This is the only recipe for Soft Ginger Cookies you’ll ever need! I really mean that. Soft and chewy ginger molasses cookies, with a slightly chewy edge, and packed with spices! But there’s one special ingredient in them that puts these cookies over the top!
Soft ginger cookies, packed with ground ginger and little morsels of candied ginger.
Why you need to make these soft ginger cookies
I’m not hyped or anything, but these soft ginger cookies really are the best ginger cookies in the world! 😀
- These are super easy to make.
- You can make them ahead of time and freeze the cookie dough if you prefer.
- I add a lot of ground ginger and other spices to make these extra spicy, but not overwhelmingly so.
- They are soft, with just a little chewiness.
- Perfect ginger molasses cookies for anyone who doesn’t like ginger snap cookies.
- The secret ingredient that makes these cookies even better is crystallized ginger. It adds a lovely bite of concentrated candied ginger to the cookies.
I’ve eaten my fair share of ginger cookies that barely tasted like ginger over the years. So I made sure to not only add enough ground ginger to the cookie dough here, but a generous amount of crystallized ginger pieces as well. So that’s a double dose of ginger to warm your heart and soul this holiday season!
But not to worry, these are not too spicy either. The spices and sweetness are perfectly balanced (as all things should be…). And you’ll LOVE these soft, chewy ginger cookies too, guaranteed. Not just during the holidays (when I often pair these with my classic linzer cookies and funfetti cookies when I bake these for friends and family), but all year long!
Ingredients to make soft ginger cookies
Butter
I use unsalted butter, as I do for almost all of my baking. You can use salted butter, but you may need to adjust the amount of salt added to the dough.
You can also use vegan butter instead to make a dairy free version. Just make sure not to use “butter” that has a spreadable margarine consistency, because that would make the dough too wet. Look for a vegan / dairy free butter with a similar consistency to regular butter.
White sugar & brown sugar
I use a combination of brown and white sugar. The brown sugar adds flavor, and helps keep the cookies soft. White sugar adds chewiness to the cookies.
Molasses
What are ginger cookies without molasses? Molasses add a lovely deep flavor to these ginger molasses cookies. I use fancy baking molasses, but these have been made with blackstrap molasses as well, with equally great results.
Eggs
I use large eggs that weigh about 2 oz with the shell. I haven’t made these cookies without eggs, so I’m not sure how that substitution would work.
Flour
I use all purpose flour for these soft ginger cookies. I haven’t made them with bread flour, but that would result in a slightly drier cookie that has a more chewy/rubbery texture (especially if over-mixed).
Baking soda
Baking soda is the chemical leavener that I used for these cookies. I don’t recommend substituting it with baking powder.
Crystallized ginger
You can buy crystallized ginger (or candied ginger) online or at bakery stores. I bought mine online. If you can’t find it, you can omit it, but I highly recommend adding these to your ginger cookies for that extra bit of flavor magic.
These are candied ginger, coated with a generous dusting of sugar. They can come as sliced or ginger chunks. For this recipe, you will have to chop them up before adding to the dough.
Spices and other flavors
These warming spices are a must for these ginger cookies.
- Ground ginger
- Cinnamon
- Nutmeg
- Cloves
- All spice
- Vanilla
Step by step guide to making the cookies
Make the soft ginger molasses cookie dough
Make sure all the ingredients are measured, and are at room temperature. Another important tip is to scrape the bowl during the mixing process, and at every stage, to make sure all the ingredients are being well incorporated.
Cream the butter until soft and creamy. If you live in a colder region, the butter will still be firm even at room temperature. So I like to warm the butter just a touch in the microwave so that it’s just a little soft, OR I’d cream the butter on its own in the stand mixer.
But if you live in a warmer climate, the butter will be really soft at room temperature. So you can simply add all the sugars and cream the butter sugar together in one step.
Add the salt, white sugar, brown sugar, and molasses, and cream everything together until creamy.
Add the two eggs and vanilla to the butter and sugar mix, and run your mixer on medium speed, until the eggs have incorporated well into the batter.
Sift the flour, baking soda, and all the spices together. Also, chop the crystallized ginger and keep it aside until needed. The spices and candied ginger add a ton of flavor to these soft cookies, so don’t skip them.
Lower the speed of your mixer to the lowest setting (stir speed on my kitchenaid). Add the sifted dry ingredients to the wet ingredients in 3 – 4 additions, while mixing on low. Add the crystallized ginger with the last batch of dry ingredients and mix just until the flour is incorporated.
