The Very Best Gingersnap Cookies
This recipe for Gingersnap Cookies has been in my family for 100 years and was passed down to me from my Grandmother McFeeters. It is soft, chewy and full of that ginger molasses flavour gingersnaps are famous for. This recipe has been coveted and never ever shared … until now!
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I am torn about sharing this recipe to be honest because I have held this recipe for gingersnap cookies so close to my heart for so many years. I think at one point I said to my son the only way his wife will ever get this recipe is if I “like” her. Joking of course… or was I?
One of my best memories of my Grandmother was years ago when I visited her to bake. We planned a day to spend together so she could teach me all of her best baking recipes and share with me hands-on all of her tips and tricks.
When I arrived, she gave me recipe cards with her recipes all written out for me. It must have taken her all week to prepare. I am honoured, to say the least. It was a very special day for me, and I think for her as well. To be honest, thinking of this day brings a tear to my eye because I was so lucky to spend time with her learning all of her tips and tricks.
These shortbread cookies and her never-fail homemade pie crust are two other recipes I learned to make with her that day.
Star Ingredients
- Pastry flour – Pastry flour has a lower protein content than all-purpose flour, creating a lighter cookie. I always use pastry flour for my cookies and rarely use anything else. In this recipe, pastry flour can be substituted for all-purpose flour.
- Molasses – Fancy molasses is best with its sweeter, lighter flavour, but cooking molasses also works fine in this recipe. Avoid using blackstrap molasses as it is heavier and tends to have a slightly bitter flavor.
Step-by-Step Made Simple
Mix the vegetable oil and sugar in a bowl. 
Add the molasses and egg and mix until it starts to pull away from the bowl. 
Place a sieve over the bowl and add the dry ingredients, stirring until they are sifted into the wet mixture below. 
Mix the wet and dry ingredients until combined. 
Roll the dough into balls and then into some white sugar, and then bake.
Kitchen Notes
- Use vegetable oil. This has a big effect on the texture of the cookie. I have used canola oil before, but the cookies tend to end up a little crunchier. Safflower oil is the next best thing to vegetable oil.
- Proper measuring for this recipe is essential. For the oil and molasses, use a glass measuring cup that you can pour from. I use glass cups with the measurements on the side. Using a glass cup lets you get an eye-level view and see that the liquid measurement is level and exact.
- When adding the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, I like to use a large sieve that can rest on top of the large mixing bowl. I do this for most baked goods. If you use a sieve, the spices are combined evenly, and there will not be any flour clumps.
- For crunchy gingersnap cookies, take the cookies out a minute later. It’s that easy!
If You Don’t Eat Them All…
This recipe makes about 4 dozen, so you likely won’t eat them all unless you bring them somewhere. When I ever I bring a batch, they are the first to disappear on the cookie table, so keep some for yourself at home.
I keep mine on the counter in a tightly sealed container for about a week, or try to. They rarely last that long. But if I need them for an event, I make sure to freeze them right away before anyone gets into them. They freeze well for up to 5 months.
The Best Recipe For Gingersnap Cookies
Equipment
- Large Bowl
- Measuring Cups
- Measuring Spoons
- Large Sieve
- Spoon or Fork
- Baking Sheet
- Small Bowl
- Oven
Ingredients
- 2 cups pastry flour
- 1 ½ cup white sugar divided 1 cup for batter, 1/2 cup to roll balls into
- ¾ cup vegetable oil
- ¼ cup molasses
- 1 large egg
- 2 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp ginger
- ½ tsp salt
Instructions
- In a large bowl mix oil and 1 cup sugar until well combined
- Add egg and molasses and mix until thick
- Place a large sieve over the bowl and flour, baking soda, spices and salt and sift into molasses batter
- Mix the flour mixture into molasses batter with fork JUST until combined
- Place batter in the fridge for 1 hour
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
- Roll batter into 1 inch balls and then roll in remaining 1/2 cup sugar to lightly coat
- Bake for 10-12 minutes until flattened and set but not hard. Do not overbake.
