These gingerbread cookies without molasses are my most beloved cookie recipe. They’re the perfect alternative if you don’t enjoy the strong taste of molasses, yet still want a reliable, excellent recipe for Christmas cookies packed with the warmth of spices.
Gingerbread is one of those classic recipes that everyone should have a great go-to recipe for, so I’m sharing this one that I’ve been baking for more than 25 years.
Using golden syrup (or treacle and honey) and a blend of traditional spices, this gingerbread cookie dough results in my all-time favorite of cookie recipes. It’s ideal for shaping into gingerbread men or ladies, holiday shapes, or even panels for a festive gingerbread house.
Whether you’re whipping up a batch for a family Christmas tradition or preparing cookies as gifts, this recipe for gingerbread cookies without molasses is sure to become a seasonal favorite.
The dough is easy to work with, making it a great option for those who may not bake regularly. And this isn’t just for Christmas time. I make it right through the year whenever I need a batch of novelty cookies for a holiday or event. I even gave our guests little gingerbread brides and grooms as favors at our wedding!
This post includes affiliate links. Find out more about affiliate links and how they help this site.
What goes in gingerbread cookies without molasses?
One of the great things about these easy gingerbread cookies is the simplicity of the ingredients.
Golden syrup is the only slightly unusual addition, standing in for molasses, which I find too heavy. The syrup adds richness and slight caramel notes, which pairs perfectly with the spices. Golden syrup is widely available at supermarkets in Australia, the UK and New Zealand. It can be found in many supermarkets in the USA and Canada now, or ordered online.
If you can’t find golden syrup in your grocery store, substitute with half treacle and half honey. This mix gives a similar color and taste.
Here’s what you’ll need:
- Unsalted butter, straight from the fridge is fine because we’re going to melt it.
- Dark brown sugar. While you can use light brown sugar if it’s what you have on hand, dark brown sugar is what gives these cookies their deep color and flavor.
- Golden syrup for that signature molasses-free sweetness (use a mixture of half treacle and half honey if you can’t find golden syrup)
- A blend of warming spices: ground ginger, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and even a little bit of black pepper for an extra kick.
- Baking soda to give your cookies a little lightness without rising or spreading too much.
- All-purpose flour, ensuring a good structure and a solid foundation for your dough.
You’ll notice that this is an egg free gingerbread cookie recipe (great for those with egg allergies!). No eggs means the dough is slightly firmer than a typical cookie dough. It’s still easy to work with, and perfect for rolling and cutting into shapes.
Step-by-step guide to making the best gingerbread cookies
- Prepare the butter mixture
Start by melting together the unsalted butter, dark brown sugar, and golden syrup. Stir until the butter has melted and the sugar is dissolved, resulting in a smooth, glossy mixture. If it looks like it’s split or separated, keep stirring and it’ll come back together. Then let it come to a boil for about a minute, then set aside to cool while you prepare the dry ingredients. - Sift the dry ingredients
In a large bowl, sift together the all-purpose flour, baking soda, and spices. Sifting is important to ensure that there are no lumps. You won’t get the best results if you’ve got little lumps of flour or baking soda through your cookie dough. If you’re like me and tend to skip sifting, trust me, this is one recipe where you won’t want to! - Combine wet ingredients with the flour mixture
Pour the slightly cooled butter mixture into the flour mixture and stir together with a wooden spoon. This is where the magic happens. The heat from the butter mixture starts to cook the flour, making it more stable, and easier to mix together into a cohesive dough. - Knead the dough
Turn the dough out onto a clean surface and knead it until it’s smooth. The dough will still be very warm, so be careful! I’ve found it helps to split the dough into two portions for easier handling. If you’ve worked with cookie dough before, you’ll notice that this one is particularly smooth and firm. That makes it ideal for rolling and cutting into shapes. It holds up better than other gingerbread recipes I’ve tried when it comes to re-rolling the scraps, so you can get a lot of cookies out of a single batch.
Rolling and cutting the dough
When your dough is smooth and still warm, roll it out to about ¼-inch thickness (6mm). Get it as even as you can so your cookies are all the same when you cut and bake them.
These days I have an awesome rolling pin with spacers on the ends for even rolling. If you don’t have one, this is what I did for years and years before the fancy rolling pin: place two narrow pieces of scrap wood, the thickness you want your dough to be, on either side of the dough just inside where the ends of your rolling pin sit. As you roll the dough flatter, the pin rolls across the scrap wood. This stops you from rolling too-flat or uneven gingerbread dough.
Cut the dough into shapes using your favorite cookie cutters. Whether it’s classic Christmas trees, stars, or gingerbread people, the possibilities are endless! Place each shape on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper or greased with a bit of butter. Make sure to leave some space between each cookie to prevent them from sticking together during baking.
