Tessa’s Recipe Rundown
Taste: The perfect balance of sweet and spice.
Texture: Thin and crispy, these cookies break in half cleanly and have a satisfying crunch to every bite!
Ease: Super simple 30 minute recipe. No chilling required.
Pros: Easy and festive recipe that goes great in every Christmas cookie box.
Cons: None!
Would I make this again? Yes.
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These Crispy Gingersnaps Cookies are the perfect classic, crispy gingersnap cookie.
Typically I enjoy more of a chewy cookie, but every once in a while I want that satisfying crunch and crispness of something sweet.
I tweaked my Chewy Gingersnap recipe (which are included in my cookbook – available on Amazon!) to make them thin and crunchy.
These ginger cookies would also make a great base for ice cream sandwiches!
In fact, my best friend Ashley from Baker by Nature sent me ice cream from Salt & Straw, our favorite ice cream shoppe, as an early Christmas gift.
One of the flavors she sent was for Gingerbread Cookie Dough. I’m thinking I have to make ice cream sandwiches with these ginger snaps and that ice cream!!
Of course, they’re also marvelous on their own with a glass of milk or a cup of coffee or tea.
How to Make Thin & Crispy Gingersnaps
What are Gingersnaps?
A year-round favorite all over the world, Gingersnaps are particularly popular to welcome in the fall and winter holiday seasons! Gingersnaps are perfectly spiced with the most beautiful cracked, sugary tops. While these are mostly enjoyed during the colder months, I actually love them in the fall in Arizona, when the temps are slowly beginning to drop. They’re delicious with a glass of cold milk or even lemonade… and even better used in place of graham crackers for over-the-top s’mores!
Gingersnaps are just what they sound like: a cookie flavored with ginger – plus other spices that we’ll talk more about below. Gingersnaps are typically crunchy or have a brittle texture, thus the “snap”. The spiciness of the ginger and richness of the molasses pairs perfectly with coffee, tea, hot cocoa, or mulled wine.
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 more about that 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.
Measure Your Flour Correctly to Ensure Gingersnaps are CRISPY!
- To avoid ending up with Gingersnaps that are thick and chewy instead of perfectly crispy, make sure to measure your flour accurately with a digital scale.
- It’s all too easy to accidentally add too much flour if you’re using cups.
- Check out my article on How to Measure Flour for step-by-step instructions.
- 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.
- 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.
- In addition to the spices, the molasses used is also important.
- 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.
How to Store Homemade Gingersnaps
Store the gingersnaps in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 7 days.
How to Freeze Gingersnap Cookies
- Scoop out the balls of cookie dough.
- Place on a baking sheet and freeze until solid.
- Remove to an airtight container and store in the freezer for up to 2 weeks.
- Bake from frozen, reducing the temperature to 325°F and adding a couple minutes onto the baking time.
- You can also store baked Crispy Gingersnap Cookies in the freezer, in an airtight container or freezer bag, for up to 1 month.
More Christmas Cookie Recipes:
- Easy Cut Out Sugar Cookies
- Soft Chewy Sugar Cookies
- Red Velvet Cookies with Cream Cheese Icing
- Turtle Thumbprint Cookies
- S’mores Cookies
- Gingerbread Cookies
Crispy Gingersnaps
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 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
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
Photos by Ashley McLaughlin.
I just started baking and I love these cookies so much. Thank you for sharing.
Forgive the ignorance of an old man just learning to bake: if I use an Oxo small cookie scoop, will that give me the 1 1/2 tablespoon-sized balls of dough your recipe calls for?
Hi John! No need to apologize – we all learned everything once! Oxo’s small scoop is typically 1 Tablespoon, and their medium scoop is 1.5 Tablespoons, so if you only have a small scoop, you could use one scoop + half another scoop from your small scoop, and roll them together, to make the 1.5 Tablespoon-sized cookies. Or, feel free to make smaller cookies using your small scoop, and just shave a couple minutes off the bake time. I hope that makes sense! Let us know what you think of these cookies once you have given them a try 🙂 Happy baking!
Hi I have made this recipe three times and they turned out great. My husband and I like the cookies crispy for dunking in milk. This recipe did not disappoint. I agree with author about cooking on parchment paper and definietly not a dark pan with no parchment. I did add little bit extra cinnamon, cloves, and ginger. Great recipe.
Delicious and easy! My husband described this as a superlative cookie so it’s definitely a keeper.
Can the baked cookies be frozen? If so, for how long?
Hi Carol! Tessa included freezing instructions for the both the cookie dough and the baked cookies, in the Tip Box just above the recipe! Let us know what you think of these cookies once you have given them a try 🙂
Just the kind of quick, easy one-bowl recipe that I try to keep in my arsenal! It’s delicious, too, and could be a real lifesaver in a time crunch.
can you freeze the dough?
Sure! Freeze and baking from frozen instructions are listed in the pink box above the recipe 🙂 Enjoy!
I first. made these cookies four days ago and again today. They are awesome, everyone, including the most difficult to please about the ‘crispiness’ of cookies was impressed.
I also just tried to make them vegan as requested by my children! I replaced the egg with 1 tablespoon of Chia seeds soaked in two tablespoons of water and unsalted plant based butter. They turned out just the same!
Thank you!
So happy to hear your substitutions worked perfectly, thanks for sharing!
This recipe is perfect! Give a nice crisp and flavorful cookie.
the best! I recommend this recipe
they were really fluffy, like I used to much flour when using exactly 2 and 1/4 cup. maybe it only needs 2 cups?
Hi Rose! The most common issue that results in puffy cookies is using too much flour; however, this recipe is accurate in using 2 1/4 cups, or 286 grams of flour. Do you use a digital scale to measure your ingredients? If you don’t have one, I’d suggest that you try out the Spoon and Level Method, as described in our article on How to Measure Flour here. That should help reduce excess flour used when using cup measures. Hopefully that helps for your next batch. I’d love to hear what you think when you give this recipe another try 🙂
I’m really interested in making these for Christmas Eve, but I’m going to be short on time. I was wondering if it could be possible to make the dough tomorrow morning (21), refrigerate it and bake them on the 23? Do you think this could work?
Hi Pamela! That should be just fine! Just be sure to keep the dough well-wrapped in plastic wrap, to prevent the cookie dough from drying out. Enjoy!