These gingerbread men make the cutest cookies. Pipe untinted or colored icing onto your gingerbread men, or decorate with raisins, currants, or cinnamon red hot candies for eyes and buttons.

Gingerbread Men Cookies

flour

McCormick® Ginger, Ground

McCormick® Cinnamon, Ground

baking soda

¼ teaspoon McCormick® Nutmeg, Ground

salt

butter, softened

brown sugar

molasses

McCormick® Pure Vanilla Extract

Mix flour, ginger, cinnamon, baking soda, nutmeg, and salt in large bowl.


Beat butter and brown sugar in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy. Add molasses, egg, and vanilla; mix well. Gradually beat in flour mixture on low speed until well mixed.


Press dough into a thick, flat disk. Wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate 4 hours or overnight.


Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).


Roll dough on a lightly floured surface to a thickness of 1/4 inch. Cut into gingerbread men shapes with a 5-inch cookie cutter. Place gingerbread men 1 inch apart on ungreased baking sheets.


Bake in the preheated oven until edges of cookies are set and just begin to brown, 8 to 10 minutes. Cool on baking sheets for 1 to 2 minutes, then remove to wire racks to cool completely.


Decorate cooled cookies as desired. Store cookies in airtight container up to 5 days.


This was my first attempt ever at gingerbread.  I refrigerated it for 1.5 days because I got busy, and the dough kept well wrapped in plastic wrap.  YUMMY flavor--my 2.5-year-old and I both love them!  I didn't have enough molasses on hand, so I used probably about 2 Tbsp of corn syrup to make up for what I was missing.  It didn't seem to cause a problem.  For the other gingerbread virgins out there, here is my advice: first of all, when you take the dough out of the fridge, it will seem rock hard.  Don't panic, it softens as you roll it.  Only roll out 1/2 at a time as it gets very soft, very fast.  Second of all, don't forget to MOVE the cookies to a wire rack after 1-2 minutes as listed.  I got busy with my toddler and forgot, and my first batch stuck pretty good to my cookie sheets.  I had to be careful to not crack them to pieces when removing them.  With the next batches, I removed them after 1 minute with no problems at all.  Happy baking!

Exactly what I was looking for. The taste and texture are great and the dough is SO easy to work with. After making 8 batches of sugar cookies it was so nice to move to this dough which rolled and sliced so easily. I am an expert baker and I really love this dough! You can up the spice if you are looking for something super spice-laden, but this one is great for kids. A tip for molasses: spray the measuring cup with cooking spray and the molasses just slides right out!

This fantastic recipe is a favorite of my cooking students!  The balance of spices and flavors is perfect and the "men" turn out just right each time we make them.  To complete this recipe in 1.5 hours we patted the dough onto a Corelle dinner plate and put it in the freezer for 15-20 minutes.  This thinner layer of dough chills quickly making the men easy to roll out and cut.

Made these last Christmas. Easy and delicious.

This recipe is delicious and the dough was easy to work with! To avoid rolling out the dough too many times and inevitably adding more flour, I separated the dough into 3 flattened disks before wrapping and refrigerating them. After an hour, I took the dough out of the fridge and rolled out each disk until they were the right thickness (for me, about half a centimeter). I then re-wrapped each disk in plastic and refrigerated them overnight. The next day, I simply unwrapped the disks, placed them onto my floured counter and cut out the gingerbread men!

I don't cut these out or chill the dough. I roll the dough into small balls and roll in sugar. I use a small glass dipped in sugar and flatten them out. I bake them right away and call them Molasses cookies.I wanted a recipe that called for butter and not shortening.This recipe turned out great.

Just to add to my last review - I cooked the cookies for about 5 minutes longer, making them crunchy rather than soft. The molasses aren't so overpowering anymore. Now I can't stop eating them! I would use less molasses, more cinnamon.

Excellent, just as written.  My personal preference is a slightly puffed (no spread) cookie with a little bit of a spice kick.  Therefore, for my second batch, I cut the butter down to 1/2 cup, increased the ginger to 2 tablespoons, the cinnamon to 1 1/2 teaspoons, the nutmeg to 1/2 teaspoon and added a teaspoon of ground cloves.  This recipe is fabulous.

