Soft and chewy spiced gingerbread cookies filled with a rich and creamy vanilla cream cheese frosting..
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gingerbread sandwich cookies
These are the most adorable cookies to add to your holiday cookie boxes this year! The cookies themselves are soft and chewy, and are perfectly spiced. They’re also filled with a super rich and creamy vanilla cream cheese frosting. The cookies themselves are super easy to make and can even be made ahead of time to be baked off and filled at a later date. So let’s get to it! 🙂
expert baking tips
Weigh your ingredients
My recipes are all written in grams because it is the most accurate way to bake. When you use a kitchen scale, you ensure that your baked goods turn out as close to the written recipe as possible. Plus, the cleanup is way easier when using a scale! I will provide standard cup measurements but please note that I have not tested the recipe using cup measurements and therefore can not guarantee your recipe will come out how mine did. Here is my favorite kitchen scale.
Use room temperature ingredients
It’s important that your ingredients are at room temperature so that they can easily incorporate with each other. Take out your cold ingredients about an hour before starting the recipe to give them time to come to room temperature.
don’t over-beat the butter
We’re going to beat some softened butter and sugar together at the start of the cookie recipe. Be sure that you are only beating them together until they are cohesive. Over-beating the mixture will incorporate more air into the dough, which will make these cookies more puffy rather than flat.
Mix the dough carefully
When adding in the flour, only fold the mixture just until no flour streaks remain. Over mixing the dough leads to more gluten formation, which can make the cookies thicker and more tough in texture.
under bake for perfect cookies
Cookies have a nice habit of looking underdone when in reality it’s the perfect time to pull them out of the oven. They will continue to bake on the hot cookie sheet. These cookies are a bit difficult to tell when they are done because they don’t spread or brown. Essentially, they should still be a little soft if you (carefully!) touch them right out of the oven.
freeze the cookie dough
A great way to keep your cookies from spreading too much in the oven is to freeze them prior to baking. After cutting out the cookies, transfer them to your lined baking sheet and place them in the freezer for at least 10 minutes before baking.
A note on oven temperature
Ovens vary and fluctuate in temperature and might not always actually be at the temperature they claim to be at. If you love to bake like I do, I highly recommend getting an oven thermometer. They are super helpful for letting you know when your oven might be lying to you! I use this one.
ingredients for gingerbread sandwich cookies:
gingerbread cookie dough:
- All purpose flour: for structure and chewiness.
- Salt: to help balance and bring out the sweetness of the cookies
- Baking soda: for helping the cookies rise.
- Unsalted butter: for tenderness and flavor. You can use salted butter in place of the unsalted, just be sure to omit the extra salt from the cookies.
- Dark brown sugar: for flavor and sweetness. I highly recommend dark brown sugar since it contains more molasses flavor, but light brown sugar will work here as well.
- Molasses: it wouldn’t be a classic gingerbread recipe without molasses! Make sure you are using unsulphured molasses.
- Egg: for binding and for moisture.
- Vanilla: for flavor.
- Ground ginger, cinnamon, cloves, and allspice: for the gingerbread spice.
cream cheese frosting:
- Cream cheese: the base of the cream cheese frosting.
- Unsalted butter: to thicken up the frosting.
- Salt: to balance and bring out the sweetness.
- Powdered sugar: for sweetness and thickening the frosting.
- Vanilla: for flavor. I used vanilla bean paste here for some cute little speckles in the frosting.
how to make gingerbread sandwich cookies
Here’s a little look into the process of making these cookies. The full recipe can be found at the bottom of this blog post!
- Beat together the wet ingredients.
- Then beat in the dry ingredients, and chill the dough.
- Roll out the dough and use a cookie cutter to cut out the gingerbread men. Freeze the dough, then bake.
- Pipe the filling onto the half of the cookies that don’t have a heart cut out. Sandwich the cookies and enjoy!
gingerbread sandwich cookies
recipe q&a
can I make these cookies ahead of time?
You can definitely make the cookie dough ahead of time! Simply roll out the dough, stamp it, and when it’s time to place them in the freezer, you can just leave them like that overnight. If you want to make the dough even further in advance, transfer the cookies to an airtight container in the freezer once they have frozen on the baking sheet.
how to store gingerbread sandwich cookies?
Because these cookies are filled with a milk-based frosting, they need to be stored in the fridge. Store extra sandwich cookies in an airtight container in the fridge, where they will keep well for 1 week.
help! the dough is too sticky
The dough is a little sticky when you first make it, but if after chilling the dough is way too sticky, you can add in 1 tbsp. of flour until you’re able to form a cohesive dough that isn’t sticky.
tools and ingredients:
You can find all my favorite tools and ingredients that I use on my Amazon Storefront page, here!
other recipes you might enjoy:
did you make this recipe?
I’d love to see and know your thoughts! please leave a comment and review below, and tag me on instagram @freshbeanbakery. #freshbeanbakery
Gingerbread Sandwich Cookies
Ingredients
Gingerbread Sandwich Cookies
- 125 g unsalted butter room temperature (9 tbsp.)
- 130 g unsulphered molasses (⅓ c. + 1 tbsp.)
- 150 g dark brown sugar (¾ c.)
- 1 egg room temperature
- ½ tsp. vanilla extract
- 360 g all purpose flour (3 c.)
- 1 tsp. baking soda
- ½ tsp. salt
- 1 ½ tsp. ground cinnamon
- 1 ½ tsp. ground ginger
- ½ tsp. ground cloves
- ½ tsp. ground allspice
Cream Cheese Frosting
- 170 g cream cheese room temperature (¾ c.)
- 85 g unsalted butter room temperature (¼ c. + 2 tbsp.)
- ⅛ tsp. salt
- 240 g powdered sugar (2 c.)
- 2 tsp. vanilla
Instructions
Gingerbread Sandwich Cookies
- In a medium sized mixing bowl, beat together the butter, molasses, and dark brown sugar until just combined.
- Then, beat in the egg and vanilla.
- Add in the flour, baking soda, salt, and spices. Beat the mixture together just until the last streak of flour disappears and the dough is cohesive.
- Pat the dough down into a rectangle, then cover tightly in plastic wrap. Let the dough chill in the fridge for at least 1 hour.
- Take out the chilled cookie dough and place it on a lightly floured work surface. Roll it out until it is ¼" thick, then use a gingerbread cookie cutter to cut out the cookies.
- Re-roll and repeat until you have used up the cookie dough. [Note: I got 32 cookies from this which equates to 16 sandwich cookies. You may make more or less depending on your cookie cutter size!]
- Transfer the cookies to a parchment lined baking sheet, leaving about ½" between each cookie.
- Use a small heart shaped cookie cutter to stamp out a heart in the center of half of the cookies.
- Place the tray of cookies in the freezer for 10 minutes to firm up.
- Preheat the oven to 350℉ / 175℃. Bake the cookies for 8-10 minutes, until they no longer look wet on top.
Cream Cheese Frosting
- In a medium sized mixing bowl, beat together the cream cheese, butter and salt until the mixture is light and fluffy.
- Slowly beat in the powdered sugar until well combined. Add in the vanilla, then beat for an additional minute.
- Transfer the frosting to a piping bag fitted with your tip of choice. Once the cookies have fully cooled to room temperature, pipe the filling onto the under-side of the cookies that don't have a heart cut out, then top each cookie with one that does. Serve and enjoy!
Notes
Nutrition
Please note that the nutrition facts are only an estimate and may vary based on different brands of ingredients and any substitutions made.
These were a hit with my friends! First ones to go at Thanksgiving!
Ah I’m so happy to hear that, thank you so much for making my recipe! 🙂