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Home Christmas

Gingerbread Men

By:Nagi
Published:27 Nov '20Updated:10 Jan '21
190 Comments
Recipe v Video v Dozer v

Gingerbread Men! The ultimate Christmas cookie, is it not??

Gingerbread Men propped up on a mini Christmas tree

Gingerbread Men

Is it too early to get into Christmas baking? I think not.

And is there any cookie more Christmas-y than Gingerbread Men? I KNOW not! Smells like Christmas, tastes like Christmas, looks like Christmas!

You’ll love these Gingerbread Men. You can actually really taste the ginger and spice flavour. They are lovely and moist inside, and you can make the dough months in advance – super handy to bake up fresh when the necessity arises!

Pile of Gingerbread Men
Cutting out Gingerbread Men

What you need for Gingerbread Men

Here’s what you need to make these little Christmas Gingerbread Men!

Ingredients in Gingerbread Men

Just some notes on a few of the ingredients:

  • Molasses – Essential for that deep, rich, caramel-like gingerbread flavour! It also helps hold the dough’s shape. Golden syrup makes a great sub, or treacle. Honey will also work, but the cookies will spread out a touch more and not have the same deep flavour (but still very, very good!). Maple syrup is no good, it’s too thin.

  • Brown sugar – I’ve used ordinary brown sugar here. Light brown sugar results in a slightly lighter colour gingerbread and dark brown sugar can also be used which yields a richer, deeper brown colour. All are tasty!

  • Softened butter – If you want specifics: 17°C/63°F is ideal. It should be malleable but should not make your fingers shiny with grease when you poke it. Your finger should basically be clean. The texture is important: If it’s too soft, this will compromise your cookie dough!

  • Large egg – This is an egg that is 55-60g / 2oz, labelled as “large eggs” on the carton (it’s standardised). Make sure it’s at room temperature. Fridge cold eggs won’t blend in well (and also could cool the butter).

  • Spices:

    • Ground ginger, of course. We are making GINGERbread men, after all!

    • Mixed Spice is a store bought blend of spices used holiday dishes that gives Gingerbread Men more layers of flavour. Using just ginger and cinnamon as many recipes do is just too one dimensional! Smells of Christmas, hails from Britain, common in Australia but if you can’t find it where you are, don’t worry – it’s easy to make up your own using standard spices: cinnamon, all spice, nutmeg, cloves, ginger and coriander (in recipe notes, and don’t worry if you’re missing one or two); and

    • Cloves are optional but add a nice hit of spice and warmth to the dough.


How to make Gingerbread Men

Gingerbread Men are made using a soft, generously-spiced cookie dough. It’s rolled out then a Gingerbread Men cookie cutter is used to cut the shapes out. Of course, it doesn’t have to be a Gingerbread Man – you can make any shape you want!

Making the Gingerbread Cookie Dough

How to make Gingerbread Men
  1. Cream the butter and sugar, then add egg and vanilla. You can use a stand mixer or a handheld beater, as I have done;

  2. Beat in the molasses – it will change the colour to a deep golden brown colour;

  3. Beat in the dry ingredients in 4 equal batches. Adding them gradually helps them incorporate more easily; and

  4. The dough will be soft and sticky – kind of like clay – and should stick together when you press it together.

Cutting Gingerbread Men Shapes

How to make Gingerbread Men
  1. The dough is quite soft and sticky so refrigerate it to firm it up. Do so for at least 2 hours, but you can leave it in the fridge for up to 5 days, or even freeze it for 3 months!

  2. Cut the dough in half so you have one half to work with while you return the other half to the fridge to keep it cold.

  3. Roll the dough out between two sheets of baking paper / parchment paper;

  4. Cut out Gingerbread Men shapes. My cutter is 11cm/4.5″ long. Press down firmly to cut all the way through so they lift out cleanly (though if you have scrappy edges, you can just tidy them up easily on the baking tray).

Gingerbread Dough Rolling Tips

Gingerbread dough is quite soft and sticky which is what makes the cookies moist instead of dry inside. Refrigeration makes the dough easier to work with. At any point during the roll/cutting process, you can stop and refrigerate it to make it easier to work with (be sure to cover dough with cling wrap).

