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Gingerbread Crinkles are a soft and chewy cookie full of molasses and holiday spice. They are the perfect Christmas treat!
My kids ask for these cookies, along with my gingerbread pancakes, every year!
Welcome to Day 5 of my 12 Days of Holiday Treats series!!!
It’s pretty much a given that you have to include some kind of gingerbread treat at Chritmas time. There’s just something magical about the taste of gingerbread. Or is it the smell? Oh how I love the smell of Christmas. Yesterday was the day after Thanksgiving. I absolutely hate to shop, so any Black Friday shopping is done from the comfort of my home office. I learned my lesson 8 years ago after standing in line at 4am on a freezing morning with a newborn in tow just to get into Toys R Us to buy a train table that didn’t fit in my car. Never again. Anyway, since that year of bad Black Friday decisions, our family tradition has been to get our Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving. Living in Oregon, I get to choose from the freshest, most gorgeous noble firs from a farm just down the street. Now, my living room is filled with the sent of Christmas! Oh, how I love the smell.
If you want your kitchen to smell divine, you must make these cookies. I’ve made crinkles before, but I’ve always just rolled them in powdered sugar. This time, however, I rolled them first in granulated sugar and then powdered sugar. This helped in two ways. First, it gave the outside a surprise crunch which made my mouth very happy. Second, it protected the powdered sugar from dissolving into the melted butter so it made the cookies extra pretty.
Not only do these cookies taste amazing, but they are so visually pleasing. I don’t know what it is about a soft and chewy crinkle, but they are pure goodness!
Be sure to scroll down to the bottom of the post to see all of my holiday recipes from the last couple of years.
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Ingredients
cookie:
- 3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
- 3/4 cup dark brown sugar packed
- 2 tablespoons ground pumpkin pie spice cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, cloves
- 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 12 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature, cut into small pieces
- 1/2 cup molasses
- 2 tablespoons heavy cream
for baking:
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
Instructions
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine flour, sugars, pumpkin pie spice, baking soda, and salt at low speed until combined. Stop the mixer and add the butter. Mix at medium-low speed until the mixture is sandy and the dry ingredients are coated in butter, about 1-2 minutes. Reduce the speed to low and, with the mixer running, gradually add the molasses and heavy cream. Mix until the dough is evenly moistened, about 20 seconds. Increase the speed to medium and mix until thoroughly combined, about 10 seconds.
- Transfer the dough to a large piece of plastic wrap, shape into a disk, wrap tightly and freeze until firm, 20 to 30 minutes. Alternatively, refrigerate the dough 2 hours or overnight.
- To bake, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Roll chilled dough into tablespoon sized balls. Roll each dough ball in the granulated sugar first until coated and then roll again in confectioners sugar until coated evenly. Place the sugar coated dough balls 1-inch apart from each other on the prepared baking sheet.
- Bake the cookies until set in the centers, 10 to 12 minutes. Remove from the oven when they start to crack. Do not over bake. Cool the cookies on the sheets 2 minutes, then remove the cookies to a wire rack to cool to room temperature.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
recipe inspired by If You Give a Blonde a Kitchen
To see all of 2014’s holiday treats, click the links below:
Five Minute Fudge | Holiday Sugar Cookies | Peppermint Candy Cane Cookies
Peppermint Chocolate Pie | Hazelnut Lemon Curd Thumbprints | Homemade Peppermint Marshmallows
Chewy Molasses Sugar Cookies | Easy Petite Palmiers | Triple Threat Peppermint Brownie Bites
Toasted Coconut Cookies | Walnut Spiced Rum Balls | Mexican Chocolate Truffles
To see all of 2015’s holiday treats, click the links below:
Easy Candy Cane Chocolate Truffles | Cherry Almond Thumbprints | Easy Brown Butter Pecan Fudge
Toasted Macadamia Nut Cookies | Salted Vanilla Bean Caramels | Chocolate Peppermint Swirl Cookies
Lynne’s Cream Wafers | Mini Pecan Pie Bites | Eggnog Poundcake
Christmas Tree Corn Flake Treats | Devil’s Food Crinkles | Chewy Brown Sugar Cookies
I’ve made these a few times and they never get the crinkle look… always stay in a ball shape. What am I doing wrong?
I’m not sure! Maybe my oven runs hotter? I would try to increase the temperature and see what happenes.
Excited to try this! I’m planning to make them GF, and hope to swap out the heavy cream…Do you know if an oat milk would work instead of heavy cream?
Honestly, I have no idea. There is a LOT of fat in heavy cream and not in oat milk so I am guessing that will change the outcome.
The post above says the recipe uses vanilla extract but the recipe does not call for any?
Doh! Thanks for catching that. Way back when I put that vanilla video in with all of my cookie recipes and I missed that this recipe doesn’t use vanilla. I removed the video. Thanks!
They are still in the oven but are swimming in butter. Not sure what
I did wrong maybe didn’t cream it enough?
It’s possible? You used real butter and not margarine, correct? Did you use dark brown sugar or golden brown. Not sure why that would have happened!
I have a very similar recipe to the one you have; however, mine uses one egg. I was wondering if this was left out accidentally or if the recipe is egg free. Thanks!
No egg! The molasses does the trick! Krissy
I was going to make this receipt but it says dark brown sugar twice in the ingredients and I wasn’t sure if you meant 3/4 c dark brown sugar or 3/4 dark brown sugar and 3/4 c light brown sugar
Hi Chelsea. Sorry about that. I fixed the recipe. It was a type and I accidentally listed it twice. -Krissy