Classic Gingerbread Cut-Out Cookies are soft, spiced, and perfect for decorating. Use the royal icing recipe provided to embellish the cookies and attach candy decors.
If you’ve been searching for an authentic gingerbread recipe that rolls out effortlessly and bakes into soft, smooth cut out cookies ready for decorating, then I’d like to think your search ends here. This classic gingerbread delivers all the spicy warmth and nostalgia of traditional gingerbread with a dough that’s as forgiving as it is flavorful. The unsticky dough helps cookie cutters to stamp out shapes cleanly. It’s so easy to work with. I opted for both jumbo 8-inch gingerbread men and smaller 3-inch cookies. Large or small, this dough bakes up like a dream!
Everyone needs a trusty gingerbread recipe! It has such rich flavor – and history! And while this particular blog post isn’t the place to deep-dive its ancient origins, you can find an interesting article on the subject right here.
On to the recipe!
Mixing the Dough
Begin with 5 cups of all-purpose flour, just a touch of baking soda for leavening, and salt. Then sift in alllll the spices. This formula is not shy when it comes to seasoning. A hallmark of traditional gingerbread is the blend of warm spices like ginger, cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg. This recipe uses all of these, creating the deep, aromatic flavor that is classic to gingerbread.
Cream together butter, light brown sugar, and then add the molasses. I used a dark molasses, which yields an intense flavor and color. A touch of apple cider vinegar is the secret – and a more modern addition – in this recipe for tender cookies. As it reacts with the baking soda to help the dough rise slightly and stay soft. With the vinegar addition to the wet ingredients – the mixture may look curdled – that’s completely normal! Once the flour is incorporated, you’ll have a supple dough that’s easy to handle after chilling. You’ll need to plan for at least 2 hours in the refrigerator for the dough to rest and chill.
Roll the Dough
Roll the dough between sheets of parchment paper for an even, mess-free process. This also removes the need for dusting the dough with flour. Which can leave dusty white marks on the surface of the cookies. For jumbo gingerbread men, use this 8″ cutter to create a dozen bold, centerpiece-worthy cookies. Smaller 3″ cutters are more standard-sized, and your dough will yield nearly 50 cookies! Remember to chill the cut shapes briefly before baking to help them hold their edges.
Bake the Gingerbread Cookies
Bake similar-sized cookies together to ensure even cooking. As for these jumbo guys, I could only fit 1 per quarter sheet pan. I eventually swapped it out for a much larger pan for faster work (and you should, too!). Keep an eye out for a puffed and matte surface. Because that the visual cue for perfectly baked gingerbread. Allow cookies to cool fully before moving on to the fun part. Decorating!
Add a Bow!
Create big festive bows for your gingerbread cookies by filling a silicone bow mold with red melted candy wafers. Pipe the candy into the mold, ensuring it fills every detail, and tap the mold on your work surface to smooth the surface and remove air bubbles. Once the candy sets in the refrigerator, unmold the bows carefully.
The mold I used is so pretty, but more than once, the ribbon tails broke off during unmolding. If you look closely, you can see this in the photo. But the good news is, each time the break was so clean, I just stuck it back together with more melted candy. If this happens to you, just use a dab of melted candy to glue the pieces back together seamlessly.
Do Just a Little Piping
Pipe royal icing frills on the hands and feet. Add a happy smile with heart-shaped candies for cheeks and large black confetti sprinkles for eyes. A simple #2 or #3 plain round decorator tip works well for this. See the recipe for links.
Pro Tip: Have your sprinkles and candy decors ready to hand, and decorate each cookie fully before moving on to the next. This ensures the royal icing doesn’t dry before adding embellishments.
Decorate the smaller cookies similarly but scale the features down with smaller confetti for eyes and cheeks, and petite candy bows. You can find the small bow mold I used right here.
This Classic Gingerbread Cut Out Cookies recipe is a true holiday classic; a heritage recipe that’s perfect for creating soft, spiced cookies that are as pleasant to eat as they are to decorate.
To see the process in action, don’t miss the video tutorial. There you’ll find step-by-step guidance on mixing the dough, baking, and decorating. This is a recipe I hope you’ll love sharing, and you may even pass it down to future generations.
Related Recipe: Muddy Reindeer Cookies
Classic Gingerbread Cut Out Cookies (with Royal Icing)
Gingerbread dough
- 5 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon fine grain sea salt or table salt
- 1 1/2 tablespoons ground ginger
- 1 1/2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
- 1 cup light brown sugar tightly packed
- 1 large egg
- 1 cup molasses such as Grandma’s unsulfured
- 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar or white vinegar
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
Royal icing
- 2 egg whites from large eggs
- 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
- 3 cups confectioners’ sugar sifted
- 1/2 teaspoon lemon extract or other clear extract
Decors
- black confetti sprinkles or black sugar beads/pearls for eyes
- pink heart shaped candies or confetti sprinkles for cheeks
- 24 oz. red candy melting wafers melted, for molding bows
Gingerbread cookies
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Place the flour in a large mixing bowl Sift in the baking soda, salt, ginger, cinnamon, allspice, cloves, and nutmeg. Whisk together well to combine. Set aside.
