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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:
-
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
-
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.
Be sure to use spices that haven’t been sitting open in your spice cabinet for years! The fresher the spice, the more flavorful it’ll be.
Photos by Ashley McLaughlin.
These gingersnap cookies are delicious! Thank you for the recipe.
Just made these! Easy and delicious!
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!
Excellent & easy! Thank you for the recipe!!
I followed all the measurements exactly and weighed APF using weighing scale. But, the consistency of the dough is not correct. It sticks to my hand and not even able to roll between my palms. Should I add some more flour? I appreciate your help. Thank you!
Viji
Hi Viji! I would recommend chilling the dough for a little to see if firming the dough up helps. You can also add an extra tablespoon or two of flour to the dough, if needed – just note that any additional flour can prevent the cookies from spreading as they should, and will also change the consistency of the baked cookies, so be careful not to add too much! Good luck and happy baking!
Thank you so much for your quick reply. Actually I kept the dough in the refrigerator for 30 minutes and it reached the perfect consistency to roll. And after I baked it became perfect flat Ginger snaps. Thank you so much and everyone at home loved it. Perfect recipe with clear instructions
So glad to hear that, Viji! Happy baking 🙂
Why not blackstrap molasses?
The flavor is just too strong and bitter for baking 🙂
Baked these today, on Christmas Eve. My husband and I love ginger cookies.
They were super easy to make. I rolled them in red and green sparkling sugar.
I followed the recipe exactly, including measuring the ingredients. They came out darker than in the photo, and without the crackled tops, which was disappointing.
They are still delicious though.
great crunch! added extra fresh ginger as suggested. excellent easy recipe.
These cookies are GREAT!! I like gingersnaps that snap and these hit the mark. Flavour is lovely and subtle with the warm combination of spices. Not only will this become another go to Christmas cookie but an all year one as well. Definite 5
Wow! These cookies are excellent and very quick and easy to make. Crispy on the outer edge and chewy middle just the way we like. My picky daughter even liked them. 5 Stars for sure!!!!
I tested a few cookies to see how they came out before cooking them all, I have a convection oven and they came out burnt.
Do you know the time for convection or do I just need to play with it?
Also, has anyone had success using this recipe making cutout cookies?
Hi Cristina! The general rule of thumb with convection ovens is to reduce the oven temp by about 25°F and then bake for the same time as listed in the recipe. Also be sure you’re not using a dark metal pan or greasing the tray (use parchment paper for best results) as both these things will lead to burnt cookie bottoms. I also don’t think this recipe will be ideal for cutout cookies, as they’re drop cookies, so not really deigned to maintain a shape well, but feel free to give it a try! 🙂
Can you freeze these cookies?
Hi Helen! Check out Tessa’s tips for freezing this cookie dough in the pink tip box, right above the recipe 🙂
Hi, could I add some fresh ground ginger into this recipe? If so, how much?
Hi Carole! As Tessa mentions in the pink tip box above the recipe, “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.” I hope that helps! Let us know what you think of this recipe once you’ve given it a try 🙂
yum!!!!!
Taste is good. I followed directions precisely but they came out thicker than in the picture, and while they’re crispy on the outside, the inside is soft and cakey. Wish I knew why this happened.
Hi Terry! Hmm, it sounds like there’s possibly too much flour in your cookies. 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 flour/sugar/etc and throw off the entire chemistry of a recipe. Flour is the easiest ingredient to accidentally mis-measure, and your resulting cookies will be thicker and more cakey as a result. Tessa talks about how to best measure ingredients to ensure accuracy every time, in this article here! I hope this helps, Terry! If not, please feel free to reach back out, so we can continue to troubleshoot together 🙂
Thanks, Kiersten! I just used measuring cups for the flour. Maybe I’ll try them again later to see if weighing instead helps. I don’t bake a whole lot, and I do think I’ve had a problem before with something not coming out as expected, so maybe I’m a chronic over-flour-er.
