These homemade Gingerbread Snowflakes are full of tasty, warm spices! They are cut into adorable snowflake shapes and finished with sweet icing, perfect for the holidays or anytime.
Gingerbread cookies are perfect for all cookie lovers and I promise this recipe will quickly become one of your favorites.
The warm cinnamon, nutmeg, and a pop of ginger are a match made in heaven. Not to mention the rich, deep molasses flavor to tie it together.
If you are a gingerbread fan, I highly recommend trying easy gingerbread fudge, stuffed gingerbread cookie recipe, and this recipe for gingerbread milkshakes.
Why You Will Love These Gingerbread Snowflake Cookies
- Family Favorite: Not only are these cookies yummy, they are fun to decorate! You can turn decorating these snowflake cookies into a fun, family activity.
- Full of Flavor: Ginger, cloves, and allspice add a wonderful depth of flavor to this cookie recipe.
- Easy Ingredients: Most of the ingredients needed are pantry staples. The ones that aren’t can easily be found in your local grocery store.
- Perfect for Any Occasion: This gingerbread cookie recipe can be made all year round!
Ingredients
Here are the most important ingredients needed to make the best-tasting gingerbread snowflakes ever.
- Gingerbread Spices: These are key to that nostalgic flavor! Cinnamon, ginger, allspice, cloves, and nutmeg are some of the most important ingredients to making the best holiday snowflake cookies.
- Unsalted Butter: I highly recommend not substituting salted butter in this recipe.
- Molasses: Light or dark will work great! Be sure to grab regular molasses and not blackstrap molasses. The blackstrap variety has a more bitter taste and is more dense. It is better suited for a barbecue sauce and not baking.
- Vanilla Extract: I love to use vanilla often when baking. It compliments the flavors of the other ingredients. Always use pure vanilla extract over imitation when possible. You will notice a difference in the flavor!
- Hard Candy: Jolly Ranchers or another clear candy can be used to resemble “glass” and added to the middle cut-outs of the cookies. You can choose to skip that step if you prefer.
- Brown Sugar: Is key to more the rich, deep flavor of molasses.
See the recipe card below for the full ingredient list and the exact quantities of each one.
Variations
Want to make this recipe more your own? Try these variation suggestions.
- Mix-Ins: Add chocolate chips or nuts like chopped pecans to the cookie dough for a new flavor and texture.
- Gluten-Free: Substitute the all-purpose flour for your favorite gluten-free flour blend.
- Dairy Free: Vegan butter can replace regular butter.
- Icing Flavor: Use pure maple syrup in place of the light corn syrup for maple icing. It goes great with gingerbread.
How to Make Gingerbread Cookies
Here are the super easy instructions to make these gingerbread snowflakes. It only takes about 30 minutes to prepare the dough!
- Combine the dry ingredients and whisk together in a mixing bowl.
- Mix the butter, molasses, egg, and vanilla together in a separate bowl.
- Add half of the flour mixture to the butter mixture and stir gently. Gradually add the rest of the flour until a stiff dough has formed.
- Roll out the cookie dough until it’s about ¼ inch thick. Use a snowflake cookie cutter to cut out shapes.
- Place the cookies onto the parchment and leave a little space in between. Cut a circle or star shape in the middle of each cookie and add crushed hard candies into the cut-out in the middle.
- Bake for 7 minutes. Repeat until all of the cookies are baked. Cool the cookies completely before decorating.
- To make the icing, combine powdered sugar, vanilla, and corn syrup. Add water as needed. It should be thick enough to hold shape but thin enough to pipe easily.
- Add food coloring to the icing if desired, and pipe designs on the cookies.
How to Decorate Gingerbread Snowflakes
Don’t be intimidated when it comes to cookie decorating. It’s so easy to make these gorgeous decorated snowflake cookies.
- Scoop the icing into a piping bag. If you don't have a piping bag you can use a ziploc bag and cut a small piece of the corner off to use for piping.
- Carefully pipe any design you like onto the cooled cookies.
- Allow the icing to dry before eating. It should only take a few minutes to set.
⭐️ Hint: If you try decorating snowflake cookies while warm, the icing will melt.
