Gingerbread man cookies should not only be fun to decorate, they should taste great! These easy gingerbread men cookies aren’t just cute and festive, they are downright delicious!
Truth be told, I’ve never been much of a gingerbread man fan. I mean don’t get me wrong, they are cute enough.
But often they aren’t the most delicious cookies on the treat tray. Maybe the focus is just really on the decorative aspect. But if I’m going to make cookies, I’m going to make delicious cookies.
Gingerbread Man Recipe
After some experimenting and tweaking of recipes, I finally came up with a gingerbread man recipe that I love.
These cookies roll out nicely, cut easily, and bake up deliciously. They manage to balance being firm enough to handle and decorate, but soft enough to be a cravable cookie.
For all the baking I do, I really, truly, don’t love decorating cookies. I try, I really do, but it’s just very detail orientated, and I prefer to flow from idea to idea. I think when I wrote my first book, Smart Cookie, I used up my lifetime supply of cookie decorating mojo.
Given my lost love of cookie decorating, these guys are decorated very simply. And in my book that’s just fine. That said, if you want more detailed decorating, go for it!
Hey, I said they were decorated simply, didn’t I? Truth! So a few notes about making these cookies…
- The dough does need to be chilled, for at least two hours. This not only helps with the flavor, but it helps make the dough much easier to roll out and cut.
- You will need molasses, but make sure it’s not blackstrap molasses.
- I’ve gone light with the spices in these cookies. If you want stronger spices, go for it, you can probably double the spices I used if you want.
GINGERBREAD MAN COOKIES
Gingerbread Man Cookies
Ingredients
Cookies
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 3/4 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter softened
- 1 cup dark brown sugar
- 2 large egg
- 1/4 cup molasses
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- *additional flour for rolling out dough
Icing
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 2 tsp milk
- 2 tsp light corn syrup
- 1/2 tsp extract of choice - lemon almond or vanilla
Instructions
Cookies
- In a small bowl mix together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, ginger and cinnamon until well blended. Set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, beat together butter, brown sugar, and eggs on medium speed until well blended.
- Add molasses and vanilla and mix until well combined.
- Gradually add in dry ingredients and mix until combined, but do not over-mix.
- Wrap dough in plastic wrap and place into an airtight container or freezer style zipper bag, and place in refrigerator for at least two hours and up to 24 hours.
- When ready to bake, preheat oven to 375 deg. Line baking sheets with silicone baking mats ore parchment paper.
- Let dough sit at room temperature for 5-15 minutes or however long is needed to make it pliable enough to divide in half. The time it takes will depend on how long it's been chilling.
- Place 1 portion of the dough on a lightly floured surface. Sprinkle additional flour over dough and gently roll dough out to approximately 1/4 - 1/3" thick. The thicker the dough the softer the cookie will be. If dough sticks to rolling pin, sprinkle additional flour onto dough.
- Cut out cookies with cookie cutter. Whatever scraps are left over after cutting out cookies can be rolled out and rolled out to cut out more cookies.
- Place cookies on baking sheet approximately 1 1/2-inches apart.
- Bake each sheet of cookies for 7-10 minutes until tops and edges are starting to firm up.
- Remove baking sheet from oven transfer to a wire cooling rack. Allow to cool on baking sheet for ten minutes, then use a spatula to transfer cookies to another wire cooling rack to cool completely.
- If desired, once cookies are completely cooled decorate.
Icing
- In a medium size bowl, combine all ingredients and mix well to combine. For thicker icing, add more powdered sugar, one tablespoon at a time. For thinner icing, add more corn syrup, one teaspoon at a time. Place into a piping bag and pipe onto gingerbread cookies as desired.
Nutrition
I hope you whip up a batch of these delicious gingerbread man cookies this holiday season to share with your family and friends. If you want the delicious ginger cookie flavor without the whole rolling and cutting thing,
I’ve got you covered. My soft gingerbread cookies are one of my all time favorite cookies. If you make them, be ready to share the recipe, they are always a big hit!
And these Frosted Gingerbread Bars are out of this world amazing.
Make sure to check out all of my favorite Christmas Cookie Recipes as well!
Maria says
Can I use regular maple syrup? And can I use Betty Crocker frosting? Just because I don’t have Light corn syrup? Thank you and can’t wait to taste the cookies.
Christi Johnstone says
Honestly I’m not sure how they would turn out with syrup. Molasses adds the distinct flavor that gingerbread is known for, and it is considerably thicker than most syrups. Using a canned frosting is fine, but it will not harden at all, so take care not to stack or layer the cookies, as the frosting will smear. The benefit of and reason that corn syrup is used in the frosting recipe is to create a glossy finish that dries and stays in place.
Rachel says
You forgot the flour in the instructions! But obviously everyone knows to add it. Cookies: step 1 In a small bowl, mix FLOUR, etc… sometimes I am bad and follow directions exactly. I was like, wait…what about the flour. 🤣
Nice recipe, and the soft gingerbread cookies were a HUGE hit!
Alyssa Faires says
The gingerbread was great
Christi Johnstone says
Great, so glad you enjoyed the recipe, Alyssa!
Alyssa Faires says
There awesome love you ??
Christi Johnstone says
Yay! 🙂 Thank you so much, Alyssa!
Analisa says
What happens if I use blackstrap molasses?
Christi says
It has a much more bitter taste so the final cookie result might not be as good.