Hi Terry! Haha, many of us have been chronic over-flour-ers in the past, until we discover the magic that is the digital kitchen scale! If you don’t already have a scale, here is a link to one of Tessa’s favorites. Good luck, Terry – and have a wonderful holiday season 🙂
Yum! Made these delicious cookies tonight! Mine came out thinner (flatter) but still had a nice crisp and were chewy. Not sure where I went wrong. My butter may have been too soft as I left it out the night before and our house temperature indoors is 71. I’m going to give it another go soon. My niece shared this recipe with me and hers came out perfect!! Thanks for an awesome recipe! So glad I found your site.
Hi Eileen! I’m so glad you’re enjoying Handle the Heat, and enjoyed these cookies, even if they didn’t come out exactly as you hoped! I would definitely blame the butter here. We recommend butter be around 67°F when creaming for best results. This means butter typically only needs to sit on the counter for an hour or two to reach this temperature, before using. Have a look at this article, where Tessa discusses butter temperatures, how long to cream butter and sugar for, and the repercussions on the resulting baked goods! Let us know how Round 2 goes – good luck 🙂
There is no need to buy ginger snaps anymore. These are delicious. I cooked them to be crispy. I’m sure you could make them softer by baking less. I did add a little more ginger. They are great whether you do or not. It’s a fast recipe and makes the perfect amount.
These cookies are delicious and beautiful. I did roll them in Sugar and they sparkled. I made them for coworkers. 2 batches. Found that putting the dough in fridge for an hour helped them come out of my cookie scoop easier. Thank you!
I’ve made this several times, it’s such a great recipe! I have browned butter in advance for a lot of my holiday baking, and wanted to ask if I should adjust the recipe in any way if I substitute browned butter rather than regular butter.
Thanks so much!
Hi Amanda! I’m so glad you love these gingersnaps! Your question is a tricky one to answer. American butter is about 80% butterfat and 20% water (on average, depending on the brand of butter), so when you brown butter, you lose that extra moisture/water as it evaporates through the browning process. It takes some experimentation to alter a regular non-browned-butter recipe to work with browned butter for that reason. You can simply try adding a little water back into the recipe, or start with more butter than the recipe requests, in order to compensate for the moisture you’ll lose as it browns. It’s something you’ll have to experiment with a little in order to perfect, but it can be done, and it’s a fun experiment in the meantime 😉
Made these last night and they are AWESOME. I skipped rolling the cookies in sugar and had no issues. When they were done they still were a bit chewy in the middle, but overnight they crisped up and they are fantastic. I will absolutely be making this recipe again.
These whipped up pretty quickly and tasted so yummy! Crisp edges with just a bit of soft, chewy center made for a fantastic ginger cookie. Will be my go to recipe for the holidays !
Love these ginger snaps. They are crispy and sooooo good. Make these cookies. You will not be disappointed.
Addicting. I can’t stop eating them. They’re actually crispy. I am obsessed. Thanks for another wonderful recipe!
So happy to hear that you’re enjoying these, HB!
Would you recommend freezing these? If so, would you freeze the cookie itself or the unbaked dough?
Hi Britt! You can absolutely freeze these cookies – but we definitely recommend freezing the dough, rather than the baked cookie, for best results. Learn more about how to freeze dough and bake from frozen here! Happy baking 🙂
How much is 1 and 1/2 sticks of butter in cups please?
Hi Barbara! 1 stick = half a cup, so 1.5 sticks = 3/4 cup 🙂 We highly recommend weighing your ingredients, however; it makes for much more consistent bakes, and easier clean-up! Read more about why here! Happy baking!
I’m not sure where I went wrong, but I ended up with a cookie sheet covered in one giant piece of what resembles overcooked caramel maybe♀️ everything melted together and was bubbling and wafer thin.. I even froze the second batch of cookies after rolling in Sugar, before baking and the end result was the same. not blaming the recipe, just trying to sort out where I messed up, because the flavor is perfect and I’d like to try and make them again.