Rolling out between paper is easiest. Try to minimise use of dusting flour otherwise you will have white dust on the cooked gingerbread.

When rolling, paper on underside tends to wrinkle as dough spreads out (which blemishes dough surface), so flip dough, peel off wrinkled paper then put it back on, smoothing out wrinkles.

Transferring and Baking

How to make Gingerbread Men
  1. Peel off excess dough from around the Gingerbread Men;

  2. Transfer shapes to a baking tray using a palette knife or large kitchen knife. Something long and thin is best to minimise ruining the shape!

  3. Place on a baking paper/parchment-lined tray, adjust the shapes and tidy up the edges if needed (I use a butter knife – just press on the scruffy edges to make them neat); and

  4. Bake for 12 minutes for light golden and mostly soft (though slightly crisp on edges), or 14 minutes for deeper golden and crisp. The gingerbread men will be soft out of the oven but will firm up as they cool. Note however even crisp gingerbread men soften the next day. I’m yet to discover the secret to keep Gingerbread Men crispy (other than using a drier dough but that just makes dry Gingerbread Men!).

Freshly cooked Gingerbread Men ready to be decorated

Crispy vs Soft?

If you want a softer cookie with the signature golden colour (pictured – my pick!), stick to 12 minutes bake time. For a crispy cookie with more colour, bake 14 minutes. For the latter, the cookies will be soft straight from the oven, but will harden upon cooling. Note however, even crispy cookies go soft the next day. They just won’t stay firm, sadly!

This recipe makes 20 Gingerbread Men using a cutter that’s 11cm / 4.5″ tall. I use 3 baking trays because the flow of this recipe works nicely to fill and bake one tray at a time.

3 trays of freshly cooked Gingerbread Men

Decorating the Gingerbread Men

The best icing to use to decorating Gingerbread Men is Royal Icing. It’s suitable for piping intricate designs which means it’s perfect for putting smiley faces on our Gingerbread Men, giving them decorative pants / skirts / shorts and gluing on belly buttons etc.

Also, this icing sets hard and so won’t soften the Gingerbread Men.

How to decorate Gingerbread Men
Hand holding Gingerbread Men

You can get as fancy as you want with your decorations! The way I’ve piped the icing across the arms and waist in a zig-zag is a pretty classic way of decorating Gingerbread Men.

I use mini M&M’s and silver balls for the buttons.

And yes, I did give him a smiley face. Nobody wants to eat a grumpy Gingerbread Man! 😂 And even through this toughest of years we can all find some reason to smile, right? – Nagi x


Watch how to make it

This goes down as the cutest recipe video I’ve made all year!!!

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Gingerbread Men propped up on a mini Christmas tree

Gingerbread Men

Author: Nagi
Prep: 30 minutes mins
Cook: 40 minutes mins
Christmas, Cookies
Western
4.89 from 35 votes
Servings18 – 20 gingerbread (depending on cutter size)
Tap or hover to scale
Print
Recipe video above. Classic gingerbread men! I love these because you can actually taste the spices. Smells like Christmas when they're baking!
TOP TIP: The dough is quite sticky to work with (but sticky dough = moist cookie!). The trick is to make sure it's cold – so if it gets too sticky, return to refrigerator for a bit at anytime during roll out/cutting process.

Ingredients

Dry Ingredients:

  • 3 cups flour , plain/all purpose
  • 3 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tbsp ground ginger
  • 2 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1 tsp mixed spice (Note 1)
  • 1/4 tsp ground cloves (Note 2)

Wet Ingredients:

  • 85g / 5 1/2 tbsp unsalted butter , softened (Note 3)
  • 3/4 cup brown sugar (Note 4 re: light or dark brown)
  • 1 large egg , at room temperature (Note 5)
  • 2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1/2 cup molasses, light / true (NOT blackstrap)(Note 6)

