Easy Gingerbread Cookies for Kids
Easy gingerbread cookies are a classic Christmas cookie to bake with kids but can be delicious any time of year. This crispy outside, soft gingerbread cookie recipe is the best because it holds the cookie cutter shapes so well.
As the author of The Ultimate Kids' Baking Book, I know all about the perfect cookie recipes for baking with kids.
This bestselling cookbook for kids is loaded with my best desserts and treats for every holiday all year long.
Today I'm giving you a sneak preview of one of the most popular recipes in the whole book: my best gingerbread cookies.
My girls love cookie decorating at the holidays. As much as we love cut-out sugar cookies, Christmas just isn't the same without an amazing but easy gingerbread cookie recipe in the routine!
This recipe has been kid-tested and mom-approved for easy holiday baking that is big on fun and memories and low in stress.
Why This Is the Best Recipe
I had a very specific set of criteria for the perfect recipe to bake with kids:
- All Butter, No Shortening: I wanted to be able to use what I already keep on hand in the fridge.
- Good Spice Blend: My kids love gingerbread but they don't want them to be too gingery. I wanted something with a nice mix of cinnamon, nutmeg, and vanilla, too.
- Easy-to-Roll Dough: Gingerbread can be super sticky, I needed a dough that the kids could work with fairly well.
- Baked Cookies Hold Their Shape: There is nothing more disappointing than cutting out a gingerbread cookie with a favorite cookie cutter only to have it turn into a puddle of a mess when baking. This cut-out cookie recipe holds its shape!
This simple gingerbread cookie recipe meets every requirement.
It also makes a huge batch of dough that freezes well and is perfect for making ahead of time.
Ingredients
I just love how simple and wholesome the ingredients list is for this homemade cookie recipe. All you need is:
- Butter: I use salted butter for my cookies, if you use unsalted you may find you need a pinch more salt in the dough.
- Sugar
- Flour
- Baking Soda
- Eggs
- Molasses
- Vanilla Extract
- Dried Spices: ginger, cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg
Supplies You Need
There are a few important things to be sure you have stocked in your kitchen for baking cut-out cookies:
- Baking Mat & Rolling Pin: I absolutely love my silicone baking mat for rolling out dough of all kinds. I use it for shaping my homemade breads, rolling out pie crusts, forming pizza dough, and definitely for rolling out sugar cookies.
- Baking Pans
- Parchment Paper
- Cookie Cutters: You don't need a huge bin of cookie cutters to enjoy cookie decorating. Just stock up on a couple basic shapes and use your imagination! I love my circle and heart shapes the most and we've found dozens of ways to use them. I've found that these are the best gingerbread cookie cutters when you're baking with kids. They have simple shapes that cut and bake perfectly and are super easy to decorate.
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Prep the Cookie Dough
In a large mixing bowl, combine the butter and sugar and beat with an electric mixer on high speed until light and fluffy.
Add the molasses, eggs and vanilla to the butter mixture and stir them in until light and fluffy.
In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, salt, ginger, cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg. Whisk them together.
Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture a little at a time, beating it on medium speed to mix them well.
The cookie dough will be very thick!
Chill the Dough
Gingerbread cookie dough is easiest to work with once it has been chilled.
If you plan to bake all the cookies in one epic baking session, you can simply cover the dough with plastic wrap and chill it in the fridge for at least 1 hour or up to overnight.
NOTE: This recipe makes a large amount of cookies. To make it easier to work with, I recommend dividing the dough into 3 smaller portions.
You could freeze some of the dough for easy baking later and just bake one portion now. Or you could freeze all three portions and just thaw one at a time to spread out the cookie fun all season long.
Roll and Cut the Cookies
Lightly flour your baking mat. If you chilled the dough as one large portion, I suggest cutting off about a third of it to start and work one portion at a time.
Roll the dough out to a ¼ inch thickness. It helps to sprinkle some flour over the top of the dough and over your rolling pin but don't add too much or the cookies could end up floury. Use just enough to prevent sticking. You can add more as needed.
Cut the cookies with your desired shapes working from the outer edges towards the center. Transfer each cut cookie to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
You only need to leave about an inch between each shape as this recipe will puff up a bit but not spread.
When you've cut as many shapes as you can, gather the dough scraps and shape them into a ball. Roll the dough out again and cut. Repeat as needed until you've used all the dough.
Baking Instructions
Preheat the oven to 375°F.
Bake the cookies for 6 - 7 minutes for a medium-sized shape. Adjust your baking time if you are using mini cutters or large cutters.
Let the cookies rest on the hot baking pans for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool.
Decorating Tips
Serious cookie decorators prefer to use royal icing for detailed cookie designs. These spiced gingerbread cookies make a gorgeous palette for these fun 2-color Christmas cookie designs.
However, when I bake with my kids, I prefer to keep things easy and fun. If that sounds like you, I've got several alternative cookie frosting recipes you could choose from.
I decided to use a simple cookie glaze with sprinkles for this particular batch but you could always use a cream cheese frosting spread with a knife if you prefer.
