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Disneyland's Gingerbread Recipe

5 from 2 votes
The popular and original Disneyland gingerbread recipe - perfect for any occasion!
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Course: Dessert
Ingredients Equipment Method Notes

Ingredients
  

Gingerbread Ingredients
  • ¼ cup unsalted butter
  • ½ cup brown sugar
  • ½ cup "fancy" dark molasses *make sure it doesn't say cooking, blackstrap, unsulphured, or lite
  • 3 ½ cups all purpose flour
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • ½ tsp ground cloves
  • 1 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 3 tsp ground ginger
  • ½ tsp salt
  • ¼ tsp ground cardamom
  • ½ cup water
Royal Icing Ingredients
  • ⅛ tsp cream of tartar
  • 2 egg whites
  • 3 ½ cups powdered sugar

Equipment

  • Large mixing bowl
  • Plastic wrap
  • Rolling pin
  • Cookie sheets

Method
 

Gingerbread Instructions
  1. In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and brown sugar.
  2. Add dark molasses and mix until completely blended.
  3. Sift the dry ingredients together and add to butter mixture, 1/3 at a time, alternating with the water. Blend well.
  4. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and chill in refrigerator at least 1 hour, or up to a few days.
  5. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease cookie sheets or line with parchment paper.
  6. Use a floured rolling pin to roll out dough on a floured surface, about 1/8-1/4th inch thick. (Don’t be afraid to use plenty of flour.)
  7. Cut into desired shapes (we used a standard gingerbread man)
  8. Bake at 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes. Cool on wire racks
  9. Optional: Decorate with Royal Icing when completely cooled (instructions below)
Royal Icing Instructions (*I did not test this)
  1. Add cream of tartar to egg whites in a chilled mixing bowl.
  2. Beat with an electric mixer at high speed until white peaks form. Reduce speed and gradually add sifted powdered sugar. Continue to whip the frosting until a smooth spreadable consistency is reached.
  3. Optional: Separate frosting into small bowls and add food coloring. Spoon frosting into cake decorating bags or plastic baggies with a corner cut off, and decorate cookies. The frosting will harden when dry.

Notes

This dough works great for all shapes and sizes you may want to cut it into. I made trees, candy canes, men, and Mickeys. They all held their shape well – I think it would be a great recipe for making a gingerbread house!
 
To make the Mickeys (or men-with-Mickey-ears), I lightly pressed with my “man” cookie cutter, and used a small knife to “draw” the ears on and then used it to cut the whole thing out. It was time-consuming, I only made three. 😉
Instead of doing frosting (to save time, and because I’m not a very good artist), I put m&m’s on the men about halfway through baking. On the Mickeys, I melted a few chocolate chips and spread the chocolate on their Mickey ears to mimic the gingerbread you can find in the Parks during the regular season.
Holding cookie on plate
This was a great activity to do with my 4 year old, I gave him a hunk of dough and let him go to town rolling and cutting out shapes – he loved it!
Gingerbread cookies