Fermented Gingerbread
It is so easy to make sourdough fermented gingerbread cookies. The key to making a great sourdough cookie is weighing the ingredients with a kitchen scale, and making sure you mix the ingredients in the right order.
The order you mix the ingredients is what determines the texture of the cookie. Simply follow the directions in the recipe card to incorporate sourdough starter into these cookies while maintaining a quality cookie texture.
Also, fermenting cookie dough should always be kept in the fridge, never at room temperature.
Soft Fermented Gingerbread Cookies
These cookies are so soft and delicate; they really do melt in your mouth. The texture reminds me of those big sugar cookies with the excessive icing and sprinkles on top. These are obviously much healthier, though.
For this recipe you will ferment the cookie dough in the fridge overnight for 12 hours, developing the flavors in the gingerbread and making the cookies easier to digest.
Once you get the cookie dough all mixed, simply cover the cookie dough and stick it in the fridge for up to 24 hours before you scoop it into balls and bake (or freeze).
Other Ingredients You Need to Make Sourdough Gingerbread
Here are all the ingredients you need to make fermented gingerbread:
- all purpose flour
- nutmeg
- cinnamon
- ground ginger
- baking soda
- salt
- unsalted butter, room temperature
- cane sugar
- molasses
- eggs
- vanilla extract
- sourdough starter (active, hydrated)
Sourdough Gingerbread Cookies
I’m sure some people will be curious if you can use discard in these gingerbread cookies. Yes, you can.
You can use discard straight from the fridge, or you can use an active bubbly starter in this recipe. Some cookies are considered “sourdough discard” cookies because you use sourdough starter in the recipe, but we don’t use it for rising, and it is not necessary for the baking process. So the starter is considered “discarded” into the recipe.
In this recipe we are using the starter to ferment the ingredients in the dough. Therefore, I use a stirred-down active, bubbly sourdough starter in all of my sourdough cookie recipes.
You can use flat sourdough discard from the fridge if you prefer, but the cookie dough might not ferment as well.
More Sourdough Cookie Recipes
- Soft and Chewy Sourdough Peanut Butter Cookies
- Sourdough Chocolate Chip Cookies with Pumpkin and Pecans
- Ginger Molasses Gluten Free Sourdough Cookies
Sourdough Fermented Gingerbread Cookies
Sourdough fermented gingerbread cookies are a delicious and unique twist on the classic Christmas cookie. These soft, melt-in-your-mouth sourdough gingerbread cookies are spiced with ginger, cinnamon, and nutmeg for the perfect flavor. Leave them plain or decorate them with icing and powdered sugar.
- Prep: 15 minutes
- Cook: 15 minutes
- Total Time: 12 hours 30 minutes
Ingredients
- 340 g all purpose flour
- 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- 2 teaspoon ground ginger
- 3/4 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp salt
- 200 g unsalted butter, room temperature
- 150 g cane sugar
- 120 g molasses
- 1 egg + 1 egg yolk
- 14 g vanilla extract
- 100 g sourdough starter (active, hydrated)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.
- In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or with a hand mixer, beat the softened butter, cane sugar, and molasses together until combined.
- Scrape down the bowl and add the egg, egg yolk, vanilla extract, and sourdough starter.
- Mix well until light and fluffy.
- In a separate bowl sift together the flour, baking soda, spices and salt.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and fold together with a spatula until combined.
- Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or reusable beeswax wrap and refrigerate the dough for 12 hours overnight.*
- Using a cookie scoop, scoop the dough out into about 1-inch balls, then drop them 2 inches apart on the prepared cookie sheet. (For big cookies you can roll the dough into 50 gram balls)
- Bake at 350°F for 12-15 minutes until the cookies are set on the edges
- Allow to cool completely on the pan.
- Decorate the cookies with icing or powdered sugar or leave them plain.*
Notes
*You can refrigerate the dough for just 1 hour and bake sooner, but then the cookies won’t be as fermented.
*To make icing, mix 1/2 cup powdered sugar with 1 to 2 tsp milk. You only need to add enough milk for your desired icing consistency. Add a tiny bit of milk to the sugar at a time to see how thick it is before adding more milk.
We made these and they are THE BEST. My husband and I aren’t even huge gingerbread cookie fans and now we are all hooked. The cookies are soft, chewy and end with a slight crunch. These will forever be part of our Christmas baking tradition! Thanks for such a perfect recipe!!
