Perfect Gingerbread Cookies

Not-too-soft, not-too-hard, not-too-spicy, not-too-bland... These are the absolute PERFECT gingerbread cookies for everyone and anyone at the holidays-You will get rave reviews from kids, dieters, parents, and traditionalists alike. This is a very malleable recipe; you don't need to follow it precisely. Feel free to add or reduce things as you wish, depending on your taste, as long as the dough looks and feels about right. I use from 6 to 8 cups of flour in this recipe.

• Preparation Time: 30 mins
• Cooking Time: 30 mins
• Total Time: 60 mins
• Calories: 83 Calories

Ingredients

• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup white sugar
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon ground cloves
• ½ teaspoon baking powder
• 1 ½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ½ cup water
• 1 ½ teaspoons ground ginger
• ½ teaspoon ground allspice
• 1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
• 1 cup molasses
• 1 ½ teaspoons white sugar
• ¾ cup applesauce
• 2 tablespoons canola oil
• 2 pinches ground nutmeg
• 2 tablespoons softened butter
• 6 cups all-purpose flour, or as needed
• ¼ cup liquid egg substitute (such as Egg Beaters®)

Recipe Instructions

Step 1

Preheat an oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease several baking sheets. Whisk the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, 2 teaspoons cinnamon, allspice, cloves, nutmeg, and ginger in a bowl; set aside.

Step 2

Beat together 1 cup white sugar, brown sugar, molasses, butter, canola oil, applesauce, water, egg substitute, and vanilla extract in a large bowl until evenly combined. Stir in the flour mixture to make a soft, thick, not-very-sticky dough. Cover and refrigerate at least 30 minutes. Stir 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon together with 1 1/2 teaspoons white sugar in a small bowl; set aside.

Step 3

Roll the dough on a heavily floured surface to a thickness of 1/4-inch. Cut into shapes using a cookie cutter. Place the cookies onto the prepared baking sheets, and sprinkle with the cinnamon sugar mixture.

Step 4

Bake in the preheated oven until the edges are golden, and the bottoms are slightly darker than the tops, 9 to 11 minutes. Remove the cookies from the baking sheets immediately, and place on a wire rack to cool. After 10 minutes of cooling, they should be hard, like typical gingerbread cookies, but still slightly bendable, and soft on the inside.