These Gingerbread Crinkle Cookies are chewy and soft, flavored with a festive blend of spices, and coated in pretty powdered sugar!
It's tiiiime! My first Christmas recipe of 2025! These delicious and easy ginger crinkle cookies are very similar to my Spicy Ginger Molasses Cookies, except I omitted the spicy chipotle and black pepper and added some festive Christmas-y spices to these crinkles to make them extra special.
If you are a big fan of molasses and ginger baking, you should definitely add these Ginger Molasses Cookie Bars to your Christmas baking list. Gingerbread Scones with Maple Glaze or Gingerbread Banana Muffins would be a perfect addition to Christmas brunch!
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⭐️ Why You Need to Make This Recipe
- Flavor: Salted butter, warm flavors of cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, and cardamom, and deep molasses flavor these simple cookies.
- Method: This recipe is easy and fun to make! Follow my step-by-step instruction photos below to help make this recipe a breeze. Plus, it's so fun to roll them in the powdered sugar, like my Andes Chocolate Peppermint Crinkle Cookies!
- Texture: These gingerbread crinkle cookies have the most incredible soft and chewy interior and slightly crisp exterior!
🧈 Ingredients
Here are the ingredients needed to make these gingerbread crinkle cookies.
Ingredient Notes
- Butter: I use salted butter, as in most of my recipes, but you could use unsalted butter instead. Reference my notes in the recipe card for instructions on this substitute.
- Brown Sugar: For an extra chewy texture and deep flavor, I decided to use brown sugar in this recipe.
- Molasses: Be sure to use unsulphured light or baking molasses for the best flavor! Or you could use blackstrap molasses if you like a dark molasses flavor. This is the fancy molasses I use!
- Spices: A cozy combination of cinnamon, ginger, cloves, nutmeg, and cardamom makes these cookies taste like Christmas!
See the recipe card for the full list of ingredients with measurements.
📃 Instructions
Step 1: Cream together the softened butter and brown sugar for 1 minute. Add the egg and molasses and continue creaming until fluffy.
Step 2: Whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, and cardamom.
Step 3: Add the combined dry ingredients to the butter mixture and mix at low speed just until no streaks of unmixed flour remain.
Step 4: Using a 1-tablespoon cookie scoop or an eating teaspoon, scoop the dough into 36 equal scoops onto a pan. Cover and let chill in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour.
Step 5: Roll each chilled scoop of cookie dough between your palms to make a smooth ball. Roll each ball in the granulated sugar first and then in the powdered sugar until fully coated.
Step 6: Arrange sugar-coated cookie dough balls on a parchment paper-lined pan, leaving at least 2 inches between each for spreading room.
Bake in a preheated oven for 10-12 minutes or until the tops crack and crinkle. Let cool on the pan for at least 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to finish cooling. Bake the remaining cookies.
💡 Top Tip
While rolling the cookie dough balls in both granulated sugar and powdered sugar seems a bit excessive, it does slightly help prevent the powdered sugar from melting and becoming invisible. You probably could get away without the granulated sugar coating, though, if you wanted to save a bit on the sugar content.
❓ Recipe FAQs
While I have not tested this recipe with gluten-free ingredients myself, I'm pretty sure it would work to use a cup-for-cup gluten-free flour instead of the all-purpose flour.
Yes. Chilling the dough for at least 1 hour before baking is important so that the cookies don't spread too much.
Yes! Freeze fully cooled cookies in an airtight container for up to 4 weeks. Remove from the freezer and place on a serving tray to defrost at least 1 hour before serving.
🎄 More Christmas Cookie Recipes
Looking for other recipes like this? Try these:
If you tried these Molasses Crinkle Cookies or any other recipe on my website, please leave a ⭐️ star rating and write a little note telling me how it went in the comments below. Thank you!!
📖 Recipe
Gingerbread Crinkle Cookies
Equipment
- baking sheet(s)
- parchment paper
- mixing bowls
- measuring cups & spoons
- electric handheld mixer
- whisk
Ingredients
- ⅔ cup salted butter * softened to room temperature
- 1 cup packed brown sugar
- 1 egg
- ¼ cup unsulfered molasses
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
- ¼ teaspoon ground cardamom
- ⅓ cup granulated white sugar
- ½ cup powdered sugar (confectioners sugar)
Instructions
- In a large bowl using an electric mixer, cream together the softened butter and brown sugar for 1 minute. Add the egg and molasses and continue mixing at high speed for 1 minute or until the mixture is fluffy.⅔ cup salted butter, 1 cup packed brown sugar, 1 egg, ¼ cup unsulfered molasses
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, and cardamom. Add to the butter mixture and mix at low speed just until no streaks of flour remain. Using a 1-tablespoon cookie dough scoop or an eating teaspoon, scoop all the dough onto a large pan lined with parchment paper. Cover and let the dough chill in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour.2 cups all-purpose flour, 1 teaspoon baking soda, 1 teaspoon baking powder, 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon, 1 teaspoon ground ginger, ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg, ¼ teaspoon ground cloves, ¼ teaspoon ground cardamom
- Preheat the oven to 350℉. Line several large baking sheets with parchment paper. Using clean hands, roll each scoop of chilled cookie dough between your palms into a smooth ball. Roll in the granulated white sugar first, then roll in the powdered sugar until all the dough is covered and white with powdered sugar.⅓ cup granulated white sugar, ½ cup powdered sugar
- Arrange the coated dough balls on the prepared baking sheets, leaving at least 2 inches between each cookie for them to spread. Bake, one pan at a time, in the preheated oven for 10-12 minutes or until the cookies have spread and the tops are cracked and crinkled. Let cool on the baking pan for at least 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to finish cooling. Bake the remaining cookies. Enjoy!
Notes
- Add ¼ teaspoon of salt to the dry ingredients if using unsalted butter.
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