Soft Cinnamon-Sugar Gingerbread Cookies

Make Christmas even more delicious with these Soft Cinnamon Sugar Gingerbread Cookies. They're sugar and spice and all things nice.

*Disclaimer - This recipe was originally published in 2015. I'm working hard to update all my older recipes with recipe cards, new photos, and additional recipe information. But, getting to all of them will take time. Please bear with me. In the meantime let me assure you that this recipe is still a winner and one I'm sure you'll be well pleased with when you make it at home.

This recipe started out as a gingerbread cookie that I'd found in The New German Cookbook by Jeremy and Jessica Nolen and then morphed into something completely different than what I had originally intended to make. What can I say? Sometimes I just can't help myself. LOL

What makes these cookies so different from what I originally found in the cookbook I started with is that I basically improvised the ingredient list due to what I had on hand in my pantry.

After that, instead of rolling the dough into balls, baking and glazing them as the cookbook calls for, I rolled and cut the dough into rounds, brushed them with maple syrup, and then liberally sprinkled them with cinnamon sugar before baking. In the great words of Ina Garten "How bad can that be?"

Let's get baking, shall we? In only a matter of minutes, the sweet and spicy aroma of Christmas will soon be wafting through your entire home.

SOFT CINNAMON-SUGAR GINGERBREAD COOKIES   {PRINT THIS RECIPE}
Makes:  Approx. 36    Prep Time: 45 minutes (includes chill time)  Bake Time: 20 minutes

½ cup honey
¾ cup molasses
1 cup butter
½ cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon orange zest
1½ teaspoon ground ginger
½ teaspoon allspice
½ teaspoon ground cloves
2 eggs, at room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
4½ cups flour, plus additional for rolling
1 teaspoon salt
½ cup pure maple syrup
¼ cup granulated sugar
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
plastic wrap
rolling pin
2" cookie cutter
baking sheets
parchment paper

-In a small saucepan, heat the honey and molasses until warm. Set aside to cool.

-In a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar, and orange zest. Add the eggs, vanilla, ginger, allspice, and cloves. Blend until combined, and then add in the cooled molasses and honey mixture.

-Slowly add the flour and salt. Blend (scraping the sides occasionally), until a soft dough forms. Divide the dough in half and flatten each half into a disc. Wrap each disc in plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.

-Remove the chilled dough from the fridge and roll the dough out onto a lightly floured surface to ⅛ thickness. Use the cookie cutter to cut out as many cookies as possible. Re-roll the scraps, and cut as many more cookies as possible. Place the cut cookies on parchment-lined baking sheets.

-Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

-Brush each cookie with maple syrup and sprinkle each liberally with cinnamon sugar.

-Bake two sheets in a preheated oven for 10 minutes. Rotate the sheets and bake again for an additional 10 minutes. Remove to a cooling rack and cool completely.

-Serve and enjoy!

It's the maple syrup that keeps these cookies soft and chewy, and it's the cinnamon sugar topping that gives them that extra-special something!

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