These high altitude tested, soft chocolate gingerbread cookies are perfectly spiced for the holidays. They’re a wonderful cutout sugar cookie for decorating with royal icing or buttercream, and make a beautiful addition to a Christmas cookie box.
You might also love these chocolate hazelnut linzer cookies, almond sugar cookies, and snowflake cookies with buttercream.

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Why You’ll Love This Recipe
Bake in Advance, Freeze for Later. If you want to make holiday cookies in advance, these freeze beautifully until you’re ready to put together your Christmas cookie boxes.
Easy to Make. The chocolate gingerbread cookie dough comes together quickly in a food processor, and you don’t even have to remember to soften your butter ahead of time, since you’ll use cold butter.
No Spread Recipe. These chocolate gingerbread cutout cookies are based on my perfect chocolate sugar cookies, which don’t spread in the oven, so the shape of your cookie cutters and the beautifully stamped design on top is perfectly preserved.
Not Too Sweet. I like a chocolate cookie that’s dark, rich and buttery, and not too sweet on its own. This makes it the perfect base for a sweet icing or buttercream.
High Altitude Tested. I develop all the recipes on my site for Denver’s altitude of 5,280 feet. If you’re at a lower or higher elevation, please see my FAQs for guidance on adjusting recipes for your altitude. These gingerbread Christmas cookies will work at any altitude without adjustments, though.
See the recipe card at the end of the post for the full ingredients list and instructions.
Ingredients
- Flour. Use all purpose flour to give the cookies structure and strength.
- Cocoa Powder. Use a good quality, Dutch processed cocoa powder for the best flavor.
- Powdered Sugar. You’ll be using powdered sugar to sweeten both the cookie dough and the vanilla icing.
- Spices. Salt balances the sweetness, and a combination of ginger, cinnamon, allspice, cloves, nutmeg, cardamom and vanilla adds warmth and coziness.
- Molasses. Besides the spices, molasses is a traditional ingredient used in gingerbread.
- Butter. The butter makes the cookies flavorful and tender.
- Milk. Helps to moisten and bind together the dough, as well as thins out the icing.
- Meringue Powder. A necessary ingredient in royal icing, to help the icing dry and set.
Instructions
Make the Dough
- In your food processor, pulse the flour, cocoa powder, powdered sugar, salt and spices until combined.
- With the processor running, drop in the pieces of butter, one at at time, pulsing a few times until the butter is evenly distributed, and the dough is moistened and crumbly.
- Add the milk, molasses and vanilla, then process until the dough starts to stick together.
- Dump the dough out onto a clean counter and use your hands to finish bringing the dough together, kneading in any stray dry ingredients. The dough should be soft, smooth and supple.
- Shape the dough into a flat disk, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 20 minutes.
Roll and Cut the Dough
- Prepare two baking sheets by lining them with sheets of parchment paper.
- On a clean work surface lightly dusted with flour (or cocoa powder), place the disk of dough, and dust the top of the dough with flour, too. Roll out to an even thickness just under 1/4 inch thick.
- Use any size/shape cookie cutters to cut as many cookies as you can, placing the cut cookies 2 inches apart on the parchment lined baking sheets. Gather up the scraps of dough, roll them out again, and continue cutting as many cookies as you can. Using a 2 1/2 – 3 inch cookie cutter, you should get around 28 cookies. Use a pastry brush to lightly brush away any excess flour from the tops of the cookies.
- Place the baking sheets with the cut cookies in the refrigerator and chill for 20 minutes while you preheat the oven. Chilling the cut cookies will help them to retain their shape as they bake.
Bake the Cookies
- Preheat the oven to 350 F, and position a rack in the center of the oven.
- Bake the chilled cookies on the center oven rack for about 12 minutes. With chocolate cookies, it’s impossible for their color to be an indicator of doneness. But you shouldn’t see any appearance of raw or wet dough, and you should see tiny flaky layers around the edges.
- Cool the cookies for 5 minutes on the pan, then very gently transfer them to a cooling rack to cool completely. Sugar cookies are delicate when warm, so handle with care.
Icing and Decorating
- In a bowl, whisk together the powdered sugar and meringue powder.
- Add the vanilla and water or milk, and whisk until smooth.
- To ice the cookies, hold a cookie by its edges and dip the top of the cookie in the icing. Lightly shake off the excess icing, then set it right side up to dry.
