While everyone’s houses smell like cookies nowadays, gingerbread cookies are a fun reminder that Christmas is coming! This delicious treat is not only fancied by kids, but adults also crave it.

No matter how the wintery days force everyone to remain cooped up in their house, decorating gingerbread cookies is one way to cheer up the whole family! Ever wondered how to decorate gingerbread cookies? These kid-friendly snacks need abundant love and just a little bit of creativity.

1. How to Decorate Gingerbread Cookies?

Gingerbread cookie preparation is an engaging holiday tradition that requires the whole family’s involvement! Here are some quick and simple ways to boost your creative skills through gingerbread cookies:

1.1. Gingerbread Man

No matter how often you Decorate gingerbread man cutouts, it never stops being fun! Fill a piping bag with food gel colouring fitted with a 2m tip. You need to make an excellent outline of the cookie man. Now, fill the insides with icing.

With the help of a scribe tool, move the icing around to get rid of swirls. Your gingerbread man will look much more polished and smoother after this step.

Let the icing settle down for about 2-3 hours. Now, with the help of a piping bag fitted with a 2m tip, filled with white icing, make squiggly lines for his head, hands, and legs.

For his face, draw two eyes with black icing. Draw tiny circles of pink on the cheeks using pink gel colouring to make the gingerbread men blushy!

Draw a curved line with the help of black icing for the mouth. Grab an edible marker from the market if you are feeling extra fancy. The curved line for the mouth will look so much more refined with an edible marker.

Finish off by making three dots to fill the empty area. That’s it! Your adorable gingerbread man is ready to be the talk of the town!

1.2. Gingerbread Woman

Cut mini marshmallows with the help of scissors and throw them in coloured sugar. For a goofy layered dress, stick these coloured marshmallows using royal icing. Make a smiley face to complete the gingerbread woman. Don’t forget to add curved lines on her face for the hair.

1.3. Gingerbread Tree

Gingerbread trees are the easiest to decorate! Just create fine zigzag lines using icing and add colourful sunflower seeds coated with chocolate here and there.

1.4. Gingerbread House

Add the colourful fruit loops cereal on the roof and trim tiny pretzel sticks for the chimney. Add trimmed sour belts for the window and door. Pipe out Christmas trees using icing and add red star sprinkles on top.

1.5. Sour Belts

Add green sour belts on the roof of the gingerbread house and pipe the snow on the sides. Add a squiggly line at the bottom of the sour belts.

Then, add candy-coated sunflower seeds for the Christmas lights. Use a chopped pretzel stick for the chimney. Add a red-coloured sour belt for the door. Make a doorknob with the help of icing.

1.6. Minty Blast

Just outline our adorable little gingerbread man with the help of gel colouring. Stick some colourful mints in the center. Draw his eyes and smile. Don’t forget to add a few straight lines to give him some hair. You can also use mints to decorate the house as well.

1.7. Artistic Pretzel

Add mini pretzels on the roof of the mini gingerbread house. Chop a few pretzel sticks for the door. Attach a chopped chocolate bar for the chimney. Draw a door knob using the icing.

Pipe little dots in a triangular shape that resembles a tree. For the tree trunk, use a chopped pretzel stick. These decorated gingerbread cookies are far better and much healthier than store-bought holiday cookies.

Mastering the Art of Chewy Gingerbread Cookies: A Pastry Chef’s Guide to Perfect Texture

As a pastry chef, one of my favorite things to bake was cookies. I’ve created (and eaten) so many in my lifetime that I feel like I’m well qualified to answer this question.

The key to the perfect chewy gingerbread cookies is getting the oven and dough temperature synchronized. The ideal temperature to bake gingerbread cookies is 390 F. The dough, however, needs to be chilled before shaping.

This firms them up and ensures they won’t melt all over the tray.

Another crucial aspect is not flattening your cookies out. If you roll it in a ball, the cookie dough will melt and spread out to the perfect thickness with that signature chewy texture.

Bake your gingerbread cookies until they are still soft in the center but slightly browned on the bottom. Baking them too long will create a very crispy cookie and lose all the chew.

Amy Hand, Contributing Writer, The Skillful Cook

Chill Dough and Avoid Overmixing

Gingerbread cookies, unlike their cousin ginger snaps, are meant to be soft and chewy. To achieve this mouth-watering texture, you must chill the cookie dough for at least 1-2 hours, or overnight.

Chilling the dough helps solidify the fats in the recipe, resulting in cookies that spread less during baking and maintain a chewier texture.

Another little tip is to mix the ingredients just until everything is incorporated. Overmixing can develop too much gluten, resulting in tough cookies instead of tender ones.

Then, once baked and cooled, store the gingerbread cookies in an airtight container to maintain their texture. Be sure to add a slice of bread to the container, as it can help keep the cookies moist.

