use your favorite all-purpose flour for this recipe. Mine is from King Arthur Baking.
- Spices. You’ll need ground ginger, ground cinnamon, ground cloves, and salt, which gives us that classic warm gingerbread flavor.
- Egg. Brings all the ingredients together and helps give them their softness.
- Molasses. Full flavor is the best type to use here, which gives these gingerbread cut-out cookies their classic gingerbread flavor.
- Apple Cider Vinegar. Gives the cookies a little more height and helps to keep them soft and chewy. When added (it’s only a tablespoon), I promise you won’t notice the taste. You can use white vinegar as a substitute.
How to Make The Recipe
Below is a brief outline of how to make soft, chewy gingerbread cookies. Looking for the full detailed recipe? Visit the recipe card below.
- Cream the butter and shortening together. These should be at room temperature to ensure they blend well with the other ingredients.
- Add in the sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and spices.
- Mix in the egg, molasses, and apple cider vinegar.
- Add in the flour. The cookie dough will be very soft but thick.
- Chill the cookie dough. You can chill it in the bowl or roll it out into two slabs and then chill it. The minimum chill time is 1 hour. If rolling out into slabs, you can chill them in the freezer between sheets of wax paper.
- Cut out the cookies and bake. Space them about 1″-2″ apart on the parchment paper-lined cookie sheet. Bake for 6-8 minutes at 375ºF. Cool the cookies on the cookie sheet for 5-10 minutes before transferring them to a wire cooling rack.
- Top with simple vanilla bean glaze. This is an optional step, but I highly recommend it. They’re just so good with the vanilla bean glaze! Allow the glaze gingerbread cut-out cookies to dry completely before storing them in an airtight food container with a slice of bread (to keep them soft longer).
Recipe FAQs
I found these on Etsy! They are super cute and were easy to use with this gingerbread cookie dough. Search for ‘town theme cookie cutters’ over on Etsy. And I haven’t used these, but Tovolo also makes a cute set of gingerbread cookie stamps.
No, this cookie dough would be too soft. Instead, check out my Homemade Gingerbread Houses tutorial, which is only meant for creating them, not eating them.
It’s best to keep them in an airtight container with a slice of bread tucked in, which will keep the cookies nice and soft for days.
Use a flat spatula to pat them down gently.
More than likely, you added too much flour to the cookie dough. Because measuring cups vary in size, it’s best to measure your ingredients with a reliable food scale.
More Holiday Cookie Recipes from Beyond the Butter®!
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Gingerbread Cut Out Cookies
Ingredients
Gingerbread Cookies
- 1/2 cup Vegetable Shortening
- 1/4 cup Unsalted Butter
- 1/2 cup Granulated Sugar
- 1 tsp Ground Ginger
- 1 tsp Baking Powder
- 1/2 tsp Baking Soda
- 1/2 tsp Ground Cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp Ground Cloves
- 1/4 tsp Salt
- 1 large Egg
- 1/2 cup Full Flavored Molasses
- 1 tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar, do not use apple cider
- 3 cups All-Purpose Flour
Vanilla Bean Glaze
- 1 cup Sifted Powdered Sugar
- 2 tbsp Milk (any dairy)
- 1/2 tsp Vanilla Bean Paste, or vanilla extract
Instructions
- In a large bowl, using either your hand mixer or stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix the vegetable shortening and unsalted butter on medium-high speed until well blended.1/2 cup Vegetable Shortening, 1/4 cup Unsalted Butter
- Add in the granulated sugar, ground ginger, baking powder, baking soda, ground cinnamon, ground cloves, and salt. Then beat in the egg, full-flavored molasses, and apple cider vinegar.1/2 cup Granulated Sugar, 1 tsp Ground Ginger, 1 tsp Baking Powder, 1/2 tsp Baking Soda, 1/2 tsp Ground Cinnamon, 1/2 tsp Ground Cloves, 1/4 tsp Salt, 1 large Egg, 1/2 cup Full Flavored Molasses, 1 tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar
- Add in the all-purpose flour, then mix together on low speed until the cookie dough has come together.3 cups All-Purpose Flour
- Divide the cookie dough into two sections, then roll each one out to 1/4" thick between two sheets of lightly floured wax or parchment paper. Transfer each slab of cookie dough (keep the wax paper on top) to a baking sheet (you can stack them on top of one another), then chill in either the refrigerator or the freezer for a minimum of 1 hour. The colder the dough is, the easier it will be to use cookie cutters.
- Adjust the oven to the 2nd level position (just above the center) and preheat your oven to 375ºF.
- Dip your cookie cutters in a little bit of flour, then cut out your cookies placing them 1"-2" apart on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Reroll any leftover scraps of cookie dough.
- Bake them for 6-8 minutes at 375ºF. Let them cool on the baking sheet for 5-10 minutes before transferring them to a wire cooling rack to finish cooling. If the cookies are puffed up when brought out of the oven, gently pat them down with a flat spatula.
Vanilla Bean Glaze
- In a small bowl, whisk together the sifted powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla bean paste until blended. The mixture should be thick but not so thick you can brush it easily onto the cookies.1 cup Sifted Powdered Sugar, 2 tbsp Milk (any dairy), 1/2 tsp Vanilla Bean Paste
- Using a silicone brush, brush the vanilla bean glaze on top of each gingerbread cookie. Let them dry completely before storing them in a food container.
Notes
- For chilling the cookie dough. You can also cover and chill the cookie dough immediately after it’s made in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour, then roll it out if you wish.
- For adding the glaze. Alternatively, you can dip the cookies into the glaze. Place them on a wire rack with a baking sheet or a paper towel underneath to catch any excess vanilla bean glaze. Let them dry completely before storing them in a food container.
- The number of cookies this recipe yields will depend on your cookie cutter.
- Recipe adapted from Better Homes and Gardens.
Nutrition
Nutritional information provided above is an estimate only and will vary based on specific ingredients used. See Nutritional Disclaimer for more info.
Hi there, I’m going to try these but have a question about using stamp cookie cutters. Do you stamp them after cutting them out, or leave the stamp insert in place as you cut? Thx!
Hi! I’m sorry I didn’t see your question until now. I kind of do a combination of the two. I place the cookie cutter into the dough, then place the stamp part in and press down gently. Then I lift the stamp part out, then the cutter. I hope that makes sense 🙂 I did a quick Instagram reels with these cookie cutters that you can check out…https://www.instagram.com/reel/CmHE7d9D4h5/?igsh=MTJ0OTJpcXZtZ3d5aA==
First time making homemade gingerbread cookies and this recipe was easy to follow with impressive results! They also taste amazing and held their shape well. Looking forward to making these for our holiday gatherings !
Can you use all butter??
You can, but they will more than likely spread while baking.
I just love the look of these cookies and can’t wait to try them. I looked for the cookie cutters but was unable to find them on Etsy. Could you possibly share the seller or link? I would greatly appreciate it. Always enjoy following you on Instagram!!
Hi Patti! I don’t have a link for these, but on Etsy, if you search for ‘town theme cookie cutters’ they’ll appear (in my search, they showed up on the 2nd row). The seller is Naturalworld1990. Hope this helps, and thank you for following me on Instagram!❤️