Soft Glazed Sourdough Gingerbread Cookies

These soft glazed Sourdough Gingerbread Cookies are beautiful roll-out cookies for the holidays using sourdough discard, molasses, spices, and a vanilla glaze.

I use decorative cookie stamps of snowflakes, geometric patterns, and other intricate designs on these easy cookies, but you can also use standard gingerbread cookie cutters to decorate.

Sourdough discard lends a hint of tang and helps keep the cookies soft for days with molasses. A simple vanilla glaze showcases the beautiful designs, making them perfect for your Christmas cookie boxes.

Follow my detailed instructions, complete with photos and tips, below for the best soft Sourdough Gingerbread Cookies.

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👍 Why You’ll Love This Recipe

• Warmly spiced with ground ginger, cinnamon, cloves, and allspice, like your favorite gingerbread.
• Beautiful holiday or Christmas cookies for gifting.
• Soft, chewy texture but sturdy enough to hold intricate designs like snowflakes and other patterns.
• Can use the same dough with cookie cutters to make gingerbread people.
• Easy-to-make dough that you can make ahead or ferment overnight.

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🔍 Tips for Making Soft Sourdough Gingerbread Cookies

• Chill the dough for at least an hour to make rolling easier and to allow the spices and flavors to infuse. This is important for most cookie and muffin recipes.
• You can make the cookie dough the night before and rest in the refrigerator.
• Use flour to prevent sticking and roll the dough with a rolling pin between two pieces of parchment paper.
• Freeze and flour the cookie stamps for the best designs. Then, freeze the cookies on the baking sheet for at least 10 minutes before baking.
• The simple vanilla glaze should be a little runny with the consistency of syrup and not too thick.

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🛠 Tools Needed

• Baking scale
  • Flour and sourdough starter can weigh differently from person to person, so weighing your ingredients is the best option! Measuring your ingredients by weight will make your baking more consistent and accurate.
• Baking Sheets
  • Line the pans with parchment or a silicone baking mat to prevent sticking.
• Spatula
  • For scraping the sides of the mixing bowl.
• Stand mixer or hand mixer, recommended
  • For creaming the butter and mixing the cookie dough.
• Rolling Pin
  • Roll the cookies to ¼” thick between two pieces of parchment paper.
• Cookie Stamps
  • Nordic Ware makes the best cookie stamps with intricate designs for your cookies, like these snowflakes .
  • I also use the geometric stamps for my homemade Sourdough Oreos.
• Cookie Cutters
  • I use a 3″ round cookie cutter to trim and cut the cookies after they’re rolled. Alternatively, you can portion the dough into rounds and stamp the cookies from the rounds.
• Pastry Brush, for brushing on the glaze

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🛒 Ingredients Needed

• All-purpose flour
  • You can substitute with a gluten-free flour to make gluten-free corn cookies, such as cup-for-cup or measure-for-measure.
  • Add ½ cup of whole wheat flour or rye flour for a heartier, flavorful cookie.
• Spices: Ginger, Cinnamon, Allspice, and Clove
  • I like this combination of warm spices that lean heavy on the ginger and supporting cast. However, you can mix and match other warm spices in like cardamom or even a small amount of black pepper.
  • The mélange of spices is similar to the chai spices in my Sourdough Banana Bread or in the frosting of my Sourdough Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls.
• Salt, helps bring out the flavors
• Cocoa Powder
  • Only a small amount of cocoa is added to add depth of flavor, balance the spices, and provide additional color.
  • You can use natural unsweetened cocoa or Dutch process in this recipe.
  • If you love chocolate, you’ll love my Fudgy Sourdough Brownies and Sourdough Chocolate Muffins.
• Baking Soda
  • The small amount of baking soda helps the cookies rise slightly in the oven and give them a little more chew.
• Unsalted butter, room temperature
  • It’s important that the butter is softened to cream it with sugar and incorporate air into the batter. This is what makes a soft and tender cookie.
• Dark brown sugar
  • Adds structure and sweetness to the cookies, along with more molasses flavor.
• Sourdough Discard
  • If you don’t have an active sourdough starter, learn how to make one in a week following my how-to guide. See my top sourdough starter tips and other sourdough discard recipes.
• Egg yolk
  • One egg yolk add richness, chewiness, and structure, helping to bind the cookie ingredients together. Save the egg whites to make Sourdough Ladyfingers!
• Molasses
  • A key ingredients in gingerbread cookies is molasses, which gives the cookies a deep, rich flavor, add sweetness, a complex caramel flavor, and chew.
  • Use unsulphered molasses in this recipe (not blackstrap), just like in my Sourdough Anadama Bread and Sourdough Gingerbread Cake with Cranberries.
• Powdered Sugar
  • Use powdered sugar and warm water to make the vanilla glaze, which dissolves easily.
  • This glaze should be brushable like runny honey, versus the pourable but thick glaze on my Lemon Blueberry Sourdough Pound Cake or Sourdough Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins.
• Vanilla Extract
  • Use real vanilla extract or vanilla paste, not imitation.

