So, What Exactly Are Spice Cookies?
Well for starters, spice cookies are not the same thing as gingerbread men or gingersnap cookies. We won’t be adding any molasses to this recipe (besides what is in the brown sugar!), and the resulting cookies will have a softer, chewier texture. If you’ve ever had my spice cake (another fantastic fall recipe!) these cookies are very similar flavor-wise. They are so warm and cozy with plenty of spices and a sweet vanilla glaze on top.
What you’ll love:
Bright flavor: infusing the spices in warm melted butter helps to intensify their flavor, much like blooming cocoa powder. This also means you won’t have to soften cold, straight-from-the-fridge butter before you can begin! Customizable: you can chill the dough for just 30 minutes, but if you like thicker cookies, chill it for an hour. You can of course chill longer (several days) as long as you keep the dough covered. Note that the dough will be a bit hard to scoop and may need to sit at room temperature a bit if you let it chill for more than an hour. Easy glaze: my foolproof vanilla glaze rounds out the spice flavor so nicely!
What You Need
Don’t be overwhelmed by the amount of ingredients below–most of them are spices and other pantry staples you’ll already have on hand. Here are the key ingredients in my spice cookies.
Spices. I’m sticking with warm spices here today like ginger, allspice, nutmeg, cinnamon, and clove. Some of these are also in the butternut squash soup I recently shared! Dark brown sugar. While we won’t add molasses to these spice cookies, we will be adding brown sugar, which contains molasses. This gives the cookies a richer flavor and complements the spices nicely. Butter. Just as with my favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe, this recipe starts with melted butter. Not only does this mean you won’t need a mixer (yay!), but it also means the cookies will have a more buttery flavor. Egg + egg yolk. An extra egg yolk contributes to the soft and chewy texture we’re going for here. Save your leftover egg white for making candied pecans! Cornstarch. I love adding cornstarch to cookies to keep them tender and soft, I consider it my secret weapon. It also helps them keep their shape so they don’t spread too much in the oven.
SAM’S TIP: Let your butter cool down before adding the sugars (it should not feel warm to the touch, at all!), otherwise you could end up melting them. If this happens, your dough will be greasy and run all over your baking sheets–in other words, you will have a total mess on your hands! So have a little patience, and you will be rewarded 😊 Remember, this is just an overview of the ingredients I used and why. For the full recipe please scroll down to the bottom of the post!
How to Make Spice Cookies
SAM’S TIP: If your glaze is too thick, simply add more milk, a splash at a time, until it thins out again. If it ends up too thin, don’t fret–simply add more powdered sugar until it reaches the right consistency. Alternatively you could omit the glaze altogether and just roll the cookies through granulated sugar before baking! With their cozy flavor and have gorgeous crackly surfaces, these spice cookies are so perfect for fall. I recommend enjoying them with cup of hot chocolate or apple cider for the full experience 🥰 Enjoy! Let’s bake together! I’ll be walking you through all the steps in my written recipe and video below! If you try this recipe, be sure to tag me on Instagram, and you can also find me on YouTube and Facebook
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