Gingerbread sandwich cookies have perfectly spiced, soft and chewy gingerbread cookies with a rum vanilla bean frosting in the middle. Full of gingerbread flavor for holidays or celebrations!
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Get ready to have your taste buds very happy! Gingerbread sandwich cookies are right up there with oatmeal cream pies and iced molasses cookies on the nostalgia radar.
For this cookie recipe, the soft ginger cookies are made with molasses, ginger, cinnamon and cloves, but unlike my gingerbread sugar cookies, this recipe is made without brown sugar. They are delicious on their own, but become bakery worthy when we sandwich them with buttercream!
They are simple to make and the cookie dough does not need to chill either. You'll be sinking your teeth into the best sandwich cookies in no time! Y'all have loved my pumpkin gingerbread cookies and gingerbread blondies, so I know this recipe will become a favorite too.
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🍪 ingredient notes
Please scroll to the printable recipe card at the end of this post for the full list of ingredients and baking directions.
Molasses ~ I use Wholesome organic molasses. It is darker in color than many brands. Grandma's is the other brand I have used. Please avoid blackstrap molasses as it is too bitter for this cookie recipe.
Spices ~ cinnamon, ginger and cloves are the perfect blend of ground spices to give the best gingerbread cookie flavor.
Turbinado sugar ~ helps the soft cookies to have a little sparkle and crunch on the outside. I use Turbinado sugar, but King Arthur’s sparkling sugar also works.
Vanilla bean paste ~ to get those pretty vanilla bean speckles in the buttercream, vanilla bean paste is used. If you don’t have it, you can substitute with pure vanilla extract.
Rum extract ~ just a hint takes the vanilla bean frosting up a flavor notch. The rum extract adds to the Christmas flavor vibe. I went with extract to keep this buttercream family friendly.
🙌🏻 tips for the best gingerbread cookies
Gingerbread cookies are easy to over bake due to their dark color, which will make them crunchy instead of soft. Bake until the edges are set and the middles still look a little soft, they consistently took between 7-8 minutes in my oven.
Remember your oven is different from mine and bake times may vary slightly.
Room temperature butter is cooler than you think! To test, your finger should make an indent without sinking or sliding down into the butter. The butter should not be warm to the touch or shiny or greasy. If you want to test with a thermometer, room temperature butter is considered 65°F.
👩🏻🍳 how to make
Preheat the oven to 350°F/177°C and prepare two baking sheet pans with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.
Whisk together the flour, cinnamon, ginger, cloves and baking soda in a medium bowl and set aside.
Beat the unsalted butter and kosher salt together with a stand mixer with the paddle attachment or with a hand held mixer until softened. Scrape up and down the bowl.
Next add the sugar and cream together starting on low until incorporated and then to medium-high until light and fluffy.
Now scrape up and down the bowl and add the egg, molasses and vanilla and mix on low until combined, then stop and scrape up and down the bowl and then beat together on medium-high until fully combined.
Add half the flour mixture and mix on low until most of the flour is incorporated. Stop and scrape the bowl and then add the remaining flour, mixing on low until just a few streaks of flour remain. Use a spatula to work in the final bits of flour, the dough is thick.
Divide the dough into 36 equal dough balls. Roll each dough ball between your hands into a ball and then roll in the turbinado sugar. Place 18 cookies on each baking sheet and lightly press them down with your clean hand.
Bake one cookie sheet pan at a time in the preheated oven for 7-8 minutes until set at the edges. If desired, use a large circular biscuit cutter to "scoot" the cookies into perfect rounds when they are hot from the oven.
Let the cookies cool on the cookie sheet for 3-5 minutes and then move to a wire rack to cool completely. While the cookies cool, make the buttercream.
🥣 how to make the vanilla bean frosting
Add the butter to the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment or with a hand held mixer and cream for 1-2 minutes, starting on low and increasing to medium-high until the butter is softened.
Now add the confectioners' sugar, vanilla bean paste, rum extract and heavy cream and mix on low until incorporated, then increase the speed to medium-high to high and beat until light and fluffy.
To assemble the cookie sandwiches, pipe or spread about 1 tablespoon of buttercream on the bottom of a cooled cookie. Then sandwich a second cookie on top with the bottom facing down.
💡 frosting variations
I think y’all know how much I love buttercream and gingerbread pairs really nicely with other flavors as well.
For ginger lemon lovers, fill the cookie sandwiches with this lemon buttercream.