Instructions

  • Whisk Dry Ingredients on one bowl.
  • Cream butter & sugar – In a separate bowl, cream the butter and sugar together using a stand mixer or electric beater on speed 7 for 2 minutes, or until light and fluffy.
  • Egg & vanilla – Add the egg and vanilla, then mix on speed 5 until combined (~30 sec).
  • Molasses – Add the molasses, mix for 1 minute using speed 2.
  • Gradually add dry ingredients – Add 1/4 of the Dry ingredients, then mix until you can't see flour (start on speed 1 to stop flour flying everywhere!). Repeat until all Dry ingredients are mixed in, then mix for further 15 seconds. Dough should be soft and a bit sticky – see video for texture.
  • Refrigerate – Pat dough into a disc shape, wrap in the cling wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours or until firm. (Can refrigerate 5 days or freeze 3 months).
  • Preheat the oven to 375°F/190°C (170°C fan) and set a shelf in the middle. Line 3 x baking trays with parchment/baking paper.
  • Take the dough out of the refrigerator and cut into half. Wrap half and return to the fridge.
  • Roll out (Note 7)- Sprinkle a sheet of baking paper very lightly with flour. Place dough on top, sprinkle surface very lightly with flour. Place another sheet of baking paper on top. Roll dough out until 4mm / 1/6" thick using a rolling pin. As you work, flip and if paper is wrinkling, peel it off then put if back on, smoothing out wrinkles.
  • Cut out shapes (Note 8) – Use a gingerbread cookie cutter to cut out gingerbread men shapes, firmly pressing to cut all the way through. If the dough sticks to the cutter, dip it into flour.
  • Transfer – Use a palette knife (or large knife) to transfer shapes onto baking sheet. Place 6 on the first sheet. Tidy edges if necessary using a butter knife.
  • Bake Tray 1 – Bake for 12 minutes (for classic light golden) or 14 minutes (dark golden and crisp). Then remove and cool fully on tray.
  • Repeat – Meanwhile, gather scraps of dough, press together then roll out again. If dough is sticky, return to refrigerator and work on the other half of the dough instead. Repeat rolling out and cutting out. You should have 18 to 20 gingerbread men in total (depending on cutter size)
  • Trays 2 & 3 – Fill and bake 2nd and 3rd tray with gingerbread men, 6 to 8 on each tray. I find the workflow that works best is baking one tray at a time ie. roll/cut-out/fill/bake one tray while you prepare the next.
  • Decorate – Fully cool on trays, then decorate! Use a half batch of this Royal Icing recipe to pipe and stick on decorations (sets hard and doesn't soak into cookies). The recipe makes more than you need, but it's impractical to make less. So freeze leftovers in fully sealed piping bag for future use.

Recipe Notes:

