This year, before Christmas break, our kindergarteners’ class decorated Soft Gingerbread Cookies. Of course, trusting a 5-year-old with a soft cookie was a risk. So, it was with sadness that he removed his elaborately decorated cookie, of which he worked so hard on, from his backpack. It was in many pieces. If you know Levi, you know how kind and generous he is with what he has. Without prompting, Levi said he wanted to share his gingerbread cookie anyway with his family and that he loved us all. As it was delicious, we decided to spend some time on Saturday morning to make gingerbread cookies for the whole family.

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Published January 13, 2022
Updated March 26, 2022
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What you will need

After thoroughly washing our hands, because kids and germs, we got to work bringing out all of the ingredients we would need for this recipe. I like to assemble everything that is needed when I cook or bake. That way, I do not have to search the cabinets or pantry while in the middle of a recipe. Assembling all your ingredients before you begin helps to make sure you have everything you need on-hand.

Gingerbread cookies, in my opinion, have more ingredients than a typical cookie cut-out recipe. There are the handful of seasonings and molasses that bring these cookies such a deep and delicious flavor. Below is the list of ingredients you will need to make these delicious cookies. By adding molasses to the recipe, you will ensure that the Soft Gingerbread Cookies will be chewy.

Flour
Baking soda
Powdered ginger
Cinnamon
Ground cloves
Vanilla extract
Nutmeg
Salt
Unsalted butter
Brown sugar
Egg
Molasses

To make the icing, you will need powdered sugar, milk, corn syrup and vanilla. You will not need to have the icing ready ahead of time because it does harden quite quickly. Making it right before you ice the cookies is completely fine because you will need the cookies to be completely cooled before decorating.

Soft Gingerbread Cookies Directions

Ingredients

3 3/4 cup Flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
1 Tbsp powdered ginger
1 Tbsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup unsalted butter
10 Tbsp brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup molasses

Icing Ingredients

1 1/2 cup powdered sugar
2 Tbsp milk
1 Tbsp corn syrup
1/2 tsp vanilla

Directions

1. Firstly, preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Levi was so happy to make gingerbread cookies for our family!

2. Line baking stones with parchment paper and then set aside. I used my trusty baking stones from Pampered Chef! Baking stones are perfect for pizza, cookies and more. Ours are used weekly.

3. In a medium bowl, combine 3 3/4 cup flour, 3/4 tsp baking soda, 1 Tbsp ginger, 1 Tbsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp cloves, 1/4 tsp nutmeg and 1/2 tsp salt, then stir well and set aside.

4. In the bowl of a KitchenAid mixer, cream together 3/4 cup butter and 10 Tbsp sugar.
When the mixture is ready, it will change color. Our butter was not quite room temperature, so a tip is to fill a tall glass cup with boiling hot water and let it rest for 30 seconds in the cup. Pour the water out and tip the cup over the butter, letting the warm cup slowly warm your butter for 10 minutes. We tried this tip, and it worked perfectly!!

5. Add 1 egg and 1 1/2 tsp vanilla to the creamed butter and sugar, then mix to combine.
Levi wanted to crack the egg himself, so he did that into a smaller bowl before it was added to the KitchenAid bowl. This was mainly to check for any shells.

6. Add 1/2 cup molasses and mix until fully combined. Molasses helps keep the cookies soft and chewy, while giving it a deep flavor and color.

7. Add half of the dry ingredients to the KitchenAid mixer bowl and mix until just combined.

8. Add the rest of the dry ingredients and then combine.
Add the dry ingredients to the wet in smaller batches. The main reason is to help the ingredients incorporate more fully. Another reason is so the flour does not end up all over the countertop.

9. Remove half the dough onto a floured surface and roll out with a rolling pin until 1/4 inch thick.
By only using half the dough at a time, you have a much better handle on the amount of dough you need to roll out at once.

10. Using cookie cutters, cut out shapes in the gingerbread cookies and then lay cutouts onto the parchment paper lined baking stones. Levi and Elliana had so much fun cutting out the gingerbread cookies! We also made rockets, because everyone need a gingerbread rocket in their life.
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11. Bake for 12-14 minutes making sure to not overbake or the gingerbread cookies will not be soft.

12. Remove the baking stone from the oven and then let rest for 5-minutes before removing to a cooling rack.

13. Transfer cooled gingerbread cookies onto a cooling rack and then let cool completely. You will want the cookies to be completely cooled before you decorate them, or the icing will melt off.

Make the Icing

Combine the 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar, 2 Tbsp milk, 1 Tbsp corn syrup, and 1/2 tsp vanilla extract in a medium bowl.

Using a hand mixer, mix the ingredients until completely combined.

When the Soft Gingerbread Cookies are completely cooled, ice the cookies and decorate as desired.

At first, we dipped half the cookies into the icing. As a result, the level of icing in the bowl became shallower and shallower, the cookies became more difficult to dip and remove without breaking apart.
*Pro-tip* Lay a sheet of wax paper on top of a cooling rack for easy clean up after you are done icing your cookies.

The rest of the icing was scraped into a sandwich baggy with the tip snipped. This was an improvised piping bag that worked well for a first-time gingerbread decorator. I do have a piping bag but chose to use a sandwich bag in the hopes that it would have been an easy solution.

Long story short, my gingerbread men and gingerbread women were delicious and had yummy icing, but they asked to be decorated with a piping bag next time. That is one skill that is 100% foreign to me and will be worked on, as my skill level is at a solid 0%.

I read a few recipes that said to freeze the dough for 6-8 minutes between parchment paper before cutting them out into shapes. As this was our first time making this recipe, I was unsure why I needed to do that step. So, we just skipped it and went right into cutting our shapes.

Honestly, the end product was excellent and with no flaws in texture or flavor. I have no complaints in how the dough was able to be used. I just sprinkled a dusting of flour onto the cleaned countertop and my rolling pin before rolling out the dough.

Another tip, when you press the cutout into the dough, press your hand on the entire thing and give it a little wiggle. Not too much, just enough to ensure that the whole cutout makes the shape you want. There were a few times when Levi did not press his whole shape down and we lost gingerbread legs or heads. This, ultimately, was sad because everyone likes their gingerbreads with all their limbs.

Enjoy!
~Monica

Recipe for Soft Gingerbread Cookies

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