Soft & Chewy Gingerbread Sandwich Cookies with Cream Cheese Frosting: The Ultimate Holiday Treat
Embrace the cozy magic of the holiday season with these irresistibly soft and chewy Gingerbread Sandwich Cookies. Crafted with classic warming spices like cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and a rich hint of molasses, these festive treats are elevated with a decadent vanilla cream cheese buttercream filling. A truly fantastic addition to any holiday cookie platter, they promise to bring joy to every bite and become a cherished part of your family’s festive traditions.
Imagine a delicious crinkle cookie, perfectly spiced and wonderfully chewy, giving way to a sweet, tangy, and incredibly smooth cream cheese frosting. That’s precisely what awaits you with these ginger sandwich cookies. Each bite offers a harmonious blend of festive flavors and delightful textures, making them a standout dessert that will have everyone, even Santa himself, making a special stop at your house! Enjoy these delightful cookies all season long to keep the holiday spirit alive and delicious.
Discover the Charm of Gingerbread Molasses Sandwich Cookies
Gingerbread is more than just a cookie; it’s a centuries-old tradition associated with warmth, celebration, and festive cheer. The term “gingerbread” refers to a delightful family of recipes characterized by the prominent use of molasses and a signature blend of spices, with ginger, of course, taking center stage. This combination is what gives these iconic cookies their distinctive, comforting flavor. For this recipe, we’re taking the classic gingerbread experience to the next level by transforming two soft, crinkly gingerbread cookies into a perfect sandwich, generously filled with a luscious vanilla cream cheese frosting. The result is a truly special treat that combines the best of both worlds: a wonderfully chewy cookie and a rich, creamy filling.
Key Ingredients for the Perfect Gingerbread Sandwich Cookie Recipe
Creating these delightful holiday cookies requires a careful selection of ingredients for both the gingerbread crinkle cookies and the creamy vanilla cream cheese frosting. Each component plays a crucial role in achieving the desired flavor and texture, ensuring a truly unforgettable treat. Below, we break down the essentials you’ll need.
For the Chewy Gingerbread Crinkle Cookies, you will need:
- All-Purpose Flour: You’ll need 2 ½ cups of all-purpose flour. This forms the essential structural base of our cookie dough, providing the necessary body and texture.
- Ground Cinnamon: A generous 2 teaspoons of ground cinnamon infuses these cookies with a warm, inviting spice that is quintessential to gingerbread flavor. It adds depth and aromatic richness.
- Leavening Agents: To ensure your cookies puff up beautifully and achieve that soft, tender interior, you will need 1 teaspoon of baking powder and ½ teaspoon of baking soda. These work together to create the perfect rise.
- Salt: Don’t underestimate the power of ½ teaspoon of salt. It’s a flavor enhancer, balancing the sweetness and intensifying the wonderful spice notes in the cookies.
- Additional Spices: To create a complex and truly authentic gingerbread flavor, we’re adding ½ teaspoon of fresh nutmeg, and ¼ teaspoon each of ground cloves and ground cardamom. These spices contribute to the deep, rich, and aromatic profile that makes gingerbread so beloved.
- Unsalted Butter: Use 1 cup (which is 2 sticks) of room temperature unsalted butter. Softened butter is crucial for creaming with sugars, creating a light and airy base for the dough and contributing to the cookies’ tender texture.
- Sugars: A combination of ⅔ cups of granulated sugar and ½ cup of brown sugar is used. Granulated sugar provides sweetness and aids in the crinkle effect, while brown sugar adds moisture, depth of flavor, and contributes significantly to the chewy texture.
- Large Egg: One large egg acts as a binder, holding the cookie dough together and providing structure as it bakes.
- Molasses: The star of the show for that iconic gingerbread taste! Adding 2 ½ tablespoons of molasses delivers a rich, distinct flavor, dark color, and contributes to the cookies’ signature chewiness.
- Vanilla Extract: 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract enhances all the other flavors, adding a subtle sweetness and aromatic quality to the cookies.
- Powdered Sugar for Coating: You will need extra powdered sugar for rolling the cookie dough balls. This coating is essential for achieving the beautiful, contrasting “crinkle” appearance as the cookies bake and expand.
For the Smooth Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting, you will need:
- Softened Cream Cheese: You will need 8 ounces (one brick) of softened cream cheese. This is the foundation of our creamy, tangy, and rich frosting, providing its signature flavor and texture. Ensure it’s truly softened to avoid lumps.
