The Best Crispy Gingersnap Cookies Recipe!

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The BEST crispy gingersnap cookies recipe features crunchy, audibly snap-in-half Gingersnaps – thin ‘n crispy Christmas cookies bursting with sweet ginger, cloves and cinnamon! Sweet, crispy, & crunchy!

Super close up of the best crispy gingersnap cookie recipe fanned out on a plate this recipe

The BEST Crispy Gingersnap Cookies Recipe!

Who’s ready for Erik’s favorite crunchy holiday cookie of this season?? Today, we’re bringing you ultra thin and crispy gingersnaps – you’ll love munching on these super crunchy festive cookies bursting with sweet ginger, cloves, and cinnamon!

This time of year, Erik and I get ready for all of the baking. But, we’re big cookie lovers here, so cookies are what we do! And today I’m sharing one of our all-time favorite cookies to bake (and to eat): Gingersnaps!

The gingersnap cookie recipe ingredients measured into mis en place bowls including unsulphured molasses, dark brown sugar, ground cloves, cinnamon, room temperature eggs and butter, and flour, baking soda, salt, and sugar.

Crispy Gingersnap Cookies Ingredients

  • Flour – use all purpose, unbleached flour
  • Butter – use room temperature, unsalted butter for a cohesively smooth cookie dough
  • Sugar – we’ll be using two types of sugar: granulated sugar and brown sugar below for a more complex, richer flavor of gingersnaps cookies
  • Brown Sugar – we’ll be using dark brown sugar for it’s deeper flavor and higher molasses content
  • Molasses – unsulphured molasses has no additives and won’t create a chemical flavor in your cookies
  • Ginger, cinnamon, cloves – with the highest amount of ginger, we’ll have a delicious, bold ginger flavor complimented by warm cinnamon and a tang of cloves for the best crispy gingersnaps.
  • Egg – make sure your egg is room temperature for a smooth, consistent dough
  • Baking Soda and Salt
Hands presenting a plate of this gingersnap cookie recipe

What are Gingersnaps?

A gingersnap is a cookie (or a biscuit) that is usually crisp, crunchy, and flavored with ginger, cinnamon, and other spices, and sweetened with molasses. Gingersnaps can also be soft and chewy, unlike today’s thin ‘n crispy recipe. Ginger cookies are said to have come from Europe and bought to America from Dutch, German and English settlers. [1]

What do Gingersnap Cookies taste like?

Gingersnaps taste like a sweet, molasses-tinged cookie with the zest of sweet ginger, warm cinnamon and a dash of cloves.

Crispy Gingersnap cookies on a cooling rack placed inside of a baking sheet with one cookie bitten

How to Make Crispy Gingersnap Cookies

To make gingersnap cookies, we won’t be starting with preheating the oven—this is because the cookie dough will need to chill.

First, whisk to combine the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, and salt. Set aside.

Two photos showing How to Make crispy gingersnap cookies – creaming the butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar in a stand mixer. Adding in molasses.

Then, pull out your stand mixer to cream together butter, sugar, and brown sugar on medium high. Add molasses and mix in.

Decreasing the mixer speed to medium-low, beat in the egg.

Further reducing the mixer speed to low, slowly add in the dry ingredients mixture until combined, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.

Two photos showing How to Make this Christmas baked good recipe – adding the flour mixture to the wet mixture to make the dough

Transfer the dough into an airtight container and freeze for 3-4 hours, until firm but scoopable. This will help the flavors deepen and infuse into the dough, but also make handling the dough easier.

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Then, line a cookie sheet in parchment paper. Scoop and drop 1-inch balls of dough into your hands.

Two photos showing How to Make crispy gingersnap cookies – scooping and rolling balls of dough

Quickly roll into a sphere and coat in sugar. Then, drop onto the prepared cookie sheet, spaced evenly apart with ample room for lots of spread.

Rolling cookie dough balls in sugar before baking

Bake for about 16 minutes, then allow crispy gingersnaps cookies to firm up and crisp up on the sheet for about 5 minutes. Sprinkle sugar over each cookie.

