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Best Gingerbread Cookies Recipe

Bring out your stand mixer to make these bakery perfect holiday treats. Soft, spicy, and decorated with royal icing, these really are the best gingerbread cookies ever!
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Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 40 minutes
Decorating 3 days
Course Dessert
Servings 5 sheets

Equipment

  • Stand mixer with paddle, dough hook, and whisk attachments
  • Baking Sheets
  • Containers for mixing

Ingredients
  

DRY INGREDIENTS

  • 320 g all-purpose flour
  • 150 g dark brown sugar
  • 4 g baking soda
  • 5 g ground ginger
  • 4 g ground cinnamon
  • 1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
  • 1/8 tsp ground cloves
  • 1/2 tsp salt

WET INGREDIENTS

  • 38 g egg
  • 25 g fancy molasses
  • 7 g water

OTHER INGREDIENTS

  • 170 g unsalted butter

THE ROYAL ICING

  • 300 g icing sugar
  • 23 g meringue powder
  • scant 1/4 cup water

THE WHITENER (OPTIONAL)

  • 25 g water
  • 3 g violet food colouring
  • 2 g royal blue food colouring

Instructions
 

THE GINGERBREAD

  • Preheat the oven to 375ºF / 190ºC.
  • Excluding the brown sugar, sift all of the dry ingredients into the stand mixer bowl.
  • Using a paddle attachment, mix all of the dry ingredients together on low (including the brown sugar) for 2 minutes.
  • Cream the butter with the dry ingredients on low for 4 minutes.
  • Whisk together the wet ingredients.
  • Switch out the paddle attachment for the dough hook attachment.
  • Add the liquid ingredients and mix on low for 3 minutes.
  • Mix on medium speed for 6 minutes.
  • Wrap it in plastic wrap and chill for a minimum of two hours.
  • Roll out the dough to a 1/8-1/4" thickness, cut out the cookies, and bake each tray for 8-9 minutes.
  • Cool.

THE ROYAL ICING

  • Sift the powdered sugar into the bowl of a stand mixer.
  • Add the meringue powder and the water to the bowl.
  • Mix on low until the risk of being covered in icing sugar has passed, then increase the speed to medium.
  • Slowly stream in water until the icing looks glossy and falls in a thick, flowing sheet when tested.
  • Store in a lidded container and cover it with plastic wrap. The plastic wrap needs to be in direct contact with the icing.

THE WHITENER

  • Mix all of the ingredients together in a small glass jar until combined.

Notes

BEST PRACTICES FOR MAKING GINGERBREAD DOUGH

  • Chill the dough for a minimum of two hours.
  • The dough can be stored in the refrigerator for up to two weeks or frozen for up to two months.
  • If the dough is too stiff when it's pulled from the fridge, let it warm up on the counter a bit before rolling it out.
  • Always dust your work counter with flour.

    BEST PRACTICES FOR DECORATING GINGERBREAD COOKIES

    • Use a whitener if you want a white icing for the cookies (see recipe below).
    • When working with royal icing, always keep it covered with saran wrap when not in use. The plastic wrap needs to be in direct contact with the icing. If you need to step away from your piping bag, cover the tip in a damp cloth to prevent it from hardening.
    • When outlining, don't touch the tip to the cookie. Hover ever so slightly and guide your icing to where you want it to go.
    • When flooding, you can either press down on your bag to release the icing, guiding it to where it needs to go, or you can 'colour in' the cookie.
    • Go over flooded cookies with a toothpick, poking at anything that resembles an air bubble.
Keyword Cookies, Gingerbread