Hi Kayce! I’m sorry to hear that these cookies didn’t turn out as they should! It sounds like something definitely went wrong in the process here. Was an ingredient perhaps accidentally missed? If not, here are a few things that may help us pinpoint what happened:
– 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 flour/sugar/etc and throw off the entire chemistry of a recipe. Tessa talks about how to best measure ingredients to ensure accuracy every time, in this article here!
– How old is your leavening agent? If your baking/soda powder are not fresh, they won’t do their jobs and your baked goods can not rise properly, fall completely flat, and much more. Tessa talks about the science behind leavening agents, and how to test for leavener freshness, in this article here!
– How warm was your butter when you creamed your butter and sugars? If your butter is too warm when creaming, it can’t create the tiny air bubbles it needs to form, in order to help your cookies rise and stay thick. About 67°F is ideal when creaming. Have a look at this article, where Tessa discusses this, and the repercussions on the resulting baked goods!
I hope something here proves helpful, Kayce! If not, please feel free to reach back out to us and we can continue to troubleshoot together! 🙂
I’ve been searching for a recipe to make like this as its my moms favorite cookie and i’d love to surprise her for christmas with a box of cookies. That said, I don’t have a stand mixer….would a regular hand mixer work for this? With all the reviews id really love to try this!
Hi Courtney! Yes, that will work just fine 🙂
These turned out great! Spicy, and sweet with the raw sugar I put on top,and nicely crackled. I had no trouble rolling them in balls and made 24 cookies about 2.5 inches in diameter. I will make these again!
So glad to hear that you enjoyed these cookies so much, Susan!
It’s really simple and tasty. Thanks for the recipe!
Excellent!! I added double the ginger bec ause I like it hot!! Rolled them in sugar then flattened them with a glass and sprinkled flaked sea salt. 15 minutes exactly-crispy on the edges, chewy in the middle, absolute perfection!! thank you so much for sharing this recipe!!
Yay! So happy to hear that, Amy!
The cookies taste great, but mine certainly are not crispy through and through. The centers are soft like a molasses cookie. The edges set up nicely, so maybe a little more time in the oven would help? I don’t know if that would make the edges TOO crispy.
Overall, the cookies taste great, but I will try another ginger snap recipe before I retry these again.
Hi Georgia! Sorry, I just realized that your previous comment and this comment were both made by you! It sounds like another couple of minutes may have helped your cookies crisp up to the desired texture! The dough shouldn’t be the consistency you described in the last message, so I think something went awry in the making of the dough! I’m glad you enjoyed the flavor! Have a great day 🙂
omg these are perfect. I’ve never been able to make them the perfect consistency of chewy on the inside and crisp on the outside. they are gorgeous I also added a pinch of black pepper that gave it thag extra bite. Thank you!!!!
How do you scoop these?? The dough is not firm at all. I used a 1T scoop and a butter knife to plop a deconstructed blob of dough into a bowl of sugar, and at that point, I could round them into the ball shape. Should the dough be more firm? I am not new to making cookies, but I am new to ginger snaps.
Hi Georgia! Hmm, it definitely sounds like something went wrong here! 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 flour/sugar/etc and throw off the entire chemistry of a recipe. Tessa talks about how to best measure ingredients to ensure accuracy every time, in this article here! Another thing could be the temperature of your butter (we recommend around 67°F for room temperature). I hope you give these another try sometime – they’re really delicious!! Happy baking 🙂
These turned out perfectly! I like my ginger baked goods extra spicy, so I did use a full 2 tsps ginger. Even though this dough doesn’t require chilling I had to refrigerate it overnight due to time constraints. I left it out for about 15 minutes while the oven heated up.
For the molasses I did use blackstrap but cut with an equal portion of honey to lighten it. I filled my 1/3 cup half full of blackstrap and topped the other half with honey.
