Easy gingerbread cookies (slice and bake)

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Why slice-and-bake gingerbread?

There are so many Christmas cookie recipes that you can bake, and some are more challenging or demanding than others. The trouble is that the holidays are hectic, and you may not have the time, the patience, or the energy to roll out disk after disk of cookie dough to cut out shapes with cookie cutters. Cue slice-and-bake cookies.

Slice-and-bake cookies, also known as icebox cookies allow you to easily produce hundreds of cookies without breaking a sweat. The beauty of this type of cookie is that the recipe is just like rolled out cookie doughs, but the dough is shaped into logs that are easy to store, wrapped tightly. You can make slice-and-bake cookie dough months ahead and store it in the freezer.

Ingredients to make easy gingerbread cookies measured out.

What are slice-and-bake gingerbread cookies made of

If you want to make these easy gingerbread cookies, you will need the following ingredients:

butter, preferably unsalted butter because you will add salt to the dough, but if you have salted, it will work. Just adjust the salt in the recipe accordingly, otherwise your cookies may be too salty
light brown sugar and granulated sugar, the brown sugar will add flavour, while the granulated sugar will contribute to the texture of the cookies
molasses, specifically Fancy molasses or baking molasses. Do not use blackstrap molasses, which is too bitter for this recipe
large eggs, don't use smaller eggs because your cookie dough may be too dry and your cookie dough won't roll out nicely, but don't use extra large eggs because they could cause the cookie dough to puff too much as it bakes, leading to a more cake-y cookie or a spread out cookie.
all-purpose flour is needed to bind all the ingredients together and give the cookies structure. If you don't use enough flour, your cookies may spread too much as they bake
ground ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves are added to the dough to make these cookies very flavourful—these are the usual spices in gingerbread, though some may add anise or even ground pepper
salt is really important to balance out the sweet molasses flavour. Don't skip it. I like to use Diamond Crystal fine kosher salt, but table salt will work, though the cookies will be saltier and you may want to halve the salt in that case.

Rolling logs of gingerbread cookie dough in coarse turbinado sugar to coat the outside to give the cookies crunchy edges.

Type of molasses and substitutions

In this recipe, we are baking with Fancy molasses (which you can find on Amazon), which is sometimes called baking molasses or original molasses in the US (available on Amazon). Mild molasses also works.

Another option worth exploring would be black Treacle, which I used in these soft gingerbread cookies. Lyle's Black Treacle is very popular in Great Britain and it's used to bake instead of molasses. You can also order it on Amazon.

Do not use blackstrap molasses. Blackstrap molasses is very dark and has a more bitter taste, whereas Fancy molasses has a milder taste that is more suited for Christmas cookies.

Slicing a log of cookie dough to make slice-and-bake gingerbread cookies.

Ways to jazz up slice-and-bake cookies

Slice-and-bake cookies can seem "boring" but there are so many ways to make them special:

Roll the logs of cookie dough in a coarse sugar like turbinado or a white or coloured sanding sugar: these types of sugar don't melt so they add sparkle to the edges and a crunchy texture that people love.
Roll logs of cookie dough in chopped nuts: the nuts will toast in the oven as the cookies bake, adding so much flavour and giving them a rustic look
Glaze the baked cookies with a royal icing or a simpler lemon icing (made from icing sugar and lemon juice). This type of glaze will harden and allows you to add sprinkles before the icing sets.
Dip in melted chocolate: based on these ginger cookies with white chocolate, we know that white chocolate and ginger go well together, so why not dip these easy gingerbread cookies in white chocolate? You won't regret it! Dark chocolate also works too!

A sheet pan with ginger coins ready to be baked.

A sheet pan of freshly baked ginger coin cookies.

Keeping gingerbread soft

These gingerbread when freshly baked may seem a little firm the day they are baked, but once you transfer them to a storage container they will soften. To speed up the process and/or to keep them soft, you can add a marshmallow to the storage container. Actually, the tricks for keeping a container of brown sugar moist are the same as the tricks for keeping cookies soft, which means you can add a marshmallow, a piece of white sandwich bread, a slice of apple, or a moistened terra cotta disk to keep these ginger cookies soft.

A sheet pan of gingerbread cookie coins with crunchy turbinado edges.

Other gingerbread recipes and alternatives

If you still prefer to roll and cut out gingerbread people, great! Here's my fave recipe for classic gingerbread cookie cutouts and also a matcha gingerbread cookie variation. Simple sugar cookies are also always a hit, whether you feel like decorating or not, and feel free to modify them to make spiced sugar cookies! So many cookie options if you want to use those Christmas cookie cutters in your stash.

A plate of round gingerbread cookies with crunchy turbinado sugar edges served with a cup of coffee.

Here's a recipe for gingerbread "coins", basically gingerbread cookies that are slice-and-bake. This way, you can make the dough ahead and slice and bake later. These slice-and-bake gingerbread cookies have a really festive flavour from the fancy molasses, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves. Rolling the logs of cookie dough in turbinado sugar gives a lovely crunch to the edges of each cookie.