How to avoid overmixing the dough
It’s VERY important to not overmix the dough. To avoid this, I only add flour in batches, when the previous addition is about 75% mixed in. The dough is also mixed with a spatula at the end to make sure the flour is mixed in well, without overworking the gluten.
When the soft ginger cookie dough is done, refrigerate it for a few hours until chilled. The dough will be very soft, so it’s important to let it chill so that it’s easier to scoop later.
Shaping and baking the cookies
Once the dough is chilled, it’ll be much easier to scoop it into the right size for baking. If you’re baking the cookies right away, don’t forget to preheat the oven to 375 F / 190 C.
I like to use a medium cookie scoop with about a 3 tbsp volume. The final weight of each of the cookie dough balls is about 60 g.
OPTIONAL – Roll in sugar. Rolling the dough in raw sugar or granulated white sugar will give these soft ginger cookies a lovely crunch element. I have made these with and without this step, and love both versions.
Ginger cookie dough
At this point, you can place all the soft ginger cookie dough portions on a baking tray, and cover it with plastic wrap, and chill it in the fridge until you’re ready to bake them. You can also freeze the cookie dough portions for later.
Since these cookies spread quite a bit, I prefer to bake 4 – 5 cookies per half sheet pan. Place the cookie dough portions evenly spaced on the parchment paper lined baking sheets and bake the cookies for 12 – 15 minutes (rotating halfway through baking time, if needed).
Remove the cookies from the oven, and let them cool for a few minutes. The cookie will seem more puffed up as soon as they are baked, but they will deflate a little as they cool down.
Use a flat spatula to transfer the soft ginger cookies onto wire racks to cool completely.
Storing the cookies for later
These ginger cookies will keep at room temperature for about 3 – 4 days in an airtight container. They will keep longer if stored in the freezer (for about 3 weeks).
You can also freeze the cookie dough to make it last even longer. The cookie dough portions should be frozen on a baking tray, and once frozen, they can be stored in an airtight container or freezer bags.
The cookies can also be baked from frozen, but then they’ll need to be baked for a couple of extra minutes.
Without raw sugar
The ultimate soft ginger cookies
These are the best damn soft ginger cookies. End of story.
I’ve made many different ginger cookie versions over the years and finally developed a version that I absolutely love, with my own little twist. Soft, and chewy, full of ginger flavor, and with that added burst of ginger from the crystallized, chewy ginger pieces.
rolled in raw sugar
- Brown butter chocolate chip cookies
- Double chocolate chip cookies
- Easy Italian pistachio cookies
- Mexican wedding cookies
- Classic thumbprint cookies
- Classic shortbread cookies
- Chocolate shortbread cookies
Recipe
There’s a reason why Classic Thumbprint Cookies are so popular. They are a holiday favorite, easy to make, and even easier to customize with different filling and flavor variations!
I’ve shared all my tips and tricks to help you PERFECT easy thumbprint cookies!
Oh baby, it’s cookie season! It’s one of the main reasons why I love Christmas! 🙂
And with alllll the Christmas cookies out there, it’s hard – nigh impossible, for me to pick a favorite. But Classic Thumbprint Cookies …. oh yeah, they come this close to being my favorite.
Thumbprint cookies are a holiday favorite, a party favorite, and a snack favorite for me. These are one of half a dozen or so that feature in my holiday cookie boxes every year. Shortbread cookies , linzer cookies , meringue cookies , soft ginger cookies etc. are all classics for a reason.
Plus, these cookies are really easy to make and to customize too.
I’ve shared a uniquely delicious savory thumbprint cookie on the blog before, which is really popular on the blog. But I realized I’ve never shared a classic thumbprint cookie recipe with you guys before. So today, I’m going to fix that.
This is the recipe for delightfully buttery and delicious classic thumbprint cookies with a sweet jam filling . I’m sharing all my tips to help you make PERFECT thumbprint cookies and avoid cracks and spreading.
Just follow this easy guide to find out how you can nail those classic thumbprint cookies and entertain your friends and family this holiday season!
What are thumbprint cookies?
A buttery cookie with a shallow well in the middle that’s filled with a sweet filling like jam. You use your thumb to push down on the cookie dough, creating that shallow well in the middle – hence “thumbprint” cookies.
But did you know that thumbprint cookies originated in Sweden? These cookies are called Hallongrotta/hallongrottor in Swedish, meaning “raspberry cave”!
While you can fill the thumbprint in the middle with any type of jam you like, I’ll be using raspberry jam here, because that’s the flavor of classic thumbprint cookies! But I have filled these before with strawberry jam , plum jam , fig jam , and grape jelly too.
Are thumbprint cookies the same as shortbread cookies?