So glad to hear you enjoyed these cookies!
This was a super awesome Ginger snaps cookie.I spiced it up by using fresh ginger & every bite was full of flavor . very good combination to have it with a pot of Ceylon Black Tea on a misty rainy day it’s so relaxing.Thank You HTH for this recipe.
I’ve made both the Chewy and the Crispy cookies and BOTH were outstanding. Definitely recipes that I will have in my rotation. I love knowing the reasoning behind the differences in the recipes and how that results in different cookies.
Beautiful ginger flavour and excellent texture. Worth making for sure!
Perfect fall/winter cookie to pair with coffee!
They were delicious! Crisp on the outside chewy on the inside. My family loved them!
Great recipe (Chewy Gingersnaps) and I loved the little addition of white chocolate. A little crispy on the outside but chewy on the inside!
These are by far the most flavorful gingersnap cookies out there. Easy to bring together and even easier to eat! I have made these twice in the last week… The instructions are clear and the notes on why you use certain ingredients is extremely helpful.
I brought these into the office and they disappeared very quickly. Everyone was asking me for the recipe! Will definitely be making these again soon.
made the chewy version. absolutely delicious
great cookies I did change a couple of things
add all the spices however upped them by 2 plus added an 1/8 teaspoon black pepper for more lingering taste
with my oven had increase time by 3 minutes
Very good! I made them exactly like the recipe. Thanks for the great recipe!
Brilliant 🙂 substituted for vegan butter & flaxseed egg. Thank you so much for sharing.
They came out exactly like your picture! And, they are delicious! They recipe was so easy to follow. I wish I could post a picture how they came out. ❤️
These cookies are delicious!
Very delicious.
I didn’t have any luck with this recipe. I think the dough should be chilled 2 hours. They do come out thin and crispy but they spread too much.
Hi Jane! I’m sorry your cookies didn’t turn out quite as you’d hoped! It definitely sounds like something went wrong along the way. Here are a few thoughts as to what may have happened:
– 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 flour/sugar/etc and throw off the entire chemistry of a recipe. Tessa talks about how to best measure ingredients to ensure accuracy every time, in this article here!
– Your butter may have been too warm when creaming the butter and sugars. We always recommend butter be around 67°F when creaming. If your butter is warmer than that, it can cause your cookies to spread too much in the oven, or even collapse once baked. Have a look at this article, where Tessa discusses the repercussions of warm butter, and more, on the resulting baked goods!
– I just want to mention your leavening agent. 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. The baking soda in this recipe, if not sufficiently active, can also cause excessive spreading. Tessa talks about the science behind leavening agents, and how to test for leavener freshness, in this article here!
Of course, if you also find you are getting better results from a brief refrigerated period prior to baking, that definitely won’t hurt these cookies!!
I hope you’ll give these another try at some point, and I hope something here was useful! Feel free to reach back out to us if you have any further questions or concerns – we’re always happy to help! 🙂
Good cookies but not enough Ginger. Added another teaspoon of ginger and is now an official ginger snap.
Why not blackstrap molasses?
Hi Melissa! Blackstrap molasses is just a super strong, really bitter flavor that overshadows other flavors in the cookie, so we recommend avoiding it. I hope that helps 🙂 Let us know what you think if you try this recipe!!
Easy and delicious recipe. Heard about Gingersnap cookies for the first time in a cozy mystery audiobook I am currently listening to. They turned out as a wonderful taste experience. Molasses is not available in a lot of supermarkets here in Germany, so I replaced it with honey. Will definitley bake them again. Thank you very much for sharing this winner recipe!
Finally! A gingernap recipe that “snaps” and tastes good too. A little too good, I think. I baked the cookies yesterday. They were gone by noon today. If I can just keep them away from my husband….. I added about 1/8 tsp of cayenne pepper, which gave the cookies just the right amount of heat. Thank you for not making me waste another afternoon on a recipe that does not work. These cookies are perfection.
