This is my favorite recipe for Soft & Chewy Gingerbread Men Cookies, frosted with an easy royal icing. Made with a perfect blend of spices and molasses for that classic gingerbread flavor. I highly recommend printing out the recipe, so you can make these delicious cookies every year for the holidays.
If you're looking for a gluten free gingerbread cookie recipe, try these Marbled Royal Icing Gingerbread Cookies!
The holidays just wouldn't be the holidays without gingerbread men cookies in my book. Do you agree? It might be December 31st, but there's still time to make these cute little fellas. And just because it's been a crazy year, you could even decorate them with masks for a little bit of 2020 humor.
Ingredients you need for Soft & Chewy Gingerbread Men Cookies
Flour - All purpose flour works best.
Spices - You will need a combination of ginger, cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg
Baking Soda
Salt - I used table salt, but you could also use sea salt or Kosher salt.
Butter - Unsalted butter, softened to room temperature.
Brown Sugar - Light brown sugar is what I used.
Molasses - Do not skip this ingredient, it's what makes the cookies soft and chewy.
Egg - One large egg at room temperature.
Powdered Sugar - Also called confectioner's sugar.
Meringue Powder - Egg white powder
Sprinkles - I used these sprinkles that I found on Amazon.
Tips for No Fail Gingerbread Men Cookies
Refrigerate the dough before rolling out to cut out the gingerbread men.
Flour surface before rolling out the dough.
Line your baking sheets with parchment paper to keep the cookies from sticking.
Use a half sheet pan instead of a regular cookie sheet as it has a raised edge to keep the parchment paper from sliding off.
Do not over bake cookies or they will get too crispy.
Let cookies cool completely before decorating.
Pour the royal icing into a pastry bag fitted with a #3 round tip to pipe the details on the gingerbread men. Add sprinkles, if desired.
More Old Fashioned Cookies You’ll Love
Classic Chocolate Chip Cookies
Double Delight Peanut Butter Cookies
These Soft & Chewy Gingerbread Men Cookies are so fun to make. It's a tradition at my house to make them every year at Christmas. You can use your imagination to decorate these little guys any way you like. You could give them ugly sweaters or Santa suits or make them gingerbread women, if you wish.
Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year!
Lise
xo
TOOLS FOR SUCCESS
Parchment Paper Rectangles for Sheet Pan (200)
3-inch Gingerbread Man Cookie Cutter
Measuring Cups and Measuring Spoons
Note: The above items are affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
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Soft & Chewy Gingerbread Men Cookies
Ingredients
For the cookies
- 3 ¼ cups all-purpose flour plus more for rolling out the dough
- 1 ½ tablespoons ground ginger
- 1 ½ teaspoons cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
- ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¾ cup unsalted butter, softened 1 ½ sticks
- ¾ cup light brown sugar packed
- ½ cup molasses
- 1 large egg room temperature
For the royal icing
- 2 ½ cups powdered sugar
- 4 tablespoons warm water
- 2 tablespoons meringue powder
- ½ teaspoon cream of tartar
For the decorations
- Sprinkles of your choice
Instructions
For the cookies
- In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, spices, baking soda and salt until well combined. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, beat butter, brown sugar and molasses with an electric mixer until fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add egg and beat until combined. With the mixer on low, gradually add dry ingredients to wet ingredients until dough just comes together. Do not overmix! Divide dough in half. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill in refrigerator until firm, about 1 hour or overnight if you want to make it ahead to save time.
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Take dough out of the fridge and let rest about 10 minutes. Roll dough out to ¼" thickness on lightly floured surface. I used about ¼ cup of flour per disc of dough. If dough is too soft, you can work in some of the flour. Cut out gingerbread men with a 4-inch cutter. Remove excess dough, then transfer cookies to parchment lined baking sheets. (I prefer half sheet pans as they have a raised edge.) Roll out scraps and remaining dough in the same way, adding flour to surface when needed to keep dough from sticking.
- Bake cookies for 9-10 minutes. Let cool on baking sheets for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. Repeat with remaining dough. Decorate cooled cookies with royal icing (recipe follows) and sprinkles as desired.
For the royal icing
- Combine all royal icing ingredients. Beat at low speed until moistened. Beat at medium speed 1-3 minutes or until slightly thickened and glossy. Keep covered until ready to use.
Nutrition
All text and images © Lise Ode for Mom Loves Baking. Please do not use my images without prior permission. If you want to republish this recipe, please re-write the recipe in your own words, or link back to this post for the recipe. Disclaimer: Nutrition information shown is not guaranteed to be accurate. This post may contain affiliate links.