- For embossed or stamped cookies (like the stars and trees in today’s post), just very lightly dip them so the icing only catches on the raised portion of the design, but doesn’t get into the cracks and grooves. This way, the design will be beautifully highlighted by the icing.
- Let the icing set and dry for about an hour.
Tips for Using Intricate Cookie Cutters
The cookie cutters I used for today’s chocolate gingerbread cookies are a combination of embossed cookie cutters as well as cookie stamps. Cookie cutters with such an intricate design that’s imprinted onto the dough yields gorgeous results, but can be a bit tricky to use. I suggest following these tips to avoid frustration.
Chill the dough first.
- Just like with the intricate snowflake cutters I used for these snowflake cookies, colder dough will release from the cookie cutter much easier than soft, warm dough.
- I recommend chilling the dough no less than 20 minutes before rolling it out, but you may want to chill the dough for as much as 30-45 minutes if using these types of cookie cutters.
The first cookie will not be pretty.
- Even if you dip the cookie cutter in flour, flour doesn’t stick well to a dry cookie cutter.
- So accept that the first cookie you cut will likely stick to the cutter. Just pick the dough out with the tip of a knife, and add it to your scrap pile of dough to re-roll later.
- Now that all the grooves in the cutter are coated with a little butter from the dough, the flour will stick much better to it.
- Be sure to thoroughly dip the cookie cutter in flour (and gently tap off the excess) in between cutting every single cookie.
Flour the dough.
- Roll your dough out to just under 1/4 inch thick.
- Now sprinkle a bit of extra flour on top of the dough, and use your hand to smooth it out so the dough has an even, fine dusting of flour. This will also help it release from the cookie cutter.
Shake the cookie out of the cutter.
- Rather than forcefully pulling the cookie dough out (which will tear the dough) or pushing it out from above (which will leave unsightly dents and holes in the cookies), hold the cookie cutter by the edges in one hand and give it a quick, firm shake into your other hand.
- A few shakes and the cut cookie will fall right out of the cutter into your hand.
- If the dough refuses to come out, just pick the dough out, flour the cutter and try again.
Tips for Using Cookie Stamps
You can read about several different types of cookie stamps I use in my recipe post for stamped chocolate cookies, and get all the details there on how to use them. For today’s chocolate gingerbread cookies, I used my collection of “starry nights” stamps by Nordic Ware. Nordic Ware has many other beautiful cast cookie stamps as well.
Be sure to read all of my BAKING FAQs where I discuss ingredients, substitutions and common baking questions, so that you can be successful in your own baking!
Frequently Asked Questions
I used the Nordic Ware Starry Nights Cookie Stamps, as well as several embossed cookie cutters by Bakerlogy, including “pine tree forest”, “mountain with pine tree forest”, and “stag forest”.
If you don’t have a food processor, you’ll need a large bowl and a pastry cutter. In the bowl, combine the dry ingredients. Scatter with the cold butter pieces and use the pastry cutter to cut the butter in until very finely cut and evenly distributed. Drizzle with the liquid ingredients, then use your hands to work the liquid into the dry ingredients until it forms into a soft dough.
To make the dough in advance, wrap the disks of dough in plastic wrap, label them, and refrigerate for up to 5 days, or freeze for 3-6 months. Frozen dough should be thawed overnight in the refrigerator. Then take the dough out of the fridge about 1 hour before you’re ready to roll out the dough. It should still be cool to the touch when you roll it out, but pliable enough to roll without too much difficulty.
The baked cookies should be cooled completely then stored in an airtight container for up to 5 days. If you won’t be frosting and decorating them immediately, freeze the cookies in an airtight container for 3-6 months.
Iced cookies should be dried completely for at least several hours, before storing in a single layer in an airtight container.
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Iced Chocolate Gingerbread Cookies
All recipes on Curly Girl Kitchen are developed for high altitude at 5,280 feet. See FAQs for adjusting to higher or lower elevations.
