Gingerbread cookies are grand, but if you really want to take this holiday standard to a whole other level – and Insta impress your friends – consider making a batch of these babies. You’ll have to put in a little extra seasonal sweat to roll and cut the dough, plus make buttercream icing to fill them, but boy oh ginger boy are they worth it!
Looking for other holiday cookie recipes? Check out our Season’s Eatings cookie roundup.
Quick tips
- Pace yourself. Make the dough ahead of time and freeze, then thaw out in the fridge 24 hours before you want to finish making your little men.
- Forget those messy pastry bags! Fill a plastic squeeze bottle with royal icing for kids to help create the gingerbread faces
Cookie ingredients:
- 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
- 1/4 tsp. kosher salt
- 1 1/2 tsp. ground ginger
- 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp. ground cloves
- 1/4 tsp. allspice
- 1 cup unsalted butter, softened
- 1 cup dark brown sugar
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1/4 cup molasses
Filling ingredients
- 1/3 cup unsalted butter, softened
- 1/3 tsp. vanilla extract
- 1/8 t. kosher salt
- 1 1/2 cup powdered sugar
- 1 Tbsp. milk
For cookies
- Whisk together dry ingredients.
- Beat butter and sugars until light and fluffy.
- Add egg and molasses; mix to combine.
- Add dry ingredients in 3 batches, mix to combine.
- Divide dough in half and wrap in plastic wrap; flatten into disks; refrigerate at least 2 hours and up to 1 day.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Roll out dough on lightly-floured surface to 1/4-inch thickness.
- Cut out cookies and place on lined baking sheet.
- Bake cookies until just crisp and browning on edges, 8-12 minutes, depending on size of the cookie.
- Let cool on baking sheets for 5 minutes; transfer to cooling racks.
For filling
- Beat butter, salt and vanilla until light and fluffy.
- Add powdered sugar in two batches; beat on low speed until incorporated.
- Add milk and beat until thick but spreadable; add more milk if necessary.
Assembling/decorating
- Spread buttercream filling on one cookie; top with another.
- Make Royal Icing and use to decorate tops of each cookie.
