Gingerbread snowflakes are a Christmas classic, but these cookies have an extra festive flair thanks to fresh nutmeg. With a warm, rich gingerbread spice, crispy edges, you’ll want to make these cookies all through the holiday season.
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For my family, the holiday season is filled with spice-filled cookies like my grandma’s gingersnaps or my favorite cinnamon christmas cookies. But these gingerbread snowflake cookies are really something special.
Why You'll Love This Recipe
These cookies are delicious and they'll make your home smell like Mrs. Claus's kitchen while they're baking thanks to ground cinnamon, ginger, cloves and nutmeg.
Gingerbread lasts a long time so you can make these a month ahead and they'll keep at room temperature or freeze for up to three months.
You can use any shape cookie cutter you like.
Snowflakes are pretty and gingerbread men are cute but if you want to keep things simple, just use a circle cookie cutter.
If you don't have any cookie cutters, you can use an upside down glass to cut the shapes.
Recipe Note:
There are lots of gingerbread cookies floating around. This recipe comes from a 20+ year old cookbook called The Good Cookie by Tish Boyle.
I adapted it by adding cocoa powder because I adore spice and chocolate together.
Because this is an older recipe, Boyle called for the baking soda to be stirred in a small bowl with two tablespoons each hot water and molasses.
This was more common when there were more single acting baking sodas on the store shelves.
Dissolving baking soda in hot water ensures that it gets mixed throughout a recipe's ingredients.
P.s. I don't want you to think Tish Boyle is dead. She is the managing editor of Pastry Arts Magazine and in 2015 published a delightful looking book called Flavorful, which I need to get my hands on.
Ingredients
- All purpose flour
- Baking soda
- Butter
- Brown sugar
- Granulated sugar
- Egg
- Hot water
- Molasses
- Ground ginger
- Ground cinnamon
- Ground cloves
- Fresh nutmeg
- Sea salt
See recipe card for quantities.
How to Make Gingerbread Snowflakes
There are a lot of gingerbread cookie recipes out there. This one is adapted from an old cookie book called The Good Cookie by Tish Boyle.
Find full recipe amounts and instructions in the recipe card at the bottom of this post. Click the jump to recipe button above if you don't want any tips for baking these cookies.
- Gather ingredients.
- Measure dry ingredients and whisk together (all but baking soda) in a bowl.
- Beat butter.
- Beat in sugars.
- Mix in egg and molasses/hot water/baking soda mixture.
- Add dry ingredients to the wet and mix well. Stop to scrape the bottom and sides of your mixing bowl at least a couple times to make sure everything is incorporated.
- Chill dough for at least two hours.
- Roll out and cut into shapes.
- Chill shapes for 15 minutes.
- Bake!
- Decorate, if you like, or leave as is.
Hint: If you find yourself half way through this recipe and realize you forgot to grab molasses at the grocery store, you could swap out maple syrup or corn syrup. Just know you won't have as rich a flavor.
Substitutions
- Butter - use margarine or lard instead. Lard is amazing in ginger cookies. Get leaf lard if you can find it at your local food co-op.
- Sugar - if you're out of either granulated or brown sugar, use what you have. The recipe will still work. But if you can get your paws on Muscovado, use that for an extra rich flavor.
Variations
- Orange Zest - A little bit of orange zest added to the dough will bring a pop of bright citrus to these cookies.
- White Chocolate - Melt white chocolate chips and then either dip or coat the gingerbread snowflake cookies for some extra sweetness.
Special Equipment
This cookie calls for freshly grated nutmeg for which you need a nutmeg grater.
I own this one and love it, best $10 spent on a kitchen tool.
However, you're going to need some place to store your nutmeg, which is roughly half the size of an acorn, so my next purchase is going to be this one, which has a storage compartment.
Even though I am a kitchen minimalist, I'm a big believer that everyone needs a nutmeg grater.
There's really no other tool that will suit and fresh nutmeg is divine.
A dash of freshly grated nutmeg in any dish involving pasta and cream or potato is not to be missed or on top of whipped cream on a pumpkin pie martini.
Storage
Gingerbread will last in an airtight container at room temperature for up to a month!
Freeze baked gingerbread or dough in a freezer safe container for up to three months.