Thanh Dang, Influencer & Founder, Food Senpai

2. Easy Gingerbread Cookies Recipe

The ideal gingerbread cookie should be soft and chewy in the center and crispy on the edges. These perfectly spiced Christmas goodies are something to cherish in your hearts forever when paired with a heartfelt memory! These Christmas cookies are filled with love and comfort that you can never stop at one! Here is a simple recipe to achieve that rich flavour every time:

2.1. Ingredients

1. Dark brown sugar

2. Egg

3. Flour

4. Baking soda

5. Spices (cloves, ginger, cinnamon, allspice)

6. Vanilla extract

7. Salt

8. Molasses

9. Unsalted butter

10. Milk

2.2. Method

To make the cookie dough, combine flour, baking soda, brown powdered sugar, salt, previously listed spices, egg, and vanilla extract. Add the mixture to a pastry blender along with some butter to give it a buttery flavour. Mix until the dough seems like fine crumbs. Add milk and molasses at the end. Once again, give it a nice mix.

Refrigerate the freshly prepared gingerbread cookie dough for at least 3-4 hours or overnight after covering it with a plastic wrap. It is advisable to keep the dough in the refrigerator overnight if you have enough time. You’ll find a firm cookie dough that is easy to work in the morning.

Now, roll out the dough into thin sheets with the help of a rolling pin. Here comes the intriguing part! Cut out fun shapes using cookie cutters. Gingerbread men, reindeer, angels, hearts, snowflakes, Christmas trees, mini houses, and star-shaped cookie cutters are available in the market.

Now, place a sheet of parchment paper on the top of the baking sheet. This will prevent the gingerbread cookies from sticking to the baking sheet. Allow the cookies to bake for ten minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Let it cool for a few minutes, and start decorating!

Strategic Ingredient Swaps for Healthier Cookies

After many years of experimenting with gingerbread cookie recipes, I’ve found that there are several easy ways to make the classic treat healthier without sacrificing the delicious flavor. The key is being strategic with your ingredient swaps. 

First, you can replace some of the all-purpose flour with whole-wheat flour. Start by swapping out a quarter of the white flour for whole wheat, and increase the amount if you’d like a nuttier, more fiber-rich cookie.

The whole-wheat flour complements the warming spices perfectly. Just be sure to also add a touch more molasses to balance out the extra whole wheat. 

Second, cut back on the refined white sugar. You can replace up to half of it with maple syrup or honey without losing the signature sweetness. The maple syrup, in particular, adds a nice depth.

And for a natural sugar substitute, you can use puréed dates or prune purée for a fraction of the sugar. The fruit purée lends moisture and chewiness.

Finally, opt for high-quality butter or coconut oil in place of shortening. The butter gives a richer flavor, while the coconut oil makes the cookies melt-in-your-mouth tender. Both create a more indulgent, less greasy cookie than shortening.

With a few simple tweaks like these, you can feel good about enjoying your gingerbread cookies. The spices and molasses are inherently healthy, so building upon that solid base is delicious and nutritious.

Kuban Baryktabasov, CEO & Co-founder, NAO

Elevating Gingerbread Cookies: A Healthier Twist on Flavorful Alternatives

One of the simplest ways to make gingerbread cookies a little more nutritionally balanced is to swap out the sugar for other flavors.

Adding molasses or maple syrup can add sweetness with a nice smoky note to it, and you can also go heavy on ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, and allspice.

You’ll still want some amount of sugar to create a balanced flavor, but you can probably get by with half the usual amount by going heavier on spices.

If you’re worried about offending sensitive pallets with too much spice, do a little experimenting with small batches and different spice combinations until you find one that you’re happy with.

Catherine Rall, Registered Dietitian, Happy V

Gingerbread Cookie Storage Tips

I suggest storing frosted gingerbread cookies in layers separated by parchment paper, within an airtight container. After the icing has dried completely, of course.

For unfrosted gingerbread cookies, I’ve had success keeping them in glass jars with fitted lids (like a large mason jar).

Humidity and gingerbread aren’t friends because the cookies already have a good deal of moisture in them thanks to the molasses. Which means that keeping them in the fridge is off-limits.

You should also aim to keep them away from places that can get too warm, like near the oven or above the fridge.

Nicole Durham, Owner/Blogger, BeeyondCereal

3. Enjoy Your Holiday Cookies!

Gingerbread cookies will also make your house smell heavenly if you prepare them at home. These holiday cookies have an extended shelf life, so you can easily store them in the freezer for 10-15 days in an airtight container.

There is no denying that kids love to decorate gingerbread cookies. You can even hold a contest in your house to see if anyone thinks creatively about decorating gingerbread cookies!

Guest Author: Saket Kumar

Last Updated on March 30, 2024 by Saket Kumar