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.
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:
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Ingredients
- 1 1/2 sticks (170 grams) unsalted butter, at cool room temperature
- 3/4 cup (150 grams) granulated sugar, plus 1/2 cup (100 grams) for rolling
- 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.
Notes
This post was originally published in 2020 and has been updated with additional baking tips. Photos by Ashley McLaughlin.
Would you kindly provide the amount of butter in cup[s}? Thanks.
Hi Shirley! This recipe calls for 1 1/2 sticks or 170 grams of butter. 1 stick = 1/2 a cup, therefore 1 1/2 sticks is equal to 3/4 cup. I hope that helps! Let us know what you think of this recipe once you’ve given it a try 🙂
Made it last Xmas, everyone loved it. For my husband and a few others, it was a bit sweet (mostly we don’t eat white sugar and I use only brown sugar in my baking). I found it sweet too, and I don’t eat sugar but that didn’t stop me from eating every last one of these cookies. I made double the quantity to gift to colleagues. It’s been 6 months but people still talk about those gingersnaps. I diced up homemade candied ginger nice and tiny and added it like orange zest. Added extra bite and spice to the cookies. Come to think of it, some of the sweetness must have come from that.
I wanted to make these again and been hunting for recipes with molasses and found a lot of other recipes but they didn’t look right. Found this again after a lot of hunting and so bookmarking, reviewing, sharing on socials etc. coz this is one recipe I never want to lose again.
They came out perfect, even though I didn’t have cloves. Great recipe. Thank you!!
Perfect gingersnap cookie. I got 28 cookies with 1 1/2 cookie scoop. Will be making again.
A little hashish and canna butter goes great in these ginger snaps!
I love these cookies! I’ve made them four or five times. Today I decided to play around a bit and added ⅛ tsp cayenne pepper, 1 tsp black pepper, and one cup of toffee bits. They turned out great, and are positively addictive, but I didn’t get the cracks in the top. Wondering why.
Hi Laura! So glad you enjoyed these cookies – your additions sound so good! As Tessa explains in the pink tip box above the recipe, the crackly appearance comes from your baking soda. Baking soda and baking powder can lose their effectiveness long before the expiration date printed on the packaging. Tessa has a whole article dedicated to the differences between baking powder vs. baking soda, and how to test both for freshness – check out that article here! The other possible reasons for lack of cracks could be too much flour (easily done when measuring by volume instead of weight – more on that here!) and butter that’s too warm (butter is ideally 65-67°F when creaming to make cookies – more on that here!). I hope something here helps, Laura! Thanks so much for your comment and Happy Baking!
I made this recipe, they burnt, they didn’t crack.
What position should have I had my oven rack? Maybe that caused the unfavourable result.
Hi Marion! I’m sorry to hear that your cookies didn’t turn out as they should. It’s difficult to know exactly what went wrong without having baked alongside you, but I do have a couple of thoughts as to what might have happened.
– Ovens – you mentioned oven rack position and it’s typically recommended for any cookies to bake on the middle rack (and the same goes here). This is best for the most even distribution of heat and therefore the most even baking. Beyond the rack position, though, is your oven’s temperature – do you have an oven thermometer to check that? Most ovens are lying to us about their real temperature, and many can run much colder or warmer. If your cookies burned, my suspicion is that your oven is running quite hot. Check out this article, where Tessa explains this in more detail.
– How do you measure your flour? By weight using a digital scale, or by volume using cups? Weighing vs. measuring by volume can have a huge impact on your baked goods. It’s so easy to accidentally add too much flour if measuring by volume, and too much flour can change the intended outcome greatly. Tessa talks about how best to measure ingredients in this article here!
– Another issue could be your leavening agents may not be fresh. If your baking powder or soda are not fresh, this can impact the cookie’s ability to rise and spread properly, prevent crinkles/cracks, and more. Tessa talks about how to test for leavener freshness in this article here!
– Another thing could be how long you creamed your butter and sugars together for, and how warm your butter was at this time. Both have a huge impact on a cookie’s outcome. Have a look at this article, where Tessa discusses both and the repercussions on the resulting baked goods!
– Lastly, what type of pan are you baking on? Different materials of pans conduct heat differently, so some darker-colored pans will cook the bottom significantly faster than other lighter-colored pans. Tessa discusses and shows the differences between a variety of baking pans in this article here!
I hope something here helped, and I hope you give these cookies another try sometime – they really are delicious! Happy baking 🙂
Very good. I love gingersnaps but never took the time to make them. These turned out better than I hoped. Your recipe said it yielded 28 cookies and I got 29 so that’s a first! Thanks for the recipe.
I made these today 5/22/2023 and they are the best ginger snaps cookies I have ever made. I also used a farm fresh organic ginger powder ,that made the flavor so good. I will keep this one as I am a long time home cook and love baking.
I made this, but I’m wondering, is the molasses needed?
Hi Sally! We hope you enjoyed these cookies! Yes, molasses is vital to the flavor and texture of these cookies. Check out the pink tip box (above the recipe) for more information and details about why and how the molasses is needed 🙂
I’ve been baking for just a short time. Full disclosure, I’m making edibles. This is the best ginger snap recipe I’ve found by far, although I’ve substituted canola oil for butter. Oh, and I increased the powdered ginger to 2 teaspoons.
Delicious, and they are so… snappy!
Delicious recipe!! I made these using extra ginger because I like it to have a little more burn but the crisp is exactly what I was looking for. I used a flat-bottomed glass to press them down so they would spread out more and it is perfection.
Absolutely fantastic. Super easy but just delicious!