If you love recipes like this one, you may also enjoy these iced gingerbread cookies.
Storage
- Storing: These snowflake cookies should be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.
- Freezing: Leftover baked cookies can be frozen for up to 3 months.
- Freezing Before Baking: You can also freeze the dough if you want to make it ahead of time. Shape it into a ball and wrap it well in plastic. Place it inside a storage bag and freeze for up to one month. Allow it to thaw in the fridge overnight and then warm up on the counter for about an hour before rolling it out and baking.
Serving Suggestions
- These snowflake-decorated cookies are perfect for any holiday party or get-together!
- Pair them with Christmas Hot Chocolate for a fun treat.
- Have a potluck coming up? Make this recipe and Double Chocolate Peppermint Cookies to please a crowd.
- They’re perfect for your annual Christmas bake sale.
- Gift them to friends.
Tips
Here are some tips to help you achieve the best gingerbread snowflake decorated cookies.
- Make Ahead. Feel free to make the gingerbread cookie dough ahead of time. Wrap it in plastic wrap and store it in the refrigerator for up to 3 days before you plan to make these snowflake cookies.
- Don’t Overwork the Dough. Once the dough is formed, it’s ready to use. There’s no need to knead the dough. Overworking it will result in tough cookies.
- Check the Butter. To properly incorporate the butter into the cookie dough, it must be at room temperature. If it’s too cold, the dough will become lumpy.
- Decorations. You can turn these into snowflake Christmas cookies by using holiday sprinkles or red/green food coloring.
FAQ
Do you have questions about this recipe? Here are some of the most commonly asked questions about making these cookies.
This recipe doesn’t require prior refrigeration before rolling and cutting out the snowflake designs.
Absolutely! This recipe works great with any cookie cutter. Try stars or gingerbread men! I chose a snowflake cookie design because they are beautiful when decorated.
More Delicious Cookie Recipes
Do you like cookies? Here are some recipes you may also like to try:
Ready to get cooking? Remember that you can print this recipe if you would like.
Gingerbread Snowflake Cookies
Ingredients
- 3-4 cups all-purpose flour
- ⅓ cup cornstarch
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1 Tablespoon ground cinnamon
- 1 Tablespoon ground ginger
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon ground allspice
- ½ teaspoon ground cloves
- ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- ¾ cup unsalted butter room temp
- ⅔ cup molasses light or dark
- 1 large egg
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 7-8 pieces hard candy optional (jolly ranchers or other clear candy)
Icing
- 3 cups confectioners’ sugar
- ½ teaspoon white vanilla extract or use water
- 2 teaspoons light corn syrup
- 4 ½ - 5 Tablespoons room temp water
- Food coloring
Instructions
- Combine the flour, cornstarch, sugar, spices and baking soda.
- In a separate bowl mix the butter, molasses, egg and vanilla together.
- Add half the flour and gently stir to combine. Continue adding more flour until a stiff dough is formed.
- At this point, you can wrap the dough and refrigerate until you are ready to cut out the cookies.
- Cookies can be rolled out and cut into shapes immediately.
- Heat the oven to 350° and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Spray with cooking spray. Leave a little space between the cookies. You can cut circles or stars from the middle of the larger cookies. Crush hard candy and fill the hole.
- Bake for 7 minutes. Repeat baking until all the cookies have been baked.
- Cool the cookies completely before baking.
- Combine the sugar, vanilla, and corn syrup together. Add water as needed until the icing is thick enough to hold shape, but soft enough to be piped. Divide the icing and add food coloring to some of the icing.
- Pipe designs over the cookies.
Notes
- Make Ahead. Feel free to make the gingerbread cookie dough ahead of time. Wrap it in plastic wrap and store it in the refrigerator for up to 3 days before you plan to make these snowflake cookies.
- Don’t Overwork the Dough. Once the dough is formed, it’s ready to use. There’s no need to knead the dough. Overworking it will result in tough cookies.
- Check the Butter. To properly incorporate the butter into the cookie dough, it must be at room temperature. If it’s too cold, the dough will become lumpy.
- Decorations. You can turn these into snowflake Christmas cookies by using holiday sprinkles or red/green food coloring.
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