Name: Old Fashioned Ginger Snap Cookies
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 10 min
Total time: 25 min
Ingredients: 1 1/2 cups margarine or butter; 2 cups sugar; 2 large eggs; 1/2 cup fancy molasses; 4 cups flour; 2 teaspoons baking soda; 2 teaspoons cinnamon; 2 teaspoons clove; 2 teaspoons ginger; 1 teaspoon cardamom (optional) (This will give a bit of extra heat and lemony notes.); 1/2 teaspoon salt; 1/2 cup decorating sugar (large granules) (*regular sugar will work also)

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Perfectly crunchy on the outside, chewy on the inside, and unlike many other ginger snap recipes, these cookies are completely loaded with spices… Don’t skimp, trust me! Big enough to share or freeze for later, this family recipe for Old Fashioned Ginger Snap Cookies is a keeper.

Old Fashioned gingersnap cookies on a large wooden slab. Crackled cookies are tied up with red and white string. There is a glass of milk, silver bells, and a sprig of spruce as well as a red linen napkin in the foreground.

Christmas just isn’t Christmas without my Memere’s famous old fashioned ginger snap cookies! I make this multiple times a year. Between my sister and I, it is a race to see who will “dibs” this recipe first in our annual cookie exchanges. They are a good old fashioned ginger snap cookie recipe that works EVERY TIME!

Brown ginger snap cookies tied up with strings…. these are a few of my favourite things!

Key Ingredients

Fancy Molasses– Fancy molasses is less strong than cooking molasses. It is smoother, sweeter, and lighter in colour. I prefer to use fancy molasses in these cookies but you can use cooking molasses in a pinch.

Decorating Sugar– I love to roll my cookies in sugar that has a larger granule. It adds an extra crunch to your cookie not to mention serious style points.

Key ingredients overhead view including flour, cloves, cardamom, cinnamon, ginger, baking soda, salt, sugar, butter, molasses.

Equipment

No fancy equipment needed here! As always you can improvise and use whatever you have on hand. These tools helped to make the job easier for me.

Small cookie scoop-While you can easily use a teaspoon and eyeball it, I opt for a cookie scoop to make my cookies uniform.

Baking Sheet-My favourite baking pans are these over-sized pans from USA pan. You can cook more cookies at once, lowering the overall cooking time!

Tips + Tricks

Don’t Over Cook! Once the cookies cool, they will harden. 10 minutes at 375°F is usually perfect. Let them cool for 3-4 minutes before using a flipper to take them off of your cookie sheet. Every oven is different, if you find that your oven runs hotter than normal, you may want to take the cookies out at the 8 minute mark.

To Chill or Not to Chill? This recipe is awesome because it requires no chilling time. Chilling the dough helps to make sure that your cookies don’t spread too much. The consistency of this old fashioned ginger snap recipe is thick enough to bake right away. If you are having an “off day” with measuring your ingredients and somehow your cookies are flatter than they should be, feel free to chill for an hour- or overnight!

Spices: My Memere shared this recipe with me, and every year when I am spooning out the ingredients I remember her sage advice: don’t be afraid to use LOTS of spice. When I measure out my spices, I use heaping teaspoons. The more, the merrier- these cookies can handle it! Adding a teaspoon of cardamom will have your taste buds dancing! It is lemony and peppery, and perfect in these ginger snaps.

Fully cooked old fashioned ginger snap cookies on a marble board with candied ginger and powdered ginger in the foreground.

Batch + Storage

This recipe will yield about 60 (5 dozen) cookies…depending on how much dough you sample ;).

I love to bake a few fresh pans and freeze some cookie dough balls for later. The cookies are best stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to seven days.

To freeze, simply drop raw dough onto a cookie sheet by the spoonful and pop into the freezer for about an hour. After they have firmed up, transfer the dough balls into a ziplock bag and squeeze as much of the air as you can out and place them back into the freezer. Frozen cookie dough can be stored for up to three months.

When you are ready to cook, place the frozen dough balls onto your cookie sheet and allow them to sit at room temp for about 30 minutes. Cook as normal.

Scooping out the ginger snap cookie dough onto a cookie sheet.

How to Make Old Fashioned Ginger Snap Cookies

Step 1: Preheat your oven to 375°F or 190°C.

Step 2: In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar together until mixed and fluffy (About 2 min).

Step 3: Add in molasses and then eggs one at a time and mix until well combined.

Step 4: In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together flour, spices, baking soda, and salt. Add to wet mixture and mix until fully combined.

Step 5: Using a small cookie scoop or a regular spoon, scoop out a small round ball and roll it in your hand. You can choose to dip just the top half in the decorative sugar or to roll the whole cookie.

Step 6: Place on your cookie sheet and bake from 9-11 minutes. I find the sweet spot to be ten minutes but everyone’s ovens are different. *Darker cookie sheets also tend to cook a little bit faster.

ginger snap cookies on a large USA pan cookie sheet after baking.

Step 7: Once the cookies have baked, leave them cool on the sheet for about five minutes to firm up. Transfer to a cooling rack.

Old fashioned ginger snap cookies on a black cooling rack.

Step 8: Enjoy with a homemade chai latte using this easy chai concentrate recipe!