I love to bake, but making any sort of cutout cookie can challenge my patience and short attention span! Plus, finding a good gingerbread cookies recipe is a challenge in itself!
However, both my little ones have been sick and Haiden has been requesting gingerbread men cookies for the past several days. Since I'd do my best to give my kids anything they wanted, especially when they're unwell, making cookies doesn't seem like such a chore 🙂
Don't miss other delicious cookie recipes! We love snickerdoodle cookies and this potato chip cookies recipe. You'll also be missing out if you don't make this brown butter s'mores cookie recipe!
I also like using my Nordicware half-sheet pans as cookie sheets. They're sturdy, they heat evenly and they're big–maximizing the amount of cookies I can get into the oven at the same time!
This is my favorite gingerbread cookies recipe. I like that it comes together easily. To be honest, I usually dump all the ingredients but the flour into the bowl of my KitchenAid pro series mixer, cream them together, then slowly add the flour. It makes mixing up the dough a snap!
Keep scrolling to get a printable of this gingerbread men cookies recipe!
Gingerbread Men Cookies Recipe
- 1/2 cup butter, softened
- 1/2 cup butter-flavored shortening
- 1 1/2 cups white sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 tablespoon vanilla
- 3 tablespoons molasses
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
Directions for the Gingerbread Men Cookies recipe:
- Cream the butter, shortening and the sugar together. Add the egg, vanilla and molasses and mix until well-blended.
- Add the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, ground cloves and salt, mixing until well combined. Use a wooden spoon if needed.
- Transfer the dough to an airtight container and chill for 2-3 hours.
- Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.
- Lightly flour a surface and roll the dough out to 1/4 inch thick. (this is the perfect rolling pin. Seriously.)
- Use cookie cutters to cut out the dough in Gingerbread Men or other shapes
- Place cookies 1″ apart on greased cookie sheets.
- Bake for 10-12 minutes until cookies are light brown along the edges.
Enjoy!
Best Gingerbread Men Cookies
Make the best gingerbread men cookies with this spiced recipe using molasses and spiced with cinnamon, ginger and cloves!
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup butter, softened
- 1/2 cup butter-flavored shortening
- 1 1/2 cups white sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 tablespoon vanilla
- 3 tablespoons molasses
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Cream the butter, shortening and the sugar together. Add the egg, vanilla and molasses and mix until well-blended.
- Add the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, ground cloves and salt, mixing until well combined. Use a wooden spoon if needed.
- Transfer the dough to an airtight container and chill for 2-3 hours.
- Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.
- Lightly flour a surface and roll the dough out to 1/4 inch thick.
- Use cookie cutters to cut out the dough in Gingerbread Men or other shapes
- Place cookies 1" apart on greased cookie sheets.
- Bake for 10-12 minutes until cookies are light brown along the edges.
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 42 Serving Size: 1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 109Total Fat: 5gSaturated Fat: 3gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 2gCholesterol: 16mgSodium: 122mgCarbohydrates: 15gFiber: 0gSugar: 8gProtein: 1g
sandy says
is there corn syrup in the recipe? I saw about it in the instructions, but not in the list of ingredients. Thanks, Sandy
Sarah Miles says
These were fantastic! My 2 and 4 year old helped to mix the dough, cut the cookies and decorate with various gel icings. And most importantly everyone loved eating them!
Jeannie says
Mary Beth, I notice this recipe has 2 tsp baking soda in it. Does this make the cookie spread and lose shape?
Marybeth Hamilton says
Not in my experience.
Hannah says
Yes.
Amanda says
I think it did for me
Amber says
Me too.
Dawn says
How many cookies does this recipe yield?
Mandy says
I made these last week and we really enjoyed them…these turned out great and I’ve added them to my “to make for Christmas list” 🙂 thanks for such a yummy and easy recipe 🙂
Tia says
How many cookies does this recipe yield?
Jennifer says
The dough was really dry, not sure if it was the 3 cups or what. Flavor was fantastic!!!! I rolled them thicker because we like chewy cookies. Was soft for a few minutes but then the got crunchy. Was there only supposed to be 3T. Molasses and not like 1/2 cup?!
