Tessa’s Recipe Rundown
Taste: The perfect balance of sweetness and spice.
Texture: Thin and crispy, these cookies break in half cleanly and have a satisfying crunch.
Ease: Super simple 30-minute recipe. No chilling required.
Pros: The perfect easy, festive addition to any Christmas cookie box.
Cons: None.
Would I make this again? I make these cookies every holiday season!
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These Crispy Gingersnaps Cookies are the perfect classic, crispy gingersnap cookie.
Typically, I prefer a chewy cookie, but every once in a while, I crave that satisfying crunch and crispness of something sweet.
So, I tweaked my Chewy Gingersnap recipe (which is included in my cookbook – available on Amazon!) to make them thin and oh-so-satisfyingly crunchy.
What Makes Cookies Chewy, Crisp, or Cakey?
My free guide reveals the ingredients and tweaks that matter.
These cookies are perfectly spice-forward, with that beautiful snap. Plus, they look so pretty next to beautifully iced Cut-Out Sugar Cookies and Christmas Brownies on your Christmas dessert table!
These cookies have become one of my most popular cookie recipes ever, with hundreds of wonderful reviews like this comment from reader El below:
Reader Love
My husband loved these cookies. He is a grumpy old man and doesn’t praise much of anything, so when he said, “These are the best cookies I have ever tasted!” I figured that was a super rubber stamp of approval. Great cookie!
–
Enjoy on a cozy day with a glass of milk or a cup of coffee or tea.
Sprinkle of Science
How to Make Thin & Crispy Gingersnaps
What are Gingersnaps?
Gingersnaps are just what they sound like: a cookie flavored with ginger, plus other spices that we’ll talk more about below. They are typically crunchy or have a brittle texture, thus the “snap”. The spiciness of the ginger and richness of the molasses pair perfectly with coffee, tea, hot cocoa, or mulled wine.
A year-round favorite all over the world, Gingersnaps are particularly popular to welcome in the fall and winter holiday seasons. Perfectly spiced, these cookies have the most beautiful cracked, sugary tops. I love these cookies in the fall, when the temperatures are slowly beginning to drop. They’re delicious with a glass of cold milk or even lemonade – and even better when used in place of graham crackers for over-the-top Gingersnap S’mores or to make ice cream sandwiches!
What Makes Cookies Crispy and Crackled?
- 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 how to test leavening agents for freshness here.
- There’s also much more granulated sugar than brown sugar in this recipe. White sugar encourages more spread and has less moisture to make for a crisper cookie.
- Lastly, a longer baking time ensures a crunchy texture all the way through the center of these cookies.
Why Roll the Dough in Sugar?
Rolling the cookie dough balls in sugar contributes to the overall texture of the cookies as well as the cracky tops. It helps to draw moisture out from the surface of the cookies while they bake, though the majority of the “crackliness” comes from the baking soda and molasses.
Feel free to skip this step if preferred, but your cookies won’t be quite as crisp and won’t look as pretty.
Measure Your Flour Correctly to Ensure Gingersnaps are Crispy!
- To avoid ending up with Gingersnaps that are thick, hard, or dense instead of perfectly crispy, make sure to measure your flour accurately with a digital kitchen scale.
- It’s so easy to accidentally add too much flour if you’re measuring by using cups.
- If you don’t have a scale, use the spoon and level method to measure.
- Just take a look at what a difference too much flour can make:
How to Make Flavorful Gingersnaps
- Make sure your spices, especially the ground ginger, are fresh and of high quality.
- If your spices no longer smell very aromatic, toss them and purchase new spices.
- The fresher the spice, the more flavorful it’ll be.
- While I haven’t tried it, you can also experiment with crystallized ginger, but expect your cookies to be a little more sugary.
- If you want more spice in your gingersnaps, add a tablespoon or two of freshly grated ginger.
- You can also add a pinch of cayenne pepper or a little black pepper.
- In addition to the spices, the molasses used is also important. More on this just below.
The Molasses
Make sure to use unsulphured molasses. Never use blackstrap molasses in baking, it’s extremely bitter. Brer Rabbit or Grandma’s in their ‘mild’ or ‘original’ flavors tend to work best.
Can I Make these Cookies Smaller?
Sure! Use a small 1 tablespoon-sized cookie scoop for small Gingersnap Cookies and reduce the bake time by a couple minutes.
Can I Double This Recipe?
Yes! Simply double all ingredients to yield about 56 medium-sized cookies. No other modifications needed.
Can I Use This Recipe to Make Gingerbread Men?
No – this recipe was written to be a simple drop-style cookie, so it won’t hold its shape well when rolled out and shaped using cookie cutters. Instead, try my Gingerbread Cookies Recipe!
How to Store Homemade Gingersnaps
Store baked, cooled Gingersnaps in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 7 days.
How to Freeze Gingersnap Cookies
Store baked, cooled Gingersnap Cookies in the freezer inside an airtight container for up to 1 month.
Alternatively, portion out the balls of cookie dough, roll in sugar, place them on a baking sheet, and freeze for 1 hour or until solid. Transfer to an airtight container and store in the freezer for up to 2 months. Bake cookies from frozen, reducing the temperature to 325°F and adding a couple minutes to the baking time. Learn more about freezing cookie dough here.
