Our Festive Gingersnap Cookie Recipe is one of our families long time favorite cookie recipes during the Holiday season! It’s part of the holiday magic in our kitchen and we’re quite sure you’ll love them too. The aromas of ginger, cinnamon, and cloves while baking fill whole house with the scent of Christmas. Homemade gingersnap cookies become beautifully festive when dipped in white chocolate and by adding a few holiday sprinkles! Everything is more festive when you add chocolate and sprinkles to them, wouldn’t you agree?! Our gingersnap cookies are fun to make with the kiddos and be sure to leave a few for Santa on Christmas Eve. OH and just remember he likes a glass of milk too! 🙂
Ingredients in our Festive Gingersnap Cookies
- Vegetable Shortening or Oil- Most often I prefer to use butter over shortening but once a year when I make our homemade gingerbread cookies I splurge! Vegetable shortening is cheaper and more shelf-stable than other types of fat like butter or lard. It’s also higher in fat than butter, so it produces a softer, flakier and more tender pastry.
- All–purpose flour- is a general use white flour. It is not a whole flour, and only the starchy endosperm is used, without the germ and bran portion of the kernel. It is a blend of hard and soft flours or hard flours with a protein content (gluten) of about 9 to 12 percent.
- Brown sugar – Brown sugars are white granulated sugar that has had cane molasses added to it and it adds moisture so makes it chewier than white sugar. The two types of brown sugar, light and dark, refer to the amount of molasses that is present. Light brown sugar is used more often in baking, while dark brown sugar, with a bolder molasses flavor, is delicious used as a rub for steaks.
- Molasses- Molasses or black treacle is a viscous product resulting from refining sugarcane or sugar beets into sugar. Molasses varies by amount of sugar, method of extraction, and age of plant. Sugarcane molasses is primarily used for sweetening and flavoring foods.
- Eggs- I place my eggs in a small bowl of very warm water while I’m gathering all the other ingredients and prepping to bake then when I’m ready to add them into the batter they have reached the perfect temperature! Add your eggs one at a time and cream for 2 minutes, then scape the bowl down using a rubber spatula, and add the next egg. This is the best way to be sure the eggs are incorporated evenly into the batter. Beating each egg individually is essential because eggs act as a leavener which brings the loft (height) into your baked goods.
- Leavener– We are using Baking Soda in our recipe today. Both baking powder and baking soda are chemical leavening agents that cause batters to rise when baked. The leavener enlarges the bubbles which are already present in the batter produced through creaming of ingredients.
- Holiday Spices- We can’t forget the very best part- the stars of the recipe and some of the best flavors of the holidays!! Ginger, Cinnamon, and Cloves!
How to make our Festive Gingersnap Cookies
- Preheat oven 375 degrees.
- In a large mixing bowl combine brown sugar, eggs, molasses; mix well.
- Add oil, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, cloves; mix well.
- Add flour 1 cup at a time, mixing well between each addition.
- Using a small cookie scoop or making 1 inch balls, roll in sugar and place on a un-greased cookies sheet.
- Bake 10 minutes tops will crack.
- Cool on rack.
- Melt almond bark according to package directions (I use microwave), using a spoon to help cover each cookie half way, place on waxed paper, add sprinkles, allow to dry completely.
My friend, Kendra shared this recipe with me about 16 years ago… loved them ever since! Thanks, girl 🙂
We think you’ll love these other holiday inspired desserts too
- Cinnamon Rolls with Eggnog Frosting
- Candy Cane Fudge
- Cranberry Orange Coffee Cake
- Spice Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
- Peppermint Hot Cocoa Krispie Treats
- Festive Ginger Snap Cookies
- I love Eggnog Cookies
- Gingerbread Popcorn
Quick and Easy holiday brunch recipes ideas:
- Black Forest Waffles
- Holiday Overnight Oats
- Apple Walnut Cinnamon Roll Waffles with Cider Glaze
- Apple Cinnamon Cream Cheese Pastries
- Nutella Pastry Stars
- Cinnamon Roll Kabobs
- Prosciutto Wrapped Apple Triangles Recipe
- Crock-pot Cranberry Orange Bread
Festive Ginger Snap Cookies Recipe
Our Festive Gingersnap Cookies are one of our families long time favorite cookie recipes during the Holiday season!
