Snowflake Gingerbread Cookies

Christmas is my favorite time of the year for baking! My house is full of delicious goodies, usually starting from mid November!

I always make Melomakarona Greek Christmas Honey Cookies and Kourabiedes Greek Butter Cookies during the holidays.

These soft gingerbread cookies are not only delicious, but they're so pretty and elegant, too!

Why this recipe works

• It's easy to make. There is NO creaming the butter and sugar in this recipe, which saves some time.
• Perfectly spiced. These cookies have just the right amount of spices. If you want an even spicier cookie, you can add some allspice, about ½ a teaspoon.
• Soft or crunchy. You can make these cookies either soft or crunchy, depending on your preference. Complete instructions are in the recipe card at the end of the post.
• The dough doesn't crack. This dough rolls out perfectly and doesn't crack at all. It really is a dream to work with!
• The cookies don't spread. These cookies hold their shape really well. The secret is NOT adding any leaveners, like baking soda or baking powder. As a result, the cookies are all even and have nice, sharp edges. Perfect for cut out cookies with intricate designs! If you prefer puffy cookies, though, you can add a teaspoon baking soda.
• Less mess. For this recipe, you don't need to roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface. That means there's less mess in the kitchen since I roll out the dough between sheets of parchment paper, instead. This is also great because the excess flour can make the cookies dry and hard.
• The icing doesn't have raw eggs. Icing snowflakes couldn't be easier with this simple royal icing recipe! It's made with meringue powder, so there are no raw eggs. This is a perfect royal icing recipe for cookies.

What do these snowflake gingerbread cookies taste like?

These gingerbread snowflake cookies are soft, chewy and full of Christmas spices and molasses. They're really spicy and fragrant, yet not too sweet, even though they're topped with royal icing. The royal decorating icing becomes a hard icing when it dries.

What you'll need

Ingredients for snowflake gingerbread cookies

For the gingerbread cookie dough:

• Flour: These cookies are made with all purpose flour.
• Spices & salt: For this recipe, you'll need some salt, ground cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and ginger.
• Butter: I use unsalted butter at room temperature.
• Sugar: I use packed brown sugar (soft), but you can use granulated sugar, instead. I think soft brown sugar gives a nice caramel flavor which is great with the spices.
• Molasses: I use organic unsulphured molasses.
• Egg: You only need 1 egg.

If you want puffier cookies, you can add half a teaspoon baking soda to the dry ingredients.

For the royal icing:

• Meringue powder: I use meringue powder instead of raw egg whites to make an easy royal icing recipe. The snowflake icing is great for decorating cookies.
• Powdered sugar & water: I use powdered sugar (aka confectioner's sugar) and some water.

Equipment you'll need

• snowflake cookie cutters
• rolling pin
• baking sheet
• silicone spatula
• parchment paper
• stand mixer
• pastry bag
• pastry tip (I use a Wilton #2 tip)
• rolling guides or rings (optional)
• hand mixer

How to make gingerbread cookies

Step-by-step instructions 

1. Melt the butter, sugar, and molasses in a saucepan over low heat, whisking for about 1 minute. Don't boil; just melt the ingredients, then remove from heat and let the mixture cool.

2. Sift together the flour, spices and salt.

3. Lightly beat the egg and pour it into the cooled molasses mixture.

4. Whisk together until fully combined.

5. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients.

6. Beat with a hand mixer until just combined.

7. Then add more flour, a tablespoon at a time, until the dough comes together. You might not need all the flour. 

8. Be careful not to overwork the dough. It's perfect when you're able to lift the dough in one piece.

9. Cut the dough in half and place a piece between 2 sheets of parchment paper.

10. Roll it out to about ¼ inch (about 0.5cm) thick. Rolling guides or rolling rings really help create uniform thickness.

11. Cut out snowflakes.

12. Slide the parchment paper onto a baking sheet and put it in the freezer for 5-6 minutes.

Then bake the cookies. I like doing this 1 sheet at a time.

When all the cookies have completely cooled, you can make the royal icing and decorate them.

How to make royal icing

1. Put the powdered sugar and meringue powder in the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment.

2. Mix everything on low for a few seconds to combine the ingredients.

3. While the mixer is running on low speed, pour in the water. As soon as it thickens a bit, increase the speed to high and mix for 10 minutes.

4. Nice, thick royal icing!

You can play around with the consistency of the royal icing depending on how you want to decorate your cookies. For example, if you want to flood your cookies, you can make the icing thinner by adding some more water, a tablespoon at a time.

I found it easier to pipe designs when the consistency is quite thick and the icing doesn't fall off the spatula, unless you shake it off.

Decorating Snowflake Gingerbread Cookies

This is the fun part! When the cookies have cooled completely, it's time to decorate them. You can either outline the cookies with the royal icing or pipe various designs like I did.

Fill the piping bag that's fitted with a tip and decorate your cookies.

Before you start, you can practice piping designs on a piece of parchment paper.

Recipe Notes

Serving Tips

These snowflake gingerbread cookies are great with coffee, milk, tea or even warm pomegranate mocktail.

Storage Tips

Store these cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for about a week.

Freezing Instructions

How to freeze gingerbread cookie dough

This cookie dough can be frozen for up to about 2 months. Just flatten the dough and wrap it really well in plastic wrap. Then place it in a freezer bag or freezer-safe container. To thaw it, put it in the refrigerator overnight. Then roll it out, cut it into shapes, and bake as directed.

Baked Cookies

Undecorated

Baked and undecorated cookies can be frozen for about 2 months. Just wrap individual cookies in plastic wrap and then place them in an airtight freezer-safe container.

Decorated

Baked and decorated cookies can be frozen, too. First, let the icing dry completely. Then stack the cookies in freezer-safe container, and place a piece of parchment paper between each cookie so they don't stick together. To thaw, just place the container in the refrigerator overnight.

Substitutions

For a lighter flavor, you can substitute the molasses with equal amounts of your favorite honey. They won't be as dark and the flavor will be much lighter. I've made this recipe both ways successfully!

For puffier cookies

You can add a teaspoon baking soda to the flour mixture to make the cookies puff up. Personally, I prefer not to use any leaveners because the cookies hold their shape and keep all the intricate details from the cookie cutters, especially the edges.

Eggless options for decorating gingerbread snowflake cookies

Glaze

If you want to decorate these cookies with a simple glaze, you can use my recipe from my dairy free sugar cookies.

Eggless royal icing

For an easier icing that doesn't have any eggs or meringue powder, you can use the recipe from my Greek-style gingerbread cookies. It pipes beautifully, just like regular royal icing, and it dries hard, too.

Frequently asked questions