I have tried this recipe twice and both times the dough turns out very dry and crumbly. I would not recommend this recipe.

Made this recipe two days before Christmas.  Followed recipe exactly.  These were the best.  Throwing away any previous recipes I had for gingerbread cookies.

I've made this recipe twice now, and the cookies were a huge hit both times. I personally love the cookie because I think it is the perfect incarnation of what a gingerbread man cookie should be. They are firm, but still cakey enough. The consistency is perfect, and they are packed with flavor. Highly recommended. Don't alter anything!

Love this recipe. The gingerbread turned out really good. This recipe called for the gingerbread to be put in the fridge for 4 hours or over night but I only put it in for 1 hour and it was fine for me to roll out.

Little orbs of HEAVEN!! Gorgeous flavour, gentle, warm, not hot and spicy. I creamed all the wet ingredients first, then added all the dry at once into my mixer, and the batter was light like a frosting! My absolute favourite cookie now. FIVE STARS!!!

This was my first time trying this recipe. The consistency of the finished cookie was very nice and they were easy to make.  They were a bit bland for my taste, however. I think next time I will add a bit more ginger and perhaps some ground gloves to spice them up a bit more.

Followed it exactly, even refrigerated the dough for 8 hours.  So sticky, it was impossible to handle!  If someone knows what I could've done wrong, please let me know. This recipe has amazing reviews so I was really excited! I ended up wetting my hands to handle the dough to flatten it out with my hand since it was WAY too sticky for the roller.. then trying to put the cut out lil men on my pan was impossible.  The dough wouldn't release so their legs, arms, heads would tear off as I was trying to separate them.  sigh.  3/4 of the dough is still in the fridge because I have no idea how to handle it!

The recipe is a 5.  
The only thing I changed was the molasses, used on 3/4 cup.
The spices I played with too added a pinch more of cinnamon and nutmeg.
Made this for my daughters kinder class for them to decorate.  The kids loved them!
I had never made gingerbread cookies before now i've found a recipe for life.

I've been making gingerbread cookies for 45 years.  This is the best recipe I've ever used, I had to make 3 batches!   Do 1 minute less for a soft cookie if your kids like soft not 'snappy' cookies.  LOVE them.

I'd have liked a bit more gingery bite, but the cookies are really good even so. I did increase the cinnamon to 2 tsp, the nutmeg to 1/2 tsp, and added 1/2 tsp cloves. The cookies cooked very fast in my oven. I had to take them out after only about 7 minutes.

I am not good at cut out cookies, but these turn out great every time. Texture and flavor are perfect. Not too hard or too strong of a flavor, even to people who don't normally like gingerbread.

The drawback to this recipe is that my dough was really sticky.  I followed the recipe as written and put in the fridge for 6 hours.  I used 1/3 of the dough at a time, leaving the remaining dough in the fridge.  To make the dough work here's what I did: I was working on a floured surface so I rolled out the dough, then lifted the dough up and put down a thicker layer of flour, then cut the cookies with cookie cutters dipped in flour.  I also reduced the baking time to about 6-7 minutes.  The baked cookies were soft with good color and flavor. I would use this recipe again but I will keep looking for an easier to use recipe.

One of the Greatest Ginger bread cookie reciepe. But need to double or triple kids ate faster than it came out of oven..........A+

Excellent basic gingerbread cookie recipe. I follow this to a T and always comes out perfect. Not a strong ginger taste which the kiddies love.  Recently I have added a teaspoon of cocoa powder to give it a chocolatey lift!

This is a very good gingerbread recipe. It's a standard that has been around for ages. If the recipe is followed as written it works.

Yummy and the smells are delightful, but what I like best is the many memories these cookies bring back of years ago when the children and I made them for Christmas gifts.

These came out perfect! I used a smaller cookie cutter than recommended and made a good amount of cookies. I also baked them a little longer so they would come out a bit crunchier

Delicious.  I rolled them a bit thicker (1/3" maybe?) because I like them softer.  I frosted them with buttercream frosting and decorated with gumdrops, they turned out perfectly!