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In the bowl of an electric mixer (preferably a stand mixer fitted with paddle – this makes a lot of dough) cream together the butter and brown sugar until well combined, about 2 minutes. Add the egg and mix until incorporated. Add the molasses; mix well until combined. Beat in the vinegar and vanilla extract. The mixture may look curdled with the vinegar addition – this is normal.
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Add the flour mixture to the creamed mixture and beat on low speed until the dough comes together. It should be soft and not very sticky. Scrape down the bowl and mix again briefly to combine. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours and up to overnight.
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Remove the bowl of dough from the refrigerator and let stand at room temperature for about 20 minutes. Remove 1/4 of the dough and place on a large sheet of parchment paper. Top with a second piece of parchment. Roll dough between papers to slightly less than 1/2-inch thickness. Remove the top piece of parchment.
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Use cookie cutters to stamp shapes from the dough. Transfer cookies to parchment-lined baking sheets. Chill cookies on the cookie sheets for 10 minutes. Re-roll scraps, stamp more cookies, and repeat process with remaining dough.
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Preheat the oven to 350F.
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Bake 3” cookies four 8-10 minutes. Larger cookies will take 12-15 minutes, depending on their size. Bake cookies of the same size together, so they all reach correct doneness at the same time. Cookies are done with they are slightly puffed and lose their shiny surface.
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Cool the cookies for 5 minutes on the pans, then transfer to wire racks to cool completely before decorating.
Royal icing
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Place the egg whites and lemon juice in a spotlessly clean bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whip attachment. (Any trace of fat on your bowl will deflate your royal icing.) Mix until foamy and combined. Add the confectioners’ sugar and mix until just combined. Add the extract. Whip on medium high for 2 minutes, then on high for 3-5 more minutes, or until the mixture is of stiff-peak consistency – meaning when you pull the beater from the icing mixture it will stand in a stiff peak. This stiff peak royal icing requires no thinning with water.
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Transfer the icing to a piping bag fitted with a plain round #2 or #3 decorator piping tip. Place the bag of royal icing on a plate and cover the tip with a wet paper towel so it doesn’t dry out. Have candy and sprinkle decors ready to hand.
Decors
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Decorating each cookie one at a time, pipe wavy/crenulated lines of royal icing on the arms and legs of a gingerbread man. Draw on a smile also, then immediately add pink heart or pink confetti sprinkles to the ends of the smile; press to adhere.
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Add dots of royal icing to the backs of the black confetti sprinkles and attach to the cookie.
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For the red neck bows: Melt red candy wafers according to the package directions. Place in a disposable piping bag with the tip snipped. Pipe candy into the large or small candy mold and tap on a work surface to level and to remove air bubbles. Transfer to the refrigerator to chill until set, about 10 minutes. Unmold the bows immediately after removing from the refrigerator. For the large bow, carefully pull the silicone mold away from the edges of the set candy to unmold. (If you experience breakage, see blog post for recommendations.) For the smaller bows, tap the mold upside down over a tray; they should fall out.
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Attach neck bows to the cookies using leftover red melted candy or royal icing.
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Store decorated cookies in an air tight container between sheets of plastic wrap to protect the royal icing embellishments and decors.
Lighter Tasting Gingerbread: I love the rich spices in this recipe, however, if you’r looking for a lighter flavor, decrease the ground ginger to 1 tablespoon, and the cinnamon to 1 teaspoon. Decrease allspice and cloves to 1/4 teaspoon.
Freezing Instructions:
To freeze the baked but undecorated cookies, place them in a single layer on a parchment-lined baking sheet and freeze until firm. Once frozen, transfer them to an airtight container or freezer-safe bag, layering parchment paper between the cookies to prevent sticking. They can be stored in the freezer for up to 3 months. Thaw at room temperature before decorating.
Storage Instructions for Decorated Cookies:
Store decorated cookies in an airtight container, layering parchment paper or plastic wrap between each cookie to protect the royal icing details. Keep the container at room temperature in a cool, dry place for up to one week. Avoid refrigerating, as moisture can soften the royal icing.
Candy Substitutions:
If you don’t have the specific candies used, you can easily substitute chocolate chips or mini chocolate chips for the eyes and heart-shaped confetti quins or pink gel icing for the cheeks. Be creative with what you have on hand to customize your cookies.
**recipe is a combination of an old English recipe and a Wilton cakes recipe that came with a set of cookie cutters I purchased ages ago.
Classic Gingerbread Cut-Out Cookies royal icing recipe comes from the Sprinkle Bakes Dessert Book.