- Remove from oven and transfer cookies to a cooling rack to cool.
Video
Nutrition
Notes
The information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
This is my first time making this recipe. I was excited because my husband loves ginger snaps. Easy recipe and they came out beautiful, but not enough ginger taste, and a little too oily. I even added extra ginger. I will make it again with have the oil and sub the other half with applesauce. I used flax for the egg.
Hi Lisa, So glad you enjoyed them. If you prefer more ginger add as much as you like. The cookies may be coming out oily because you did not use egg. A flax egg won’t behave the same way in this recipe. When mixing the egg, sugar and oil together this filling thickens up and the oil is no longer suspended. It works more like a butter, sort of. A flax egg won’t thicken the same which is why these cookies turned out oily. I can’t speak to if using apple sauce to replace half the oil will work but would love to know how they turn out!
yummy recipe! I did half the recipe and substituted reular egg for flax egg and I used coconut oil instead of veg oil and they are delicious hot and cold… I am saving this one đ
Thank you so much for sharing your recepie, everyone’s love them, they are the best ginger cookie I ever had!đđ
This is the third year I have made these cookiesâŚThey are perfect, my son-in-lawâs favorite of all the cookies I bake and I bake ALOT!
I absolutely love these cookies. Do not leave out putting the flour thru the sieve. This recipe is true to its word. Thank you for a great recipe đ
I love these ginger snaps. I added to the recipe the second time I made them by using butter, adding 1/4 teaspoon of cloves, doubling the ginger and cinnamon. Thank you for a great recipe
I made these last night and they taste amazing and didn’t last an hour at my office this morning! However, they ended up about twice as thick as the photos and don’t snap. They’re great, dense, slightly soft ginger spice cookies, but just not gingersnaps. The substitutions I had to make were using all-purpose flour and using cane sugar instead of white sugar (they were what I had available). Do you think the cane sugar caused the cookies to rise too much? I’m planning to make another batch tonight with pastry flour and white sugar.
Also, the printable recipe says to refrigerate the batter for an hour, but the written instructions in the blog post go straight from mixing the batter to rolling the balls without mentioning refrigeration. Do I need to refrigerate? I refrigerated the batch last night but I’m tempted to skip it tonight to see if it affects the rise.
Thank you for the fantastic recipe!
Hi Ian. I am so glad they were a hit at the office! I have never made this recipe with any other sugar so can’t speak to cane sugar but don’t think that should matter. I am unsure why your cookies did not flatten out but I have made these cookies a thousand times and never had that issue. I would have to say it is too much flour creating a cakier texture. In terms of refrigeration I sometimes do and other times I don’t. Depending on the temperature of your house and even mine sometimes the dough is just too sticky to toss in the sugar so chilling it helps. I recommend that you chill the dough only as much as needed to be able to handle the dough and get it to roll in the sugar. If the dough is hard when rolled it will not spread as thin. I will update this to be more clear in my instructions.
In terms of crispiness, if you want them crispier and with more of a snap just bake them an extra minute.
Hope that helps,
Alisa
The cookies were very tasty, but were a little thicker then the pic, and they didnât have the snap I was hoping for, but as I said very tasty.
Hi Rose,
So happy you liked them. I am not sure why they would have been a little thicker but next time just give them a little longer to bake and they will have the snap you are looking for.
I used 2 1/2 tsp of ginger and added fresh grated ginger, but I would use 4 tsp next time- and bake for 9 mins- they got a bit too dark on the bottom at 10. Otherwise a fantastic recipe!
Hi Sandy, So glad you enjoyed them and if you like more ginger it is never an issue to add more. In terms of cooking time, everyone’s oven is different which is why I always recommended checking on them a minute or two early to see how they are coming along.
Could I use Coconut oil instead?