Best Gingerbread cookies ever. I used to work at a bakery, and these are just as good, if not better, then the ones we made there.

Gross - followed instructions exactly and it was a nightmare to handle, and then didn't even taste good :(

First of all, I made ginger turtles not gingerbread men ha ha. I followed the directions as listed. I made the wet items first, And in a separate bowl mixed the flour cinnamon ginger and nutmeg. Then I combined them and blended everything. Only cooled them for 1.5 hours. Did turtle cutouts. No problems.

The recipe either needs less flour or some water in it. I also think that baking powder should be in the ingredients list. I'm still determined to figure out how to make gingerbread, so I'm going to try this again, but add baking powder and only add dry ingredients until I have a moist doughy consistency. If I put all the dry ingredients in as directed, the dough just breaks apart. Stay tuned. I'm going to try this next week for my work pot luck.

Perfect taste and texture.   I love gingerbread cookies, but they are usually too crisp.   This recipe yields cookies that are structured and hold their shape (they do not spread), but are soft when you bite into them.   I am a terrible baker and this recipe was easy to follow and the dough was relatively easy to roll out.    I made a slight adjustment and used butter flavored Crisco instead of butter.

First time using this recipe and loved it. I used a little less molasses and a touch more cinnamon and accidentally a 1/4 cup extra butter (baking with the kids) they turned out great taste wonderful but not too spicy and the kids all loved them!

Dough ended up too sticky and these weren't very sweet.... Too much molasses for my taste.  Ick

These were good, but I frosted them with an orange zest frosting and then decorated with colored sugars and candy's, the cookies stay soft and are sinfully good,kids from 1-92 love to decorate and eat them !! They freeze well, even frosted(wax paper each layer)for up to three months so I double or triple the recipe,and save some, for Valentines day to decorate in black, red,pink,white.

This was my first time baking gingerbread man cookies.  I love baking, but whenever there is a rolling pin involved, it's always hit or miss.  We refrigerated the dough for 4 1/2 hours.  Then divided it in half.  Rolled the first half out onto a floured surface.  It started sticking. Added more flour.  Still sticking.  Stuck it back in the fridge.  Pulled out the other half.  Rolled it between two pieces of saran wrap.  Perfect.  
You need to work quickly.  Once the dough gets close to room temperature, it's hard to work with.  
TIPS FOR BEGINNERS-  wrap dough in a disc shape, as stated in the recipe.  Allow to firm up for two hours.  Then roll it out between two pieces of saran wrap to the 1/4 Inch thickness.  Wrap it in  saran wrap and refrigerate for another two+ hours.  It makes cutting out the shapes so much easier!  No sticking to the table, no breaking because the dough was to warm.
We replaced the nutmeg with cloves.  Decorated with royal icing.  Mmmmmm.  Thank you for sharing a delicious recipe.

Perfect as is! Right In between the crisp/crunchy cookies and a chewy cookie. Nice lighter gingerbread flavour - but I did add 1/4tsp cloves as well. Other than that made as directed! 

They do fluff up a bit so roll to less than 1/4" thick for sure. Make sure to take off baking pan within 1-2min out of oven to ensure they don't stick! Will save this recipe.

These were DELICIOUS!  I cut them into football shapes for the playoffs last weekend, and they came out great.  I will definitely be using this recipe any time I want gingerbread cookies.  They are still pretty soft after three days too.

I actually loved this recipe, however I didn't follow it exactly. It was an amazing recipe with just a few modification. I Used a full cup of buttermilk instead of 1/2 cup of normal milk , increases the red colouring to 1.5 ounces , vanilla extract to 3 teaspoons , baking powder to 1.5 teaspoons and added half a teaspoon of lemon zest preferibly fresh. I also used self raising flower and used 2 1/4 cups instead of  2 and a 1/2 so that my cupcakes are extra moist. Since they are red velvet cupcakes I reduced amount of cocoa powder to 1/4 cup instead of 1/2 cup so as to avoid my cupcakes becoming too chocolatey in flavour. I leaved the frosting as it is qnd actually got 32 medium sized cupcakes with extremely good taste. Made them twice already and I discovered this recipe 2 weeks ago. That adds up to a total of 64 cupcakes :) this recipe really was a hit ! Got compliments all day and even received presents from people I made cupcakes for. Our neighbour who is a pro baker even told me to hand her my recipe! How awesome is that ! Amazing recipe ! Go for it ! You won't regret it :)

This recipe was easy to make and delicious!!

