Easy Gingerbread Crinkle Cookies - Top Recipes (2024)

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If you’re looking for a quick, tasty holiday treat that won’t take much time to prepare, then easy crinkle cookies are the perfect sweet treat for you! These delicious gingerbread-flavored cookies have a light and fluffy interior with just the right amount of crunchy exterior.

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Not only do they require fewer ingredients than typical cookie recipes, but these crinkle cookies also look festive and cute, making them the ideal addition to any Christmas get-together or dessert table. Baking these gingerbread crinkle cookies will make your home smell divine while creating a delicious treat that everyone is sure to love!

Gingerbread Crinkle Cookies Ingredients

Making gingerbread crinkle cookies is an enjoyable activity to do with the kids or by yourself. It is fun to mix the ingredients together and see the batter transform into yummy gingerbread-flavored treats.

To get started, you’ll need some basic pantry staples: all-purpose flour, baking soda, ground nutmeg, ground ginger, and cinnamon.

All of these flavorful ingredients come together for a gingerbread cookie with a delightfully spicy flavor.

You will also need some soft butter, molasses, brown sugar, and an egg for binding it all together when mixed with the dry ingredients. And after rolling the dough into balls and coating them in powdered sugar, your gingerbread crinkle cookies are ready to be baked!

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How To Make Gingerbread Crinkle Cookies?

To make gingerbread crinkle cookies, start by creaming together butter and sugar in a large bowl.

Next add molasses and one egg to the mixture before sifting together all of your dry ingredients -flour, baking soda, and allspice – directly into the wet ingredients. Give it all a good stir or beat with an electric mixer until everything is well combined.

Lastly, roll spoonfuls of the dough mixture into balls and roll them in some additional icing sugar before putting them on a parchment-lined baking sheet and baking in the oven for about ten minutes until their edges are crispy but still soft in the center.

What Makes Gingerbread Cookies Crack?

When it comes to crinkle gingerbread cookies, have you ever paused to consider why they get those crinkled cracks on the surface? It’s all thanks to the butter in the dough melting as it bakes.

When the heat of the oven melts that butter, it creates steam which causes the crackle-crinkle effect you find on top of the gingerbread cookies once they’re done baking.

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Baking tips for the Best Crinkle Cookies:

If you are looking for the most scrumptious gingerbread crinkle cookies, here are some tips for you.

  • The key to getting the perfect crinkle cookie is all in the dough. Be sure not to overwork the dough and keep your cookie shapes as even as possible by making them all the same size. Before rolling out your gingerbread mix, make sure it is chilled for about 30 minutes. This will make it much easier to work with—so no more sticky messes!
  • Once you have rolled the dough into balls, be sure to coat them generously with powdered sugar. The sugar will help to create the crinkled effect once the cookies are baked.
  • When baking the cookies, place them on a parchment-lined baking sheet. This will prevent them from sticking to the baking sheet and will also make cleanup a breeze.
  • Finally, be sure to let the cookies cool completely before serving. This will ensure that they are nice and crisp.

Leftover cookie storage:

For gingerbread crinkle cookie lovers, leftover cookies don’t have to go to waste. With a few simple steps and the right storage methods, your gingerbread crinkle cookies will stay soft and delicious long after you’ve made them.

To do this, make sure you store your cookies in airtight containers or resealable bags; the less exposure to air they have, the better.

They last about 5 days at room temperature if stored properly. You can also refrigerate them for up to two weeks, or freeze them for up to two months.

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Easy Gingerbread Crinkle Cookies

Yield: 20

Prep Time: 2 hours

Baking time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 2 hours 10 minutes

Ingredients

  • ¾ cup unsalted butter, softened
  • 1 cup packed brown sugar
  • 1 egg
  • ¼ cup molasses
  • 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp ground nutmeg
  • 1 tsp ground ginger
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • Powdered sugar for rolling

Instructions

  1. Cream together the butter and sugar using a hand mixer until they have a smooth airy texture - it should take around 3 minutes of beating at medium speed.

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  2. Add the molasses and the egg to the mixture and combine until fully incorporated.

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  3. Mix in the all-purpose flour, baking soda, and spices, until there is no flour visible in the dough.

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  4. Let the dough chill out in the fridge for two hours, covered tightly with plastic wrap.
  5. Preheat the oven to 375 F and divide the dough into 18-20 spoonfuls. Shape them into perfect balls.