Hi Holly,
I would not recommend coconut oil for this recipe.
To quote my son âthese are perfect!â Thanks for an awesome recipe!
My 11-year-old brother-in-law doesnât really like sweets. Heâll set aside the most wonderful desserts for days before he considers eating any. With these, he raved. He seriously couldnât stop eating them and begged me to make these all the time. He even used the word addictive…
Iâd make these just for the smell! Makes everything about the day better. Amazing.
This absolutely makes my day Addy! So thrilled he loves them and I agree they smell amazing!
These didn’t really taste like “ginger” snaps and were a bit bland as written so I did grate some extra fresh ginger to add. I’m wishing I had doubled the powdered ginger as well. Mine did not flatten to match the picture but I did get an amazing crack. I wish I could include a photo here.
Hi Lorrie! You can certainly add more ginger if that is your preference. I don’t plan to alter the recipe though because as it is this is my most popular cookie recipe and a favourite in our family as it is for over 100 years.
Can you sift dry ingredients instead?
Hi AJ! Yes you sift the dry ingredients into the molasses egg mixture.
This are the best ginger snaps Iâve made/had. However I think they needed a little more of a âkickâ I added an extra half teaspoon of ginger. Made all of the difference!
Hi Charity. Thanks for trying this recipe and I am so glad you liked it! I will have to give the extra ginger a try next time!
This was such an easy recipe,delicious!!!. Reminds me of my Mom Thank you
So glad you liked them Cathy!
Could I use all purpose flour instead of pastry flour?
You can but all-purpose flour has a higher protein content and will make the cookies a bit tougher. They will still turn out good though. If you have any cake flour use 1/2 a cup of cake flour and 1/2 cup all-purpose to form a 1 cup equivalent. Or you can replace 2 tbsp of all-purpose flour from a cup and replace it with 2 tbsp of cornstarch. These are the best known substitutes for pastry flour.
Exactly what I was looking for in a ginger snap. Crisp edges and somewhat soft middle. Definite âsnapâ when you break them. Love the flavor. I received many compliments. Iâll make these every Christmas!
I am so glad you enjoyed them and love that they will be included in your Christmas traditions going forward!
Can I use olive oil or avocado oil?
Hi Janet, No, unfortunately, the oil in this recipe matters. Vegetable Oil or Canola Oil are preferred.
this is the EXACT recipe that my Grandma passed down to us! Best recipe ever, never fails!
I have made these cookies twice this month. This recipe is perfect and easy to make
They taste like old fashioned ginger snaps.
They donât last long in my house
Thanks so much for letting me know. I love hearing these types of stories. I won’t make them until a day before Christmas because my family has eaten them all up twice now too!
Great recipe! My kids loved them. I added a touch more ginger and only baked them for 8 minutes because my oven runs hot. Thanks Alisa!
My pleasure!
Would love to roll these with laser rolling pin. Do you think this would work?
I have never tried rolling these cookies out because they flatten out on their own. The dough can be a bit sticky so if you do try rolling them out I would recommend putting the dough in the fridge for about one hour so that it is easier to work with. Please let me know how they worked if you do try this.
These are AMAZING! I made them
Tonight. The best ginger cookie Iâve found.
This makes my day Alicia! So glad you liked them. This is always one of my family and friends most requested recipes.
My fault for not being super careful reading the recipe, but when you list 1 1/2 cups of sugar in the ingredient list, you really should include the word (divided), or else list the 1 cup sugar for the dough separately from the 1/2 cup used to roll the balls. Really mad right now that I just had to throw out the dough I just made with the 1 1/2 cups sugar instead of 1 cup. Totally my mistake, but I guess Iâm used to recipes listing the ingredients more clearly đ
Hi Jane, So sorry this recipe was not more clear. This is really great feedback. I will go and update the recipe right now and make sure to be more clear for my future recipes.
I always read my recipe first before making it after many screwups I found this helps me alot