Could these be rolled and cut out with cookie cutters? Thanks!
I’m not sure, I haven’t tried it.
I ferment Yogurt and am ready to try new recipes Once you bake the Gingerbread, are you killing your good bacteria?
yep, same with any sourdough. It does not contain live microbes. The benefits come from the fermentation process before baking.
Reading that you’re a microbiologist, I’m thinking you have the answer to my question—how can we safely ferment these with eggs in them for 12 hours at room temp? Excited to hear your answer as I’ve been doing sourdough bread for health purposes for about a year and have played with some other things but have steered cleared of anything with raw eggs unless they are added after the ferment—but that is so limiting.
Hi there! You cannot ferment cookie dough at room temperature. In this recipe, you’re instructed to ferment the dough overnight in the refrigerator. You can leave it in the fridge for a couple of days for a *cold* long ferment.
LOVE THIS! MY new favorite holiday cookie recipe
I’m excited to try, I’ve been trying to avoid eggs and dairy though, not necessarily at the same time.
I’m curious how it would be using coconut oil in place of butter? Or in another batch using flax in place of egg?
If you’ve tried or have any insight on how that would change I’d really appreciate it.
Both substitutions should work! If you can, though, I suggest trying a DF butter substitute instead of coconut oil. I’ve baked with miyoko’s butter and it works great. Also, a flax egg is good, but I prefer to use bob’s red mill egg substitute.
Made these and they turned out so good and delicious! Great recipe and would definitely recommend!
yay! thank you for leaving a review. I’m glad you enjoyed the cookies 🙂
How long could the dough stay in the fridge before being baked?
If freezing the dough, how should we prepare it for baking?
I like to make my holiday doughs in advance and bake as I need them ☺️
Thanks, looking forward to making it!
You can leave it in the fridge for up to 72 hours, covered.
if you want to freeze it, roll the dough into balls, then place in a freezer safe bag, and freeze. The dough balls can be baked straight from the freezer, you may just need to leave them in the oven a few minutes longer.
Such a delightful cookie! My picky 5 year old approves, too! We haven’t tried them with icing yet – they’re perfect as is.
I used sourdough discard since I didn’t time it right and these still turned out nice and fluffy.
These cookies are absolutely delicious! The perfect combination of flavors between the spices and the sour tang – fermented for 24 hours and they are heavenly! Making a double batch tonight for a holiday gathering this weekend. These are our favorite cookies now!
Hi, I was wondering if one could substitute molasse with maple syrup (C)?
maple syrup generally is not as thick as molasses, so using maple instead will probably change the consistency and texture of the cookies.
Kaitlynn, I ended up making the cookies with the maple syrup. Probably the texture and taste are not the same but they turned out fine – soft and fluffy. I added 90g maple syrup to compensate for different thickness
yay! I love when a substitution works out great. Thanks for letting me know!
I can’t wait to try these but I have a question about fermenting cookie dough —do you know if adding baking soda to the mix, which I assume neutralizes the lactic acid, keeps the starter from breaking down the fructans and starches? How can it still improve digestibility once we add baking soda? I’m excited to hear your answer so I can make more cookies 😊
Lactic acid does not break down fructans and starches, microbial enzymes do. And baking soda does not effect those microbial enzymes. The bacteria and yeast in a sourdough starter still produce enzymes and metabolize fructans in cookie dough, with or without baking soda.
I fermented for 24 hours as I forgot about it in the fridge. I also used the hard molasses sugar as I didn’t have liquid molases, it worked fine. I also used mixed spice instead of nutmeg (I’m in the UK) and I’m not the hugest fan of nutmeg. Really tasty cakey biscuits and my children also loved them. They reminded me of a giant kruid noten the Dutch spiced biscuits. I will definitely make again.
Happy to hear you loved the cookies and that all your substitutions worked! Thank you for leaving a review!
Are we to leave the oven on for all 12 hours? 😉 just kidding … thought it would be a good laugh for someone , somewhere 🤷♀️
These cookies were delicious! I used fresh milled flour and just added a but more flour than called for and the cookies still worked! I could use a bit more ginger but my husband thought the amount of ginger was perfect. Thank you for a yummy recipe!
These are truly amazing. I am not a fan of gingerbread cookies, these are to die for. I will be making these regurarly for the holiday seasons. So. So. Good. Also, the dough freezes and bakes beautifully! I made WAY too many and have effortlessly baked fresh cookies mulitple times from frozen dough!