Gingerbread Crinkle Cookies are light, fluffy, and spicy on the inside and sweet and crunchy on the outside. A yummy homemade Gingerbread cookie recipe.

Closeup on a single Gingerbread Crinkle Cookie sitting on a stack of cookies on a white platter.

These Gingerbread Crinkle Cookies were lovingly made from one of our mom’s old recipes.  To us, this is what a Gingerbread Cookie tastes like.  I was pretty shocked when I was a kid and somebody offered me one of those thin Gingerbread Man cookies.  This is the Gingerbread taste that my sister and I grew up on and we are proud to share it with you. It cookie is light, fluffy, and spicy on the inside and sweet and crunchy on the outside.  This is a great classic cookie recipe and it’s always a crowd favorite. Merry Christmas everyone!

Collage image showing the steps for making the Gingerbread Crinkle Cookies dough.

Step 1: To make the cookie dough, cream the butter and brown sugar until completely combined.
Step 2: Add in the egg and molasses and mix until the dough is fluffy.
Step 3: In a separate bowl, add the Baking Soda and spices to the flour and whisk together.
Step 4: Finally, mix in the flour, a third at a time.

Baking Instructions

Collage image showing the steps for baking the Gingerbread Crinkle Cookies.

Step 5: Refrigerate the dough for 2 hours.
Step 6: Using a food scale, we measured 1.3 oz. of cookie dough for each cookie.  Roll the dough into a ball.
Step 7: Place the cookie dough ball in a bowl or plate of powdered sugar.  Roll the cookie dough ball in the powdered sugar until it is covered. Keep the dough in the refrigerator between batches.  The Powdered Sugar on the outside of the Gingerbread Crinkle Cookies will bake up nicer if it is applied to the refrigerated dough.
Step 8: Bake the cookies in a 375-degree oven for 9-10 minutes.

Expert Tips and FAQ’s

Use Room Temperature Ingredients

Both the eggs and the butter should be at room temperature which will help your cookies turn out lighter and fluffier.  For the eggs, room temperature simply means not cold out of the refrigerator. If you forget to take the eggs out before you start making cookie dough you can put the eggs in a bowl of warm water for 5-10 minutes to warm them up.  The butter also needs to be softened to room temperature which means if you touch it you should leave an indentation on the stick of butter. Do not use butter that has been over-softened or melted.  If that happens you should use a different stick of butter or put it back into the refrigerator to let it set up.  We have a whole post about How to Soften Butter, click here if you need more information on how to do that.

Do you need to use a Mixer?

Yes. In our opinion, you need some kind of a mixer to make a good cookie dough. A stand mixer, while expensive, is a great investment if you believe you have a lot of homemade baked goods in your future. An electric hand-mixer also works well and you can probably find one for around $20. You can hand mix cookie dough in a pinch (which is how we did it growing up), but you will really have to use a lot of muscle to cream the butter and sugar, and eggs properly.

Cookie Dough Mixing Tips

Creaming the butter, sugar and then mixing the eggs in is the most important part of the cookie dough mixing process. Creaming is when you fully incorporate the butter and sugar together and add some much-needed air to the dough. We recommend creaming the butter and sugar for 2 minutes at medium-high speed and then mixing the butter/sugar/eggs for another 3 minutes at the same speed. Once you add the flour, you want to mix the dough as little as possible. Mix it too much and you will get tough cookies. Mix in the flour at low speed and continue mixing ONLY until the dry ingredients are incorporated into the dough. Make sure you scrape down the sides and the bottom to make sure all the flour has gotten mixed in.

Prepping the Cookie Sheet

We always line our cookie sheets with a piece of parchment paper, it keeps the cookie from sticking to the sheet and from over-browning. You can find parchment paper either in rolls or in pre-cut sheets in most grocery stores, and we highly recommend it. Ideally, you should use at least 2 cookie sheets when baking cookies. You don’t want to add the raw cookie dough to a cookie sheet that is hot out of the oven. The dough will start baking even before you get it in the oven.

Oven Tips

Everyone’s oven is different. We recommend starting with a test bake with a single cookie to help you hone in on the exact baking time for your oven. You should set your timer for 2 minutes less than whatever the recipe recommends. Once the timer goes off, open up the oven and see how your cookie is baking. Make corrections accordingly. Our oven has a hot spot in the back so we always rotate the cookie sheet halfway through the baking time to get a more even bake. Although this may seem like an unnecessary step, it is better to do this than burn a whole tray of cookies.

Storage/Freezing Tips

Cookies should always be stored in an airtight container.  They should be completely cooled before storing them. Cookies stored at room temperature should stay fresh for 3-4 days. You can also keep them in the refrigerator and that extends their freshness for up to a week. If you need them to last longer, you can freeze them for up to 3 months. You can pull them out of the freezer and leave them on the counter for 1 hour and they will be ready to eat.

Closeup on a stack of Gingerbread Crinkle Cookies sitting on a white table in front of Christmas decorations.

Other Gingerbread Recipes You Will Love

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Gingerbread Crinkle Cookies

Yield 18-20 cookies
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 10 minutes
Total Time 20 minutes

Gingerbread Crinkle Cookies are light, fluffy and spicy on the inside and sweet and crunchy on the outside. A yummy homemade Gingerbread cookie recipe.

Ingredients

  • 3 /4 cup Butter (Sweet Cream, Salted, Softened)
  • 1 cup Brown Sugar (packed)
  • 1 Large Egg
  • 1/4 cup Molasses
  • 2  1/2 cups All-Purpose Flour
  • 2 teaspoons Baking Soda
  • 1 teaspoon Nutmeg
  • 1 teaspoon Ground Ginger
  • 1 teaspoon Cinnamon
  • 1 cup Powdered Sugar

Instructions

  1. Cream the butter and brown sugar until completely combined.
  2. Add in eggs and molasses and mix until the dough is fluffy.
  3. Add in the Baking Soda and spices.
  4. Finally, mix in the flour, a third at a time.
  5. Refrigerate the dough for 2 hours.
  6. Roll the cookie dough ball in the powdered sugar until it is covered.
  7. Bake the cookies in a 375 degree oven for 9-10 minutes.

Did you Make this Recipe? Leave a review below, then snap a picture and tag @twosisterscrafting on Instagram so we can see it!