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My Soft and Chewy Brown Butter Gingersnaps host all the classic appeal that you know and love – plus SO much more! The edges are irresistibly crunchy, while the thick centers stay soft and chewy. They’re a Christmas cookie miracle! 
We’re three days into this crisp month of November, and already my brain is like “the holidays are coming, the holidays are coming, the hoooooolidays are COMING.”
Crazy brain? Maybe. But that’s completely beside the point.
The point is the holidays really are coming. In fact, they’re right around the corner! 24 days till Thanksgiving and 52 days till Christmas. We’re ankle deep! But don’t panic. Because this is when all the fun begins! Holiday baking, homemade gifts and festive cakes… we’re going to do it all together, OK? It’ll be a joint effort. And between the two of us, we most definitely got this.
Bring on the comfort and joy… and COOKIES!
Let’s kick off this holiday bake-a-thon (psst… we’re starting right now!) with something sure to please your sweet tooth. Soft and Chewy Brown Butter Gingersnaps. And yes, they are exactly as buttery and delicious as you’re dreaming them to be. Promise. Your cookie dreams —> about to come true!
When it comes to gingersnaps, you’d be correct to consider me a HUGE supporter. I’m a mega fan! Obsessed. Drunk in love. I want all the ginger in my cookies and I want it now. Have you ever made triple ginger lemon cookies? They’re a must for any ginger fan. These cookies, however, are not an intense gingersnap. They’re not IN YOUR FACE SPICY. Or “holy crap, I think I just chipped my tooth” snappy. They don’t require you to grate fresh ginger. Or hunt it down in fancy (albeit delicious) crystallized form. They’re humble. And easy.
They’re for everyone… they’re for you.
These gingersnaps are what I like to call a meeting place cookie. For ginger lovers and not-so-loving ginger loving folks to meet, eat cookies, and be happy. In addition to ginger, these cookies are also flavored with brown butter (aka my soulmate), a fresh pop of orange zest, and hearty molasses. The dough will be soft and sticky upon first glance, but once you pop it in the fridge for an hour (or up to a day!), it will firm up into a perfectly scoopable texture.
And trust me… I know waiting for cookie dough to chill sucks big time. But you do NEED to chill this dough. One hour! You can do this.
The good news? Once the dough has chilled, you’re only 9 minutes away from soft and chewy gingersnap salvation! Go get after it, friend!
From one baker to another, do yourself a favor and add these cookies to your holiday plans now. You’ll thank me later 😉
If you try this recipe for Soft and Chewy Brown Butter Gingersnaps, leave a comment below and don’t forget to snap a pic and tag it #bakerbynature on instagram!
Soft and Chewy Brown Butter Gingersnaps
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup (170g) unsalted butter, browned and brought back to room temperature
- 3 cups (361g) all-purpose flour
- 2 and 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup (198g) granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup (106g) light brown sugar, packed
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 large eggs, at room temperature
- 1/4 cup (85g) molasses (mild, not blackstrap)
- 1/2 teaspoon orange zest
For the Sugar Coating:
- 1/2 cup (99g) granulated Sugar
Instructions
How to Brown Butter:
- Cut the butter in tablespoons and place them in a heavy saucepan over medium heat. Once the butter has melted, reduce the heat to low and continue cooking, until the solids sink to the bottom of the pan and turn golden brown, about 8 to 10 minutes. Remove from heat, pour browned butter into a small bowl, cover, and refrigerate until solidified, about 2 hours.
To make the Dough:
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
- Remove the brown butter from the refrigerator. Microwave the butter on low power, for 10 to 15 seconds, or until it’s just softened, but not melted.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or in a large bowl using a handheld electric mixer, beat the softened butter until completely smooth, about 1 minute. Add in both sugars and continue beating until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Beat in vanilla. Add in the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Add the molasses and orange zest and beat until combined.
- Reduce the mixer speed to low and gradually add in the dry ingredients, beating just until combined.
- Cover bowl tightly with plastic wrap and transfer to the refrigerator to chill for at least one hour (or up to one day).
When ready to Bake:
- Preheat oven to 350°F (177°C). Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper and set them aside.
- Scoop out 2 tablespoon sized mounds of cookie dough and roll them into evenly round balls. Roll the balls in the sugar coating, then transfer them onto the prepared baking sheets, leaving 2-inches between for spreading.
- Bake cookies, one tray at a time, for 9 to 10 minutes, or until the cookies are puffed and lightly golden. Cool cookies on the baking sheet, set on a wire rack, for 10 minutes before serving warm or transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Store leftover cookies in an airtight container, at room temperature, for up to 3 days.
Brown butter in gingersnaps – genius! Gingersnaps are one of my holiday favorites, and I bet they are so good with the orange zest! Pinned!
These look fantastic! I love ginger any way I can get it! Do these stay soft for a few days, or do they lose their chewiness pretty quickly? Some cookies seem to hold up better than others… thanks!
Hey Ashley! These stayed pretty soft/chewy for 3 days 🙂 After that they start to soften,and not in a not good way… but you can freeze them.