They are not the same, but they do come VERY close. Shortbread cookies use a 1:2:3 ratio of sugar, butter and flour. They are buttery, but crumblier, because they don’t have a binding agent. They rely on butter to hold the dough together.
Thumbprint cookies are made with a dough that’s identical to shortbread cookies, BUT the dough has eggs in addition. Some recipes call for whole eggs, but my recipe uses egg yolks only.
The egg yolk enriches the dough giving you a richer taste than shortbread, but more importantly, binds the dough together for a smoother and more pliable result.
That being said, you still CAN make thumbprint cookies with shortbread cookie dough as well.
How can I prevent my thumbprint cookies from cracking?
To be honest, there’s nothing wrong with thumbprint cookies with a few cracks along the edges. That’s part of the charm!
However, there are ways to minimize cracking. It’s got all to do with HOW you shape the cookies .
How to minimize thumbprint cookie cracking
- Keep the dough soft – once the cookie dough is made, cover and let it rest for at least 15 minutes at room temperature, so that the dough will be easier to handle, and be less sticky. It’s important to keep the dough at room temp. when you roll it into balls, because then it’s easier to shape the soft dough, with minimal cracking.
- Make the indentation as soon as the cookies are formed – rather than rolling ALL of the cookie dough into balls first and THEN making wells, you should roll each cookie dough ball, place it on the cookie tray and immediately make the indentation BEFORE preparing the next one.
- Roll the cookie dough balls until the surface is smooth – since the dough is soft, it’s easy to get a nice, smooth surface. Make sure there are no cracks to begin with, so that they don’t widen and show up when you press down on the cookie balls to create the wells.
To elaborate on the second point above, the reason why I like to prepare each thumbprint cookie as I go is that once you have rolled the cookie into a smooth ball, the cookie will form a “crust” – much like any dough will do, if it’s left exposed to air for any amount of time. So if you wait until the end to create the wells in the middle, the crust will most definitely cause the cookies to crack. To avoid that, I do the following.
How to make thumbprint cookies
- First, portion the cookie dough with a cookie scoop.
- Roll the cookie dough into a smooth ball.
- Roll the smooth ball in sugar (optional).
- Place the cookie ball on the parchment paper-lined baking tray.
- Use my thumb or another kitchen utensil to form an indentation in the middle of the cookie.
- Repeat steps 1-5 with the rest of the cookie dough.
- Once the baking tray is filled with cookies, fill the wells with jam.
- You can either fill a second tray with more cookies and keep those in the fridge or freezer, OR wrap any remaining dough tightly with plastic wrap and keep it at room temperature until you’re ready to use.
I also like to coat these easy thumbprint cookies in sugar before placing them on the baking tray. You can use regular granulated sugar or raw sugar for this. I prefer d emerara sugar because that gives these thumbprint cookies a nice sweet crunchy texture as well.
And rather than rolling the cookie balls in sugar, I put the sugar in a small ziploc bag and then place a cookie inside the bag, and then shake it a little bit to evenly coat the cookie with sugar. Works like a charm.
How to minimize thumbprint cookie spreading
It’s pretty much impossible to make a good cookie with NO spreading at all. I mean, in theory you can add more flour to the dough until it’s pretty stiff and won’t spread at all, but then you end up with very dry, crumbly cookies.
Not good.
The simple reason why a cookie spreads as it bakes is that the butter and sugar melt inside the cookie, causing it to spread. If you bake at too low a temperature, the cookie will spread too much before it bakes and sets properly, and if you bake at too high a temp., then the cookie bakes and sets outside quickly, but the middle will still be raw.
Tips to minimize cookie spreading
- Chill the cookies in the fridge BEFORE baking – cooling the butter in the cookies before baking means that it won’t melt as readily, making it spread too fast.
- Use a chilled or room temperature baking sheet – NEVER use a hot or warm baking sheet to place your UNBAKED cookies on. I like to chill the cookies AND the baking tray together in the fridge, but at least make sure the baking tray is at room temp. before you place the unbaked cookies on it.
- Make the indentation in the middle narrow rather than wide – use just the tip of your finger and go straight down, to create a narrow indentation in the middle of the cookie, rather than a wide indentation that would make the thumbprint cookie spread.
So there you go! That’s how you can make PERFECT and EASY thumbprint cookies that are sure to impress your friends and family! 🙂
Then you can fill these classic thumbprint cookies with any type of jam you like. Personally, I love raspberry, or apricot jam.
These easy thumbprint cookies are so so good! The cookies are buttery, with a hint of vanilla, and a deliciously fruity jam filling.