- Powdered Sugar: Adding 1 cup of powdered sugar (confectioners’ sugar) to the frosting helps to sweeten it while ensuring a wonderfully smooth and silky consistency.
- Unsalted Butter: Add 6 tablespoons of room temperature unsalted butter to the frosting. This makes the frosting richer, more stable, and contributes to its luxurious creaminess.
- Vanilla Extract: Use ½ teaspoon of vanilla extract to enhance the flavors in the frosting, adding a sweet and aromatic note that perfectly complements the cream cheese and gingerbread.
- Salt: A small addition of ½ teaspoon of salt in the frosting is key. It helps to balance the sweetness, preventing the frosting from being overly sugary, and brings out the vibrant flavors of the other ingredients.
How to Make Delicious Gingerbread Sandwich Cookies: A Step-by-Step Guide
Creating these delightful holiday cookies is a straightforward and rewarding process. Follow these detailed steps to bake perfect, soft gingerbread crinkle cookies and prepare a smooth, tangy cream cheese frosting to sandwich them together.
Step 1: Prepare the Gingerbread Cookie Dough
- In a large mixing bowl, begin by whisking together all your dry ingredients: the all-purpose flour, ground cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, salt, fresh nutmeg, ground cloves, and ground cardamom powder. Whisk thoroughly to ensure all the spices and leavening agents are evenly distributed throughout the flour. Set this mixture aside.
- In a separate, even larger bowl, using an electric mixer (stand mixer with paddle attachment or a hand mixer), beat together the softened butter and both sugars (granulated and brown sugar) until the mixture is light, fluffy, and creamy. This process incorporates air, which is essential for a tender cookie.
- Crack in the large egg and continue to beat until it is fully incorporated into the butter and sugar mixture, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.
- Next, add the molasses and vanilla extract to the wet ingredients. Mix again until everything is well combined and you have a smooth, fragrant mixture.
- Gradually add the reserved flour mixture to the wet ingredients, mixing on low speed until just combined. Be careful not to overmix the dough, as this can lead to tough cookies. Mix only until no streaks of dry flour remain.
Step 2: Chill and Shape the Cookie Dough for Perfect Crinkles
- Once your dough is ready, cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap and place it into the fridge to chill for at least 1 hour. Chilling is a crucial step as it allows the flavors to meld, prevents the cookies from spreading too much during baking, and makes the dough much easier to handle and roll. If the dough is too hard right out of the fridge, let it sit at room temperature for a few minutes to soften slightly before shaping.
- While the dough is chilling, preheat your oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) and line your baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Once chilled, break the dough into manageable chunks. Roll the dough into uniform balls in the palm of your hands. You want them to be approximately 1 ½ to 2 tablespoons in size for consistent baking and an ideal sandwich cookie portion.
- Generously roll each dough ball in a shallow bowl filled with powdered sugar, ensuring it is thoroughly coated. This layer of powdered sugar is what creates that beautiful, distinctive crackle or crinkle-like appearance on the exterior of your baked cookies.
- Place the coated dough balls onto your prepared parchment-lined baking sheet, making sure to leave at least 2 inches of space between each cookie to allow for spreading during baking.
Step 3: Bake the Gingerbread Cookies to Golden Perfection
- Bake the cookies in your preheated oven for 15-18 minutes. The cookies are ready when they have achieved a beautiful golden color around the edges and are set, though they may still appear slightly soft in the center. For a slightly flatter cookie with an even more pronounced crackly exterior, you can gently bang the cookie tray down on a sturdy surface for 2 minutes before removing them from the oven. This slight deflation helps create those extra crackles.
- As soon as the cookies are out of the oven, carefully transfer them from the hot baking sheet onto a wire cooling rack to cool completely. Allowing them to cool on the rack prevents them from becoming soggy and helps them firm up properly.
Step 4: Prepare the Cream Cheese Buttercream Frosting & Assemble Your Sandwiches
- While the cookies are cooling, it’s time to prepare the luscious vanilla cream cheese frosting. Add all of the frosting ingredients—softened cream cheese, powdered sugar, room temperature butter, vanilla extract, and salt—into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment.
- Begin by beating the mixture on low speed for 1 minute. This allows the powdered sugar to gradually incorporate without creating a cloud of sugar dust.
- Once the powdered sugar is mostly incorporated, increase the mixer speed to high and continue to beat for an additional 1-2 minutes, or until the frosting is wonderfully creamy, light, and fluffy. Make sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl periodically to ensure everything is evenly mixed.