Kelly says
Do you still have this recipe? I used it around Christmas and now wanted to make again for my kids and it isn’t showing up? If you have it anyway you could post for me?? I’d greatly appreciate it!! 🙂
Jewlie says
I am finding this dough to be very sticky and I am having to flour flour flour the dough and table! They are very tasty cookies!
Kelly says
Where did the recipe go??? I used this over Christmas and everyone loved them and I wanted to make them again and now the recipe isn’t showing up 🙁 Please help!!!
Lee Ann says
Is it okay to just use butter flavored vegetable oil as my daughter-in-law is lactose intolerant? These sounds yummy.
Marybeth Hamilton says
I would use all shortening before using vegetable oil. It’s important for these cookies to keep their shape, and I’m afraid the liquid state of the oil would cause problems.
Emily says
How many cookies does this yield?
Cori says
I followed the recipe exact and the dough was extremely crumbly. It wouldn’t turn into a dough at all let alone dough to be rolled. I had to throw it all out.
Amber says
Me too!! So frustrating.
Nicole says
The mixture didn’t turn to dough it stayed really crumbly and I may have to throw it out. Help??
Betsy says
Can I make the dough the night before?
Marybeth Hamilton says
Absolutely!
Mary Ellen says
I’m not a shortening type person ( actually I’m not sure what shortening is…) Could I just use all butter?
Wendy says
I was wondering this too!
Christopher says
Do the gingerbread men come out soft or are they more of a hard cookie?
Ron Peterson says
My Wife and I just made your Wonderful Gi overbroad Men ! We made them to give to our friends and family for Christmas and we made some
for Church Christmas Party and everyone just love them and asked us if We would give them the re pie for them . Thank You for sharing this
Recipe with us. You have a very MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY AND WONDERFUL NEW YEAR ! And ” GOD BLESS US EVERYONE “
Diana Erickson says
How did you make such nice white lines for the trim? What frosting did you use and what tool?
Jessica says
Dough was too crumbly to make into gingerbread cutouts. Was very disappointed in the results. Less flour next time maybe.
Kim says
I searched for solutions to this crumbly dough…and found to add 1 tbsp of milk and keep adding until dough starts to form
Stacey says
My dough was perfect!! Not even slightly crumbly. Fluffing the flour with a fork or wisk prior to measuring is the key. Other wise you end up with dry doughs. Incredible recipe, left out the baking soda because I love really sharp lines. But thats just personal preference.
Amanda says
I made these tonight with the kids and I followed the directions exactly and for some reason our cookies expanded in the oven and lost all their shape! Not sure where we went wrong. I must say the flavour is the best though!
Julie F says
This is probably the best tasting gingerbread recipe I’ve tasted. Just the perfect ratio and amount of spices. Perhaps a gram weight for flour would help vs a dry measurement. Mine stuck together but it was on the brink! My mistake was rolling a little too thin (recipe 1/4 inch was probably perfect) so they cooked quickly. Fabulous recipe!
Deborah Simon says
Can I use butter without the shortening?
Marybeth says
I’ve never tried it. I’m sure they would taste great (because butter :)), but I worry that they would spread more than they should.
If I DID use butter, I would test bake just a few cookies first. If they spread too much, I’d chill the cutouts on the baking sheet for at least 10-15 minutes before baking.
Let me know how it goes!
Misty says
Is refrigerating a MUST?
Jeannie G says
These cookies are delicious!!! I put the dough in refrigerator for 2.5 hrs and immediately rolled out 4 large gingerbread men and into the oven ( this isn’t my first time with shaped cookies either) and the gingerbread men completely lost their shape. The next batch I put gingerbread men in freezer for 15 min then put on cookie sheet and again gingerbread men lost their shape but not as bad. Now I’m trying a third batch and hoping for the best. Any tips?
Sally says
Great recipe. So glad I tried it. I have made it three times already. Fill the directions and the cookies cone out great. I will use this recipe again and again.
Sarah says
My daughter and I used all butter, no shortening. The cookies did spread out a tiny bit, maybe bc of using all butter… All in all they turned out great and the flavor was awesome!