Ingredients
- 4 1/2 cups all purpose flour
- 2 cups brown sugar
- 1 1/2 cups shortening or oil
- 1/2 cup light molasses, if you can only find full flavor use 1/4 C honey and 1/4 full flavor molasses
- 2 eggs
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 2 teaspoons ground ginger
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- 1 teaspoons ground cloves
- 1/2 cup sugar, to roll in
- 1 24oz white almond bark
- Holiday sprinkles
- wax paper
Instructions
- Preheat oven 375 degrees.
- In a large mixing bowl combine brown sugar, eggs, molasses; mix well.
- Add oil, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, cloves; mix well.
- Add flour 1 cup at a time, mixing well between each addition.
- Using a small cookie scoop or making 1 inch balls, roll in sugar and place on a un-greased cookies sheet.
- Bake 10 minutes tops will crack.
- Cool on rack.
- Melt almond bark according to package directions (I use microwave), using a spoon to help cover each cookie half way, place on waxed paper, add sprinkles, allow to dry completely.
Nutrition Information:
Yield:
48Serving Size:
1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 251Total Fat: 15gSaturated Fat: 3gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 11gCholesterol: 11mgSodium: 134mgCarbohydrates: 27gFiber: 2gSugar: 16gProtein: 5g
Bake up some happy holidays memories with our Festive Ginger Snap Cookies Recipe!
We wish you and yours the all the Happiest of Holidays!
We love to hear about your magical cooking moments. . . if you get a chance to make our recipes then leave us a comment or tag us on Instagram @cookingwithruthie , pin us on Pinterest , or follow along with us on Facebook so we can share in the joy of cooking with you! Please reach out if you have questions or comments via our email: ruthie@cookingwithruthie.com. We’re excited to see you again soon!
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Love Always,
Ruthie & Madeliene
Thanks for checking out my Festive Gingersnap Cookies Recipe post. Check out my full collection of Cookies articles, and get more chocolate chip, shortbread, and holiday Cookie Recipes by Ashton Swank, Liz Call, Mariah Leeson and Tammy Mitchell.
Can the cookie dough be frozen in advance, then baked a few weeks later?
Hi Kellie… this recipe calls for baking soda only- which only reacts once but if you change it to be 1 tsp baking soda and 1 tsp baking powder then you can freeze the dough because the baking powder reacts twice; once when wet and again when heat is applied, they will still have lift. I would keep it half and half so they have the chemical balance they need. I hope that’s helpful… you’ll adore these cookies! Faves of our family for over 20 years 🙂 xoxo~ Ruthie
At what temperature do you bake them?
Hi Chris… thank you for pointing that out, I fixed it now! But they bake at 375 degrees. You’ll totally love these cookies 🙂 xoxo~ Ruthie
I guessed right and baked them at 375. They are DELICIOUS! My husband and son couldn’t wait for me to dip them, and gobbled up several while they were warm.
They look so pretty, and will be a regular for my Christmas baking from now on.
My batch baked up 86 cookies (before the raid); however, that is a plus!!
That’s SO awesome 🙂 If you keep them air tight they will stay nice and soft- also a trick my grandma taught me is to put a piece of bread in the container with the cookies and they’ll stay really super soft! They freeze great too. What size scoop did you use to get 86? YUMMO 🙂
I used the small Pampered Chef cookie scoop – they seemed like 1 inch balls. They look the same as your picture, but hard to tell. I am delighted to have a beautiful, tasty new recipe to add to the line-up. Thank you for the recipe!!
Yep.. that’s exactly what I use too 🙂 You’re totally welcome- I love hearing back on recipe so thanks for the fun comments. Have a great weekend! xoxo~ Ruthie
Hi Ruthie!
I love these! Gingerbread is my most favorite, and you glammed them up so beautifully! I have shared them over here https://www.facebook.com/EasyFreeSantaLetters so come on by for a look!
Thank you!
What kind of shortening or oil do you use?
I use canola oil… vegetable oil will work well though. I like either of those over shortening- but that’s just personal preference. This recipe makes a lot of cookies but they freeze well 🙂 Happy Holidays! xoxo! Ruthie