Joan says
Hi Lisa!
This recipe is delicious! My whole family loved them 🙂 I was wanting to make a gingerbread house for Christmas and was wondering if this recipe could be used for that as well? Or if there would be any modifications you would recommend?
Thank you so much !
Katie says
Have you ever frozen the dough to use later? Or have you only frozen the baked cookies?
Shelly says
Do these cookies freeze well?
Lise Ode says
Yes! I would wait to frost them though. Freeze them plain.
Joan Baier says
These were so easy to make. They were so soft and chewy. The perfect gingerbread recipe. We loved that the spice mix was not too spicy. I made 2 recipes and this made 44 gingerbread men . Great for individual gift giving.
Thank you!
Lise Ode says
Yay!! That's awesome, enjoy! xo
Blitzo says
Fabulous! Sounds yummy. I made more for the family.
Michelle says
Thank you for sharing thus amazing gingerbread recipe! The dough was easy to work with, cookie flavor was scrumptious and our house smelled heavenly! 🥰🎄
Lise Ode says
So glad you enjoyed it! Happy Holidays!
Shana Gaff says
I'm pretty much the worst baker ever and these came out fantastic. I made sure to use extra flour on my rolling pin and on my cutting board and there was no sticking whatsoever. If I can do it, anybody can! Great recipe!
Lise Ode says
Yay! So glad you liked this recipe!
Chris says
Have to say, we followed the directions pretty spot on and they came out fantastic and produced about 24 cookies. We rolled the dough a little thicker because I like a hearty cookie and still had a good yield from the dough. We baked for 7 minites for thinner cookies and about 9 for thicker.
Not sure why others in the comments had an issue. I recommend going back to the directions for answers. Wish I could post a pic!
Chris says
Also, we floured our counter top and the dough and rolled it out there. Used a spatula to transfer cutouts to the parchment lined cookie sheet.
Lise Ode says
Hi Chris, I'm so glad you enjoyed this cookie recipe. I'm actually eating one right now, LOL.
Liz says
These are so cute and fun to make for Christmas!! I need to practice my piping, but my family still loved them!!
Melissa says
After reading the reviews I was hesitant to make these. I made some modifications and they came out beautifully!! I used shortening instead of butter and I refrigerated the dough over night. When rolling them out I sprinkled the bottom parchment paper with flour. I pressed the dough flat on it and sprinkled the top with flour before laying my top piece of parchment paper on and rolling. Perfecto! It worked so well, I could carefully lift with my hands the cut out gingerbread and place on a parchment lined baking sheet. I baked for 7 minutes and then let cool. The taste is phenomenal, the spice blend perfect! Always remember, a recipe is not law, you should always feel free to make changes that will make it work best for you.
Lise Ode says
Thank you for your comments. I'm not sure why some people have had problems. It's one of my favorite recipes and it works great for me. Enjoy!
Teri says
The dough was way too sticky even after chilling in the fridge. We even tried chilling in the freezer for a bit. It stuck to the parchment paper and all over our hands.
Teri says
Update to my earlier comment. Despite the dough being incredibly sticky, we ended up rolling them into balls and making circular cookies with the dough instead. They were the perfect consistency and a wonderful flavor!
Lise Ode says
I'm glad you ended up liking it. I'm not sure why it was sticky for you, because I didn't have that problem.
Lise Ode says
I'm sorry you had problems. The recipe worked beautifully for me.
MARGARET ALLENDER says
If you need to make lots of cookies for friends and family this is not the recipe for you. It is terribly time consuming. You need to think how you cut the cookies as you don't want them touching while baking. So there is a lot of excess dough to be removed from between the cookies. I got 4 cookies from 1/2 of dough. The rest was excess to be refrigerated again and reworked. The dough is soft and sticky making it hard to work with. I won't be making this recipe again.
Kelly says
While I’m sure the flavor is amazing, this is such a poorly constructed way of cutting out cookies that are a soft dough. The dough is way too soft to just pull the scraps off the parchment. No, I did not let the dough sit too long after taking out of the fridge either. It would be better to cut then put in freezer to harden the dough and make it easier to pull the scraps. I could only salvage 3 cookies, it was way too mushy
Kelly says
These look so cute! Do you have a link for the sprinkles? They make the cookies so festive.
Lise Ode says
Hi Kelly, Here's a link to the sprinkles: https://amzn.to/3djmvvR - Enjoy!