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👨‍🍳 How to Make Soft Glazed Sourdough Gingerbread Cookies

Follow this detailed recipe guide as you make the best Sourdough Gingerbread Cookies.

1. Mix the Wet Ingredients

Beat the softened butter, dark brown sugar, and molasses in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment on medium speed for a few minutes until pale, light, and fluffy.

Scrape the sides of the bowl with a spatula if needed.

Mix in the egg yolk and sourdough discard until incorporated.

2. Mix in the Dry Ingredients

In a small separate bowl, mix the flour, cocoa owder, baking soda, spices, and salt.

Then, pour the dry ingredients into the stand mixer bowl, pulse a few times to prevent the flour from spilling, and mix just until combined.

The cookie dough will be thick, soft, and slightly sticky.

3. Chill the Dough

Cover the bowl and chill the cookie dough for at least an hour.

Chilling the dough helps the flavors meld and makes rolling out easier.

4. Roll and Stamp the Cookies

Line large baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside. Freeze your cookie stamps while you roll out the dough.

Scrape out the chilled dough onto a large, floured piece of parchment paper, dust with more flour and another large piece of parchment paper, and roll the malleable dough out with a rolling pin to ¼” thickness.

Gingerbread is sticky dough, so flour it lightly as needed to prevent sticking.

Stamp the dough with floured cookie stamps (press down hard for intricate designs) and cut out the round cookies with a 3″ cookie cutter.

Re-roll scraps and repeat as many times as needed until all of the cookies are cut out.

5. Bake

Preheat the oven to 375ºF (191ºC).

As the oven preheats, freeze the cut out cookies on the parchment lined baking sheets for at least 10 minutes. Freezing the cookies helps the cookies retain their designs as they bake.

Bake the cookies a couple of inches apart for 9-10 minutes until the edges are set and the cookies are puffed. They will continue to set as they cool.

Let the cookies cool on the pan for a few minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely before glazing.

6. Glaze the Cookies

In a small mixing bowl, mix together the powdered sugar, vanilla extract, and warm water until you have a pourable icing consistency similar to honey or syrup.

The glaze adds sweetness, makes the cookies look festive, and reveals their intricate designs or patterns better.

Brush the tops of the cookies with the glaze, then let them rest until the glaze is set before serving.

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How to Store

Before storing these soft sourdough gingerbread cookies, ensure the glaze is completely dry and set.

Then, place them in an airtight container at room temperature, layer with parchment paper to prevent the glaze from sticking, for up to a week. The cookies will stay soft during this time, but the glaze may discolor some.

Moisture and humidity may affect the glaze’s color over time, and it looks best within the first 24 hours.

You can store unbaked cookie dough in the freezer for up to 3 months and thaw completely before rolling out and baking.

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❓ Frequently Asked Questions