Equipment
- Food Processor or Pastry Cutter
- Rolling Pin and Cookie Cutters
Ingredients
Cookies
- 2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour, fluffed, spooned and leveled
- ¾ cup unsweetened, Dutch-processed cocoa powder
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- ½ tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
- 2 tsp ground ginger
- 1 ½ tsp ground cinnamon
- ½ tsp ground allspice
- ¼ tsp ground cloves
- ¼ tsp ground nutmeg
- ¼ tsp ground cardamom
- 1 cup cold unsalted butter, cut into 16 pieces
- 3 tbsp whole milk
- 1 tbsp light or dark molasses
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
Icing
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 1 ½ tbsp meringue powder
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 3 ½ – 4 tbsp water or milk
Instructions
Make the Dough
- In your food processor, pulse the flour, cocoa powder, powdered sugar, salt and spices until combined.
- With the processor running, drop in the pieces of butter, one at at time, pulsing a few times until the butter is evenly distributed, and the dough is moistened and crumbly.
- Add the milk, molasses and vanilla, then process until the dough starts to stick together.
- Dump the dough out onto a clean counter and use your hands to finish bringing the dough together, kneading in any stray dry ingredients. The dough should be soft, smooth and supple.
- Shape the dough into a flat disk, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 20 minutes.
Roll and Cut the Dough
- Prepare two baking sheets by lining them with sheets of parchment paper.
- On a clean work surface lightly dusted with flour (or cocoa powder), place the disk of dough, and dust the top of the dough with flour, too. Roll out to an even thickness just under 1/4 inch thick.
- Use any size/shape cookie cutters to cut as many cookies as you can, placing the cut cookies 2 inches apart on the parchment lined baking sheets. Gather up the scraps of dough, roll them out again, and continue cutting as many cookies as you can. Using a 2 1/2 – 3 inch cookie cutter, you should get around 28 cookies. Use a pastry brush to lightly brush away any excess flour from the tops of the cookies.Baker's Note: See the tips in the post above for using intricate embossed cookie cutters or cookie stamps.
- Place the baking sheets with the cut cookies in the refrigerator and chill for 20 minutes while you preheat the oven. Chilling the cut cookies will help them to retain their shape as they bake.
Bake the Cookies
- Preheat the oven to 350 F, and position a rack in the center of the oven.
- Bake the chilled cookies on the center oven rack for about 12 minutes. With chocolate cookies, it's impossible for their color to be an indicator of doneness. But you shouldn't see any appearance of raw or wet dough, and you should see tiny flaky layers around the edges.
- Cool the cookies for 5 minutes on the pan, then very gently transfer them to a cooling rack to cool completely. Sugar cookies are delicate when warm, so handle with care.
Icing and Decorating
- In a bowl, whisk together the powdered sugar and meringue powder.
- Add the vanilla and water or milk, and whisk until smooth.
- To ice the cookies, hold a cookie by its edges and dip the top of the cookie in the icing. Lightly shake off the excess icing, then set it right side up to dry.
- For embossed or stamped cookies (like the stars and trees in today's post), just very lightly dip them so the icing only catches on the raised portion of the design, but doesn't get into the cracks and grooves. This way, the design will be beautifully highlighted by the icing.
- Let the icing set and dry for about an hour.
Notes
- Making the Dough without a Food Processor: If you don’t have a food processor, you’ll need a large bowl and a pastry cutter. In the bowl, combine the dry ingredients. Scatter with the cold butter pieces and use the pastry cutter to cut the butter in until very finely cut and evenly distributed. Drizzle with the liquid ingredients, then use your hands to work the liquid into the dry ingredients until it forms into a soft dough.
- Storing the Baked Cookies: The baked cookies should be cooled completely then stored in an airtight container for up to 5 days. If you won’t be frosting and decorating them immediately, freeze the cookies in an airtight container for 3-6 months.
- Freezing the Dough: To make the dough in advance, wrap the disks of dough in plastic wrap, label them, and refrigerate for up to 5 days, or freeze for 3-6 months. Frozen dough should be thawed overnight in the refrigerator. Then take the dough out of the fridge about 1 hour before you’re ready to roll out the dough. It should still be cool to the touch when you roll it out, but pliable enough to roll without too much difficulty.
- Sweeter Cookies. Note that if you want the cookies to taste sweeter on their own, you can increase the flour from 2 1/4 cups to 2 1/2 cups, and decrease the cocoa powder from 3/4 cup to 1/2 cup.
- Storing the Iced Cookies: Iced cookies should be dried completely for at least several hours, before storing in a single layer in an airtight container.
Flavorful chocolate cookie.