More Christmas Cookie Recipes:
Crispy Gingersnaps
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Ingredients
- 1 1/2 sticks (170 grams) unsalted butter, at cool room temperature
- 1 1/4 cups (250 grams) granulated sugar, divided
- 1/4 cup (50 grams) lightly packed light brown sugar
- 1/3 cup (113 grams) unsulphured molasses (NOT blackstrap)*
- 1 large egg
- 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 2 teaspoons baking soda**
- 1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
- 2 1/4 cups (286 grams) all-purpose flour,
measured correctly
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl, use an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment to beat the butter, 3/4 cup granulated sugar, and brown sugar until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add the molasses and egg and beat until combined. Add in the salt, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, and flour, and beat until combined.
- Place the remaining 1/2 cup sugar in a shallow dish. Scoop the dough into 1 1/2 tablespoon balls and roll in the sugar before placing on the baking sheet, leaving plenty of room for spread. Bake for 15 minutes or until the cookies are spread and the surface looks crackled.
- Let cool on the baking sheets for 5 minutes before removing to wire racks to cool completely. Store cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 7 days.
Recipe Notes
The Ultimate Cookie Handbook
Learn the sweet SCIENCE of cookie baking in a fun, visual way to customize your own recipes frustration-free. Plus, my best 50+ homemade cookies!
This post was originally published in 2020 and has been updated with additional baking tips. Photos by Ashley McLaughlin.
Exactly what you want in a gingersnap. Easy to make and delicious. I had no trouble deciphering the instructions!
Teeny nitpick. The instructions say to mix the butterS and sugar. I think it should be butter and sugarS. I spent a while making sure I wasn’t missing some special kind of butter!
Hi Sadia! Thanks so much for pointing out that typo. I have fixed it now! Let us know if you ever give these cookies a try – we’d love to hear what you think 🙂 Thanks again!
I love these cookies. They are my guilty pleasure!
Hi Tessa,
I am a bit confused by the instructions. It says 250grams of Granulated sugar and 50 grams of Btown Sugar. However, the instructions then say 3/4 cups of sugar combined to he used in the sugar/butter mixture and that 1/2 cup should be put aside for rolling the dough in.
Can you please clarify EXACTLY how many grams of the granulated sugar is supposed to be used when mixing the butter and sugar?
Thanks in advance.
Laura
Hi Laura. As you noticed, this recipe uses a total of 1 1/4 cups (or 250 grams) granulated sugar.
3/4 cup (or 150 grams) goes into the dough.
The remaining 1/2 cup (or 100 grams) is for rolling the dough.
All the brown sugar gets mixed into the dough only.
I hope that helps 🙂 Happy baking!
A little stiff. Not the best recipe imo
Hi Jan! I’m sorry to hear that these cookies didn’t turn out as they should. It sounds like you accidentally added too much flour. How do you measure your ingredients? By volume (using cups), or by weight (using a digital kitchen scale)? When measuring by volume, it’s so easy to mis-measure ingredients (particularly flour) and throw off the entire chemistry of a recipe. Check out Tessa’s article here, where she talks about how to best measure ingredients to ensure accuracy every time. I hope that helps, Jan, and I hope you give these cookies another try sometime – they really are delicious! Happy baking!
FABULOUS !!!
These are DELISH and CRISPY just as promised!
Thank you – they’re a bit hit at my house!
Fantastic cookies. I added some chopped, candied ginger. They definitely snap:)
Great addition, yum!
Thank you so much for this recipe Tessa! My first try at baking cookies. Was looking for ginger snap recipe and I found the perfect one!! Came out as you described. And thank you for the comments about the flour. Just before adding I remeasured and, voila! I don’t know how but had close to 1/2 cup too much ready to go. Thank you!!!
The cookies came out puffy and thick as appose to thinner and crispy. Am I beating the eggs too long? Or over mixing? I was trying to make them crisp like the picture. They are more like cake. Kind of. They still get hard. Just thicke. And taste great. I rolled them in sugar with 1/2 of ground ginger for extra kick.
Hi Karen! I’m sorry to hear that these cookies didn’t turn out as they should! Without having baked alongside you, it’s difficult to pinpoint exactly what went wrong here, but here are a couple things that I’d recommend looking at first:
– How do you measure your ingredients? By volume (using cups), or by weight (using a digital kitchen scale)? When measuring by volume, it’s so easy to mis-measure ingredients (particularly flour) and throw off the entire chemistry of a recipe- and wind up with a cookie that’s thicker and cakier than it’s supposed to be! Check out Tessa’s article here, where she talks about how to best measure ingredients to ensure accuracy every time.
– How old are your leavening agents? If your baking soda/powder are not fresh, they won’t do their jobs and your baked goods can not rise properly, fall after baking, and much more. Tessa talks about the science behind leavening agents, and how to test for leavener freshness, in this article here!
I hope this helps, Karen, and I hope you’ll give these cookies another try sometime – they really are so good! Happy baking 🙂
I made these cookies a couple of days ago. Fantastic and my husband’s new favorite. Actually, he asked me to bake another batch because this one disappeared too quickly. I followed the recipe and didn’t add or take anything away.
Thank you!
These are sooooo good! Crispy and delicious! Reminds me of my grandmother’s house.
I am not one to change a recipe because I think I know better than the originator, but necessity requires it sometimes. Used salted butter, & Sorghum for molasses. Best cookie ever! Even my cookie snob grandson loves these (had to coerce to try them). I hate making cookies but honestly, these are worth the time and effort…little of both, actually ☺️