More Cookie Recipes
Cookie Baking Advice
You may find these baking posts helpful, from Room Temperature Butter for Baking to Salted or Unsalted Butter for Cookies? to Do I Need A Cookie Scoop?, Cookie Size Chart to What Should a Beginner Bake? to Where Can I Buy Sprinkles?, Why is my sugar cookie dough too sticky? and Cookie Holidays.
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Recipe
Gingerbread Snowflakes
Gingerbread snowflakes are a spicy, crispy cookie, which should be one of your holiday cookie staples.
Ingredients
- 3-¼ cups all purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon ground ginger
- 1-½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground cloves
- ¼ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
- ½ teaspoon salt
- One cup (two sticks) unsalted butter softened
- ¾ cup packed dark brown sugar or Muscovado sugar
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- One large egg
- 2 tablespoons hot water
- 1 tablespoon molasses
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- Icing, either storebouih
Instructions
Whisk together the dry ingredients flour, baking powder, ground ginger, ground cinnamon, ground cloves, grated nutmeg and salt. Set aside.
Beet butter and sugar is at medium speed until light and texture in color for about three minutes. Add egg and mix.
In a small bowl stir together the hot water, molasses and baking soda until the baking soda has dissolved.
Add the baking soda mixture to the butter mixture and combined at a low speed. Gradually increase speed to medium and mix until well blended.
Add dry ingredients and beat on low speed until no white streaks of flour remain and all of the dry ingredients have been thoroughly incorporated into the butter mixture.
Be sure to scrape the bottom and the sides of the bowl a few times to ensure all of the spices have been incorporated into the dough.
Divide dough into thirds or quarters and wrap in a resealable bag or plastic wrap and chill for at least two hours or up to three days.
If not ready to bake right away, you can freeze dough in a freezer safe container if longer storage is needed for up to three months.
To bake: take one chunk out of the refrigerator and let it rest for 10 to 15 minutes.
Lay out parchment paper, roughly 12 by 18, on your work surface.
Roll out the dough using a rolling pin in one direction to a quarter inch.
Use a rolling pin fitted with a guide if you don't know what that looks like.
Use a snowflake cookie cutter or cutter of your choice two to 3 inches in size.
Starting in one corner of the rolled out dough, Press cookie cutter down firmly and lift up
Continue cutting out as many snowflakes as possible until you've used up the dough.
Using a thin metal spatula, carefully move cookies one at a time onto a parchment-lined cookie sheet.
If cookies seem fragile or begin tearing or are hard to remove, pick up the parchment paper and transfer it onto a cookie sheet and into the fridge to chill for 15 minutes before trying again.
Bake the cookies one sheet at a time at 3:50 for 8 to 10 minutes.
Cool the cookies on a baking sheet for at least two minutes.
Continue rolling and cutting out the remaining portions of dough.
Decorate cooled gingerbread snowflakes with icing or powdered sugar.
Gingerbread is a long-lasting cookie.
Store these cookies in an airtight container for one month.
Or freeze in a freezer safe container for up to three months.
Notes
For a cocoa gingerbread: reduce flour to 2-¾ cups and add ½ cup cocoa powder.
Be sure to use fresh spices. If they are older than six months, toss them and buy fresh.
Gingerbread is a long-lasting cookie.
Store these cookies in an airtight container for one month.
Or freeze in a freezer safe container for up to three months.
Recommended Products
This post and/or recipe may contain affiliate links, which means if you click through and make a purchase, I'll earn a commission. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. See Disclosure policy.
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Fox Run Nutmeg Grater, 1.25 x 3.75 x 8.5 inches, Metallic -
Nordic Ware Natural Aluminum Commercial Baker's Half Sheet, 2-Pack, Silver
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Katbite 200Pcs 12x16 In Unbleached Parchment Paper for Baking, Precut Parchment Paper Sheets, Heavy Duty Flat Baking Paper, Half Sheet Baking Sheets for Baking Cookies, Cooking, Air Fryer, Oven
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KitchenAid 5 Speed Ultra Power Hand Mixer - KHM512
Nutrition Information
Yield 36 Serving Size 1Amount Per Serving Calories 94Total Fat 1gSaturated Fat 0gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 0gCholesterol 6mgSodium 73mgCarbohydrates 20gFiber 1gSugar 9gProtein 2g
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