The most delightful soft ginger cookies—crackled on the outside, tender and chewy inside. These classic holiday cookies are full of warm spices and just the right balance of sweetness and molasses flavor, making them a favorite for cookie exchanges and cozy afternoons with coffee.
Best Soft Ginger Cookies!
It’s officially the season for holiday baking. This chewy ginger cookie recipe produces consistently soft, thick cookies with a beautiful crinkled sugar top. While we made a few smarter ingredient swaps, we kept the traditional flavor and texture intact—rich molasses, bold spices, and a tender, chewy center.
When we say “traditional ginger cookies,” we mean two things:
Chewy and soft in the center
Crinkly, sugary exterior
With a few small adjustments—like combining two types of flour and using a bit of coconut oil with butter—you get a cookie that’s still classic but a touch more interesting in texture and flavor.
What do you call Ginger Cookies?
The name varies by region and preference. You might see them listed as:
- Ginger Cookies
- Ginger Molasses Cookies
- Gingersnap Cookies
- Ginger Snaps
Ingredients You Need
These ingredients yield cookies that are tender, chewy, and full of spice. The amounts below match the tested recipe and produce about 22 medium cookies.
- White whole wheat flour: 1 cup (scooped and leveled)
- All-purpose flour: 1 cup (scooped and leveled)
- Salt: 1/2 teaspoon
- Baking soda: 2 teaspoons
- Ground cloves: 1/2 teaspoon
- Ground cinnamon: 2 teaspoons
- Ground ginger: 1 teaspoon
- Coconut oil: 1/4 cup, softened (not melted)
- Butter: 1/2 cup (cold and cut into 1/2 tablespoon pats)
- Light brown sugar: 1 cup (scooped and leveled)
- Large egg: 1
- Molasses: 1/4 cup
- Optional: 1/3 cup turbinado sugar for rolling
Can I use all butter for this recipe?
Yes. If you prefer not to use coconut oil, replace it with butter. Use about 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons of butter in total. The cookies will still be delicious.
Can I use all coconut oil for this recipe?
We don’t recommend using only coconut oil. Omitting the butter can change the flavor and cause the cookies to spread more while baking.
Do I have to refrigerate the dough?
Chilling the dough for at least 30 minutes is recommended. Refrigeration helps the cookies spread less and bake up thicker and chewier, but you can bake right away in a pinch.
Tips and Tricks for Perfectly Chewy and Soft Ginger Cookies
These are the most reliable tips from multiple test batches to get consistent results:
- Stand mixer recommended: Using a stand mixer makes creaming the cold butter and coconut oil with the sugar quick and effortless. A hand mixer will work, but avoid mixing by hand with a spoon.
- Cold butter: Use butter straight from the refrigerator to help the dough stay firm and reduce spreading.
- Measure flour by scooping: This recipe was tested with flour scooped into the measuring cup and leveled.
- Cookie scoop: Use a 1.5 tablespoon cookie scoop for evenly sized cookies. Bake time will vary with larger or smaller scoops.
- Chill the dough: Refrigerate the dough for at least 30 minutes to keep cookies thick and chewy.
Why do my ginger cookies go flat?
If the dough becomes too warm before baking, the cookies will spread. Chill the dough and work quickly when scooping and rolling to avoid flat cookies.
What Didn’t Work
During testing we discovered a few things that caused problems:
- Too much fat: Adding more butter or oil than called for makes the dough too thin and causes excessive spreading.
- Substituting flours: Replacing the flour combination with a single different flour, especially grain-free flours, produced inconsistent results. If you try only all-purpose flour, you may need to add extra (about 1/2 cup) and bake a few minutes longer.
- Doubling the recipe carelessly: Doubling or tripling can affect chemistry—if you scale, mix carefully and watch texture and baking time.
Variations
You can use this same dough as a base for other treats:
- Ginger molasses whoopie pies — bake the cookies as sandwich rounds and fill with a sweet cream filling.
- Soft gingerbread cookies — chill and roll the dough for cookie cutters to make gingerbread cutouts like trees, stars, or people.
Storage
Allow cookies to cool completely. Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days to preserve their chewiness. Place a slice of bread in the container to help retain moisture if desired.
Can I freeze chewy ginger cookies?
Yes. You can freeze either the dough or the baked cookies for up to 3 months:
- Dough: Wrap the dough tightly in plastic wrap, then place in a freezer-safe bag and remove excess air before freezing.
- Baked cookies: Cool completely, then stack with parchment between layers and freeze in a sealed bag or container.
Recipe: Best Chewy Ginger Cookies
Yield: about 22 cookies. Prep: 20 mins (+30 mins chill). Bake: 10–12 mins at 350°F.
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C) and prepare a baking sheet with nonstick spray or parchment paper.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the white whole wheat flour, all-purpose flour, salt, baking soda, ground cloves, ground cinnamon, and ground ginger. Set aside.
- Using a stand mixer or hand mixer, cream the softened coconut oil, cold butter, and light brown sugar together at medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3–4 minutes.
- Add the egg and molasses to the creamed mixture and mix on medium until fully combined.
- Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, about 1/2 cup at a time, mixing until incorporated. The dough should be slightly thicker than typical cookie dough but still easy to form into balls.
- Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
- Use a 1.5 tablespoon cookie scoop to portion dough. Roll each scoop into a ball, then roll in turbinado sugar if using. Place 2 inches apart on the prepared baking sheet (about 12 per sheet).
- Bake at 350°F for 10–12 minutes, until the edges are set and the tops have a crinkled appearance.
- Remove from the oven, let the cookies rest on the baking sheet for 2–3 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack to finish cooling.
Tips & Notes
- Coconut oil: If your coconut oil is solid, heat for 10–15 seconds to soften but do not melt completely.
- Alternate butter amount: To use only butter, substitute a total of 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons of butter.
- Mixing: A hand mixer works, but avoid mixing by spoon since the butter is cold and requires proper creaming.
- Turbinado sugar: Rolling cookies in turbinado sugar is optional but gives a pretty crackled, sparkly finish.
- Flour variations: If using only all-purpose flour, you may need to add 1/2–3/4 cup more flour and extend the bake time slightly, since different flours absorb moisture differently.
- Nutrition: Approximate nutrition per cookie (for 22 cookies): 170 kcal, 25 g carbs, 2 g protein, 7 g fat, 1 g fiber, 18 g sugar.
Photography by: The Wooden Skillet