These quick and easy espresso gingersnap cookies are great for ice cream sandwiches!
The addition of instant espresso powder and ground cinnamon help to balance and lighten the otherwise assertive ginger flavor.

Summer isn’t even over and fall baking seems to be sweeping the blogging sphere. My Instagram feed already shows signs of pumpkin, cinnamon, and yes, even peppermint!
I am not ready for fall. I’m still savoring summer.
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Espresso Gingersnap Cookies
Talks of fall and back to school has got me craving something spicy and warm. As a result, I made espresso gingersnap cookies.
Because I am not ready to admit that autumn is on it’s way, I skipped out on the usual molasses in favor of maple syrup.
Not your usual gingersnap cookie
These are not like your traditional gingersnap cookies. In addition to ground ginger, this cookie dough contains instant espresso powder and ground cinnamon.
The raw cookie dough is rolled in turbinado sugar prior to baking. This helps to add a nice crunch to an otherwise soft cookie.
But don’t worry, I haven’t gotten the autumn bug just quite yet. I made these cookies to serve as a vehicle to eat my ice cream. It’s still summer after all.
Love ice cream sandwiches? These brown butter snickerdoodles are great for them as well!
Espresso Gingersnap Cookies
Yield: 2 dozen cookies
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1/4 cup vegetable shortening
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 large egg, lightly beaten
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 Tablespoon ground ginger
- 2 teaspoon instant espresso powder
- 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1/4 cup dark maple syrup (grade B)
- turbinado sugar, as needed for roilling
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. Set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream together butter and shortening until smooth. Add sugar and mix until incorporated. Scrape down bowl as needed to ensure thorough mixing. Add egg and mix until combined.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, espresso powder, and salt.
- Add flour mixture in three additions, mixing on low speed. Once all the flour had been added, pour in maple syrup. Mix until there are no longer any dry streaks of flour.
- Using a small cookie scoop (about 1 Tbsp, divide batter into balls. Roll in turbinado sugar and place on prepared baking sheet. Space cookie balls about 2 inches apart from one another to allow cookie to spread. Bake for 12 minutes until cookies have spread and have begun to wrinkle on the surface. Allow cookies to cool for 5 minutes on baking sheet before transferring to wire rack to cool completely.
I’m with you on hanging onto every moment of summer while it lasts! I was in shock when I saw the giant Halloween candy display in the market the other day! Lovely recipe and delicious looking photos!
Looks lovely – I love the combination of flavours!
I totally agree. Pinterest has been going crazy with pumpkin things. Calm yourselves down people! It’s still August. I’m holding onto summer for as long as possible. And I got a good laugh out of the latte having it’s own twitter account – not surprising at all though!
August is still summer! (Even if kids are going back to school already.) I can’t help it, though. I find myself looking at PSL’s tweets…hoping I can learn a few social media tricks :)
YES!! High five! Round of applause! It’s 102 here in Austin, so when I see a pumpkin recipe pop up in my feed it feels a little…offensive(?). Not sure that’s the right word but, you know what I mean. :) These cookies look soooo yummy — I love that you included espresso!
102?! You win. I’m over here complaining about the high 80s. I think pumpkin (and other fall flavors) shouldn’t be allowed to show up until September!
I’m not ready for summer to go either! I’m not a fan of the cold…
These cookies are the perfect thing for today’s overcast skies, though.
The only thing I look forward to in fall/winter are the holidays and cute socks :)