Delicious! I make these every year with people still asking for more. The only thing I would change is that I would add more spices; probably a little less than double. Also, I added a pinch of cloves and a little bit of lemon zest. Makes it even better:)

Came out very dry...not a fan of this recipe.

Great in all respects except not nearly spicy enough, even after increasing spices by 50%.  Will make again, but will double the spices and add ground cloves.

I thought this recipe was perfect. It even worked well with Blue Bonnet Light and Ener-G egg replacer (we have to use those due to food allergies). The only thing I did differently was I refrigerated the dough in a plastic container rather than saran wrap. We put vanilla frosting on the cookies. They were delicious, the texture was perfect, and they were gone within 24 hours. We will be making them again soon.

Not as spicy as I like.  8 minutes for soft like Sarah likes or 10 for a crunchy cookie.  Sarah and Dave's fav.

I chose this recipe because I did not want to use shortening in the cookies.  I made both the gingerbread men and the kiss cookies rolled in sugar and they are excellent.  My husband usually doesn't care for gingerbread and loved them.  I also pressed some of the men in the sugar for something different.  Very good.

Perfection. In case you're time-crunched like me, two hours to chill the dough was adequate. I put half the dough on my workspace, other half in the fridge to keep chilling while I rolled, cut, and baked the first dozen.  The cut dough held its shape ok. If you can chill longer, do. Don't fret if you only have two hours though.

They tasted amazing. Only tip I can think of.. if one is having trouble rolling them.. is to use platic wrap.. worked like a charm for me :)

Pretty good for 1st time gingerbread with a few tweaks in the recipe. I used 2cups all purpose and 1 c whole wheat. And instead of molasses I used 1/2c organic maple syrup and used pumpkin pie spice instead of the nutmeg. Everything else I followed. Pic coming soon. Beacuse of no molasses they weren't as dark brown but my nephew and niece enjoyed them just as much and had fun decorating them. * Icing just powdered sugar and a few tsp of milk. For the white icing. For the red, instead of regular food dye I used Grenadine for the red icing it gives the icing a bright red color and a mild fruity flavor.  Happy Holdidays !! Next time I will try recipe as written but very good!

Great taste.  The dough was easy to handle.

Perfect recipe!First time making gingerbread. This one is a keeper for sure. I only kept it in the fridge for 90 minutes and it cut perfectly. I didn't have cloves and used cardamom instead. Yum!

These were really soft and delicious, they stayed soft for a whole week! Make sure to keep in sealed container with a piece of bread so your cookies stay moist longer. This recipe is a keeper, thanks!

We loved this recipe! We liked the milder flavor than we usually make and with the size of cookie cutter we had, we made about 2 1/2-3 dozen. My oven tends to cook things faster than the recommended times, so 7 minutes was perfect.

I followed the recipe for thumbprint cookies but without the nuts or caramel. Instead, I flattened them with the bottom of a glass and once baked and cooled, I spread a thin layer of Nutella on the bottom of one cookie and topped it with another to make a sandwich cookie.  I decorated them with royal icing and red or green sanding sugar.

My kiddos loved these! Smells like the holidays throughout the house!

It is great recipe, but it was too mild to our tastes. I will increase amount of spices next time. Otherwise, I baked 9 min and came out perfect!

FOR starters, I made this and the dough was all crumbly.  Couldn’t get it to form together... I saw one reviewer had the same issue... as I was chilling it, I decided to make a second batch, I DIDNT BEAT THE BUTTER BROWN SUGAR PROPERLY THE FIRST TIME, SECOND batch is currently chilling to be baked in the morning.... looks awesome

I have made this exactly as written 3 times now and its the best!! gingerbread men come out perfect &amp; taste great...especially with cinnamon hot buttons!. I use parchment paper and never had a sticking problem! This will be my go-to gingerbread recipe from now on!