You can knead and re-roll the scraps of these gingerbread cookies without molasses, without affecting the finished texture, so you’ll be able to use up every last scrap of dough.
This dough can also be made ahead of time, though it is a little harder to roll out when made in advance. To do this, store the finished, kneaded dough well wrapped in plastic wrap, in the fridge for up to two days. Allow it to come to room temperature before kneading until smooth and rolling it out.
Baking gingerbread cookies without molasses
Baking time! Preheat your oven to 350°F (180°C) and bake the cookies for around 12 minutes, depending on their size and thickness. You’ll know they’re ready when they’re evenly golden and firm to the touch. Keep an eye on them during the last few minutes, so they don’t darken too much. For best results, let the cookies cool on the tray for a few minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely.
Decorating your gingerbread cookies
Once your gingerbread cookies have cooled, it’s time to decorate! You can use royal icing and a piping bag to create beautiful designs, cut rolled fondant shapes to stick on with a little egg white, or simply dust them with powdered sugar. If you’re making a gingerbread house, decorate the panels before assembling the house—it’ll save you a lot of hassle later.
Storing and gifting
Gingerbread cookies without molasses will come out of the oven very crunchy. This is great for decorating as they’re really sturdy. But if you prefer soft gingerbread cookies, leave them out overnight before packing into a container, and they’ll naturally absorb some of the moisture from the air, becoming more of a chewy texture.
These classic gingerbread cookies will store incredibly well. Simply pop them into an airtight container, and they’ll stay fresh for up to a week. If you’re baking ahead for the Christmas season, you can also freeze the baked cookies in an airtight container, and defrost them when you’re ready to decorate. They’ll keep this way for up to 4 months.
For a special gift, package the cookies into festive bags or tins—perfect for sharing with friends and family during Christmas time.
Would you like to save this post?
Love this recipe? Discover more Christmas recipes for gifting:
My Best Italian Chocolate Panforte Recipe
Simple Old Fashioned Christmas Butter Cookies
Panforte di Siena (Siena Cake) with Ginger, Apricots and Macadamias
Do you want to use and love your steam oven more?
Steam Oven Insiders is a membership for steam oven cooks who’d like to know, use and love their combi steam ovens more.
In addition to an ad-free experience across the entire Steam & Bake website, Insiders also get exclusive access to a growing library of premium content, from recipes (always!) to downloadable cooking charts and guides, seasonal steam oven cooking ideas and more, delivered straight to your inbox in a helpful and inspiring twice-monthly newsletter.
As an Insider, you get the opportunity to shape the content published here, by requesting recipes and asking your curly steam oven cooking questions.
Not ready to become an Insider just yet? I hope you’ll still enjoy the hundreds of free recipes and articles across the Steam & Bake site, and that you’ll consider joining us in future.
Whether you’re baking with the family or preparing gifts for loved ones, this simple gingerbread cookies recipe is a must-have during the Christmas season. With a batch of gingerbread cookies without molasses on hand, you’ll be gifting delicious treats to everyone you know.
Enjoy these traditional gingerbread cookies without molasses, and happy baking!
Best Easy Gingerbread Cookies (without Molasses)
Ingredients
- 8.8 oz unsalted butter 1 cup, cubed, cold from the fridge is fine
- 1 1/3 cups dark brown sugar 8oz, firmly packed
- 1 cup golden syrup 11.5oz, I know this can be hard to find in some parts. If you absolutely can’t get any I suggest you substitute with half treacle and half clear honey, which is different in taste but will be similar for colour
- 7 cups all purpose flour 1lb 12oz, plain flour
- 0.6 oz baking soda bicarb soda, equivalent to a tablespoon plus a teaspoon
- 6 tbs ground ginger 1oz
- 1 tbs ground cinnamon
- 1 1/2 tsp ground cloves
- 1 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1/2 tsp ground white pepper
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350°F/180°C, fan forced/convection heat (some of you will be looking for a steam oven setting here but this is a conventional oven recipe, so no steam!). Grease several cookie sheets (or line with parchment paper) and set aside.
- Put the butter, brown sugar and golden syrup into a pan and cook over medium heat, stirring, until the butter and sugar have melted and the mixture is smooth. Increase the heat to bring the mixture to the boil, then cook for 1 minute before turning off and removing from heat. Allow to cool for 5-10 minutes while you get the rest of the ingredients ready.
- Sift the flour, baking soda and spices into a very large mixing bowl. Give it a whisk to make sure the soda and spices are incorporated through the flour. In general I can't be bothered sifting ingredients, but here it really is necessary so you don't have lumps of flour or soda in the dough later.
- Pour the hot mixture over the flour mixture and use a wooden spoon to stir everything together. It’s hard work but keep mixing until it’s smooth with no lumps of flour remaining.