Speeds are for handheld beater or stand mixer ranging from 1 to 10. Low = speed 2; Medium = speed 5; Medium-high = speed 7; High = speed 9 to 10.
1. Mixed Spice is a store-bought blend of spices used in a lot of holiday dishes, and it gives Gingerbread Men that really amazing special Christmas touch. Smells of Christmas! Standard spice in the UK and Australia, but if you can’t find it, here’s how to make it:
  • 1/4 tsp each cinnamon and all spice
  • 1/8 tsp each nutmeg, cloves, ginger and coriander
If you’re missing one or two of the above, don’t fret, just skip it and replace with the same amount of ginger powder. So many spices going on in these cookies anyway, you won’t miss it! 
2. Cloves are optional but add a nice hit of spice and warmth to the dough.
3. Softened butter – Technically 17C/63F. It should be malleable but should not make your fingers shiny with grease when you touch it. If it’s too soft, this will compromise your cookie dough results!
4. Brown sugar – I’ve used ordinary brown sugar here. Light brown sugar results in a slightly lighter colour gingerbread and dark brown sugar can also be used which yields a richer, deeper brown colour.
5. Large egg – This is a 55-60g / 2oz egg, labelled as “large eggs” on the carton. Make sure it’s at room temperature – fridge cold eggs won’t blend in well (and might cool the butter – not good).
6. Molasses – Essential for that rich, caramel gingerbread flavour! Golden syrup makes a great sub, or treacle. Honey will also work, but cookie will spread a touch more, not be quite the same deep golden colour and not have the same rich flavour (still very, very good!).
Maple syrup is too thin and will lose its flavour. Molasses sugar cannot be substituted either.
7. Rolling tips – Gingerbread dough is quite soft and sticky, which is what makes the cookies moist instead of dry inside. Refrigeration makes the dough easier to work with. So at any point during roll/cutting process, you can stop and refrigerate to make it easier to work with (be sure to cover dough with cling wrap).
Rolling out between baking/parchment paper is easiest. Do not use too much flour otherwise you will have white dust on the cooked gingerbread.
When rolling, paper on the underside wrinkles as dough spreads out (which blemishes dough surface), so flip dough, peel off wrinkled paper then put it back on, smoothing out wrinkles.
8. Gingerbread man cutter I used is 11cm / 4.5″ long. My favourite shape which I only have is plastic which unfortunately doesn’t cut as well. Metal ones I’ve found may cut better but the shape isn’t as nice!
9. Crunchy vs soft – If you want a softer cookie with the signature golden colour (pictured), stick to 12 minutes cook time. For a crunchier cookie with more colour, bake 14 minutes. The cookies will be soft straight from the oven, but will harden upon cooling. Note however, crispy cookies go soft the next day. They just won’t stay firm!
10. Different measures in different countries – Tablespoon and cup sizes differ slightly from country to country. In most recipes, the difference is not enough to affect the outcome of the recipe, but for baking recipes, you do need to be more exact.
This cookie recipe as written works no matter what country you are in EXCEPT Japan (please use weights provided if you’re in Japan!). I’ve made it mixing up US and Australian cups (between which you see the greatest common size variance) and it came out the same. In fact, that is why the butter is 5.5 tbsp instead of 6 tbsp which 85g concisely converts to!
11. Storage – These cookies last for 1 week in a tightly-sealed airtight container.  Actually, I just ate one that was two weeks old and it was a bit dry but still delicious – no one would complain! The recommended icing for Gingerbread Men will not soften cookies.
Dough – You can refrigerate the dough for up to 5 days or even freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw in fridge then use per recipe.
12. Nutrition per Gingerbread Man, assuming 20 (excluding icing).

Nutrition Information:

Calories: 181cal (9%)Carbohydrates: 33g (11%)Protein: 3g (6%)Fat: 5g (8%)Saturated Fat: 3g (19%)Cholesterol: 20mg (7%)Sodium: 11mgPotassium: 263mg (8%)Fiber: 1g (4%)Sugar: 16g (18%)Vitamin A: 139IU (3%)Calcium: 72mg (7%)Iron: 2mg (11%)
Keywords: gingerbread cookies, gingerbread men
Did you make this recipe?I love hearing how you went with my recipes! Tag me on Instagram at @recipe_tin.

Life of Dozer

You wear an elf hat for a photo, I’ll give you a Gingerbread doughnut …. pretty good deal, if you ask me!

Dozer gingerbread men doughnuts
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Hi, I'm Nagi!

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190 Comments

  1. Jen says

    December 7, 2023 at 11:41 am

    5 stars
    Turned out great and icing perfect!

    Reply
  2. Jess says

    November 30, 2023 at 1:11 pm

    5 stars
    Absolute favourite gingerbread recipie! I make it every year without fail and never have had a bad batch- it smells so good in my house while baking!

    Reply
  3. Jess says

    November 23, 2023 at 9:03 pm

    Hi Nagi, can we half the recipe? Would using one egg in half recipe work? I want to make with my 3 year old but it’s only me and him and a whole batch is too much.

    Reply
  4. Lee-Anne McMurray says

    November 14, 2023 at 8:42 pm

    Hi Nagi. What is the problem caused by blackstrap molasses?
    I went out and bought molasses and made the dough and just realised the molasses is blackstrap.
    Should I just throw the dough out and start again?

    Reply
    • Michelle says

      November 27, 2023 at 5:29 am

      I have made this recipe with blackstrap and it was still delicious! I’ve also used the normal molasses and I didn’t think there was much of a difference.

      Reply
  5. Linda says

    November 7, 2023 at 8:10 pm

    Hi Nagi, am I right to assume this same recipe can be used to make pieces for a gingerbread house? Thanks! Love your work

    Reply
  6. Tonja Fisher says

    December 24, 2022 at 8:00 pm

    4 stars
    We made them a little crunchier than expected! But a great recipe.