Followed the recipe exactly and most disappeared before we had a chance to decorate them;) We went with 7 minutes for soft ones, and made a few crunchy ones for 9 minutes, both were great.

Used this recipe yesterday because I wanted to try something different.  I always used Wilton's recipe.  This was ok, but the taste is kind of bland according to my children so they are adding royal icing to them and it taste a whole lot better.  The dough was kind of sticky when putting it in the saran wrap and when it came time to use it I had to keep adding flour so it didn't stick to the surface or roller.  Just takes a lot of work but not a bad recipe.

i think most folks would like this cookie, but my picky kids thought it was too molassesy. next time will do 1/2 molasses and 1/2 corn syrup.
 dough def needs to be chilled to be rolled out, i chilled for 35 min in the freezer.

The dough is very sticky and doesn't cut well unless covered in flour. The cookies rose quite a bit - a bit too fluffy for my liking (and I rolled them flatter than 1/4 inch). The taste was good, but a little dry. 

I cooked the first pan at the recommended 350 for 10 minutes and they burnt. The second pan went in for 7 minutes and were better.

A really tasty gingerbread recipe! I followed others' suggestions and subbed 1/2 light corn syrup for the molasses. Delicious! You have to work quickly with this dough!

So good and they stayed little men when baked! Followed recipe exactly and they turned out great, the dough was a little wet when I went to roll it but just threw down some powdered sugar/ flour mix.

add spices as other reviewers recommended and more ginger.

Delicious recipe! It makes a generous amount of cookies. It's the easiest gingerbread cookie dough that I have worked with- even though I still recommend flouring the surface you work on.

Made it exactly as the receipe and the cookies are great!  I love the flavour lots of spice!  I found the first time I rolled it out the dough did crack alot, but I put the left over bits in the fridge again and rolled it out a little slower the 2nd time and it was much better.

This dough turned out perfect.  Once I got all ingredients together, I worried for a minute because the dough seemed a bit dry/crumbly.  I just worked it a few seconds with my hands and the flour finished absorbing and it was great!  Did cut outs (rolled thicker than recipe suggests to get a thick, soft cookie) then rolled some in balls, then in sugar and baked into soft "ginger snaps".   Next time I might add a bit more ginger as I personally like a good zing to these cookies!

Personally I found the flavors a little off balance -- too much molasses, and not enough spice.  The second time around, I replaced the brown sugar with white (to cut back the molasses flavor), increased the ginger and cinnamon by half a tsp, and added about a 1/4 tsp of allspice. Much better then!

Simple, easy to follow and make recipe. The cookies are delicious, soft and chewy. I didn’t change a thing to the recipe and I’ve made the cookies three times this season. Every time they came out perfect. The seasoning and balance of ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg and molasses was perfect for my taste but the recipe is forgiving if you want less or more flavor. Highly recommended!

This is a terrific base recipe, but the spices are a bit off - the cookie didn't taste very "gingery" to me (although it was still a tasty cookie). I tasted the nutmeg a little more than I wanted to, however the cookie texture is PERFECT and actually stays perfect even after a few days (I find that other cookies get hard after a few days).  So I will simply play with the spices next time - bump up the ginger and reduce the nutmeg. I told everyone this was a "ginger nut" cookie.  Instead of cutting shapes, I simply rolled my dough into small-medium balls, then used a glass to press them a bit flat, and I topped with sugar (using a glass rim dipped in sugar on each flattened cookie dough before baking).  The result? pretty amazing even though the spices weren't quite what I hoped. I will use this forever!

These cookies turned out really good. We used multi grain flour and we ended up having to add more flour and then put the dough in the fridge for another 4 hours.

So over all, they tasted really good when they were done, but if you use multi grain flour... use a little bit more then what the recipe calls for.

I made these for Christmas this year. I followed the recipe exactly, and they turned out amazing!

