Kirbie's Cravings

Gingerbread Family

Make a gingerbread family for Christmas to share with family and friends. These cookies are crisp and crunchy gingerbread, cut into gingerbread men, women, and babies. Decorate them with icing or frosting for a sweet holiday treat.

photo of decorated gingerbread cookies on a plate

One thing I never had growing up was gingerbread men. In fact, I didn’t really have any kind of ginger cookies until I started baking on my own. When I tell this to people, they can’t believe it so I made it a point to try out some classic gingerbread man cookie recipes.

After trying a few recipes I didn’t like, I found a recipe in Family Circle Magazine that was fairly simple to make and I found some adorable gingerbread family cookie cutters*  – why only make men if you can make a whole family? I think they are so cute.

You can use any cookie cutter shape that you like, but for Christmas, it’s really fun to make a cookie family and decorate them with icing. They’re almost too cute to eat.

The cookies have the best gingerbread texture and – crunchy, spicy, with a little more kick than molasses cookies or gingersnaps.

Ingredients

  • All-purpose flour
  • Baking soda
  • Ground ginger
  • Ground cinnamon
  • Ground cloves
  • Salt
  • Softened unsalted butter
  • Dark brown sugar
  • Egg
  • Molasses

How to Make the Cookies

Whisk the flour, baking soda, spices, and salt together in a bowl. In a separate bowl, beat the butter and sugar together until smooth. Beat in the egg and molasses and then stir the dry ingredients in.

Divide the dough in half, wrap each in plastic wrap, and chill them for two hours. Chilling the dough is an important step. The butter needs to firm up so the cookies don’t spread too much when they bake. Chilling it also allows the flavors to develop in the dough.

Once chilled, roll one half of the dough to a thickness of 1/8”. Use the cookie cutters to cut out the shapes and place them on ungreased baking sheets. Reroll the scrapes and keep cutting until you’ve used up the dough. Repeat this process with the other half of the chilled dough.

Bake the cookies for 13 minutes at 350°F and then transfer them to baking racks to cool completely.

Decorations

I was so excited to decorate my gingerbread family the first time, I had Boyfriend sketch some options for me before I actually decorated them. I wanted them to have little faces and outfits and I think they turned out so cute.

You can ice them as simple or as detailed as you like. You can pipe frosting on to create lines and faces as I did, or you can just frost them and top them with sprinkles to keep them simple.

The only problem I had with my gingerbread family was eating them! I thought they were so cute I had a hard time taking a bite, but they’re so good I couldn’t help myself. My family loved them, too.

I think these are perfect for Christmas. Making a platter of little gingerbread men, women, and babies would be a cute cookie platter to share with family and friends.

three gingerbread cookies

More Festive Christmas Cookies

Be sure to check out my favorite Christmas Cookies recipes for ideas or try some of these cute cookies:

*Some of the links contained in this post are affiliate links. Much like referral codes, this means I earn a small commission if you purchase a product I referred (at no extra charge to you).

Gingerbread Family Cookies

Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 13 minutes
Total Time: 33 minutes
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American
These cookies are crunchy with a wonderful spiced flavor. You can cut them into any shape you like, but I love making them into gingerbread families.

Ingredients

  • 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
  • 3/4 tsp. baking soda
  • 1 Tbsp. ground ginger
  • 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp. ground cloves
  • 1/4 tsp. salt
  • 1/2 cup 1 stick unsalted butter, softened
  • 1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar
  • 1 large egg
  • 1/2 cup original molasses

Instructions

  • In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, cloves and salt. Set aside. In a large bowl, beat butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in egg, then molasses. Stir flour mixture into butter mixture.
  • Divide dough into 2 halves. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and chill it for 2 hours.
  • Heat oven to 350°F. 
  • On a well-floured surface, roll half of dough to 1/8-inch thickness. Cut shapes with assorted-sized gingerbread cookie cutters; transfer to ungreased baking sheets. Reroll scraps together and then cut shapes again. Repeat with the rest of the dough.
  • Bake the cookies for 13 minutes. Transfer cookies to racks to cool.

Notes

Recipe source: Family Circle Magazine

The nutrition information provided are only estimates based on an online nutritional calculator. I am not a certified nutritionist. Please consult a professional nutritionist or doctor for accurate information and any dietary restrictions and concerns you may have.

Did you make this recipe?I'd love to see it! Mention @KirbieCravings and tag #kirbiecravings!

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8 comments on “Gingerbread Family”

  1. Pingback: Gingerbread Family

  2. Where do you get the cookie cutters? They are perfect.
    I’m looking at having 1600 of them made and that would be perfect.
    Thanks

  3. where did you get the cookie cutter? That makes for the cutest plumpest cookies ever.

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  6. Thanks for sharing the recipe! It was the perfect recipe to use for my first time making these.

  7. Glad you enjoyed- they are too cute to eat 🙂