- Spoon the finished cream cheese frosting into a piping bag fitted with your favorite star tip (or any decorative tip you prefer, or simply snip off the corner of a Ziploc bag for a plain round pipe).
- Carefully pipe a generous layer of frosting onto the flat bottom of half of your cooled gingerbread cookies (you’ll use 11 cookies for frosting if making 11 sandwiches, implying 22 individual cookies).
- Take another unfrosted cookie and gently place it on top of the piped frosting, bottom side down. Gently press down just enough to allow the frosting to spread to the edges of the cookies, creating a neat, delicious sandwich.
- Repeat this process until all of your gingerbread sandwich cookies have been assembled. Now they are ready to be enjoyed!
GINGERBREAD SANDWICH COOKIES
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Ingredients
Cookies:
- 2 ½ c flour
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ tsp nutmeg
- ¼ tsp cloves
- ¼ tsp cardamom
- 1 cup butter room temp
- ⅔ cup sugar
- ½ cup brown sugar
- 1 egg
- 2 ½ TBSP molasses
- 1 tsp vanilla
- Powdered sugar for coating
Frosting:
- 8 oz cream cheese
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 6 Tbs butter room temp
- ½ tsp vanilla
- ½ tsp salt
Instructions
Make the Gingerbread Cookie Dough
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In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, salt, nutmeg, cloves and cardamom powder.
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In a separate large bowl, whisk together the butter, sugar and brown sugar until smooth and creamy. Add the egg and whisk until incorporated.
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Next, add the molasses and vanilla and mix until combined.
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Lastly, add in the flour mixture and mix until fully incorporated.
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Cover the bowl and place into the fridge for 1 hour.
Chill & Shape the Dough
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Once the cookie dough has chilled, preheat the oven to 350 F.
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Roll the cookie dough into rough 1 ½ – 2 TBSP sized balls and roll each of them into the powdered sugar to fully coat.
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Place them onto a parchment-lined baking sheet leaving at least 2” in circumference to account for spreading.
Bake the Cookies
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Place them into the preheated oven to bake for 15-18 minutes or until the cookies have become a beautiful golden color and are baked.
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Remove from the oven and place onto a cooling rack to cool completely.
Make Frosting & Cookie Sandwiches
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To make the cream cheese frosting, add all of the ingredients to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment.
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Beat together on low for 1 minute to allow the powdered sugar to become incorporated. Increase the mixer speed to high and beat together for an additional 1-2 minutes or until creamy and fluffy.
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Spoon the cream cheese frosting into a piping bag fitted with a star tip.
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Pipe a layer of frosting onto the bottom half of 11 cookies.
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Place a separate, plain cookie onto the cream cheese frosting and press down just enough to make the frosting spread to the edges of the cookies.
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Finish doing so with the remaining cookies until 11 total sandwiches have been made.
Notes
You can use 2 tsp of dough to make smaller sandwich cookies & have 22-24 cookie sandwiches total. I like to make them smaller when I’m putting them on holiday cookie trays since there are usually several other types of cookies.
Nutrition
Tips for Baking Perfect Gingerbread Sandwich Cookies
- Room Temperature Ingredients: For both the cookies and the frosting, ensure your butter and cream cheese are truly at room temperature. This allows them to cream together properly with the sugars, creating a smooth mixture without lumps and incorporating more air for a lighter texture.
- Don’t Overmix the Dough: Once you add the dry ingredients to the wet, mix only until just combined. Overmixing can develop the gluten in the flour, resulting in tough, less tender cookies.
- Chilling is Key: Don’t skip the chilling step! It’s crucial for preventing the cookies from spreading too much in the oven, intensifying the flavors, and making the dough much easier to handle and shape into perfect balls.
- Generous Powdered Sugar Coating: Roll your dough balls thoroughly in powdered sugar. This thick coating is what gives these cookies their distinctive, beautiful crinkled appearance.
- Even Cookie Size: Try to make your cookie dough balls as uniform in size as possible. This ensures even baking and makes assembling the sandwich cookies much easier and more aesthetically pleasing.
- Cool Completely: Allow the cookies to cool completely on a wire rack before frosting. If they are even slightly warm, the cream cheese frosting will melt and slide off, making a mess.
How to Store Gingerbread Sandwich Cookies for Lasting Freshness
Proper storage is essential to keep your gingerbread sandwich cookies tasting fresh and delicious. Once they have been filled with the cream cheese frosting, these cookies should be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator. They will remain fresh and delightful for up to 3 days this way. The cream cheese frosting requires refrigeration to maintain its texture and prevent spoilage.
