These No Chill Gingerbread Cookies are the best Christmas Cookies. They are hassle-free and the dough comes together quickly without any chilling time. The flavor of these gingerbread cookies is unbelievably rich and buttery, these are perfectly spiced and hold their shape well.
The holiday season is upon us and this can only mean one thing- it's time to make Gingerbread cookies. The cookies are ideal for adding icing and your favorite sprinkles.
They are soft and not too crispy, however, you can make them crispy by rolling out the dough thinner. The recipe works both ways
I love that these no-chill gingerbread cookies are well-spiced in a way that it’s not overpowering cinnamon or ginger flavor but still you can clearly taste that these are Christmas gingerbread cookies.
Unlike like my Brownie Crinkle Cookies, these cookies don’t spread much and have a soft center but not too soft like my favorite Soft Pumpkin Cookies With Cream Cheese Frosting.
If you love Gingerbread Man cookies, you gotta try these. You can use any cookie shape in the world as the cookie base is meant to be decorated A LOT. And kids love to get involved in making these. And why wouldn’t they, it’s so easy!
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Ingredients
Just like in your house, it has been our holiday tradition to bake and decorate gingerbread cookies during Christmas time. Make the batter, and royal icing, and decorate away! That's some great quality time to spend with your kids and family.
- Butter - I used salted butter and omitted the salt as I usually would add to my cookies batter. For better blending, let the butter come to room temperature first.
- Flour - I do sift all my flours, and I recommend doing so to avoid any lumps. I didn’t add any extra flour when rolling the batter because I used parchment paper layers which is the best solution when baking those types of cookies.
- Brown sugar - dark or light brown sugar or one of my favorites - muscovado sugar. It’s perfectly moist and has a strong brown sugar molasses flavor that compliments the batter making it even more flavorful.
- Molasses - can’t skip this ingredient because this is what makes the perfect no-chill gingerbread cookies. Look for a ‘’unsulphured’’ label on your molasses packaging. Unsulphured molasses is made from ripe sugar cane, and doesn't require any sulphur dioxide to preserve it. The flavor of these will not be bitter as well, which is quite important here. Unsulphured molasses is considered to be the more "pure," tasting molasses.
- Egg - large room-temperature egg, but any egg will do. Just use what you have.
- Spices - I used the old classics like cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and ginger. But if you have only pumpkin spice or gingerbread cookie spice mix, you can use these instead.
- Vanilla -I just used ½ teaspoons here because I feel like for these particular cookies you don’t need vanilla flavor as much as you would for example these Cookies And Cream Cookies where I used 2 teaspoons instead of 1.
- You can also use a thick glaze from my Cranberry Orange Bread to drizzle over these gingerbread cookies.
For the full list of ingredients, please scroll down to where you'll find the recipe card.
Instructions
In a large bowl or bowl of a stand mixer, with a spatula cream together butter, and sugar until just combined. No need to beat the mixture with an electric mixer.
Add egg, vanilla, and molasses and beat on low until well combined.
In a separate large bowl mix together flour, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger.
In batches, add the dry ingredients to wet ones. Scrape the sides of the bowl as needed. The batter will be crumbly and this normal.
Meanwhile preheat the oven to 375 F.
Place the dough onto your workspace and roll it into a ball. Using a rolling pin roll out the dough flat (for better rolling place the dough between two sheets of parchment paper), about ¼ inches thick.
If you want the cookies to be more on the crispy side, make the dough thinner.
Using different cookie cutters or one shape cut the cookie shapes. Transfer each onto a baking sheet lined with a Silpat baking mat or parchment paper. These cookies don’t spread, so leaving ½ inch between each cookie is fine.
Bake in preheated oven for 9-10 minutes. I baked my gingerbread star cookies for 9 minutes.
If you want to decorate with a glaze, let the cookies cool down completely. Enjoy and Merry Christmas!
Recommended Equipment
Tips
- The batter holds it’s shape well and the cookies don’t spread as much. You don’t have to leave a huge gap between each cookie on the baking sheet, ½ inches is totally fine.
- The cookies will still be soft once you take them out of the oven but later will harden upon cooling. These should stay crisp for 1-2 days but then will still soften with time.
