In my discussions with friends, it seems like the gingerbread cookie recipe itself doesn’t get much thought. We make them once a year, throw a bunch of frosting and candies on top to decorate them with fun, sometimes wild, designs, but we make them for the experience, not because gingerbread cookie recipe taste really good.
We did taste these with the royal icing frosting on top as well, but judgments were based on the actual merits of the plain cookie without any additional add ons or decorations. For the sake of the bake-off, I stuck to the exact directions as written. That meant that even if I disagreed with the method or measurements, I ignored my personal opinions to follow the recipe exactly. Ranking Guardrails: We had a grand total of 15 taste testers participate in this bake-off.
Warming spices that add a lot of flavors. We want to just toe the line of spicy, warm, and savory. Should be able to taste the molasses. Want a little bit of a snap to the biscuit, but don’t want them to be dry. A little chew is nice as well in the texture.
We want a cookie that keeps us coming back for more than one. So with our rules and ranking criteria in place, a grand total of almost 200 biscuits baked, and taste testers ready, keep scrolling to find the winner of our best gingerbread cookie recipe bake-off! Overall, this cookie wasn’t quite the fan-favorite. While all the taste testers thought the flavor was mildly sweet and molasses forward, there wasn’t enough spice for what we wanted from a gingerbread cookie.
The texture also wasn’t a hit with our judges. It was chewier, but not as moist as we would’ve liked. This would be a fine cookie to make for decorating, but it wasn’t one we kept returning to for another bite. This cookie caused the most conversation in our tasting.