There are foods that only seem to be around at Christmas time like eggnog and gingerbread. I absolutely love eggnog and I always know it’s time to get excited about Christmas when it appears again in the grocery store. Except this year the eggnog showed up at Halloween and the carton had a witch on it. Huh? Okay, I still bought it but it was weird marketing for sure.
Now gingerbread is another story. I don’t like the stuff and never have. But everyone in my family loves it so I decided to give in this year and try making a batch of gingerbread cookies. Of course, I had to tinker with the classic recipe, and my three changes led to a result that was…amazing. Seriously, I love these cookies. I know, I can’t believe it myself. What’s my secret? Brown butter, real vanilla and essential oils, baby! Yum!
I spent some time searching the internet for ginger cookie recipes and every recipe I found was exactly the same with the occasional slight variation in the amount of flour. I changed it up by replacing the spices with essential oils. The problem with the spices in most american cupboards is that they are old. After a year, ground spices start to lose their aroma and potency and my guess is that the spices in your cupboard are a lot older than a year. My jar of powdered ginger didn’t smell anything like ginger. So I used my trusty essential oils which smell and taste amazing. I only use pure certified essential oils that are pure enough to take internally. Whatever brand you use just make sure it says FOR INTERNAL or DIETARY USE on the bottle.
I also added real vanilla to the recipe because every cookie recipe needs vanilla. Period. And finally, because it’s my new obsession, I switched the vegetable shortening to browned butter.
Brown butter is the bomb! I have used it in several varieties of cookies and and it really takes the flavor over the top. I have also used it on popcorn, lightly drizzled with a little salt, and it received two enthusiastic thumbs up. Just cooking the butter a little past the melting point causes the milk solids in the butter to brown, creating a wonderfully nutty flavor and aroma. You can use this with butter-based sauces, baked goods or vegetables that you saute in butter.
Brown Butter–Cut up butter and place in frying pan. Turn on heat to medium and using a whisk, stir constantly until butter melts. Continues to whisk melted butter until it turns brown and has a nutty aroma, about 5 minutes. It can go from browned to burned very quickly so don’t stop whisking or walk away. If you’re wondering if it’s done–it is. Immediately move the pan to a cool surface to stop the cooking process. Pat yourself on the back for being a great chef even though you didn’t go to culinary school!
The dough will be pretty stiff after mixing. Put it in a container with a lid and leave it in your refrigerator for at least 2 hours or even overnight. It also freezes well so for convenience I always double the recipe. This fits in perfectly with my “work now, relax later” farm girl mentality. Seriously, it’s just as easy to make a double-batch of cookies as a single-batch and doubling it will give you enough to freeze some for later. You’ll thank me the next time you want gingerbread cookies and then you see that container of dough in your freezer just smiling back at you. Happy, happy, happy.
After being in the fridge for a while the dough will be to hard to scoop unless you work out a lot in which case you’re probably not making cookies anyway. For the rest of us it’s a good idea to leave the dough out on the counter for 10–15 minutes to soften a bit. Or you can just scoop it while it’s hard and consider that your workout for the week. Once you’ve rolled the dough into a ball, roll it in white sugar and place it on a cookie sheet. Give them plenty of space as these babies will spread.
These Brown Butter Gingerbread Cookies are Christmas on a plate. I’ve made several batches in the last few weeks and everyone who’s tried them has raved. Nobody has managed to eat just one, myself included. Consider yourself warned! Happy, but warned.
Brown Butter Gingerbread Cookies
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
3/4 cup butter, browned and then cooled until solidified
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla
1/4 cup molasses (I prefer full flavor)
2 drops ginger essential oil (or 1 tsp. ground ginger)
1 drop cassia or cinnamon essential oil (or 1 tsp. cinnamon)
1 drop clove essential oil (or 1/2 tsp. ground cloves)
1/3 cup sugar (to roll dough in)
Brown the butter following the directions above. Allow brown butter to cool until solidified (putting it in the refrigerator will speed this up).
Sift flour, baking soda and salt together, set aside. In a stand mixer cream together both sugars and solidified brown butter. Add in egg, vanilla, molasses and the essential oils and beat until well combined. Add the flour mixture in two parts. Put dough in a covered container and refrigerate overnight or for at least 2 hours.
Preheat oven to 350F. Shape dough into about 1 1/2″ balls and roll thoroughly in sugar. Place on ungreased cookie sheet about 3″ apart so cookies can spread. Bake for 9-11 minutes, making sure to remove them from oven when they look slightly under-done. This will ensure a soft, chewy cookie. Allow to cool on the cookie sheet for 5 minutes and enjoy. Store uneaten cookies (yeah, right!) in an airtight container or plastic bag.
Makes about 2 dozen. Unless you doubled the recipe like I told you to and then it makes 2 dozen now and 2 dozen for later. You’re welcome!
Mel says
These cookies look yummy! Mel, visiting from #weeklylinkparty1
Fabulous Farm Girl says
Yes they are Mel. Thanks for stopping by!
–Leah
Brooke Verdrager says
Leah I finally made these cookies… LOVE THEM! Thanks for sharing your recipe. I need to get CLOVE oil next month, but used the powder and it tasted delicious.
Fabulous Farm Girl says
Oh, I’m so glad you made these Brooke! Definitely order some clove oil and they’ll be even better! Plus clove oil is a great addition to your medicine cabinet for lots of things. I love it for pain relief. Thanks for stopping by.
–Leah
Charlotte Moore says
I love to make cookies into balls and freeze them. All I have to do is leave out a few minutes then preheat oven. BAM!!! Cookies can be ready to eat warm in a few minutes. These look so good. In fact I have butter getting soft now to make some different kinds to freeze.
