Nothing screams holiday time more than a plate of beautifully decorated gingerbread cookies. The soft and chewy treats with crisp, browned edges and gooey centers melt in your mouth, emanating their divine taste.
Traditional gingerbread cookies use molasses. However, if you’ve run out of them, it is still possible to recreate the magic! We are going to lay out the recipe for the best, no-chill, soft gingerbread cookies without molasses.
You can prepare a batch of these delicious treats in under 25 minutes! How cool is that? Use the remaining time to decorate them.
Let’s get started.
Read Also: Tasty Almond Cookies Recipe
Ingredients Required
- Plain flour
- Dark brown sugar. This sugar already has molasses added to it.
- Dark honey if you want a dark-colored dough or light honey if you want a lighter color of dough.
- Unsalted butter
- A large egg
- Dried and powdered ginger
- Cinnamon
- Cloves
- Dried and powdered nutmeg
- Baking powder
- Baking soda
- A quarter teaspoon of salt
Recipe Instructions
- Combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder, spices, and salt together in a bowl.
- In another bowl, combine egg, dark brown sugar, and butter. When they are thoroughly mixed, add honey.
- Now, blend all the ingredients at medium speed.
- Into this mix, add the mixture of dry ingredients that you prepared earlier.
- Take out all the dough and wrap it up in plastic wrap. Refrigerate it overnight.
- When you take the dough out the next morning, keep it at room temperature for some time.
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Line the baking sheets with the parchment paper.
- Roll the dough to approximately ¼ inch thick between two sheets of paper.
- Now, use your cutter to cut out the shape of gingerbread men.
- Once your army of men is cut, transfer them to the baking sheet.
- Bake for about 10 minutes.
- Take out gingerbread cookies from the oven. Now, let them cool at room temperature.
- When they are firm, transfer them to a wire rack.
Expert Tips to Make Gingerbread Cookies Extra Soft
You can follow the recipe instructions above to prepare a batch of delicious gingerbread cookies. But we want to ensure that your cookies are incredibly soft and chewy. So here are some expert tips and tricks to help you achieve this.
- Always use ingredients at room temperature to make the cookie dough. This will ensure that your cookies have a soft, chewy texture.
- Take out the cookies from the oven early. They should be slightly puffed out. Such cookies, when cooled at room temperature, will turn out extremely soft.
- Another tip for making soft cookies is to roll the dough ½ inches thick. Now, bake for 10 minutes. Do not make more than that. It will make the cookies crispy.
- If your gingerbread men seem unusually gooey after you cut them out, refrigerate them for another 10 minutes.
Best Substitutes for Molasses
Molasses moisten your cookies and give them a great flavor. But you don’t have to depend upon them to make killer gingerbread cookies. In the above recipe, we used dark brown sugar as a replacement. However, there are various other ingredients that can be used as substitutes for molasses. Here are 9 of them.
Maple syrup
Maple syrup’s taste falls in between that of malt and caramel. It’s a perfect substitute for molasses.
Dark corn syrup
It’s a liquid sweetener with a rich brown color. Use it in a 1:1 swap for molasses.
Golden syrup
Golden syrup is made by evaporating sugarcane until it becomes a thick liquid. It has a toasty flavor, which you’ll definitely love.
Honey
There are various varieties of honey. All of them are similar to molasses in terms of consistency and texture, making them great substitutes.
Homemade syrup
Finally, if you’ve got nothing at hand, make your own syrup by boiling sugar in water. Boil till sugar achieves a syrup-like consistency. If you don’t mind the absence of maltiness, this syrup can replace molasses to a great extent.
How to Create the Best Spice Mix for Gingerbread Cookies?
The spice mix used in gingerbread cookies gives them that cosy taste that reminds one of Christmas. Spices add a great depth of flavor to these cookies. So, next time you plan to bake them, create this spice mix. You’ll be surprised at how much more delicious your gingerbread cookies without molasses taste!
Ingredients Needed
- Ground cinnamon (2 tbsp)
- Ground allspice (2 tbsp)
- Ground cloves (1 tbsp)
- Ground ginger (2 tbsp )
- Ground nutmeg (1 tbsp)
- Ground black pepper (a pinch)
Recipe
Once the spices are assembled, there’s not much you need to do. Just mix cinnamon, allspice, ginger, nutmeg, ground cloves, and black pepper in a small bowl until well combined. Now, use them in your gingerbread cookies or store them in an airtight container for later use. This spice mix can easily last for up to 6 months.
How To Make Your Gingerbread Cookies Look Cute?
Now that you have made this holiday classic treat let’s decorate the cookies. This will enhance their appeal further. Here are some decorating ideas.
Royal Icing
Royal icing, with its smooth consistency, allows you to decorate gingerbread cookies intricately. You can outline the cookies or make those beautiful snowflake designs using it.
Candy Melts
Candy melts in vibrant colors and acts as paint for your cookies. Take a blank cookie, and candy melts in colors like green and red. You’ll be amazed at how pretty your gingerbread men and women look!
Gumdrops and Candies
With gumdrops, you can adorn your gingerbread men with buttons. Candies like jelly beans and licorice can be used to garnish the cookies. Regardless of what you’ll use, expect to have a wonderful time decorating with this stuff.
Sprinkles
Want to elevate your cookies with some sparkle and fun design? Use festive sprinkles like shining reds and small yellow stars. Not only will they help you decorate the cookies quickly, but they will also make them look stunning.
Wrapping Up
Gingerbread cookies without molasses is a quick and delicious recipe that uses common ingredients. Once baked, they can be decorated in endless ways. Use the recipe instructions in this post to create a batch of these wonderful sweet treats for your next holiday gathering. You are sure to impress everyone!
