Dorothy KernGingerbread Cookie Sticks: Hands down, this is my favorite Gingerbread Cookie recipe of all time. I love my new way of serving it: cut into cookie sticks and topped with candy or white chocolate.
Good luck eating just one, my friends!
Do you have cookie recipes you make over and over again? I used to…then I started this blog. Now I hardly ever make anything twice, and if I do it always has some sort of little difference, like adding Rolos or frosting or whatever.
Basically, posting recipes to a food blog is like a famous person on the red carpet: you can’t wear (or bake) the same thing twice. #fact
But all that aside, when I started brainstorming my holiday recipes this year, I realized there are two recipes that I make every year but I’ve never shared here. I kind of feel like a really bad friend, like I’ve been holding out on you or something. Because these two recipes are seriously the best ones; they’re ones my family looks forward to every Christmas.
Will you forgive me?
First up: Gingerbread Cookie Sticks. I’ve been making this recipe for about 9 years now. It’s my go-to gingerbread recipe. I’m not much for a dry, crumbly, cutout gingerbread cookie. I like soft, pillowy cookies…and these gingerbread cookie sticks fit the bill.
I tell myself every year that I’m only going to eat one or two. That’s it!
However, I’m a big fat liar, because I end up eating at least half the pan. Seriously. This is one of those recipes that you keep going back and sneaking bites of. It’s a coffee grind recipe, if you get my drift.
Gingerbread cookie sticks are thick, soft, chewy, and it taste like Christmas. That’s the perfect holiday cookie recipe, if you ask me.
This gingerbread recipe is super simple and basic. Butter, molasses, and sugar get mixed with allspice and cinnamon to make that telltale molasses cookie flavor.
Sidebar: isn’t opening a jar of molasses the best thing ever? I opened a fresh jar for these cookies and the second I got a whiff I was transported back to my 10-year-old self standing at my kitchen table rolling out gingerbread men.
I kind of really love how food and memory and smell are all intertwined like that. 🙂
The rich, thick, cookie dough is pressed into a 10×15 jelly roll pan for baking. That’s the best part about these Gingerbread Cookie Sticks: no rolling or mess! Just line your pan with foil (so you can remove them soon after they bake for cutting) and press the dough into the pan.
If you don’t have a jelly roll pan, you can use a rimmed cookie sheet that’s close to the 10×15 size (opt bigger if needed, but not smaller). The cookies bake in just about 15 minutes. It’s very important not to over bake them. Do you see how thick and almost fudgy they look in the center? That’s from not over baking! They’re done when you press your finger into the top of the just baked dough and it sort of bounces back slowly.
Once you let the cookies cool for just a few minutes in the pan, you remove the whole sheet of gingerbread cookie and use a knife or pizza cutter to cut them into sticks. And that’s when the fun begins.
While the cookie sticks are still hot, you can press your favorite candy on the top. Fun Size Twix or Kit Kats would be perfect. Let them cool completely before pulling the sticks apart.
Or, if you don’t want to go the candy route, go the pretty way. Let the sticks cool and drizzle them with melted white chocolate and sprinkles. You can also give the kids some vanilla frosting and candy and let them go to town.
Just be careful once you start eating them. Because you’ll throw back 4 in no time flat.
And, as amazing as these Gingerbread Cookie Sticks are, you gotta leave room for my #2 most made cookie: That recipe is coming soon. 🙂
Gingerbread Cookie Sticks
Ingredients
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup 2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
- 1 cup unsulfured molasses
- 1 egg
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
- 4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cup white chocolate chips plus 1 teaspoon Crisco or vegetable oil to aid in melting and sprinkles OR
- 24 fun size Twix or your favorite candy
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a 10x15 jelly roll pan with foil (let the foil hang over the sides for easy removal of the hot bars) and spray with cooking spray. (If you don’t have a jelly roll pan you can use a rimmed cookie sheet that’s close to 10x15” in size, but opt bigger instead of smaller.)
- Beat sugar, butter, and molasses in the large bowl with a hand mixer, or in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix in the egg, salt, baking soda, and spices. Slowly mix in flour until a thick dough forms.
- Press dough evenly into the prepared pan. Bake about 15 minutes, until indentations in the dough bounce back slightly. The top will no longer be glossy.
- Cool gingerbread for 5 minutes in the pan, then carefully remove the full sheet of gingerbread using the foil overhang to a cookie sheet. If you’re using the fun size Twix bars, press them in two equal rows onto the gingerbread, use a knife or a pizza cutter to cut the slab into 24 sticks. Otherwise, just cut them into sticks and cool.
- If drizzling with white chocolate, melt the white chocolate chips and oil or Crisco in a small bowl on half power in 30 second increments, stirring between each, until melted and smooth. Place chocolate in a small baggie with the tip cut off and drizzle over sticks, sprinkle with sprinkles.
- Store cookies in an airtight container for up to 4 days, or freeze for up to one month.
Nutrition Information
Nutritional information not guaranteed to be accurate
Click here to see more of my Christmas cookie recipes!
Sweets from friends:
Gingerbread Cheesecake Bites by Created by Diane
Gingerbread Cupcakes by TidyMom
Slow Cooker Gingerbread Apple Crumble by Amy’s Healthy Baking
All text and images © DOROTHY KERN for Crazy for Crust. Please do not use my images without prior permission. If you want to republish this recipe, please re-write the recipe in your own words, or link back to this post for the recipe. Disclaimer: Nutrition information shown is not guaranteed to be accurate.
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Published on: November 26, 2014
Have you tried drizzling a light lemon glaze on top instead of the white chocolate? I’m debating this or a plain vanilla drizzle and using Christmas m&m’s for garnish.
Why is there no ginger listed in the ingredients?