Bought a bag of Stauffer’s ginger snaps the other day. My hubby and I ate all of them in a very short time….very short! He asked if I could make them. Found your recipe and gave them a try this morning. Really delicious! Wonderful texture and flavor…looked just like your photos. Only thing we are going to do is amp up the spices and adding cayenne pepper. I baked in three batches because of the spread and I pressed them down slightly on the cookie sheet because we wanted them really crunchy. We experimented by adding more ginger and cloves to second batch then amped up the cayenne on the third batch. Third batch was our winner because of the heat level. When I figure out on my next round of them the spice proportions, I will post it for those who want a really “spicy meatball”. Lol!
These are by far the best ginger snaps I have ever had, let alone made. They don’t last long. Even ones I put in the freezer aren’t safe! Everyone who tries them agrees and asks for the recipe.
I have found that using a scale is the best way to go. I have several food allergies, but the substitutions I have used work well. I have used 1T ground flax mixed with 3T hot water instead of the egg. I have also used both regular butter and vegan margarine and they have both turned out incredible. The vegan margarine is a little softer, so I’ve had success with adding 10-15 extra grams of flour.
I simply cannot recommend these cookies enough. You will not regret making them, I promise. Just make sure to have a plan for sharing so you don’t end up eating them all yourself! 😉
So glad to hear that you enjoyed these, even with your modifications, Matt!
My dad loves gingersnaps, but every recipe we’ve tried has been too soft/lacking in flavor, so I did a search for ultra crisp gingersnaps and stumbled upon this recipe! Even though I accidentally overlooked the molasses when scribbling the recipe down on paper (whoops! I did kinda catch my error in the sense that I thought it was weird there was no molasses, so I added a couple tablespoons). I ended up chilling them overnight and taking them out of the fridge maybe twenty minutes before baking, and they turned out SO WELL. Beautifully crisp edges, with a chewy center and the most gorgeous presentation with all those crinkles and sparkling sugar (and they were perfectly round, too)! Next time, I’ll be sure to add the proper amount of molasses, but they still tasted delicious, especially with the addition of some finely chopped crystallized ginger. My dad took just one bite and gave one of those nods that says, oh yeah 😉 This recipe is definitely a keeper and I can’t wait to make them again!
Yay, Erin!! That is so wonderful to hear! I’m so excited that you and your dad enjoyed these so much! 🙂
I made this recipe with nothing other than what is in the list o ingredients, maybe a little less ginger. The cookies are REALLY good. I’m saving this. I’ll make them again soon.
So happy to hear you loved these gingersnaps, Ron!
Made them they turned out great. Crispy and tasty, great with a coffee. I didn’t get the cracks on top though.
Being out of molasses, I used pure date syrup which turned out perfect for taste and texture but maybe changed the chemistry- hence no cracks(?)
I also added a lot of ground ginger and cloves to the mix and in the end rolled the balls in that mixture (with cinnamon) rather than sugar as the sugar on top made things overly sweet to my taste.
Overall a great recipe. Thanks! 🙂
Hi Lila! So glad you enjoyed these cookies! The date syrup may have changed the chemistry of the recipe enough to change the look of the baked cookies, but the biggest contributor to the beautiful crinkly, crackled top is baking soda! Perhaps your baking soda isn’t fresh? Tessa talks about that, and how to test for freshness, in this article here! I hope that helps 🙂
Looks delicious! I will definitely try this out some day! Thanks for sharing 🙂
Love this recipe! They came out perfect!
I wish I knew how to post a picture of them. Perfect crackling on top.
So happy to hear that! Feel free to tag #handletheheat if you’re on Instagram so Tessa can see and comment on your photos! You can also post them in our Facebook Group 🙂
This is an absolute 10 star recipe. I added a bit more ginger, and a bit heavier on clove and some nutmeg and a bit more chy pepper. But clearly a really great ginger snap!