- Tip the dough out onto a clean surface and knead until smooth and firm (it will be hot – my hands cope fine after years of practice, but if yours can’t, a very clean pair of kitchen gloves will help). If you’re finding the dough too much to handle as one mass, split it into two or three portions for kneading.
- Take a portion of your dough and roll it out to 6mm/¼ inch thickness. You shouldn’t need to flour the surface as this dough is firm and smooth enough to lift cleanly after rolling. Rolling tip: I have a couple of narrow lengths of lightweight scrap wood exactly the right thickness, which I sit either side of the dough – as the rolling pin flattens the dough it rolls over the wood and you end up with a very uniform sheet of dough, exactly the same thickness all over. Have a look at the process photos for an example. Want thinner dough? Just get thinner wood! Your local home improvement store is bound to have some offcuts for cheap or even free.
- Cut your chosen shapes from the rolled dough and lift them gently onto the prepared baking sheets. Leave about 1.5cm/¼ inch between each cookie.
- Bake the cookies until they’re evenly golden. 12 minutes is my standard time – a little less for thinner or very small cookies, a little more for large gingerbread house panels. Remove from oven and allow to cool on the tray for a couple of minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Decorate the cookies as you like and store in a well-sealed container, or package into clear bags for gifts.
Notes
- Mostly I double this quantity of dough, mixing it in an enormous bowl I’ve kept from my commercial cooking days. If you don’t need to bake gingerbread for everyone you know, this batch size will still give you a good four dozen large Christmas shapes, or the panels for a couple of gingerbread houses plus some cookies. Feel free to halve the quantity if that’s still too much.
- If you aren’t already in the habit of weighing your ingredients for baking, can I strongly suggest you give it a go here? Kitchen scales are pretty inexpensive nowadays and very easy to use (they’re also a great and practical Christmas gift for the baker in your life. Or, uh, yourself). I have given cup and spoon measures, but they’re open to wild fluctuations in weight, especially with dry ingredients. I can’t guarantee the success of your recipe if you end up way off on measurements.
- The dough is easiest to work with straightaway, when it’s warm and pliable. Happily, you can re-knead and re-roll all your scraps as much as you like without really affecting the texture of the finished cookies, so you’ll be able to use up every last scrap of dough.
Nutrition
Over to you – if you try this recipe I’d love to know about it! Please share your pictures with me on Facebook or tag them @steamandbake on Instagram.
Would you like more Steam and Bake recipes? Join the mailing list – there’s no spam, just an email every now and then to tell you the latest..
And if you’re after another of my most popular (and delicious) Christmas gift recipes, try this panforte with ginger, apricots and macadamia nuts. It’s a total winner which can be made well ahead of time like these cookies. If you still want more Christmas goodness, check out the Combi Steam Cooking at Christmas digital cookbook, for a selection of my all time favourite Christmas recipes suited to steam oven cooking.
12 Responses
The dough handles much better when it’s warm. My recommendation would be to make the cookies and then freeze those, undecorated, in an airtight container. They’ll last for weeks at room temperature, though, so if I needed them anywhere up to a few weeks away I’d just store them in the back of the pantry, in a really well sealed container. Alternatively you could make and roll out the dough between sheets of parchment paper, and freeze the sheets of dough ready to cut and bake later.
It depends where you are in the world. In Aus/NZ/UK it’s readily available in supermarkets. In the US I believe some Whole Foods stores stock it (perhaps in the British/English specialties section?), or you can order it online from Amazon and specialty UK foods retailers.
Where can I find golden syrup?
Can I make dough early & freeze? Thanks
I love these biscuits, I make them every Christmas! I keep meaning to ask though, the ratio between the ginger and cinnamon seems off. By measure it’s 6:1 but by weight it’s 3:1. It’s possible if they’re very different weights per tbsp but that seems unlikely so I wanted to check before I start my Christmas baking. 😊
I’ve had the pleasure of eating a lot of Emily’s gingerbread cookies, and they are the best. Definitely enough ginger to make them worthy of the name.
Nope, no eggs in this recipe at all!
Hi Emily,
I see no reference to eggs in your recipe? It could be that I am missing something, but I am somehow sure that you may have left the ingredient out of your ingredients list. Please could you let me know if I must include egg, and ar what stage in the recipe? Thanks, Emily
Yes, I believe it is in certain parts of the world (my US and Canadian readers definitely believe molasses is the way to go!). But this is the version I was taught years ago by a baker of German heritage, and I love the lighter toastiness of golden syrup. The two would be fairly interchangeable but molasses will give a deeper flavour and colour.
What about molasses, I thought it’s the key ingredient in gingerbread cookies?
No egg! It’s the key to gingerbread that stays sturdy and keeps really well. 🙂
No egg?