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If soft, spicy cookies are your love language (like me!), then you’re going to want to make these, stat. These Gingerbread Crinkle Cookies are soft, chewy and packed with the right amount of spice.

Stack of gingerbread crinkle cookies with glass of cinnamon sticks in background.

This is the type of cookie recipe where I wish I could hand you one through the screen as you read. If baking with gingerbread spices is the first thing you do when the holiday season hits, please consider baking these soft, chewy little spice cookies.

My recipe calls for a borderline obscene amount of spices (and to be honest, I’ll probably double it when I make them again for Santa), because there really is no limit for cinnamon, ginger, and cloves for me.

Vertical image of cracked gingerbread cookies dusted with powdered sugar.

The texture is perfect, the recipe is simple (but don’t skip that chill time), and the spice just hit. You must add these to your holiday rotation.

If you like crinkle cookies, don’t miss my red velvet crinkle cookies from this year, too!

Ingredients

Small bowls of brown sugar, molasses, spices, and eggs on marble counter.

Butter. One stick/ one-half cup of unsalted butter that has been softening at room temperature for about 30-60 minutes.
Brown Sugar. One cup (220 grams) of packed brown sugar. This can be dark or light brown sugar–whatever you have in your pantry is fine.
Molasses. One-quarter cup of molasses. Do not use blackstrap molasses–it has a weird savory ham-like flavor. Use the baking molasses (the one with the grandma on it!)
Eggs. Two large eggs.
Flour. Two and 1/3 cups (292 grams total) of all-purpose flour.
Baking Powder. One and a half teaspoons (also the same as one-half tablespoon) of baking powder.
Baking Soda. One-half teaspoon of baking soda.
Cinnamon. Two full teaspoons of ground cinnamon (a Ceylon cinnamon is nice if you have it).
Ginger. To bring all the ginger flavor to these gingerbread crinkle cookies, we need one full tablespoon of ground ginger. I did not test this recipe with fresh ginger. Because dried spices are more potent and concentrated than fresh, the amount of fresh ginger you would have to use here would bring too much moisture to the cookie.
Cloves. One teaspoon of ground cloves. I hope you have some leftover from making my mini pumpkin pies!
Salt. One-half teaspoon of fine sea salt.
Powdered Sugar. Just before baking, roll these cookies in 2/3 cup of powdered sugar very generously. If the powdered sugar is your favorite part of the cookie, then you might want to roll it in granulated sugar before powdered sugar, just to help it stick. It’s optional, though!

How to Make Gingerbread Crinkle Cookies

White bowl with butter, brown sugar, and molasses in it, unmixed.

Light brown batter with two raw eggs cracked on top.

First, cream the butter, brown sugar and molasses until light and fluffy, about 1 minute.

Add both eggs, and beat until well-mixed.

White flour sprinkled to one side of light brown batter.

Three brown dough ball being rolled in powdered sugar on a small plate.

Next, evenly sprinkle the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and salt on top. Mix everything together (the dough will be stiff), and place in the fridge to chill for 2 hours.

After the 2 hour chill time, preheat the oven to 350F. Use a cookie scoop to make a dough ball from 2 tablespoons of dough. Roll it generously in powdered sugar, and then place on the baking sheet. Bake for 13-14 minutes.

Horizontal image of crackled ginger crinkle cookies on a wire rack.

Storage/ Make Ahead Tips:

Because this gingerbread crinkle cookies recipe requires a 2-hour chill time, you can absolutely stretch that and make these cookies 2-3 days in advance. Store the dough in the fridge until you’re ready to bake. They scoop easiest when they’re cold, so scoop a test cookie–if it scoops easily, it’s thawed enough to bake! You can also store the dough in the freezer until ready to scoop and bake. Defrost overnight before attempting to scoop, however. And finally, yes you can freeze already-scooped balls of dough. Let them thaw on the cookie sheet while the oven preheats, and bake as usual.
The already-baked gingerbread crinkle cookies keep well on the counter in airtight containers with a slice of fresh bread in the container to keep them soft. They will last for 3-4 days like this. Beyond that, refrigerate or freeze them.