Classic Gingerbread Men Cookies Recipe

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This classic Christmas cookie has been dubbed my daughter’s favorite! It is spiced with molasses, ginger, and cinnamon, and SO soft and chewy.

Classic Gingerbread Men Cookie recipe with no dough chilling required!
12 Days of Christmas Cookies

I cannot believe we are already on Day 8 of Christmas Cookies! And Christmas is in TWO WEEKS.

WHAT?!

Seriously. This time speed warp I’m in feel like madness. I’ve decided that time must speed up with every child you have. Hats off to you mommas of lots. You must blink and it’s Christmas time again!

Ok. Before we get back on track here and start talking about Gingerbread Men, here’s something that’s been making me chuckle. My husband has started to sport a beard, and my siblings are now calling him The GingerBEARD Man.

I didn’t know redheads were called “gingers” until I got married. So for those of you who are like me, there you go– my ginger husband and his ginger-beard.

Also: doesn’t he look like Kris Kringle from the classic clay-mation Christmas movies??

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Ok. For real now. Let’s talk about actual Gingerbread MEN.

They are soft and chewy, sweetly spiced with ginger, cinnamon, and molasses, and so easy to make! A lot of gingerbread cookie recipes call for a massive amount of time to chill the dough. But not this recipe.

Because WHO HAS TIME FOR THAT?? Call me crazy, but if I’m making gingerbread cookies for Christmastime, it’s probably at the last minute. Because everything that happens in the month of December is at the last minute with me. And I KNOW I can’t be the only one, right? Right?? ????

Plus, my daughter would have just died if I told her we had to wait hours for the dough to chill.

Classic Gingerbread Men Cookie recipe with no dough chilling required!

So I made sure this recipe was quick and easy and can go from bowl to to the rolling pin in a snap. I did put the cut out dough in the freezer for about 5 minutes for a quick chill to help hold the shape during baking, but that’s really no big deal.

Here’s the gist of what you’ll need:

butter.

brown sugar.

molasses.

ginger, cinnamon, and nutmeg.

and plenty of flour.

And you’ll want to have frosting and lots of sprinkles of hand for decorating! We decorated ours for Family Night this week, and I’ll show you what we ended up with in tomorrow’s post. I used chocolate on mine and made a ginger-reindeer ☺️. Because I think even gingerbread needs chocolate!

Classic Gingerbread Men Cookie recipe with no dough chilling required!

This recipe is meant to be super tasty a LOT of fun. I hope you share some holiday joy in the kitchen with those you love in the making of these cookies this year!

Classic Gingerbread Men Cookie recipe with no dough chilling required!

Classic Gingerbread Man Cookies

Yield: 1 dozen

This classic Christmas cookie has been dubbed my daughter's favorite! It is spiced with molasses, ginger, and cinnamon, and SO soft and chewy.

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup butter, cold
  • 3/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
  • 1/3 cup molasses
  • 1 egg
  • 2-2/3 cups all-purpose flour + a little more
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 tbsp ground ginger
  • 2 tsp cinnamon
  • 1 tsp nutmeg
  •  

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350ºF.

Beat the butter until smooth. Cream together the butter and sugar until fluffy.

Mix in the molasses and egg.

In a separate bowl, mix the flour, baking soda, salt, ginger, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Add the dry mixture to the wet mixture and combine until soft dough forms.

Mix in additional flour by the tablespoon until dough pulls away from the edges of the bowl and looks like you could handle it with your hands. (I added 5 tbsp)

Remove dough to a floured surface and form into a disc. Gently roll out the dough to 1/4 inch thickness. Cut out into shapes and place on ungreased baking sheet.

Place in the freezer for 5 minutes. Bake for 9 minutes, until edges are firm. Let cool completely before frosting.

Classic Gingerbread Men Cookie recipe with no dough chilling required!

I think you’ll also like my Sugar Cookie Recipe (no chill-time required for this one either!):

This sugar cookie recipe is seriously so easy. You don't have to worry about spreading and no crazy chill time.

And be sure to try my Gingerbread Blossom Cookies:

Gingerbread Blossom Cookies
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