This is the best gingerbread men recipe! Follow it right and you won’t need another.
The first time I ever made gingerbread, I followed an All Recipes recipe loosely and the gingerbread men came out too chubby and soft. Regardless, I dropped them off in the Target break room where I worked and hungry employees gobbled it within minutes. This Fall, I was determined to make gingerbread the right way.
And wow, did I succeed this time. Believe me, this time, between me and my quarantined partner, the entire batch was gone within a day and a half. And less than a month later, I made them again!
I followed this recipe from Rose Levy Berenbaum’s book Rose’s Baking Basics, and her tried-and-true recipe did not fail. Amidst a lot of stress-baking, I was able to find a groove and add tips of my own, so here’s my adapted result.
Rose’s original gingerbread men recipe is more complicated than most, and for good reason. When you take the extra time to refrigerate your butter and dough, you’ll notice the difference in ease of cutting your shapes and the gingerbread “snap.” I did change a few things, like swapping light molasses for regular, since I couldn’t find it, and only using dry spices. Since I got addicted to these cookies, here are some tips I have for new bakers.
Tricky Gingerbread Men Best Practices
- Make sure your butter is cold! If it’s too warm, it’ll be hard to even roll into a disc. If you just got your butter from the store, make sure it is properly cold before starting.
- Chill your dough properly. I know the temptation to immediately roll & cut the cookies is there, but it’ll be a sticky mess if you don’t prep accordingly. I recommend at least 3 hours, and overnight is just fine.
- You don’t want to clean up a sticky mess off your counter, so roll your dough on plastic wrap, sprinkle some flour over it, and then add another sheet of plastic wrap.
- You want to roll until it is 1/8-inch thick. The trick is you don’t want it paper-thin to where you can’t even remove your gingerbread folks. 1/8-inch thick is just right before you get to that part.
- Space out those cookies! You don’t want them to blob together. To see when they are ready, lightly tap them with a chopstick or skewer. If they immediately dent, it’s too soft. They should be just barely able to withstand the tap. Also, the corners of their limbs should just be turning brown – but you don’t want to wait until it spreads to their whole body.
- Again, be patient for them to cool. It’s this time that they harden to get that nice crisp snap.
- Waste not, want not! For the leftovers, just re-roll them again & cut! You can always make a round teensy cookie in the end if you don’t have enough for a person.
Phew, that was a doozy. Hopefully you’re still with me. Are you ready? Let’s get baking!
The Perfect Gingerbread Men Recipe
Equipment
- Cookie tray
- food processor
- gingerbread mold for cookies
Ingredients
- 6 tbsp unsalted butter
- ¼ cup molasses
- 1¾ cups all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ⅛ teaspoon ground cloves
- ⅓ cup plus one tablespoon dark brown sugar
- optional: Royal Icing, candies, raisins to decorate
Instructions
- Cut your butter into half-inch cubes, wrap, and refrigerate for 30 minutes. (It will be hard to shape and roll if your butter is warm.)
- Whisk the flour, baking soda, salt, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves in a medium bowl.
- In your food processor or blender, process the brown sugar until very fine. Add the butter cubes and pulse. Measure ¼ cup of molasses and half an egg and process them until incorporated.
- Add the flour mixture and pulse until it begins to come together.
- Scrape the dough into a sheet of plastic wrap and press it into a round 1/2 inch thick disc. Chill for 3 hours or overnight.
- Twenty minutes before baking, preheat your oven to 350°F.
- Set your dough onto a sheet of plastic wrap. Add a layer of flour and cover it with another layer of plastic wrap. Roll your dough until it’s 1/8 inch thick.
- Cut your cookie with a gingerbread cutter. If it gets sticky, brush it with flour. Gather the scraps and re-roll to cut. If too warm, refridgerate them and try again later.
- Place your cookies 1 inch apart on a cookie sheet and bake for 5 minutes. Then, rotate your pan and bake for another 6-8 minutes.
- To test to see if they’re ready, lightly tap them with a chopstick or skewer. If they immediately dent, it’s too soft. They should be just barely able to withstand the tap.
- Take your cookies out and set them on a wire rack to cool for at least 10 minutes. Enjoy!
Since making these gingerbread folks, I’ve had tons of people reach out for the recipe. Perhaps they’re photogenic, or we’re all looking forward to some comfort food in the colder seasons during quarantine. I hope this recipe gives you joy and warmth!
Fun Bonus chapter
After this, I decided to try my hand at Parkin, taken from my Great British Baking Show’s “Big Book of Amazing Cakes.” This is a super fun book that gets your creative baking juices flowing, although some ingredients may be harder to find.
Parkin is very similar, essentially gingerbread in a cake form. Traditionally, it’s eaten during Bonfire Week and gets better with age. Like lots of British pastries, it can be made with golden syrup. Golden syrup is pretty hard to find in the U.S., so that can be swapped with light corn syrup.
The other ingredients are similar to gingerbread-like molasses and ground ginger, and a “pumpkin pie spice blend,” but it also includes whole milk and rolled oats.
I admit I didn’t like Parkin as much, maybe because it’s harder to eat as a crumbly cake. Parkin supposedly improves with age as it takes a week for the flavors to really sit in. I personally didn’t find it better. (But maybe I just had too much gingerbread!) I don’t have any unique or special notes to add which is why I’m not sharing details on the recipe, but I wouldn’t be surprised if there is a better recipe out there. Or maybe I just need to use golden syrup. Check out the book for more about Parkin and other British treats.
Plus, here’s another treat I made from the same book! You can see even more desserts by checking out my dessert recipes here. Thank you all for following with me on my tasty treat journey!
Note, this blog post contains an affiliate link from Amazon. I do get a small commission if items are purchased through the link at no cost to the buyer or viewer.
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