It’s been so long since I’ve actually made gingerbread cookies. We usually always make our family recipe for soft cut out sugar cookies, Jacob's favorite mint chocolate crinkle cookies, and our favorite reindeer thumbprint cookies.
But we hardly ever make gingerbread cookies. I’ve made them before, but they’ve always been either a really difficult recipe or frankly, just haven’t tasted that great.
Not so with this recipe. These cookies are slightly chewy with a somewhat crunchy edge. You are going to love it!
These chewy gingerbread cookies have disappeared from our cookie jar rather quickly. In fact, I’ve considered making another batch.
Though these cookies are cutout cookies, don't let that stop you from making them. Like my grandma's gingerbread loaf recipe, they’re so simple. I'm definitely adding this recipe to my list of The Best Christmas Recipes for Your Holiday Celebrations.
Kid-Friendly Recipe for Chewy Gingerbread Cookies
We actually have all sorts of things planned for this week (or rather, I have a few surprises up my sleeve).
The week before Christmas we usually do a little Christmas school, where instead of hitting the books, we do fun Christmas-y things, like make all sorts of goodies, start a Christmas puzzle, put together a gingerbread house, read Christmas books, go shopping for any last minute gifts, go see Christmas lights, and just spend time together.
Baking together is one of our favorite things.
With this recipe, we chose to make Christmas trees, gingerbread men, and stars.
Creating recipes like this gives opportunity to teach kids a few cooking skills… For instance, they can learn how to roll out dough. Warning: They may even fight over who gets to roll the dough.
They can also cut out the cookies and put them on the cookie sheet. My boys love to actually decorate cookies with Easy Sugar Cookie Icing, though I'm not sure how much decorating gets done vs. eating.
Looking for more Christmas cookie recipes?
- Chocolate Lover's Christmas Light Cookies
- Butter Almond Snowball Christmas Cookies
- 30 of the Most Scrumptious Classic Christmas Cookies Ever
You can find even more holiday recipes on my list of The Best Christmas Recipes for Your Holiday Celebrations!
Chewy Gingerbread Cookies Recipe
Below you’ll find the printable recipe. This gingerbread cookie recipe is adapted from the Gingerbread Boys recipe in the old 1969 version of Betty Crocker’s Cookbook. Don’t you just love vintage cookbooks? Within the pages are treasures to be found.
I tweaked and added a few things to give the recipe my own touch. Also, just a helpful note, the cookies are even better the next day. I hope you enjoy!
Chewy Gingerbread Cookies
Ingredients
Cookie Dough:
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter softened
- 1/4 cup cane sugar
- 1/4 cup dark brown sugar
- 1/2 cup molasses
- 1/4 cup whole milk
- 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/8 teaspoon ground allspice
Cookie Icing:
- 4 tablespoons salted butter softened
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup whole milk
- 6 cups powdered sugar
Instructions
Gingerbread Cookies:
- In a large mixing bowl, cream or mix together the softened unsalted butter, sugar, and dark brown sugar.
- Add the molasses, milk, and lemon juice, mixing well.
- In a separate large bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, salt, ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon, and allspice.
- Mix the dry ingredients into the creamed mixture, mixing well.
- Cover the dough, and chill in the refrigerator for about 4 hours.
- Pre-heat the oven to 375° F.
- Turn the dough out onto a floured surface, coating the dough with flour and kneading it until it's less sticky and more pliable.
- Then roll the dough out to about 1/4 inch thickness.
- Cut out cookies with floured Christmas cookie cutters.
- Place the cookies on an un-greased cookie sheet, and bake at 375° F for about 10 minutes, or until the cookies are set.
- Place the cookies on a wire rack to cool completely before decorating.
Cookie Icing:
- In a large mixing bowl, mix together the softened salted butter and vanilla extract.
- Add the milk to the mixture.
- Slowly add the powdered sugar to the mixture, mixing it in as you go; the finished icing should be smooth, creamy, and spreadable.
- Decorate the gingerbread cookies with icing, sprinkles, and nonpareils.
This post look DELICIOUS!!!
Thank you, Linda! I wouldn’t mind making another batch.:)