Sourdough Gingerbread Cookies
These sourdough gingerbread cookies filled with warm spices are soft, comforting, and perfect for a cozy winter day. Every bite will warm you with rich molasses, cozy spices, and that hint of sourdough tang. These are the perfect cookies for curling up by the fire with and sharing with your friends and family.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Healthy – made with sourdough discard with the option for long fermenting to make them even healthier.
- Delicious – these sourdough ginger molasses cookies have a tangy sourdough twist that makes them even more delicious than the classic cookies. I love the flavor they get from the browned butter and molasses too.
- Perfect for holiday season gatherings or gifting at Christmastime.
- Browned Butter – these cookies call for browned butter (instructions on how to make it below). The browned butter gives them such a great flavor! It’s well worth the the effort to brown the butter before making the cookies
- Easy – these cookies are easy to throw together for a last-minute treat anytime you need one.
Be sure to watch our full tutorial on how to make your own sourdough starter here.
For more of our favorite sourdough recipes, check out the sourdough portion of our website: Sourdough.
Ingredients
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Tools
Favorite Sourdough Recipes:
How to Make Sourdough Gingerbread Cookies
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
Place butter into a small saucepan over medium heat. Melt and cook/stir until browned. Takes a good 5-8 minutes.
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Remove from heat and let cool for 15 minutes.
Place cooled brown butter into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the cookie paddle attachment or in a large mixing bowl. Add coconut oil, brown sugar, molasses, sourdough starter and egg, beating on low speed until well combined.
Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients: flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and ginger. Mix until just combined. The dough will be thick.
Roll heaping tablespoons of dough into granulated sugar and place on a prepared baking sheet.
Place 1 inch apart to allow for spreading. Bake cookies for 10-12 minutes, until baked through. Remove and let cool on the baking sheet for at least 15 minutes before transferring to a wire rack.
Best served with a cup of milk or hot chocolate. Store leftover cookies in an airtight container for up to a week.
Happy Baking!
Tips
- You can use active starter or sourdough discard to make this delicious gingerbread cookie recipe.
- Don’t skip the browned butter, it’s well worth the extra effort for the additional flavor it gives to the cookies.
- Make the cookie dough ahead of time and allow the dough to ferment for two to three days in the refrigerator for the maximum health benefits.
- To make these into cut-out cookies, add another 1 cup of flour to the recipe when mixing up the dough and chill the dough before rolling out with a rolling pin.
- To make royal icing, combine 4 cups powdered sugar, 6 Tablespoons water and 3 Tablespoons meringue powder. Beat in a stand mixer for at least 2 minutes or until it’s nice and thick. Put into a piping bag and pipe onto cooled cookies. This works especially well if you make cutout cookies in the shape of christmas trees and gingerbread men.
- Combine these sourdough cookies in a little cake box along with some sourdough muffins and sourdough sugar cookies and give them to your neighbors at Christmas time.
What Are The Health Benefits Of Sourdough?
Anytime you add a fermented element like sourdough to a recipe, it becomes more nutritious because it contains live probiotics and good bacteria that help with gut health and digestion. Gluten and phytic acid are naturally present in wheat, and are usually what is to blame for people not being able to digest gluten well. When the grain is fermented through the sourdough process, the gluten and phytic acid are broken down, making it easier to digest. A lot of people that struggle with gluten intolerance (not people with celiac), can digest food made with sourdough without any issue, especially if the recipe is allowed to sit out for a few hours and “long ferment”.
In addition, phytic acid is an anti-nutrient that blocks absorption of the nutrients found in wheat. During the sourdough fermentation process, the phytic acid gets broken down and the nutrients are more bio-available to the body. This is why baking with sourdough is so important for our health.
Does the dough have to sit overnight to have the health benefits of sourdough?
Yes, the dough would need to sit overnight and up to several days in the refrigerator in order to have the long fermented health benefits from the sourdough. You can bake this dough right away, but it won’t have the same health benefits as if you let the dough sit and ferment in the refrigerator.
More Recipes Like This
Sourdough Gingerbread Cookies
Equipment
- 1 Small saucepan
- 1 Stand mixer or large bowl
- 1 measuring cups and spoons
- 1 cooling rack
Ingredients
- 1 stick unsalted butter
- 1/2 cup sourdough starter
- 1/4 cup softened or melted coconut oil
- 1 cup light brown sugar, packed
- 1/4 cup molasses
- 1 large egg
- 2 cups all purpose Gold Medal Flour
- 2 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp kosher salt
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 2 tsp ground ginger
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar for rolling dough in
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Place butter into a small saucepan over medium heat. Melt and cook/stir until browned. Takes a good 5-8 minutes.
- Remove from heat and let cool for 15 minutes.
- Place cooled brown butter into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the cookie paddle attachment or in a large mixing bowl. Add coconut oil, brown sugar, molasses, sourdough starter and egg, beating on low speed until well combined.
- Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients: flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and ginger. Mix until just combined. The dough will be thick.
- Roll heaping tablespoons of dough into granulated sugar and place on a prepared baking sheet.
- Place 1 inch apart to allow for spreading. Bake cookies for 10-12 minutes, until baked through. Remove and let cool on the baking sheet for at least 15 minutes before transferring to a wire rack.
- Best served with a cup of milk or hot chocolate. Store leftover cookies in an airtight container for up to a week.
- Happy Baking!
