Classic Gingerbread Cookie Recipe

My family makes THE BEST CHRISTMAS COOKIES EVER! Hands down, they are the cutest, tiniest, most precious cookies you'll ever see. We make somewhere over 50,000 of them. I participated in Cookie Week again this year and it's honestly like going to math camp!

Manning two ovens at different temperatures, each cookie needing specific minutes on both the bottom and top rack, while also making 2, 8 and 14 batches of 11 different cookies and keeping the number of cups of flour based on the butter ratio - 2/3 cup x 8- all in my head??? Math is hard- let's go shopping!

But seriously, the time with the family can't be beat. We are all in it together and nobody leaves till all the cookies are baked...except for me since I live out of state and my plane departs on Thursday at 1pm.

I chose to share our family Gingerbread recipe for two reason:
1. It's delicious.
2. The recipe is great for cookies and walls (for gingerbread houses).

One night some friends and I took on the task of making a gingerbread house...in the form of Luke Skywalkers' boyhood  house on Tatooine. Luckily this recipe makes an incredibly large batch because we ate as much as we decorated with; dipped in buttercream frosting we couldn't resist!

Whether cookies or architecture - everybody loves gingerbread. Don't hesitate making these fat and happy delicious gingerbread cookies today.


Fat and Happy Food Blog Tips and Techniques: Our tradition is to not overwhelm the cookies with decorations. Add a few sprinkles of sugar flakes just to catch the light.

Classic Gingerbread Recipe for 

Cookies 
or 
Tatooine Houses

6 cups flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

4 tsp ground ginger

4 tsp cinnamon

1 1/2 tsp clove

1 tsp black pepper

1 1/2 tsp salt

1 cup butter, room temperature

1 cup brown sugar

2 large eggs

1 cup molasses

Sugar flakes for decoration (optional)

Mix together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, ginger, cinnamon, clove, black pepper and salt, set aside. 

In a stand mixer cream the butter and brown sugar. Add the eggs, one at a time. Then the molasses. Slowly add in the flour mixture, scraping the sides of the bowl as needed. This is a very large batch,  so you may need to exercise some patience to get this all mixed properly.

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap, chill for 20 minutes to 2 hours. On a floured surface, take 1/3 of the dough and roll out to desired thickness. Use a small gingerbread cutout for the men women, place on a lightly greased pan. Sprinkle with sugar flakes. Repeat until all the dough is gone.

Cook for 5 minutes on the bottom rack and 5 minutes on the top rack. Cooking time may vary depending on your oven; the cookies will be lightly browned on the bottom. They will crisp up as they cool. Remove the cookies to a cooling rack.

 If you are making a gingerbread house- cut the walls, doors, roofs to the desired size prior to baking.