If you are an eggnog fan {perfect Christmas combo here!}, use the eggnog frosting with these eggnog cupcakes.
For marshmallow fans, use the frosting from my oatmeal cream pie cookies.
Biscoff and cookie butter fans, use the frosting from my gingerbread snack cake.
Remember to snap a picture and tag me @twosugarbugs on Instagram if you make these Soft Gingerbread Sandwich Cookies. It warms my heart to see you bring these recipes to life! Thank you for being here and happy baking!
If you make this recipe {or any recipe!} from two sugar bugs please come back and leave a review and a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ star rating. I read every comment, and I LOVE hearing from you!
📖 recipe
Soft Gingerbread Sandwich Cookies {No Chill}
recipe created and tested by:
I highly recommend using weight (metric) measurements when available for more accuracy and the best results.
Please note
When using 2x or 3x ingredients, the grams in parenthesis DO NOT adjust, you will have to manually do that.
Ingredients
gingerbread cookies
- 2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour (281g)
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1 ½ teaspoons ground ginger
- ½ teaspoon ground cloves
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ cup unsalted butter room temperature (113g)
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 cup granulated sugar (200g)
- 1 large egg room temperature
- ¼ cup molasses (70g)
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- ⅓ cup Turbinado sugar (70g)
rum vanilla bean buttercream
- ½ cup unsalted butter room temperature (113g)
- 2 cups confectioners' sugar (240g)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract
- 1 - 1 ½ teaspoons rum extract
- 3 tablespoons heavy cream (45mL)
Instructions
- For the gingerbread cookies: preheat the oven to 350°F/177°C and prepare two baking pans with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.
- Whisk together the flour (2 ¼ cups/281g), cinnamon (2 teaspoons), ginger (1 ½ teaspoons), cloves (½ teaspoon) and baking soda (1 teaspoon) in a medium bowl and set aside.
- Beat the unsalted butter (½ cup/113g) and kosher salt (¼ teaspoon) together on medium-high (speed 6 on KitchenAid) with a stand mixer with the paddle attachment or with a hand held mixer until softened, about 1 minute. Scrape up and down the bowl.
- Next add the sugar (1 cup/200g) and cream together starting on low (speed 2 on KitchenAid) until incorporated and then to medium-high until light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes.
- Now scrape up and down the bowl and add the egg (1 large), molasses (¼ cup/70g) and vanilla (1 teaspoon) and mix on low until combined, then stop and scrape up and down the bowl and then beat together on medium-high for 1-2 minutes until fully combined.
- Add half the flour mixture and mix on low (stir on KitchenAid) until most of the flour is incorporated. Stop and scrape the bowl and then add the remaining flour, mixing on low until just a few streaks of flour remain. Use a spatula to work in the final bits of flour, the dough is thick.
- Divide the dough into 36 equal dough balls roughly 1 tablespoon or 20g dough per ball. Roll each dough ball between your hands into a ball and then roll in the turbinado sugar (⅓ cup/70g). Place 18 cookies on each baking sheet and lightly press then down with your clean hand.
- Bake one cookie sheet pan at a time in the preheated oven for 7-8 minutes until set at the edges.
- Let the cookies cool on the cookie sheet for 3-5 minutes and then move to a wire rack to cool completely. While the cookies cool, make the buttercream.
- For the rum vanilla bean buttercream: add the butter to the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment or with a hand held mixer and cream for 1-2 minutes, starting on low and increasing to medium-high until the butter is softened.
- Now add the confectioners' sugar (2 cups/240g), vanilla bean paste (1 teaspoon), rum extract (1 - 1 ½ teaspoons) and heavy cream (3 tablespoons/45mL) and mix on low until incorporated, then increase the speed to medium-high to high (speed 6 or 8) and beat another 2-4 minutes, until light and fluffy.
- To assemble the sandwich cookies: pipe or spread about 1 tablespoon of buttercream on the bottom of a cooled cookie. Then sandwich a second cookie on top with the bottom facing down.
Notes
Nutrition
The nutrition information is based on third-party calculations, is an estimate only and may not be entirely accurate. Actual nutritional values will vary based on brands used and portion sizes.
Jody says
When u say lightly press dough balls down, how flat are they pressed? Do they flatten at all or spread during baking?
thanks.
Tasia says
Hi Jody, flatten the cookie dough balls to about a quarter inch thickness. The cookies do flatten and spread a little during baking.