Chewy Gingerbread Cookies

Who says that all gingerbread needs to be in a masculine form?  ​I mean - nothing against gingerbread men but as a woman - I feel discriminated against.  😅 Believe it or not, I actually have a gingerbread WOMAN cookie cutter but in the 12 years that I've been baking professionally, nobody has ever requested a gingerbread cookie in a feminine form.   🤷🏻‍♀️ 🤣

As my form of passive aggressive protest against the discrimination of women in the gingerbread world, I decided to branch out from the traditional gingerbread man cookie this year.  I created some gingerbread snowflakes and turned the rest of the gingerbread dough into fun little reindeer.  🙃🦌

Our family has an annual gingerbread house decorating contest every December.  I'm the baker, the architect and construction crew and everyone else jumps in for the decorating. 😉I typically gather up the leftover scraps from the houses and cut out gingerbread men to snack on while we build. 

The cookies are delicious but the dough that I use for the houses is stiff and crispy - you know - so the houses don't collapse.  So I decided to come up with a gingerbread dough that was more suited to a snacking cookie, this year.  Something soft and chewy but with all the yumminess and flavor of traditional gingerbread.  

Chewy Gingerbread Man Cookies
10 Tablespoons butter, softened 
3/4 cup brown sugar
2/3 cup molasses
1 large egg, at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 and 1/2 cups flour 
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 Tablespoon ground ginger 
1 Tablespoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

Beat butter until smooth and creamy.

Beat in brown sugar and molasses.  

Beat in egg and vanilla.  

Whisk together dry ingredients. 

Slowly mix into wet ingredients until thoroughly combined.  

Divide dough in half.  Shape each half into a disk.

Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate 3 hours to 3 days. 

Roll chilled dough out on floured countertop to 1/4" thickness.  

Cut with cookie cutters and place on silpat lined baking sheets. 

Bake 8-11 minutes at 350.  Shorter for softer cookies - longer for crisp cookies.

Decorate with royal icing.  

Gingerbread cookies are one of my favorite Christmas cookies.  They make the house smell AMAZING while they're baking because they're loaded with all the best flavors of the season - cinnamon, cloves, ginger, allspice.  And... they're delicious. 😋

​Ciao!

Click here for a printable version of this recipe