These Gingerbread Crinkle Cookies are soft, chewy, and packed with warm holiday spices, perfect for festive gatherings.
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Chewy Gingerbread Crinkle Cookies
These Gingerbread Crinkle Cookies are a fun, easy, and festive addition to any holiday baking lineup. With their spiced flavor, snowy crinkle finish, and chewy texture, they’re sure to be a crowd-pleaser. Perfect for the Christmas season holiday parties, family get-togethers, or even your next cookie exchange.
These soft gingerbread crinkle cookies have the perfect balance of spice with the blend of ground ginger, cloves, and cinnamon to create a warm and classic gingerbread flavor that’s balanced by a touch of cocoa powder and molasses. Giving all the gingerbread vibes you crave.
The classic crinkle effect makes these cookies as visually appealing as they are delicious. And with my secret step of rolling the cookies in granulated sugar and then powdered sugar you get not only a perfect looking cookie you get a exterior texture that hold just a slight crisp texture around the edges.
With straightforward ingredients, simple steps, and no special ingredients needed these cookies are great for beginner bakers and fun to make with kids.
If you love all crinkle cookies as much as I do make sure you check out my Chocolate Peppermint Crinkle Cookies.
Ingredients
- All-Purpose Flour – This recipe is tested with King Arthur’s All Purpose flour, it is the brand that I recommend baking with.
- Ground Ginger – The ginger flavor is the most obvious part of this gingerbread cookie recipe, make sure you use a fresh batch of ground ginger to get the most flavor out of your spice.
- Ground Cloves – Cloves are a classic flavor in gingerbread.
- Ground Cinnamon – Cinnamon is another classic flavor four in gingerbread.
- Cocoa Powder – It seems weird but I always put a bit of cocoa powder in with my gingerbread and it seems to help the flavor and texture a lot. Don’t worry these won’t taste like chocolate but the flavor just helps with the gingerbread flavor.
- Baking Powder – For helping the cookies to rise.
- Baking Soda – Also helping with the rising of the cookies.
- Kosher Salt – I like to use kosher salt when I bake if you need to make a substitute use sea salt but not table salt.
- Packed Brown Sugar – I like to use light brown sugar but you can also use dark brown sugar if needed.
- Eggs – Best at room temperature if you remember to do that.
- Vanilla Extract – For flavoring.
- Molasses – The molasses flavors are one of the key ingredients to get the right gingerbread flavor, make sure you are using regular molasses and not blackstrap molasses.
- Unsalted Butter – Melted butter so you don’t have to worry about making sure it is soft enough!
- Granulated Sugar – Also known as white sugar this is for the first layer of sugar for rolling on the cookies.
- Powdered Sugar (Confectioners’ Sugar) – The most famous part of crinkle cookies, you will roll the cookies in the powdered sugar before adding to the cookie sheet to bake.
Instructions
Preheat and Prep: Begin by preheating your oven to 325ºF. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper for easy cleanup and non-stick baking.
Mix Dry Ingredients: In a medium mixing bowl, stir together the flour, ground ginger, cloves, cinnamon, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
Prepare Wet Ingredients: In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the brown sugar, eggs, and vanilla extract until the mixture is light and frothy.
Add Butter and Molasses: Stir the melted butter and molasses into the wet mixture until smooth and well combined. The molasses adds a rich, warm sweetness to the cookies, making them taste like traditional gingerbread.
Combine Wet and Dry Ingredients: Add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture, stirring until fully incorporated. The dough will start out fairly soft, but it will thicken as it rests, making it easier to handle.
Rest the Dough: Let the dough rest for 15 minutes. This allows it to firm up, which helps when rolling the cookies.
Prepare Rolling Stations: Place the granulated sugar on one plate and the powdered sugar on another. Rolling the dough in both types of sugar adds layers of texture and creates the crinkled appearance.
Form and Coat the Cookies: Using a tablespoon, scoop out portions of dough. The dough might be a little sticky, I find it is easiest to use a spoon to plop the cookie dough into the granulated sugar and then roll it smooth and the roll cookie dough ball in the granulated sugar, then in the powdered sugar to coat completely.
Arrange and Bake: Place the sugar-coated dough balls on the parchment-lined baking sheet, spacing them evenly. Bake in two batches, for about 12 minutes each. The cookies should have visible cracks on top and may look slightly underbaked in the cracks, which is exactly how you want them!
Cool and Enjoy: Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for a few minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack. They’ll firm up a bit as they cool, but will still retain a soft, chewy texture.
tips, tricks and questions
Can I make the dough ahead of time?
Absolutely! You can prepare the dough up to 24 hours in advance. Store it covered in the refrigerator, and let it come to room temperature before rolling in sugar and baking.
How should I store these cookies?
Store the cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to a week. They also freeze beautifully; just let them thaw at room temperature before serving.
Why do my cookies look underdone in the middle?
These cookies should appear slightly underdone/soft in the cracks when done. As they cool, they’ll set perfectly for that chewy gingerbread cookies texture.
If you like this Soft Gingerbread Crinkle Cookies Recipe you might also like:
Gingerbread Crinkle Cookies
This Gingerbread Crinkle Cookie Recipe is great for the holiday season, these are chewy cookies with a perfect blend of spices plus they look amazing with the powdered sugar coating.
Ingredients
- 2 ¼ cup all purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons ground ginger
- ¾ teaspoon ground cloves
- 1 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1 tablespoons cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 ½ cups packed brown sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¼ cup molasses
- 4 tablespoons melted butter, unsalted
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- ½ cup powdered sugar (confectioners)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325º F. Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper.
- In a medium mixing bowl stir together flour, gingerbread spices, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
- Add brown sugar, eggs, and vanilla extract to a large mixing bowl. Whisk until light and frothy.
- Add the butter and molasses to the wet ingredients. Stir together.
- Stir the flour mixture into the wet ingredients. Once fully combined let the batter rest for 15 minutes. Before resting the batter will almost seem like brownie batter, allowing it to rest will thicken it allowing it to be rolled.
- While batter is resting add the granulated sugar to a plate and the powdered sugar to another plate.
- Once the batter has set use a tablespoon to scoop a heaping tablespoon amount of the batter, drop the tablespoon of batter onto the plate of granulated sugar (use a spoon or small spatula to help plop it into the sugar). Roll the batter in the granulated sugar, forming a ball.
- Transfer the cookie batter ball onto the powdered sugar plate and roll to cover. Transfer to the parchment paper. Repeat until the batter is gone, making about 24 cookies, 12 per cookie sheet.
- In two batches bake for 12 minutes, the cookies will look raw in the cracks when done. Leave on cookie sheet to cool. Enjoy!
Notes
The dough might be a little sticky, I find it is easiest to use a spoon to plop the cookie dough into the granulated sugar and then roll it smooth and the roll cookie dough ball in the granulated sugar again then in the powdered sugar to coat completely.
Nutrition Information:
Yield:
20Serving Size:
1 cookieAmount Per Serving: Calories: 176Total Fat: 3gSaturated Fat: 2gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 1gCholesterol: 25mgSodium: 85mgCarbohydrates: 36gFiber: 1gSugar: 24gProtein: 2g
Nutritional data is automated and might not be 100% accurate, final nutritional information will depend on ingredients used and any changes made.
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