23.12.2025

Easy Gingerbread Cookies Recipe for a Cozy Christmas 🎄🍪

This is your first time preparing gingerbread cookies for Christmas? Give this super easy recipe a try. This Christmas, gingerbread would make the sweetest gift for friends, family, or anyone you want to send a little holiday love to.

Prep time: ~20 minutes

Bake time: ~10 minutes

Chilling time: 2-3 hours

Serves: 24

🧾 Ingredients

👩‍🍳 Instructions

Step 1: Melt the butter mixture

– In the bowl of a stand mixer, or using an electric mixer, cream the butter and brown sugar.

– Add the molasses, egg yolk, and vanilla and mix again.

Step 2: Mix the dry ingredients

– In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cinnamon, ginger, baking soda, salt.

– Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, mixing after each addition.

– Mix in the milk.

Step 3: Chill the dough

– Form the dough into a ball, divide the ball in half, and flatten each half into a disk.

– Wrap in plastic and chill for at least 2 hours.

*You want your cookie dough firm so the cookies hold their shape and you want your cookie dough manageable so you can work with it.

Step 4: Roll out the dough

– Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface or a sheet of baking parchment until about ½ cm thick.

– Use cookie cutters to cut out desired shapes, then transfer the cut-outs to the prepared baking sheets, re-rolling the dough scraps as necessary.

Step 5: Bake

– Preheat your oven to 190°C. Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper.

– Bake, one sheet at a time, for 7 to 9 minutes, or until the edges of the cookies are just set but the middles are still soft.

– The cookies might seem underdone, but taking them out at this point will ensure that they stay soft once they cool.

*The exact timing will depend on your oven, the size of your cookie cutters, and how soft or crunchy you like your gingerbread cookies.

– Let cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Step 6: Decorate

– Once your gingerbread cookies are completely cool, it’s time for the best part – decorating!

– Mix the icing sugar with 1–2 tbsp of water until it’s thick, smooth, and pipeable (not runny). Spoon the icing into a piping bag with a small nozzle, and you’re ready to get creative.

Think smiley faces, little buttons, bow ties, zigzags, snowflakes – anything you feel like drawing. If you want extra festive flair, tint your icing with a few drops of food coloring: white for snowflakes, red and green for Christmas vibes, and gold for something unique.

Decorate freely and have fun. No two gingerbread cookies should look the same!