Favorite Gingerbread Recipe for Soft Gingerbread Cookies (2024)

FAQs

What makes gingerbread hard or soft? ›

Some gingerbread recipes require some time to soften after baking because they are initially firm. Gingerbread is made harder by molasses and honey, but it becomes softer when water is absorbed by the sugar.

Baking at too high of a heat.

To ensure even cooking, with crisp edges and soft centers, bake at a lower heat. Follow this tip: Bake gingerbread cookies at a reasonable 325°F in order to prevent them from burning before they are cooked through.

Gingerbread cookies should be soft. They should be supple. They should bend to your teeth before the cookie skin breaks and the crumbs fall all over you. They should retain a bit of elasticity, and maybe you can even leave your fingerprints on the cookie if you hold them too hard because you're just that excited.

Decorate the gingerbread people with the icing. Allow icing to set completely before storing biscuits in an airtight container. The gingerbread will soften over time.

Baking cookies quickly in a hot oven – at 375 degrees F as opposed to a lower temperature – will make for soft results. They'll bake fast instead of sitting and drying out in the oven's hot air. Ever so slightly underbaking your cookies will give you softer results than cooking them the full amount the recipe says.

Keep Them Sealed

The key to keeping cookies fresh and soft is to seal them in an airtight container, like a resealable freezer bag. And here's a nifty little trick: add a piece of bread to the bag.

Different types of sugars affect the texture because they absorb different amounts of water. Remember moisture is the key! White sugar creates crispier cookies and brown sugar creates chewier cookies.

Extra sugar made this cookie way too hard.

As was expected because of the extra brown sugar, this cookie looked dark in color and took on the texture of molasses. I thought I was going to chip my tooth when I bit into this finished, extra-sugary cookie. It was hard and dense throughout.

My suggestion is to put it back into the oven for up to 10 minutes. The temp of the oven should be around 325 degrees.

According to Rhonda Massingham Hart's Making Gingerbread Houses, the first known recipe for gingerbread came from Greece in 2400 BC. Chinese recipes were developed during the 10th century and by the late Middle Ages, Europeans had their own version of gingerbread.

What is an interesting fact about gingerbread? ›

Originally gingerbread was made with honey and breadcrumbs

One of the earliest English recipes for gingerbread, written down in the fifteenth century, didn't actually contain any ginger! Instead bread crumbs or 'gratyd brede' were mixed with boiled honey and formed into a stiff paste with saffron and pepper.

'spice bread') or the German and Polish terms Pfefferkuchen and Piernik respectively ( lit. 'pepper cake' because it used to contain pepper) or Lebkuchen (of unclear etymology; either Latin libum, meaning "sacrifice" or "sacrificial bread," or German Laib for loaf or German for life, leben).

Keep in mind that the longer the cookies bake, the harder and crunchier they'll be. For soft gingerbread cookies, follow my suggested bake times. Allow cookies to cool for 5 minutes on the cookie sheet. Transfer to cooling rack to cool completely.

Comments for How to harden gingerbread when it becomes too soft? Putting it back in the oven does not work you have to find a recipe that is harder as putting it back in the oven only over bakes it. My suggestion is to put it back into the oven for up to 10 minutes. The temp of the oven should be around 325 degrees.

Dough should be soft (not dry or crumbly) but not sticky. If sticky, add a few tablespoons of flour until desired consistency is achieved. Remove 1/2 of dough from bowl, make a ball, and place on a large piece of plastic wrap on counter.

You want to allow it to turn brown, but make sure not to burn it (otherwise it won't taste so great). Then take your gingerbread house pieces, dip the edges in melted sugar and hold them together for a few seconds. That's it! The sugar hardens quickly and creates an solid base for tons and tons of decorating.