If you love the warm, cozy taste of spices, then you're going to love these sugary, buttery, spice cookies. Thin and chewy, a perfect blend of cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and allspice, giving each bite a comforting flavor. Delight your taste buds with these sweet and soft spice cookies!
This Spice Cookies recipe is one of my favorite recipes I remember baking from my childhood. Based on a Dutch cookie recipe, this delicious cinnamon sugar cookie has similar flavors to Speculaas cookies, but are chewier.
Why You'll Love This Recipe
- Easy - require zero chill time, can be baked right away!
- Pantry Ingredients - you have all the ingredients in your pantry, you don't even need molasses for this recipe
- Warm and Cozy - classic spiced cookies flavors, perfect for the Holidays
Key Ingredients
- Butter - salted butter is ok to use, must be softened to room temperature
- Eggs - use 3 large eggs
- Brown Sugar - adds flavor and moistness
- White Sugar - adds sweetness and maintains moisture
- Flour - all purpose flour
- Spices - cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg and ginger
Spice Cookies for Christmas
You'll love making these spice cookies year round, but they're especially popular during Christmas. They add to the festive feeling and will become a part of your holiday traditions. They're especially tasty when you enjoy them hot out of the oven, with a glass of cold milk. Perfect for Santa, or dad dressed in a Santa suit.
How to Make Spice Cookies
- Cream Butter - using mixer, cream butter with white sugar and brown sugar until light and fluffy. (about 2-3 minutes). Add eggs and whip for another 2-3 minutes until creamy
- Mix - in a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda and spices and mix together
- Pour - pour the creamed butter into the flour mixture. Stir together until combined, like a sticky cookie dough
- Grease - use non-stick spray on a baking sheet, or use parchment paper
- Spoon - using 2 teaspoons, place a heaped teaspoon of cookie dough on baking tray. The cookie spreads as it cooks, so allow wide spaces between cookies. Place 6-8 cookies on baking sheet
- Bake - use fan forced oven for about 12 minutes until lightly golden
- Cool - take out of oven and allow to solidify for 2 minutes on the baking tray. Use cookie lifter to place on cooling rack
Why This Recipe Works
This Spice Cookies recipe is different from others because there is such a high ratio of sugar and butter. It's a sweet cookie and absolutely delicious. If you follow the baking instructions, the flavors are perfectly balanced. You'll get a thin spice cookie with a chewy texture, unique from other recipes. You can increase flour ratio, see tips below.
Recipe Tips and FAQs
- Use a Stand Mixer - when creaming the butter and sugar, a KitchenAid Mixer combines and fluffs butter better than a hand mixer
- Pumpkin Pie Spice - substitute spices with equal amount of Pumpkin Pie Spice (7 teaspoons)
- Dark Brown Sugar - substitute ½ the brown sugar with dark brown sugar for a richer molasses flavor
- Don't Sweat the Shape - when placing the cookie dough on the baking sheets, it doesn't need to be formed or pretty. As it cooks, it melts into a round circle
- Add More Flour - if you want cookies that aren't as flat, you can add an extra cup of flour. Because of the extra flour, it's best to roll the cookie dough into balls and flatten when placing on baking tray. This keeps your cookies more uniform, and also will increase your baking time up to 15 minutes.
- Keep it Small - resist the urge to spoon a large amount of cookie dough on the baking sheet. As the heat, they will spread out widely across the sheet touching each other, making them harder to remove
- Don't Overbake - this causes your cookies to become crunchy, not chewy.
- Don't Rush to Remove - if you attempt to remove the cookies from the tray immediately after taking them out of the oven, they will be too soft and will crumple. Important to let it cool for 2 minutes before removing with cookie lifter (metal is best).
Can I Prepare the Dough in Advance?
Yes, you can make the dough in advance, and bake on another day. Cover with cling wrap and keep in the fridge. Before baking, bring dough to room temperature not to impact the cooking time. Recommend to bake within 2 days.
Storing Spice Cookies
- Pantry - place cookies in a Ziploc bag or an airtight container. They will keep up to a week, if they last that long.
- Freezer - these cookies are thin and need to be individually frozen on a baking sheet with parchment paper. After they are frozen, place in a Ziploc bag and enjoy within 1-2 months.
Family Treats To Try
- Oatmeal Monster Cookies
- Honey Cookies
- Honey Joys - Cornflake Cupcakes
- Goose Feet Cookies
- Homemade Caramel Apples
- Puff Pastry Apple Turnovers
These easy Spice Cookies never lasts long at my house. There's something comforting about the smell of fresh baked cookies, especially with cinnamon and nutmeg wafting through the air. Bon Appetit! Приятного аппетита!
Equipment
- stand mixer
Ingredients
Creaming Ingredients
- 2 cups softened butter or margarine (1lb or 454 grams)
- 3 eggs
- 2 cups brown sugar firmly packed
- 2 cups white sugar
Dry Ingredients
- 3 ½ cups flour
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 4 teaspoons cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon all spice
- 1 teaspoon ginger
- 1 teaspoon nutmeg
- ½ teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 180°C/350°F (fan forced)
- Using electric mixer, cream softened butter with white sugar and brown sugar, until light and fluffy (about 2-3 minutes). Add the eggs and whip again for another 2-3 minutes until creamy.
- Put the remaining dry ingredients together in a large bowl, and combine together until spices are fully mixed with the flour.
- Pour the creamed butter into the flour mixture and stir together until fully mixed and resembling a sticky cookie dough.
- Using 2 teaspoons together, place a small heaped teaspoon of cookie dough on a greased cookie tray or on parchment paper. The cookie will melt and spread thin as it cooks, so allow wide spaces between on the tray. 6-8 cookies per baking sheet.
- Bake for approx 10-12 minutes until lightly golden. If the cookie is too big in size, the centre of the cookie will be raw and will need more time in the oven.
- Remove from oven and cool for 2 minutes on the baking tray. Remove cookies on a baking rack using a cookie lifter.
© PetersFoodAdventures.com *originally posted June 2015, updated April 2023
