These frosted gingerbread cookies with cream cheese frosting might be the cutest cookies ever? Think soft and chewy molasses cookies, topped with fluffy cream cheese frosting! Crumbl, eat your heart out!

A close up of a gingerbread cookie frosted with cream cheese frosting and a small gingerbread house decoration.

These gingerbread frosted cookies are basically my dream Christmas cookie. Super soft? ✅ Filled with warm spices? ✅ Topped with frosting? ✅ ✅ ✅

These soft gingerbread cookies use my molasses crinkle cookies base, and then I've topped them with my go-to cream cheese frosting that you can also find on my gingerbread frosted cake.

Want even more holiday cookies? Try my chocolate dipped butter cookies, Christmas sprinkle sugar cookies, or peanut butter snickerdoodles!

Why you'll love this recipe!

Christmas Flavors: you get all the Christmas vibes with these cookies thanks to a combination of brown sugar, molasses, and warm spices like cinnamon, allspice, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves!
Easy to Make: you will need a mixer to make the cookies and the frosting (or a super strong arm), but I promise this is a really simple Christmas cookie for the holiday season!
Make Ahead: you can make the cookies a day ahead of time, then frost them just before you want to serve them! You can also make the cookie dough the night before, then bake in the morning.

Grab your ingredients

All the ingredients needed to make frosted gingerbread cookies, weighed out into small bowls.

Brown Sugar: it wouldn't be chewy gingerbread cookies without brown sugar! I'm using light brown sugar but you can also use dark brown sugar if that's all you have. The brown sugar makes these cookies chewy and caramelized.
Unsalted Butter: I always use unsalted butter in my baking, that way I can control the amount of salt in the recipe.
Molasses: you want to use unsulphured molasses and not blackstrap. Blackstrap molasses would be too bitter.
Apple Cider Vinegar: ok, now I know this seems weird, but trust me on this. I saw Claire Saffitz use apple cider vinegar in her crinkle cookies. The acidity from the vinegar will make the cookies even softer and chewier!
Pure Vanilla Extract: adding a dash of vanilla is going to give these cookies even more flavor.
Kosher Salt: I always use kosher salt in my baking, but please note I use Diamond Crystal kosher salt and not Morton kosher salt - these are two types of kosher salts and Morton is much saltier!
Cream Cheese: you'll need some full-fat cream cheese for the frosting. Please don't use a light cream cheese, you need the fat from regular cream cheese for flavor and it will also help keep the shape of the frosting.
Spices: we're gonna be using ALL the warm spices for this! That means ground cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, allspice, and cloves. If you want even more *spice*, then add a tiny pinch of black pepper.
Granulated Sugar: the granulated sugar is for rolling the cookie dough balls to get sparkly cookies! Because the cookies are mainly covered in frosting, you can skip this step if you like.

Substitutions & Additions

Treacle: live in the UK? Swap out the molasses for black treacle! I've tested these cookies with both and they both work.
Apple Cider Vinegar: don't have any vinegar on hand? Just leave it out, the cookies will still be delish!
Decorations: I got these cute little gingerbread houses from Target, but you could also just use sprinkles or find edible sugar decorations at the grocery store!
Different Toppings: don't want to use cream cheese frosting? Swap it out for my simple vanilla icing from my no spread sugar cookies, white chocolate frosting from my cranberry lemon bread, or the buttercream frosting from my buttercream sugar cookies.

How to make this recipe

Creamed butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl.

Step 1: In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or in a large mixing bowl with a handheld mixer, beat the butter and brown sugar together until light and fluffy on medium-high speed.

A large glass bowl with flour and spices with a whisk.

Step 2: In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, baking soda, and all of the spices. Set aside.

A beige cookie mixture in a large mixing bowl.

Step 3: Add the molasses, egg, vanilla extract, and apple cider vinegar. Beat on medium speed, then scrape down the sides and the bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula so all of the batter is getting evenly mixed.

Gingerbread cookie dough in a glass bowl.

Step 4: Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and beat until just combined - you don't want to overmix it. Place the bowl, cover the top in plastic wrap, in the fridge for at least 1 hour to chill. You can leave it overnight if you wish.

A hand rolling a cookie dough ball in sugar.

Step 5: Preheat the oven to 375°Fahrenheit and line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Scoop out 1.5 tablespoons of gingerbread cookie dough (I use a medium cookie scoop for this) and roll into balls in your palms. Then roll the dough ball in granulated sugar.

Unbaked gingerbread cookie dough balls on parchment paper on a baking sheet.

Step 6: Place the cookie dough balls on the baking sheet. Bake one sheet at a time for 10-12 minutes, you want the edges to have set. Let the cookies cool on the sheet for 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Step 5: Time to make the frosting! Beat the butter and powdered sugar together in a large bowl with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Then add the cold cream cheese, salt, vanilla, and if you like a pinch of cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and cloves! Beat until light and fluffy.

A close up of gingerbread cookies frosted with cream cheese frosting and a small gingerbread house decoration and sprinkles.

Step 6: Frost your cookies and enjoy! I used a large round piping tip in a piping bag to pipe frosting on each of the cooled cookies, then added sprinkles and edible decorations.

A close up of gingerbread cookies frosted with cream cheese frosting and a small gingerbread house decoration.

My Top Baking Tips

Cold Cream Cheese: My secret to having cream cheese frosting that isn't runny? Cold cream cheese! It will help the frosting keep its shape.
Chilling Dough: Look, I know that chilling the dough is annoying. I get it! But if you don't chill these cookies before baking, they're more likely to spread out in the oven giving you sad, flat cookies.
Measuring Flour: I am once again here to tell you - buy a kitchen scale! It will make your life so much easier and there will be fewer dishes to clean up. It's so easy to add too much flour if you're using measuring cups, and then your cookies will be dry.
Scoot Cookies: if your baked cookies come out and aren't perfectly round, use a large biscuit cutter or mug to gently scoot the cookies into a perfectly round shape.
Spreading: these cookies do spread a lot in the oven, so make sure you leave enough space on the baking tray.

Serving Suggestions

These must be served next to the Christmas tree with a glass of milk for Santa (or yourself!)

Storage & Freezing

Keep these cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 days, or in the fridge for up to 5 days. If keeping in the fridge, let the cookies come to room temperature before serving.

To freeze the unfrosted cookies, place in an airtight container or ziplock bag in the freezer for up to 2 months. Let thaw before frosting.

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If you've made this recipe, make sure to leave a ⭐️ rating and review below! I love seeing when you make my recipes, so tag me on Instagram @alpineella so I can see! You can also follow along on Pinterest, Facebook and TikTok!

Soft Frosted Gingerbread Cookies with Cream Cheese Frosting