And since these classic thumbprint cookies are so easy to make, you can make multiple batches and gift them to your friends and family this holiday season too. You can fill them with different jam fillings, and even flavor the thumbprint cookies with different extracts for some creative variations.
Flavor variations
- Add some orange zest to the cookie dough, and fill the middle with cranberry sauce.
- Add some lemon zest to the cookie dough, and fill the cookies with blueberry jam.
- Or instead of jam, place a reese’s peanut butter cup or a hershey’s kiss candy in the middle.
- Add some almond extract to the cookie dough, and fill the middle with salted caramel sauce .
There are so many ways you can dress up these easy thumbprint cookies! Once you realize how easy it is to make classic thumbprint cookies, you can make them your own.
Recipe
Soft Ginger Cookies
Ingredients
- 455 g unsalted butter 4 sticks
- ½ tsp fine sea salt
- 150 g white sugar ¾ cup
- 200 g brown sugar 1 cup
- 255 g molasses ¾ cup, fancy molasses
- 2 large eggs
- 2 tsp vanilla
- 600 g AP flour 5 cups, measured by spoon and level method
- 2 tsp baking soda
- 2 tbsp ground ginger
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- ½ tsp nutmeg
- ½ tsp cloves
- ½ tsp ground allspice optional
- 200 g crystallized ginger chopped
- Extra raw sugar or granulated sugar optional
Instructions
- Place the butter in a mixing bowl. With the paddle attachment of your stand mixer, cream the butter until soft and creamy. This can take as little as 1 minute if your butter is soft, or up to 5 minutes if it’s not too soft (especially in colder climes). Scrape the bowl as you go to make sure all the butter is being creamed properly. 455 g unsalted butter
- When the butter is soft and creamy, add the salt, white sugar, brown sugar, and molasses, and cream all the ingredients together on medium high speed until fluffy. Scrape the bowl as you go. This can take about 2 - 5 minutes (depending on the temperature of the butter). Mix until you get the right creamy texture of the butter sugar mix. ½ tsp fine sea salt, 150 g white sugar, 200 g brown sugar, 255 g molasses
- Add the eggs and vanilla, and mix until the eggs are well combined. 2 large eggs, 2 tsp vanilla
- Sift the flour, baking soda, ground ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and allspice into a bowl (dry ingredients), and set aside. 600 g AP flour, 2 tsp baking soda, 2 tbsp ground ginger, 2 tsp cinnamon, ½ tsp nutmeg, ½ tsp cloves, ½ tsp ground allspice
- Lower the speed of the mixer to the lowest setting. Add the dry ingredients in 3 or 4 additions, making sure not to overwork the dough in the process.
- Add the crystallized ginger with the last addition of dry ingredients, and mix until the last bit of flour is about 90% mixed in. 200 g crystallized ginger
- Remove the bowl from the mixer, and mix the dough the rest of the way with a wooden spoon or spatula. Make sure to scrape the bottom of the bowl so that all of the flour is mixed in well.
- The dough will be fairly soft. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and chill for at least 2 hours or until the dough is chilled and easy to scoop.
- Preheat oven to 375°F / 190°C. Line at least 2 half sheet pans with parchment paper.
- Scoop the chilled cookie dough using a medium cookie scoop (about 60 g per portion). You can scoop out all of the cookie dough, and keep it chilled in the fridge if you’re baking the cookies within a day, OR freeze it for later.
- OPTIONAL - roll each dough portion in raw sugar or white sugar. Extra raw sugar or granulated sugar
- Place 4 or 5 cookie portions on a half sheet pan (I prefer to bake 4 at a time since these cookies spread quite a bit).
- Bake the cookies for 12 - 15 minutes in the preheated oven, rotating the tray once halfway through. In my conventional oven, this takes about 13 minutes.
- Remove the cookie tray from the oven and let the cookies cool for a few minutes. Use a flat spatula to gently lift the cookies from the baking tray and place them on a cooling rack to cool completely.
- Repeat with the rest of the cookie dough portions.
- The cookies will have a slightly crisp edge and a soft middle as soon as they have cooled down. Cookies will soften with time during storage, and retain slightly chewy edges.
Storing the cookies
- Store the cookies in an airtight container for 3 - 4 days at room temperature. To store them for longer, freeze them in a freezer bag (remove as much air as possible) for up to 1 month.
- You can also freeze the cookie dough portions (once frozen, store them in freezer bags). You can bake these from frozen, but you may need to bake them for a couple of extra minutes then, depending on your oven.
Notes
Storage
Nutrition
Recipe from The Flavor Bender by Dini Kodippili
Soft Ginger Cookies https://www.theflavorbender.com/best-soft-ginger-cookies/
