Easy Gingerbread Cookies Recipe for Christmas Cutouts and Holiday Decorating

Classic spiced gingerbread cookies with crisp edges and a tender center, built to hold their shape through cutting, baking, and decorating. Ready in about 30 minutes of active time plus chilling, makes 24 four-inch cookies, and the dough can be made up to 3 days ahead.

There’s something about rolling out gingerbread dough that feels like the official start of the holidays. My kitchen table turns into a flour-dusted mess, cookie cutters everywhere, and a radio playing something cheesy and festive in the background.

These aren’t the soft, puffy gingerbread cookies you eat plain off a plate. This is a gingerbread cookies recipe built for cutouts — gingerbread people, stars, trees, whatever shape you love — that keeps its edges crisp and clean so your decorating actually looks like the shape you cut.

The spice blend is warm without being overpowering, and the dough is forgiving enough for a first-time baker but still gives you that snap when you bite into the edge.

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

• Holds its shape perfectly through baking, so your cutouts stay crisp and clean
• Warm blend of ginger, cinnamon, allspice, and cloves in every bite
• Dough can be made up to 3 days ahead, so baking day is just rolling and cutting
• Crisp edges with a slightly tender center
• Perfect canvas for royal icing and holiday decorating
• Freezer-friendly dough and baked cookies

Ingredients

• 3 1/2 cups (440g) all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp ground ginger
• 1 tbsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground allspice
• 1/2 tsp ground cloves
• 10 tbsp (145g) unsalted butter, softened
• 3/4 cup (150g) packed brown sugar
• 2/3 cup (200g) molasses — unsulphured or dark, not blackstrap
• 1 large egg, room temperature
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Ingredient Notes and Substitutions

• Molasses: use dark or unsulphured molasses, never blackstrap — blackstrap turns the cookies bitter instead of warm and sweet. If you’re weighing it, 2/3 cup comes out to about 200g, not a flat half-cup equivalent, so weighing is more accurate than scooping.
• Butter: salted butter works fine if you cut the added salt down to 1/4 tsp.
• Golden syrup can stand in for molasses in a pinch, but you’ll lose the deep, slightly bitter molasses flavor that makes these taste like real gingerbread.

Step 1: Whisk the Dry Ingredients

Whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, ginger, cinnamon, allspice, and cloves in a bowl. Set this aside — you want it fully combined so the spices don’t clump in one bite of dough.

Step 2: Cream the Butter, Sugar, and Molasses

Beat the softened butter until smooth, then add the brown sugar and molasses and beat until creamy and well combined, scraping the bowl as needed.

Step 3: Beat in the Egg and Vanilla

Add the egg and vanilla extract and beat for a full 2 minutes, scraping the bowl halfway through. This step matters more than it looks — it’s what gives the dough its structure once it bakes.

Step 4: Mix in the Dry Ingredients

Add the flour mixture on low speed until just combined. The dough will look thick and slightly sticky — that’s normal. If you’re using a hand mixer and it looks like it’s not fully coming together, don’t keep mixing. Turn it out and bring it together with your hands instead.

Step 5: Chill the Dough

Divide the dough in half, wrap each half in plastic, and flatten into discs. Chill for at least 3 hours, up to 3 days. This step isn’t optional — warm dough sticks to everything and spreads in the oven, and chilled dough is what gives you clean, sharp-edged cutouts.

Step 6: Roll and Cut the Shapes

On a well-floured surface, roll one disc to 1/4-inch thick. If the dough cracks or crumbles as you roll it, that’s completely normal straight out of the fridge — ball it up, work it gently with your hands for a few seconds, and it will come together. A light flick of water on stubborn cracks helps too. Cut your shapes, place them 1 inch apart on a lined baking sheet, and gather and re-roll the scraps.

Step 7: Bake

Bake at 350°F for 9 to 10 minutes, using closer to 8 minutes for cutters under 4 inches and closer to 11 minutes for larger ones. Rotate the pan halfway through for even baking. The longer you bake them within that range, the crunchier they’ll be — for a little chew in the center, pull them at the lower end.

Step 8: Cool

Let the cookies cool for 5 minutes on the baking sheet, then move them to a wire rack to cool completely before decorating. Decorating warm cookies makes icing slide right off.

Variations and Add-ins

• Gingerbread spice blend: if you’re using a pre-made blend instead of individual spices, swap in 2 tbsp plus 1 tsp of the blend for the ginger, cinnamon, allspice, and cloves combined.
• Orange zest or a splash of orange extract added with the vanilla gives the spice blend a brighter, slightly citrusy edge without changing the texture.

Sarah

Gingerbread Cookies

Classic spiced gingerbread cutout cookies with crisp edges, built to hold their shape for cookie cutters and holiday decorating.

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 30 minutes mins

Cook Time 10 minutes mins

Chill Time 3 hours hrs

Total Time 3 hours hrs 40 minutes mins

Servings: 24 cookies

Calories: 160

Ingredients Method Notes

Ingredients

  

• 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp ground ginger
• 1 tbsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground allspice
• 1/2 tsp ground cloves
• 10 tbsp unsalted butter, softened
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 2/3 cup molasses, not blackstrap
• 1 large egg, room temperature
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Method

 

1. Whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, ginger, cinnamon, allspice, and cloves. Set aside.
2. Beat the softened butter until smooth, then add the brown sugar and molasses and beat until creamy, scraping the bowl as needed.
3. Add the egg and vanilla extract and beat for 2 minutes, scraping the bowl halfway through.
4. Add the flour mixture on low speed until just combined. The dough will look thick and slightly sticky; if using a hand mixer and it looks uncombined, finish bringing it together with your hands.
5. Divide the dough in half, wrap each half in plastic, flatten into discs, and chill for at least 3 hours, up to 3 days.
6. On a well-floured surface, roll one disc to 1/4-inch thick. If the dough cracks, ball it up and knead briefly with your hands until smooth. Cut shapes, place 1 inch apart on a lined baking sheet, and re-roll scraps.
7. Bake at 350°F for 9 to 10 minutes, using about 8 minutes for cutters under 4 inches and 11 minutes for larger ones. Rotate the pan halfway through.
8. Cool for 5 minutes on the sheet, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before decorating.

Notes

• If the dough cracks or crumbles while rolling, ball it up and knead briefly with your hands — it comes together as it warms slightly.
• Dough can be made up to 3 days ahead or frozen up to 3 months; thaw overnight in the fridge before rolling.
• Nutrition is an estimate calculated from the ingredients and will vary with brands and portion size.

Bake a Batch for Your Christmas Cookie Platter

Once you’ve made a batch of these, you’ll understand why gingerbread cutouts are a holiday staple instead of a once-a-year novelty. The dough keeps in the fridge or freezer, so there’s no reason not to have a batch ready whenever the decorating mood strikes.

Set these out alongside a mug of something warm and let everyone decorate their own — it’s less about perfect icing lines and more about the mess and the time together.

If you give these a try, I’d love for you to leave a star rating and let me know how your cutouts turned out.

For more holiday dessert recipes you will love:

• Sweet Potato Pie
• Sweet Potato Souffle
• Holiday Pretzel Bark
• Pretzel Bites with Cheese Dip
• Pretzel M&M Treats