So yummy! This was my first time making gingerbread men. I have to say these are the best tasting cookies ever! The only changes I made was to the spices. I never  measure my spices, I add more than what the recipe calls for. One tip I used from one of the comments was, I rolled the dough in between two pieces of plastic wrap. I did this to avoid extra flour on the cookies. I also discovered thst when taking the cookies off of the trays, its a good idea to start from the head down to the toes. Prevents the cookies from breaking. I also chilled my dough overnight.

SO delicious! I made the dough the day before and was super worried when I started rolling out the dough and it kept crumbling. I cut the dough in half and slooooowly rolled it out. It worked a lot better this way. The dough got much softer once it sat out a bit for later cookies. I baked at 350 for 8 minutes exactly. The cookies came out firm but soft—not hard and crunchy which I’m not a fan of. The perfect gingerbread cookie recipe!

It was our first time to bake gingerbread men cookie. Kids enjoy cooking together. Simply and  perfect recipe, I only added extra tiny pinch of ground cloves. Cookies smell amazing and tasty too. 
Thank you.

No changes. Just make sure the butter and sugar are mixed very well together.  Picture at my Pinterest https://pin.it/zxtnsb2o5micc4.

I didn't have butter, so I used a  Butter Crisco Stick. These came out better than any gingerbread man cookie I have ever bought in a bakery.  My family absolutely loved them.

A tasty, easy fun Saturday (with my grandson) we used the royal icing recipie with cream of tarter &amp; 2 egg whites to go with this and it was great.

Great recipe!  Ran out of molasses and used honey for the rest.  Worked Fine.  We also used 1 cup of whole wheat flour and 2 cups of white.  There were no complaints. :)

Incredible! Delicious! I made these at work as an activity with seniors.  I didn't have time to refrigerate the dough for hours so I used a lot of flour on the cutting board and rolling pin to prevent sticking.  The dough is very soft when room temperature.  I used a spatulla to transfer the cookies from the cutting board to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.  They didn't grow and puff up and lose their shape like sugar cookies do.  They slid right off the parchment paper.  They looked perfect and tasted just how you expect gingerbread cookies to taste.  Everyone who had them raved "I usually don't like gingerbread cookies but I like these."  There was a good amount of spice and sweetness.  We piped on vanilla frosting and used red hots for the buttons and eyes but they are also delicious plain.

tastes great! I've only set it in the fridge for an hour and used flour to keep it from sticking as I rolled it out. not too gingery and not too sweet, my family loved them! I will make these again next year.

These are soft and very flavorful! A win win!

This was a fun and easy recipe.  I had never made gingerbread cookies before so I was concerned about overbaking and only baked 7-8 minutes. I am going to bake longer next time because these cookies were a bit too soft and didn't stand up so well to decorating (though they didn't just crumble...they did ok). I baked on parchment paper, just an FYI.  Also, a good tip I happened upon is that if you are cutting out cookies, when you go to reroll the scraps from between cuttings, put the dough bits back in the saran wrap and roll inside the saran wrap.

Between 4 and 5 stars.... a yummy recipe thats great for the holidays.  I would recommend.  We made into squares for gingerbread houses and only had minimal issues.

These are outstanding.  My family does not normally like gingerbread men as much as other flavors, but these got raves.  Dough was very easy to work with.  Will use again for Valentine's Day instead of the traditional sugar cookie.  These are much better!

Froze dough ~ 30 min then refrigerator til ready to use.  Made version with Hershey hugs -  VERY GOOD!

First time ever with gingerbread. So easy and fantastic. Why don't we eat this all year instead of holidays? :)

Waste of time. The mixture was so dry and crumbly it wouldn't hold its shape at all. Very disappointing

Deeelicious! So yummy. I will definitely make these again! I found that 9 minutes was the right amount of time to bake it, and I only let the dough chill for about an hour and a half and they turned out great!

Yummy. First time I’ve ever made these. 6-7 mins is enough.

I usually tinker with recipes, but not this time. They are completely delicious! I think they are best a little on the thinner side. Best gingerbread men I've had since I was 5.

Great recipe. It takes adjustments well. I had to substitute maple syrup for molasses and it worked fine.

gingerbread men cookies

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 10 minutes

Total: 4 hours, 30 minutes

Servings: 2

Author : McCormick Spice

Ingredients

Instructions

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