Fabulous Farm Girl says
Wow, Charlotte–great minds think alike! When I owned a cookie business it was actually a frozen cookie dough business. I rolled and shaped the dough into little hockey pucks and froze them before boxing them up. They were cooked right from frozen so my customers could serve warm cookies out of their oven in 15 minutes freezer-to-plate. My kids loved it because they could always pick the kind they wanted and even have 2 different kinds at once. This gingerbread recipe was developed after I no longer had the cookie company but Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip and Double Chocolate Salted were my #1 seller and #3 seller respectively and are posted on my website. I would recommend flattening the dough balls into pucks before freezing and see if they cook up better. I think I need to go make some cookies now. LOL! Enjoy.
–Leah
Dee says
These looks so good! I never thought about using essential oils in cooking, even though we use them for other purposes — interesting. 🙂
Fabulous Farm Girl says
Well Dee, I hope I’ve turned you on to something. I’m always adapting recipes to use doTerra essential oils and I have several recipes on my blog that use them. The have sooo much flavor and aroma and a little goes a long way so it’s very economical. These cookies will definitely turn you into a believer. Have a fabulous week!
–Leah
Fran @ TravelGenee says
Visiting from the Sits hop. The cookies look yummy.
Fabulous Farm Girl says
Thanks Fran–and yes they really are so, so good.
–Leah
Tori says
Can I just say that these look absolutely delicious! I think I need to go buy the ingredients NOW!
Fabulous Farm Girl says
Yes. Yes you do.
Kelly Elizabeth Smith says
I love a good molasses cookie, and I’ve never had one made with browned butter! That will have to change soon, I do believe. Pinning!
fabulous farm Girl says
You are going to love these Kelly! They really are the best gingerbread cookie my family has ever tasted and the brown butter is they key. It’s the perfect holiday cookie. Enjoy!
–Leah
Janelle @ Run With No Regrets says
This looks sooo good. I love gingerbread cookies, I need to make these for the holidays! Dropping by from SITS!
Fabulous Farm Girl says
Yes you do Janelle. Yes you do.
–Leah
(Love your blog, BTW).
Tami says
I want to try these! I also use doterra oils, but don’t have Cassia – only Cinnamon. Do you think I could use that instead?
Fabulous Farm Girl says
Hi Tami–thanks for stopping by. You can absolutely switch the cassia with cinnamon. I only use cassia because it tastes the same as cinnamon and is cheaper. Either will work though and I will change the post to reflect that. have a great day!
–Leah
Bonnie @ The Pin Junkie says
Wow! This looks delicious! Thanks for sharing your yummy recipe at The Pin Junkie. Just wanted to let you know that it’s featured in a Thanksgiving recipe roundup at The Pin Junkie at http://www.thepinjunkie.com/2014/11/thanksgiving-recipes.html
Fabulous Farm Girl says
Wow Bonnie–thanks so much! I am so glad you like my post and that means something since I am a big fan of your blog. Have a great week and stop by anytime!
–Leah
Kim @ The Baking ChocolaTess says
O wowsa! These cookies look so amazing and mouth-watering. I would love to try one or two right now! Stopping from The Pin Junkie Link Party! 🙂 Pinned and Twittered!
Fabulous Farm Girl says
Wow Kim–thanks so much for the compliment and the social media love! It means a lot coming from someone with a food blog as awesome as yours. These really are the perfect cookie this time of year so I hope you get a chance to make a batch. Have a great week!
–Leah
Ann says
I never realized you could cook with essential oils too! I’ve just dabbled in DoTerra a little bit; but this is a great incentive (at least to me) to try some more of them!
Fabulous Farm Girl says
Hi Ann–thanks for stopping by. We cook with the oils all the time. The flavor is so much better than old, past-their-prime spices from my cupboard. I have several recipes on my blog using EOs you should check out and I will be doing more in the future. Love doTerra in th kitchen! Thanks for stopping by.
–Leah
Lisa @ Pebbles & Piggytails says
The brown butter idea is awesome!!!
Fabulous Farm Girl says
Agreed Lisa! Brown butter makes everything better. Thanks for stopping by!
–Leah
Kathy says
These cookies are delicious! However, I found that 2 cups of flour produced an extremely flat cookie, so increased it to 2 1/2 cups for a more rounded soft cookie. They are really fabulous – thanks, FFG!
Fabulous Farm Girl says
Hi Kathy–thanks for the suggestion. I’ve never had mine turn out extremely flat but it might be because I live at a high altitude. If you are at a lower altitude than you just solved a problem that other people might have to. I appreciate you coming back and letting me know and glad you enjoyed the result. They really are delicious, aren’t they? Have a great week!
–Leah
Leslie says
These look so yummy! I can only imagine how they taste. I’d think a little like heaven. Yum! Thanks for sharing. Happy Saturday!
fabulous Farm Girl says
Hi Leslie–thanks for stopping by. They taste so good they turned this gingerbread hater into a gingerbread lover and that surprised no one more than me. Definitely try them and you’ll know why. Have a great week!
–Leah
Tasha says
Could I use this recipe to make gingerbread men?
Sadie says
I find that when I brown butter the measure after browning and solidifying is less than what the measure was before browning. You lose liquid during the browning process. Please clarify that the butter for these cookies is measured before browning, so therefore the amount of cooled, solidified butter will be less than 3/4 cup. I use brown butter quite often when baking cookies, but measure after browning, not before. Thanks!
Jan says
Is there a way to print these recipes. They look amazing and going to make. Just would like to print. These and the double dark chocolate. So far
Lindsay says
I found your recipe years ago and I’ve been making it every year since for Christmas. This is my all time favorite cookie recipe. Thank you so much for sharing!!