Wow, these look delicious! I like my cookies chewy – these look great!
The only thing better than gingersnaps is brown butter gingersnaps! I love how thick these are, too. 🙂
Wow, I can smell ginger already! Delicious!
YAY CHRISTMAS SEASON!!!
These gingersnaps are serious. First-browned butter. Good choice. Second-these look like big cookies. I approve. Third-they just look awesome. Period. 😀
Wow, these look so so good!
These are totally calling my name and I am actually eating homemade snappy gingersnaps right now. ANd that is saying a lot because mine are pretty awesome. I just want to sink my teeth into one of those gynormous cookies!!!! Pinned! LOVE. Just love.
Ha! Thanks so much, Lindsey!!!
I’m always up for a new gingersnap recipe… and well, brown butter pretty much seals the deal on ANY cookie!
Thanks girl! I think you’d love these!!! Hope you and baby are well 🙂
Made these last night (well, browned the butter on Saturday, made the dough on Sunday, baked the cookies Monday night — such is the life a full-time working mom of two little ones!). They were (are) fabulous! I thought I would be swooning over the brown butter, but I think it’s actually the orange zest that really sets these apart for me. And so soft… I love a soft cookie! Yum!
Pinned, printed out, saved… this is definitely a keeper. Thank you!
Hi Rebecca! Thank you so much for visiting my blog, baking these cookies, and reporting back! I know how busy life gets with two little ones (I was nanny for years!), so it means a lot for you to take the time and leave this sweet comment 🙂 Happy holidays!
I’m so excited to make these! They look amazing. This is my first browned butter recipe. I am making some for this weekend and some for next week. If I freeze the ones for next week, how long do they need to thaw before eating and are they as good? Thanks for sharing this recipe!
Hi Ann. Are you freezing the cookie dough or the baked cookies?
Baked cookies!
I could not find mild molasses. I substituted with half regular molasses and the other half regular karo syrup. They turned out excellent. I had never browned butter.
Can you freeze the dough?
Hi Deborah. You can roll the dough into balls, freeze the balls, then bake when needed. Just be sure to tack a few extra minutes onto the bake time; they’ll take longer to bake if frozen.
Wow that was a fast response! thanks so much. I am going to try them this weekend and bake on Tuesday for friend’s arrival. She loves ginger cookies.
These are so good! I made them today and delivered them to friends and everyone loved them. They are super soft and chewy. Thank you!
Natalie, that’s awesome news! So happy everyone enjoyed them 🙂 Have a happy New Year.
Love anything ginger. Can’t wait to make these, (all year around)
In Australia we do not have sticks if butter. What would this amount be in grams or by cup measure?
One half a cup
I’m about to make here but I have a question about the butter. The recipe calls for one and a half sticks but this comment says just a half cup of butter. In my cooking one stick is half a cup so should the recipe be for half a cup or three quarters of a cup of butter. Can’t wait to have these this weekend!
Hi Andrea. I can’t seem to find the comment you are referring to, but I can assure you the proper amount is 1 and 1/2 sticks (12 ounces). Please let me know if you have any other questions 🙂
I just realized the comment wasn’t made by you.
Thanks for your speedy clarification!!!
Hello!
My butter comes in 4 ounce sticks so I used 3/4 cups butter and they came out amazing! I am eating them as i sit here! Thank you so much for an amazing recipe it is definitely going into my keepers.
Hey !! These look amazing !! Can I use blackstrap if that’s all I have on hand ??
Hi Ally. I really don’t recommend using blackstrap as it will take over the flavor and make them quite malty/bitter. My advice is to grab a bottle of mild molasses, then make them as instructed 🙂
These look scrumptious, I can’t wait to make them. However, there is one problem I would like to ckeck about. When I downloaded this posting the ingredients to the recipe do not appear. The instructions are fine, just no ingredients except for the sugar at the end. The only way I was able to get the ingredients for this cookie is to open the link for the printable version, they now appear. Is for some reason this problem is only happening for me or is there a problem on the blog?
thanks
Hi Pamela. I don’t know too much about the process of what happens to the recipe once it’s downloaded. If you print it from the recipe box it should come out fine, or keep the recipe up on your screen. I just took a quick look and it’s all good from the back end 🙂 I hope you enjoy the cookies!
Yum!
I followed the recipe to a T and I just couldn’t get these to come out right. The dough was sticky, even after leaving in the refrig. Overnight. Then, I had a hard time forming the dough into the balls, as too soft. They never puffed up in the oven, but spread together and flattened. Yikes, what did I do wrong? They are incredible delicious, even in their sorry state…..
Hi Sandy. Oh boy, I’m sorry to hear your cookies didn’t come out. Did you let your browned butter firm back up to room temperature? It shouldn’t be liquid when added into the cookie dough.
“sounds” like too much butter… they flatten and spread out, I realize this is 6 years old. But I’m just now reading and others may as well.
I am always craving bakery style ginger cookies but am too scared to make them. Not today! These are incredible! Crisp on the outside and soft and fluffy on the inside. So much flavor. These taste just like the ones found at any fancy bakery. Great recipe!