- These cookies are ideal for decorating with glaze and sprinkles. Let the cookies cool completely before doing so.
- No chill time - Great thing about these cookies is that you don’t have to chill the dough. However, I usually divide the dough into two-three batches. And while I bake the first batch I keep the unbaked cookies in the fridge.
- PRO TIP: To avoid over-dusting your cookie batter with flour, use a couple of parchment paper sheets when rolling the dough.
- If you like more holiday cookie recipes you should our Cottage Cheese Cookies, Cut Out Sugar Cookies, and Cream Cheese Cookies.
Freezing and Storing Instructions
Cool the easy gingerbread cookies before storing them completely.
Transfer to airtight container and keep at room temperature for 3-4 days or freeze for 2-3 months. Although I don't recommend freezing baked cookies as they will lose their crisp texture.
If you want to keep them for later, freeze the unbaked cookie dough (add plastic wrap around it first) instead. Let thaw to room temperature and until it's easy enough to roll these.
These are my favorite Christmas cookie, and I hope that these will become your go-to holiday cookies too.
More Holiday Recipes
- Individual No Bake Cranberry Cheesecake Jars
- Libby's Pumpkin Muffins With Cranberries
- Cream Cheese Christmas Spritz Cookies Recipe
Frequently Asked Questions
You can't make good gingerbread cookies without molasses. Period. These add rich flavor and color and help the cookies to stay moist. Read above in my tips section which kind of molasses you should go for.
Essentially it comes down to personal preference and what these cookies will be used later (like gingerbread houses). These cookies are softer but still with crisp edges. If you want more crisp cookies, make the batter thinner and cook them for 10-11 minutes instead.
No these cookies are not the same. Gingersnaps are essentially a variety of gingerbread cookies but these tend to be thicker, dryer, and crisper. Gingersnaps use different spices than gingerbread cookies.
Easy Cookie Recipes
If you're looking for more Christmas-themed baking recipes you have to try our cream cheese Christmas Spritz Cookies, moist Pumpkin Muffins, and Cranberry Bread next!
Did you make this recipe? Please be sure to leave a rating and a comment below. Thank you!
📖Recipe
No Chill Gingerbread Cookies
Ingredients
- ½ cup butter softened, salted or unsalted butter, I used salted
- 10 tablespoons brown sugar or muscovado brown sugar
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 large egg at room temperature.
- ⅓ cup molasses
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 2 teaspoon ginger
- ½ teaspoon ground cloves
- ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
Instructions
- In a large bowl or bowl of a stand mixer, with a spatula cream together butter, and sugar until just combined. No need to beat the mixture with an electric mixer.
- Add egg, vanilla, and molasses and beat on low until well combined.
- In a separate large bowl mix together flour, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger.
- In batches, add the dry ingredients to wet ones. Scrape the sides of the bowl as needed. The batter will be crumbly and this normal.
- Meanwhile preheat the oven to 375 F.
- Place the dough onto your workspace and roll it into a ball. Using a rolling pin roll out the dough flat (for better rolling place the dough between two sheets of parchment paper), about ¼ inches thick. If you want the cookies to be more on the crispy side, make the dough thinner.
- Using different cookie cutters or one shape cut the cookie shapes. Transfer each onto a baking sheet lined with a Silpat baking mat or parchment paper. These cookies don’t spread, so leaving ½ inch between each cookie is fine.
- Bake in preheated oven for 9-10 minutes. I baked my gingerbread star cookies for 9 minutes.
- If you want to decorate with a glaze, let the cookies cool down completely. Enjoy and Merry Christmas!
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This recipe has been adapted from here.
jane
Delicious gingerbread cookies that don't need chilling and are super easy to make! We love these!
Gigi
I will be making these cookies. We are usually very busy especially at this time of year. I’m sure like many others. So yes easy peasy recipes I do enjoy.
Thank you.😀
Rita
hope you enjoy these easy cookies!
Leah
It’s so nice to have a recipe that doesn’t require refrigeration. We loved this recipe. It made a smaller batch than listed, but we will definitely make these again!
Rita
thank you so much Leah!