Classic gingerbread cookie recipe with royal icing frosting. Use this easy to make dough to create all sorts of gingerbread cookie cutouts!

assorted gingerbread cookie cutouts on wire rack.

Soft and chewy cookies when enjoyed fresh from the oven. These gingerbread cookies are great for snacking and holiday decorating.

They make wonderful cake decorations as shown in this gingerbread layer cake!

This dough is ideal for making gingerbread houses. Allow the baked cookies to sit out uncovered at room temperature for two days. By the second day, the cookies will have significantly hardened. They will be structurally stable and ready for cookie house building.

The gingerbread cookies from the kits don’t taste very good. They look, smell, and oddly enough taste like cardboard. No matter how much icing and sugar I slather on those pre-made cookies, it still doesn’t taste good.

That’s not the case with these homemade gingerbread cookies! These are delicious, fragrant, and well spiced.

Ingredients

A fine balance of spices is the key to delicious gingerbread cookies! The proportions of spices should work harmoniously to create a sweet warm flavor.

Gingerbread cookies are spiced with ground ginger, ground cinnamon, ground nutmeg, and ground cloves. Ginger and cinnamon are mandatory. You may reduce or omit the nutmeg and cloves if desired.

Molasses is another key flavor component. Be sure to use unsulphured molasses. It is the most commonly available type of molasses. It is sometimes labeled as light or original molasses.

Do not use blackstrap molasses, which is much more concentrated in color and flavor.

These gingerbread cookies start off like any other creamed butter cookie dough. Mix together softened butter and sugar until creamy. Add remaining wet ingredients. Follow with dry ingredients.

cover gingerbread cookie dough in plastic wrap and keep chilled until ready to use.

Divide cookie dough into two equal portions. Cover dough well in plastic wrap. Flatten dough out to allow for easy rolling later.

Chill dough in the fridge for at least 30 minutes, or until the dough is cold to the touch. Dough may be left in the fridge for up to three days.

Tools for Rolled Cookies

key tools for rolled out cookie dough include rolling pin, cookie stamps, and dough levels.

All you really need is a rolling pin and a cookie cutter to make rolled cut out cookies. Here are some recommended tools that make these cookies so much easier to make:

use a dough level stick to easily and efficiently roll cookie dough to the proper thickness.

Baking Tips

brush off excess flour from cookie dough before baking.

Dip cookie cutters in flour before stamping to allow for easy unmolding.
Brush any excess flour off cut out dough before baking.
Space cookie cutouts at least one inch apart. The cookies will slightly expand and puff up as they bake.
Err on the side of underbaked versus overbaked.

HOW TO

Decorate Cookies Like A Pro

Learn how to decorate using royal icing, cookie icing, sprinkles, and Candy Melts.

Read here

Royal Icing

These gingerbread cookies are decorated with royal icing. There are several ways to make royal icing. The traditional method uses egg whites and confectioners’ sugar. I prefer the more modern method which uses meringue powder.

Meringue powder is a mixture of dried egg whites, cornstarch, and stabilizers. It’s a great alternative to using raw egg whites. It’s safer (no worries about salmonella!) and much easier to measure out.

gingerbread person decorated with white royal icing on gold cooling rack.

Note: Meringue powder can also be used to make meringue topping and other frostings!

You will need a stand mixer with a paddle attachment or a high-speed hand mixer to whip together the royal icing. The royal icing here is simply made using: water, meringue powder, and confectioners’ sugar.

This is also a stable cookie that only gets stronger as it cools and sits out.