What is browned butter? Is it just that? Browning butter? What level of heat? Thank you
These look delicious! It’s nowhere near the holidays yet, but I have to try these. I love brown butter! 🙂 Pinning!
If I use dark brown sugar will this affect the cookies? I went out and bought dark brown sugar instead of light brown. Also will a hand mixer do the job if I don’t have a stand up mixer? I just really want these what I’m sure are amazing cookies to come out perfect.
Hi Kami. Yes, using dark brown sugar will be fine. While I’ve never used a hand held mixer I believe it will be OK as well 🙂 Hope you love them!
I love these cookies so much! They were a huge hit last time I made them. Question though: could I use salted butter and just reduce the added salt?
Thanks so much!
Hi Christina. I’m so happy you’re enjoying this cookie recipe. If you use salted butter, I would just leave the salt called for out of the recipe.
Holy Heavens! THIS COOKIE is awesome. Mine were flat, too. Not sure why; I did make a double batch and chill a day longer, but that is the only deviation.
Another batch might need to be made to ascertain the error!
Hi ! Did you use a real ginger root that you ground up yourself or did you just use the already ground ginger in the spice containers?
Hi Caitlin. I used ground ginger from a spice container.
These were by far the best cookies I’ve ever made. Everyone loved them. They’re super soft, chewy, and flavorful. I must admit, I deviated a little and used lemon zest instead of orange zest, simply due to what was in my inventory at the time. I topped some of the cookies with a lemon buttercream glaze which was a nice touch.
Thank you so much for sharing.
Ryen, thank you so much for letting me know how much you love these cookies! I love the idea of using lemon zest – I’ll have to try that soon.
The recipe says 1/3 brown sugar. Is that teaspoon, tablespoon or cup? Thanks. Can’t wait to make these.
Hi Angela. It’s 1/3 cup brown sugar 🙂
I would have to use crisco as I hate butter and never use it. They sure look good.
I am really excited to try this recipe because I love the process of browning butter to any baked goods. Quick clarification, when you say to use light molasses, will Grandmas Unsulphured Molasses work? It’s the only thing I have in my pantry and it doesn’t state if it’s light or blackstrap. Please let me know.
Thanks!
Yes that will work!
Just pulled the last batch out of the oven. This is now my go to recipe. I doubled the recipe and have plenty to pass out and a few to keep.
Merry Christmas and a blessed New Year.
Hi! I’m a bit confused by the recipe and the comments, the recipe says 1 and 1/2 sticks of butter which makes 3/4 cups. In one of the comments you said it’s actually 1 and 1/2 cups of butter. Could you clarify which is the correct amount of butter? Thabks
How many cookies does this recipe makes?
it says 2 dozen at the top
These came out so delicious! However, mine came out a lot taller and rounder than the cookies in the pic but they taste great and are definitely soft in the middle!
The first time I made these I only chilled the dough for 1 hour and they turned out PERFECT! The second time I made them I chilled overnight and the cookies did not flatten or crack when baked. I also had to let the dough come to room temperature which took quite a bit of time, before I could roll them. It was a tremendous amount of work for a cookie that did not take it’s shape. I am not sure what happened here?
Jodi
These turned out delicious! I didn’t have an orange on hand so I used a clementine & the taste is heavenly! I didn’t follow directions & baked 2 pans at the same time, one pan turned out beautifully cracked & the others did not. Oh well ugly cookies are still super yummy & I will only bake 1 pan at a time next time
Hi,
I’m not sure we have light molasses in Australia.. what would be a good substitute?
These were the most amazing gingerbread cookies!
Chewy on the inside, crunchy on the edges. I used King Arthur’s white sparking sugar to roll the dough in and it was the most perfect addition – added an extra crunch that I just adore. Just the right spice and so easy to make. 100% worth the refrigerator process!
Thanks for a new annual cookie recipe! merry Christmas!
I made these for a birthday party and everyone loved them. I confess to using salted butter in everything but otherwise was faithful to the recipe. Yummy and delicious!!!
I am anxious to try this for a cookie swap but I need to make 7 dozen cookies. Has anyone tried using half the cookie size? 1 tbsp vs 2 tbsp. I know I would need to adjust the cookie time but I want to make sure they still come out crisp on the outside and chewy on the inside. Thank you.
rather,…… cooking time
I love these cookies so much, but I have a question – can they be frozen and if so, for how long?!?
Thanks!
Love these cookies!
They came out soft and tender on the inside but with a nice crunchy layer on the outside (which I love in a ginger cookie). I did have to bake them an additional 2 minutes for a total of 12, but other than that, I kept everything the same and they turned out beautifully. The orange zest adds a nice depth of flavor, so I encourage you to include it. I also added a pinch more of each spice out of personal preference 🙂
Do you think you could use a cookie cutter with these to make gingerbread men?
Omg, these were absolutely delicious. Very balanced and soft and chewy, it fulfilled all my ginger snap dreams. Amazing, will make again!
-Mandy