If you prefer to prepare the cookies ahead of time and assemble them later, you can store the unfrosted gingerbread cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days. For longer storage, both the baked cookies and the frosting can be frozen separately. The unfrosted cookies can be frozen for up to 3 months, and the frosting can be frozen for up to 3 months (thaw in the fridge and re-whip before using).
Creative Ideas for Leftover Cream Cheese Frosting
If you find yourself with extra cream cheese frosting, don’t let it go to waste! This versatile and delicious frosting can be used in numerous creative ways to elevate other desserts. Consider using it as a luscious topping for brownies, cupcakes, or even other types of cookies. It’s also fantastic spread between layers of a simple vanilla or chocolate cake. For a unique treat, you can mix leftover frosting with cooked and crumbled cake to form delicious cake pops or truffles. These make excellent gifts or party snacks.
If you’re not ready to use it immediately, you can safely store leftover cream cheese frosting in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 days. For an even longer shelf life, freeze the frosting for up to 3 months. When ready to use, simply thaw it in the refrigerator and give it a good re-whip with an electric mixer to restore its creamy, fluffy texture. This gives you plenty of time to dream up delicious ways to enjoy every last bit!
Explore More Fabulous Holiday Cookie Recipes to Try Soon
The holiday season is a perfect time to indulge in baking and share sweet treats with loved ones. If you’ve enjoyed these Gingerbread Sandwich Cookies, you might be looking for more festive inspirations. Here’s a curated list of other wonderful holiday cookie recipes that are sure to spread cheer and deliciousness. From classic spiced flavors to chocolatey delights, there’s something here for every cookie enthusiast:
- HOLIDAY SPICED SNICKERDOODLES: A delightful twist on a classic, these snickerdoodles are extra festive with added spices, making them wonderfully aromatic.
- CHRISTMAS SPRINKLE COOKIES: Fun, colorful, and easy to make, these cookies are perfect for adding a pop of vibrant holiday cheer to any tray.
- CHRISTMAS CUT OUT COOKIES: The quintessential holiday cookie, perfect for decorating with icing and sprinkles for a personalized touch.
- HOLIDAY STAR COOKIES: Elegant and simple, these star-shaped cookies are a beautiful addition to any holiday celebration.
- PEPPERMINT COOKIE BARS: A convenient and crowd-pleasing option, these bars deliver all the festive minty flavor with less fuss than individual cookies.
- MINT CHRISTMAS COOKIES: For mint lovers, these cookies offer a refreshing burst of cool, sweet flavor, ideal for a winter treat.
- SPICED CHRISTMAS SHORTBREAD COOKIES: Buttery, crumbly, and infused with holiday spices, these shortbreads are a sophisticated choice.
- BEST CHRISTMAS COOKIE RECIPES: A collection of top-rated recipes to guide you through the best of holiday baking.
- PEPPERMINT FUDGE SUGAR COOKIES: Combining the rich taste of fudge with a refreshing peppermint kick, these are truly indulgent.
- CRUNCHY WHITE CHOCOLATE CINNAMON COOKIES: A delightful mix of textures and flavors, with creamy white chocolate and warm cinnamon.
- MINI SUGAR COOKIE BITES: Perfect for those who love small, delicate treats, these bite-sized cookies are utterly charming.
- CHRISTMAS SUGAR COOKIE BARS: Another excellent bar recipe for easy sharing, festive and customizable with different toppings.
- CHOCOLATE PEPPERMINT COOKIES: The classic pairing of rich chocolate and cool peppermint creates an irresistible holiday favorite.
Baking, for me, is often interwoven with cherished family memories. I recently stumbled upon this adorable photo session – I barely remember taking these photos! But oh my goodness, how incredibly cute she is! In pigtails and braces, capturing a moment in time that feels both recent and long ago. This sweet girl is now a teenager, diligently studying to take her driver’s permit test. It truly makes you wonder, “How did that happen?!” Time flies, but the joy of baking and creating these special treats together, like these gingerbread sandwich cookies, remains a timeless way to connect and make lasting memories.
These Gingerbread Sandwich Cookies are truly a testament to holiday baking: deliciously spiced, wonderfully soft cookies baked to a beautiful golden hue, featuring that signature crispy, crackling crust. Each cookie is then generously filled with a sweet, tangy, and incredibly smooth vanilla cream cheese frosting, creating a perfect festive sandwich. They are an ideal treat for gifting, sharing, or simply enjoying with a warm cup of cocoa during the most wonderful time of the year!