Then, cool and enjoy the best crispy gingersnaps!

Yes, you can freeze gingersnaps! You can freeze them fully baked or just the cookie dough. I’ll show you how below.

  • To freeze the dough: To freeze unbaked cookie dough, place in an airtight container in the freezer for 1-2 months. You can also keep the cookie dough in the fridge for 1-2 days.
  • To freeze baked gingersnaps: Cool baked cookies completely, then store in an airtight container for 1-3 months in the freezer.
Close up of this finished recipe to showcase the crispy texture

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Make This Holiday Season a Snap!

…both by making these deliciously festive cookies and by taking a snap of your BB creation, sharing it, and tagging me at @beamingbaker and #beamingbaker. Thank you, truly, for spending the holidays with me… Erik and I wish you a safe, joyful, and positively festive holiday season! ‘Til next time…

Sending you all my love and maybe even a dove, xo Demeter ❤️

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close up of a plate of gingersnaps topped with sugar

The Best Crispy Gingersnap Cookies Recipe!

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5 from 4 reviews

  • Author: Demeter | Beaming Baker
  • Total Time: 3 hours 36 minutes
  • Yield: about 3 dozen cookies (mine made 37 cookies) 1x
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Description

Crunchy, audibly snap-in-half gingersnaps – thin ‘n crispy seasonal cookies bursting with sweet ginger, cloves and cinnamon!

Ingredients

Units Scale

Tools Needed

Dry Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
  • 3/4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
  • 1/3 teaspoon ground cloves
  • 1 teaspoon ground ginger
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt

Wet Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, room temperature
  • 1/4 cup granulated sugar, plus more for rolling below
  • 6 tablespoons dark brown sugar, packed
  • 1/4 cup unsulphured molasses
  • 1 large egg, room temperature

For Rolling

  • About 1/2 cup granulated sugar

Topping

  • Granulated sugar

Instructions

  1. Whisk all Dry Ingredients together in a medium bowl: flour, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, and salt. Set aside.
  2. In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar on medium high. Add molasses and mix in.
  3. Setting the mixer to medium-low, beat in the egg until combined.
  4. Set the mixer to low, then gradually add in the Dry Ingredients mixture until combined. Scrape down the beaters as needed.
  5. Freeze for about 3-4 hours, until firm, but scoopable.
  6. Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper or greased foil. Quickly roll cookies into 1-inch balls, then coat in sugar (fill a bowl with sugar for rolling). The cookie dough will get sticky from the heat in your hands—make sure to roll quickly.
  7. Place cookie dough balls evenly spaced far apart on the cookie sheet, with ample room to spread—these cookies are very large and thin. I initially did 12 on a large sheet, then changed to 8 per sheet so none stuck together.
  8. Bake 14-18 minutes (mine took 16 minutes). Cool cookies directly on the sheet for about 5 minutes, then gently transfer to a cooling rack to completely cook. Sprinkle sugar on the tops of each cookie. Enjoy!

Notes

Storing Instructions: Cool cookies completely, then store in an airtight container for 1 week, in a cool, dark environment.

Freezing Cookie Dough: Place gingersnaps dough into a sealed, freezer-friendly container for 1-2 months. Scoop dough and bake as directed—no need to thaw unless dough is too hard to scoop.

Freezing baked Gingersnaps: Allow cookies to cool completely, then store in an airtight, freezer-friendly container in the freezer for 1-3 months.

  • Prep Time: 20 minutes
  • Chill Time: 3 hours
  • Cook Time: 16 minutes
  • Category: Dessert
  • Method: Bake
  • Cuisine: European, American

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It’s nice to meet you! Erik and I love sharing easy recipes that are fun & approachable. I love cozy movies, chocolate, big hugs, and being out at sea.

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8 Comments

  2. These were the perfect ginger cookies to make for our holiday cookie exchange! They turned out super crispy and packed with ginger flavor!



    Reply

  3. I am more of a thick & chewy girl when it comes to my ginger cookies, but I definitely ended up enjoying them so much! 🙂



    Reply