Soft Gingerbread Cookies Without Molasses
These gingerbread cookies without molasses are soft, chewy, and swirled with orange-scented royal icing. Your family will love them!
Ingredients
Gingerbread Cookie Ingredients
- 1 ½ sticks salted butter softened
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup light brown sugar
- 1 orange zested and juiced
- 4 cups all purpose flour plus ¼ cup more for rolling
- 1 ½ tsp. baking powder
- ½ tsp. baking soda
- 1 tbsp. ground ginger
- ½ tsp. ground nutmeg
- ½ tsp. ground allspice
- 2 tsp. ground cinnamon
- ¼ tsp. ground cloves
- ½ tsp. salt
- 2 large eggs
- ½ cup honey
Orange Scented Royal Icing Ingredients
- 4 cups confectioner's sugar sifted
- 3 tbsp. meringue powder link in blog above - Don't use raw or dried egg whites. This recipe is for meringue powder only.
- 5 tbsp. orange juice, freshly squeezed from 1-2 oranges I recommend using the fresh juice of 1-2 oranges. You may substitute water to make up the difference if your oranges don't yield a full 5 tbsp.
- additional water/confectioner's sugar if needed, to achieve desired consistency
Instructions
Make the Cookie Dough
- Using an electric mixer fitted with a paddle, beat softened butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar, and orange zest until smooth, about 7 minutes.
- In the meantime, sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, ginger, nutmeg, allspice, cinnamon, cloves, and salt in a medium mixing bowl. Whisk together to blend. (These are the dry ingredients.)
- In another mixing bowl, whisk eggs, honey, and orange juice. (These are the wet ingredients.)
- When the butter and sugar are smooth, lower the speed of the mixer and add dry ingredients a little at a time. When the dry ingredients are fully incorporated, the dough will be very dry with an almost sandy consistency. This is normal!
- After the dry ingredients are well blended, add the wet ingredients. Beat until smooth in the mixer.
- Remove the cookie dough from the bowl of the mixer and divide in half. Press each half of the cookie dough between 2 sheets of parchment paper, wax paper, or plastic wrap and chill for an hour.
Make the Orange-Scented Royal Icing
- Clean out the bowl of your stand mixer.
- Add the royal icing ingredients to the bowl of the stand mixer fitted with a whisk. Whisk ingredients at a medium speed, until icing forms peaks and loses its sheen, about 7-10 minutes.
- If you are piping designs onto your cookies, your royal icing will need to be a medium consistency, so it will hold its shape. If you are dipping your cookies into the icing, the icing will need to be thinner. You can add water/confectioner's sugar, as needed, to achieve your desired consistency.
- Cover the bowl of royal icing with a clean, damp cloth and set aside, until needed.
Bake the Cookies
- Preheat oven to 350°F.
- After the dough has chilled, lightly dust a flat surface with flour. The dough is very sticky, so you may want to roll it out between 2 sheets of parchment paper. Gently roll the first half of dough (using a floured rolling pin) to about ½ inch thick.
- Using lightly floured cookie cutters, cut out the shapes you want. Using a metal spatula, place cookies on a parchment lined cookie sheet, leaving some space for the cookies to spread a bit.
- Bake in batches at 350°F for 8-10 minutes. Repeat the rolling and baking process with the second half of cookie dough.
- Allow the cookies to cool completely and then frost them.
Frost the Cookies
- If you are dipping the cookies, you may leave the royal icing in the bowl. Or, if you are piping designs using royal icing, transfer icing into a piping bag or zipper bag using a spatula. Snip the tip of the bag with scissors and decorate!
Nutrition
Serving: 1cookieCalories: 157kcalCarbohydrates: 41gProtein: 3gFat: 4gSaturated Fat: 3gPolyunsaturated Fat: 1gMonounsaturated Fat: 1gTrans Fat: 1gCholesterol: 20mgSodium: 120mgPotassium: 63mgFiber: 1gSugar: 16gVitamin A: 147IUVitamin C: 3mgCalcium: 29mgIron: 1mg
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!