Once the cookies have completely cooled, mix up your cookie glaze in a medium-sized mixing bowl. I used vanilla glaze but a maple glaze or lemon glaze would both taste amazing with the spiced gingerbread.
Dip the cookies, one at a time, face down into the bowl of glaze. Use a fork to lift the cookie and let the excess run off.
Place the dipped cookie face up on the wire rack and immediately add sprinkles before the glaze sets.
Repeat a needed to finish the cookies.
For my gingerbread cookie platter, I purposely mixed a few coordinating sprinkles and left just a few cookies plain.
I loved the contrast on the platter and sometimes people just want a plain cookie for dunking in their hot beverage.
Baking Timeline
I know how busy December can be and I want to help you make baking cookies with the kids as least stressful as possible.
Here's a sample baking timeline to make this a fun and easy baking project:
Day 1: Prep the Dough
Separate the dough ball into two or three smaller portions so you're not working with the entire batch all at once. Store the batch you plan to use now in the fridge and place the rest in the freezer for another time.
Day 1 can happen any time from the day before baking up to six months before if you freeze the dough.
Just remember to thaw out the dough you need 24 hours before you plan to do Day 2.
Day 2: Bake the Cookies
Roll out the dough, cut the cookies, cool them completely, and store them in an air-tight container.
You can easily freeze the baked cookies at this point if you want to prep them in advance of decorating. Just let them come to room temperature before decorating.
Day 3: Decorating Day
If you used a small enough portion of dough, you could combine baking and decorating day into one session. It all depends on the age and attention span of your kids.
My girls can do a lot more all at once now at ages 9 and 12 than they could back when they were 3 and 6.
If your kids are still very little, I recommend baking them on a separate day and keeping Decorating Day the whole experience for the kids.
Make Ahead Tips
One of my favorite parts about this cookie dough is how well it freezes and keeps in the fridge. The recipe makes an enormous batch of dough. I highly recommend making the entire recipe and then simply dividing it into two or three portions for later.
You can make the gingerbread dough and then store what you need in the fridge for up to 5 days.
If you need more time than that, place the cookie dough in an air-tight container and freeze for up to six months.
Serving Suggestions
Gingerbread cookies are an iconic Christmas cookie recipe and are best served with a steaming mug of hot chocolate or as part of a fancy Christmas tea party.
They'd make the prettiest addition to a tea party tower of treats and are an essential item for a Christmas cookie platter.
Honestly, we enjoy eating gingerbread all winter long. Those delicious warmed spices are perfect for chilly nights. So go ahead and keep this recipe and cut out Valentine's Day hearts or even St. Patrick's Day shamrocks.
More Easy Cookies for Kids
Looking for more easy cookie recipes for baking with your kids this holiday season? Here are a few more of my favorite recipes:
📖 Recipe
Gingerbread Cookies
Ingredients
For the Gingerbread Cookies:
- 1 cup (2 sticks) butter softened
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 1/4 cups molasses
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 5 1/2 cups all-purpose flour plus more for dusting
- 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 tsp ground ginger
- 1 tbsp ground cinnamon
- 1 1/2 tsp ground cloves
- 2 tsp ground nutmeg
For Decorating:
- Vanilla glaze optional, this is the option used in the sample photos above and is the easiest for baking with kids
- Cream cheese frosting optional, also easy and delicious
- Sprinkles optional
Instructions Start Cooking
Prep the Gingerbread Cookie Dough:
- In your large mixing bowl, combine the butter and sugar and beat with an electric mixer on high speed until light and fluffy. Crack the eggs into a small bowl to check for shells. Add the molasses, eggs and vanilla to the butter mixture and stir them in until light and fluffy.
- In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, salt, ginger, cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg. Whisk them together. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture a little at a time, beating it on medium speed to mix them well.
- Divide the dough into 3 smaller portions. Cover each with plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for 1 hour or overnight.
Baking Instructions:
- Preheat the oven to 375°F. Set out 2 cookie pans and line them with parchment paper.
- Sprinkle some flour onto your working surface and working 1 portion of dough at a time, roll it out to 1/4-inch thickness. Cut the cookies to your desired shape, dipping the cutters in flour if they are sticking to the dough. Carefully transfer the cookies to the prepared cookie pans.
- Bake for 6 to 7 minutes for medium-size cookies. Adjust the time if your cutters are significantly larger or smaller. Remove from the oven and let the cookies cool on the cookie pans for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Decorate the Cookies:
- Choose the vanilla glaze or the cream cheese frosting and prepare it according to the directions. NOTE: You could also use a tub of frosting from the store if you want a really quick and easy decorating session.
- Frost the cookies and add the sprinkles immediately before the icing sets.
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I admit, I've never been a big fan of gingerbread cookies, but my kids desperately wanted to make them. I stumbled across this post and it was so unbelievably helpful. It covered all the little details I needed to make this a memorable holiday event with my kids. And guess what? It turns out I actually DO like gingerbread cookies... just THESE ONES and with the cream cheese frosting she recommends instead of traditional icing. Great recipe. Nom. Nom. Nom.