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  6. Roll each cookie in powdered sugar until they're fully covered. Place the sweet spheres 3 inches apart on a parchment-lined baking sheet and you'll be ready to bake!
  7. Bake the cookies for 10 minutes to create a golden outer shell with an ever-so-slightly gooey center.
  8. Allow your cookies to rest and settle on the baking sheet for 10 minutes, then move them to a rack so they can cool down completely.

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Nutrition Information:

Amount Per Serving:Calories: 101Total Fat: 4gCholesterol: 15mgSodium: 140mgCarbohydrates: 26gProtein: 2g

Did you make this recipe?

Please leave a comment on the blog or share a photo on Pinterest

Easy Gingerbread Crinkle Cookies - Top Recipes (2024)

FAQs

What makes gingerbread cookies crack on top? ›

You have a few things that can go wrong: The oven isn't hot enough. (it needs to set the top before the middle's fully risen) Not enough leavening (it needs to be strong enough to crack the top once it's set)

Why are my crinkle cookies not crinkling? ›

The signature crinkle effect happens when the cookies spread and crack as they bake. If your cookies aren't crinkling, it might be because the dough is too warm (try chilling it for longer before baking), or the oven temperature might be too low (ensure your oven is correctly preheated).

Why didn't my crinkle cookies crack? ›

Why didn't my chocolate crinkle cookies crack? The most common reason for cookies that don't crack is either that the oven was not hot enough or the baking powder was expired.

How to get cracks in ginger cookies? ›

A heavy amount of baking soda interacts with the molasses in this recipe to encourage spread. This allows cracks in the dough to develop where moisture escapes, creating that beautiful crackled appearance and crunchy texture. Ensure your baking soda is fresh and active – learn more about that here.

How to get cookies to crack on top? ›

Coating the cookies with either type of sugar draws out moisture from their surface, promoting cracks by drying out their tops before the interiors set. But granulated sugar does so more efficiently because of its coarse, crystalline structure.

How to get crinkle top on cookies? ›

Crinkle cookies are iconic for their powder sugar-dusted crackly surfaces. For the right amount of lift and spread to crinkle the top, use a combination of baking soda and baking powder. And don't forget to factor in time for chilling the dough—it needs to be firm before being rolled in powdered sugar and baked.

How do I make my cookies chewy instead of crunchy? ›

How To Make Cookies Chewy Without Cornstarch
  1. Go heavy on brown sugar. It has more moisture than its granulated counterpart, which means the cookie comes out less crispy. ...
  2. Choose margarine or shortening instead of butter. ...
  3. Use baking powder instead of baking soda. ...
  4. Rest your dough. ...
  5. Shorten baking time.
May 14, 2023

How to get powdered sugar to stick on crinkle cookies? ›

The secret to a well coated crinkle cookie - the double sugar roll! I roll my cookies in granulated sugar first before powdered sugar - this helps it to stick, and means still get a lovely sugary coating without the powdered sugar being toooo overpowering.

Why aren't my cookies cracking on top? ›

Issues with cracking usually derive from the sugar coating, not enough or expired baking powder or baking soda, or the oven temperature isn't hot enough. Solution: Granulated sugar is more effective at drying the surface than powdered sugar.

Why are my ginger cookies so hard? ›

“There are some gingerbread recipes that are hard right after baking and need to sit for a few days to soften. Molasses and honey hardens gingerbread, but as the sugar absorbs moisture, it will get softer.”

Why are my ginger molasses cookies not spreading? ›

Too much flour will make them dry and the dough will not spread the right way, while not enough flour means that they will spread too much. Let the dough chill in the fridge for at least one hour so that you get thick cookies with a chewy texture.

How do you fix cracked gingerbread? ›

I would try either royal icing or piping gel. They both are the super "edible" glues of gingerbread and baking.

What causes the cookies to dry out and crack on the surface? ›

Only cookies made with all granular sucrose or all dissolved sucrose exhibited surface cracking. The unique ability of sucrose to recrystallize at the cookie surface during baking appears to be responsible for the surface cracking pattern.

What happens if you put too much butter in gingerbread cookies? ›

Too much butter made for sticky dough, but delicious cookies. I had to use a spatula to lift these people-shaped cutouts from my flour-dusted countertop and onto a baking sheet. The dough was sticky, which resulted in slightly swollen cookies, but the finished product was nearly perfect.

What causes molasses cookies to crack? ›

When the sugar and butter are whipped well, the butter is aerated, which encourages the cookies to crack as they bake. The baking soda that was used may have been a bit stale. Baking soda helps the ginger molasses cookies rise. If you worked with stale baking soda, your cookies may not crack like you expected them to.

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