It’s that time of year again, time to talk about Christmas cookies! Last week, I posted about these Small-batch Snowball Cookies, and today I have another Christmas cookie for you, Small-batch Gingerbread Cookies! Gingerbread can be a bit hit or miss. Sometimes it’s too spicy, too hard, too soft. But this gingerbread is like the Goldilocks version of gingerbread. It has a great spicy kick without being overpowering. When you bite into them, there’s a little snap, but they’re also a bit chewy, so you aren’t going to break your teeth on these tasty little cookies.
Basically, they’re the best, and since this gingerbread cookie recipe is a small-batch gingerbread cookie recipe, you can whip them up whenever you feel like adding a bit of Christmas to your day. It will make 6 to 8 largish gingerbread cookies or about 2-dozen bite-sized mini cookies (my favorite).
Ingredient Notes
Unsulfured molasses: The standard molasses you buy at the grocery store is usually unsulfured. It will typically say unsulfured right on the label. If you don’t often cook with molasses, it’s a handy ingredient to have around, especially during the holidays, and once opened, it will keep for about a year. In the grocery store, you can usually find it near the syrups in the baking or breakfast aisle. Butter: Salted or unsalted butter is fine here. Vegetable shortening: The recipe uses a combination of shortening and butter to achieve the best texture possible, but if you don’t have shortening, you can replace the shortening with the same amount of butter. Cookies made with butter will spread a bit more, but will still be great. Egg yolk: Since this is a small-batch recipe you don’t need a whole egg, just the yolk. For ideas on what to do with the leftover egg white, check out my post What to Do With Leftover Egg Whites (I recommend a small batch of Chocolate Chocolate Chip Muffins).
How to Make Small-batch Gingerbread Cookies
Quick Icing for Gingerbread Cookies
And because we are only making a small batch of cookies, I figure you probably aren’t going to want to take the time to make royal icing, so I used a quick faux royal icing on these. This icing is made with just 3 ingredients, powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla extract. It won’t pipe as cleanly or dry nearly as hard as real royal icing, but it works well as a quick substitute and tastes fantastic.
What kind of molasses do you use for gingerbread cookies?
For these gingerbread cookies, use regular unsulfured molasses. Both light and dark molasses should work, but steer clear of blackstrap molasses which is not as sweet and quite bitter. If you’re wondering what’s up with all the different varieties of molasses, I really like this article on the topic.
Can I use royal icing on these cookies?
Absolutely. If you want to use royal icing, make up a quick batch and go for it.
What other frosting can I use for gingerbread cookies?
It might sound odd, but cream cheese frosting is such a good combo with gingerbread. You can also go with a plain vanilla frosting if you want something more substantial than icing.
Why did my gingerbread turn out hard?
If your cookies turned out hard, they were probably baked too long. Next time bake the cookies for a shorter time, just until they begin to look set around the edges.
Can I freeze these cookies?
Yes! Gingerbread cookies freeze very well. Just store them in an airtight container or freezer bag and they’ll keep in your freezer for up to 2 months.
My dough is crumbly how can I fix this?
If your dough is crumbly, it’s probably because you ended up with slightly too much flour or had a particularly small egg yolk and there wasn’t enough liquid in your dough. Next time measure your flour with a scale (recommended) or using the spoon and sweep method (stir the flour in your container to fluff it up and then spoon it into your measuring cup, sweep excess off with the flat of a knife). To fix a crumbly dough, add just a bit of milk or water by the 1/4 teaspoon until the dough comes together.
More Christmas Recipes
Hot Chocolate Peppermint Mocha Chai Sugar Cookies With Eggnog Glaze Perfect Snickerdoodles
More Small-batch Cookie Recipes
Small-batch Chocolate Chip Cookies Small-batch Cut-out Sugar Cookies Small-batch Oatmeal Cookies Small-batch Shortbread Cookies
Or check out my entire Small-batch Cookie Recipe Archive. Gingerbread Adapted From Food Network
