Soft Gingerbread Cutout Cookies – Gingerbread Men

The holiday season is the perfect time to bake soft gingerbread cookies with the family. These cookies are a fun, festive treat that brings a classic gingerbread flavor to your kitchen. Whether you’re making gingerbread men, gingerbread people, or festive shapes like Christmas trees, this is the best gingerbread cookie recipe to add to your holiday traditions.

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What Makes These Cookies Special:

This recipe gives you chewy gingerbread cookies that are soft and easy to cut out. The combination of brown sugar, molasses, and a perfect mix of ground ginger, and ground cinnamon, gives these cookies their signature holiday warmth. Using unsalted butter ensures the perfect balance of flavor for these delicious cookies.

I know you have memories as I do making and eating soft gingerbread men, even if the only kind your family served came from the store. The memories are so special that we have shared them with family it does not matter where you tasted your first gingerbread man.

Once you start rolling out this dough you will find that you will start grabbing all the fun Christmas cookie cutters. Gingerbread men, Gingerbread women, Christmas trees, and Santa all make the perfect Christmas Gingerbread cookie.

Simple Family Icing:

Make a simple white frosting of 2 cuts of confectionary sugar, one teaspoon of vanilla and a tablespoon or so of milk. This basic recipe that I learned as a little girl from my mom works no matter what measurements you use. Just add more sugar if it is too thin or more milk if it is too thick. This frosting is perfect for kids and beginner cookie decorators.

Royal Icing:

You can advance to a frosting that dries and holds more of its shape when you make a Royal Icing. A basic Royal Icing recipe is also simple to make.

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Gather Your Ingredients and Tools:

To get the best results, you’ll need a few tools and pantry staples:

• Large mixing bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer with a paddle attachment
• Measuring cups for your dry and wet ingredients
• Plastic wrap for chilling the dough
• A rolling pin
• favorite cookie cutters for shaping your cookies
• Sheets of parchment paper and a lined baking sheet to prevent sticking
• A cooling rack for perfectly cooled baked cookies

Ingredients Needed:

• 1 and 1/2 sticks softened room temperature butter
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 3/4 cup molasses (grandma’s original)
• 1 egg
• 1 and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 3 and 1/4 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon ground ginger
• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

How To Make Soft Gingerbread Cutout Cookies

1. In a stand mixer combine the butter and brown sugar until smooth.
2. Next add in the molasses, egg, and vanilla until smooth and creamy. Stop the mixer and scrape the bottom.
3. In a second bowl combine the dry ingredients, flour, baking soda, salt, ginger, cinnamon, and cloves.  Mix together with a whisk.
4. With the mixture on low, add the dry ingredients, flour mixture a little at a time. If the batter gets too stiff, stop the mixer and mix by hand.
5. Divide the dough in half and wrap it in plastic wrap.
6. Refrigerate for at least one hour before trying to roll out.
7. Make these cookies as just cut-out cookies and bake. 
8. On a clean counter or a rolling mat use a lot of flour to make sure the dough does not stick to the mat. Also, flour your rolling pin.
9. First, roll out the dough to 1/2 inch with a regular rolling pin.
10. When the dough is the size you want, take your favorite gingerbread man or woman and cut out as many as you can. 
11. Transfer the cookies to a parchment-lined baking cookie sheet.
12. Bake at 350° for 8 to 10 minutes.
13. You can also sprinkle shading sugar to decorate or frost with white icing. 

 

Tips for Success:

• Room Temperature Ingredients: Start with room temperature butter and eggs for easier mixing.
• Soft Dough: If the dough feels too sticky, add a bit more flour when rolling.
• Baking Time: Watch closely during baking—pull them out when they’re just set for soft cookies.

Storage:

Store the cookies in an airtight container at room temperature. If you are using a lot of frosting, let the frosting dry before stacking on top of each other. I also like to put a layer of parchment paper between each layer of cookies to keep the frosting from sticking to the bottom of the layered cookies.

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