    Reply
  7. Dale says

    December 24, 2022 at 1:31 pm

    5 stars
    Making these in Queensland heat…No molasses so subbed golden syrup. No mixed spice so used the tips provided. Dough in the fridge, out of the fridge, roll, cut, back in the fridge, repeat endlessly. Son eats half the dough before it gets in the oven, neighbour turns up, overcook a batch. Dough back out of the fridge, too hard, let sit for too long, too soft, back in the fridge…
    And still the best gingerbread bikkies ever!

    Reply
  8. Christina says

    December 19, 2022 at 6:01 pm

    Made this recipe while camping at Christmas with the kids – it is very forgiving! We had no measuring cups or electric beaters and the finished product was still absolutely delicious. We also subbed the molasses for golden syrup, left out the vanilla and cloves. Thanks Nagi!

    Reply
  9. Carina says

    December 19, 2022 at 4:45 pm

    When I started to read the instructions and notes on the butter piece I got a little nervous but this recipe was a success. My cookies were delish and the 12 minutes were perfect! As always thank you Nagi. My family and little one will for sure enjoy them! Excited to add these to the baking repertoire!

    Reply
  10. Ellie says

    December 17, 2022 at 9:49 am

    Did I read somewhere there’s salt in this recipe? My dough is also very crumbly I should have weighed my ingredients I think. Nagi you’re the best! Thank you!!!

    Reply
  11. Carol Gary says

    December 15, 2022 at 5:12 am

    5 stars
    As usual, your recipes rock!! This made the best gingerbread I’ve made. Just the right balance of spices and the perfect texture. I tried the thicker & thinner version of this dough and it was exactly as you described. Thank you for your hard work to always bring us the best. ❤️

    Reply
  12. Laura says

    December 13, 2022 at 6:56 pm

    I ran out of golden syrup, and thought back to your Byron bay cookies and used glucose as the remainder a few tablespoons, the dough takes a bit to come together but 4 days on and they are still crunchy!
    Also rolled them out with a metal rolling pin and silicone mat which meant I didn’t get crinkles from the baking paper

    Reply
  13. Max says

    December 9, 2022 at 5:50 pm

    5 stars
    Hi Nagi I’ve made these before as Gingerbread men but I’m wondering if they will work as stamped cookies? I’ve got new Christmas themed stamps I want to use!

    Reply
  14. Janice says

    December 9, 2022 at 9:09 am

    Turn the gingerbread men upside down to make a reindeer 😊

    Reply
  15. Ro says

    December 6, 2022 at 5:50 am

    Hello, I can’t wait to try this recipe! Where did you get you’re cookie cutter??

    Thanks,

    Reply
  16. Alice says

    November 28, 2022 at 6:49 pm

    5 stars
    Hi Nagi. I made this today and they were sooo delicious! I used golden syrup as my molasses jar is blackstrap. I found that using cling wrap instead of baking paper works better for me. Thanks for the recipe!!

    Reply
  17. Elmira says

    October 27, 2022 at 6:42 pm

    5 stars
    These taste the best! Thank you and Merry Christmas!

    Reply
  18. Sarah says

    October 7, 2022 at 4:17 pm

    Er, Nagi, the recipe says it makes 20 lovely little men. There’s only 19 on your trays…..
    Hmmmm? 🤔😉😱

    Reply
    • Ella says

      November 21, 2022 at 4:33 pm

      It says 18 – 20

      Reply
  19. Bron says

    January 28, 2022 at 10:01 am

    5 stars
    My 3 year old and I made these together as Christmas gifts. They were fun and easy to make and were delicious.

    Reply
  20. Emily says

    January 5, 2022 at 2:08 am

    Unfortunately I had no cute cutters and had to substitute the treacle with golden syrup, but these biscuits tasted lovely nonetheless. The soft middle is nice but I especially like the sweet and crispy edges!

    Reply
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Hi, I'm Nagi!

I believe you can make great food with everyday ingredients even if you’re short on time and cost conscious. You just need to cook clever and get creative! Read More

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