Gingerdoodle Cookies

This recipe is part of The Kitchn’s Forever Holiday Cookies, featuring our editors' best recipes, plus favorites from a few guest stars. Bookmark and bake each delicious recipe — we promise you’ll come back to them year after year.

Cookies are my favorite way to make any occasion a festive one, especially this time of year. So, before the holiday baking marathon begins, I start dreaming of all of the cookies I want to bake. The list includes family favorites we make every year, like snowballs and candy cane cookies, but I always add a few new recipes that I’m excited to try. 

Since there’s never enough time, butter, or sugar available to bake every cookie on my list, I’m combining two of my favorites into a single batch this year. In this recipe for gingerdoodle cookies, I’ll teach you how to make these stunning swirled cookies from a single dough. You’ll taste the iconic cinnamon flavor of snickerdoodle cookies in one bite, then the rich molasses flavor of ginger snap cookies in the next. These soft and chewy cookies are so good, there’s no reason to make two separate batches ever again. 

• The cookie starts with a single dough. Make the snickerdoodle dough, then divide the dough and add molasses and spices to one half. That’s how to make two tasty cookie flavors with just one batch of dough.
• The taste of two classic cookies in every bite. Swirling the dough into a marbled cookie gives each cookie a chance to stand out without blending into each other. One bite is cinnamony snickerdoodle, while the next has the warm molasses flavor of ginger snaps. 

• All-purpose flour: Flour is the foundation of cookies, so measuring it properly is essential. Lightly fluff the flour, then dip to fill the measuring cup, and use a straight edge to sweep the excess flour off the top.
• Cream of tartar: This ingredient is an acidic leavening agent and a byproduct of winemaking. It helps lift these cookies and gives the snickerdoodle dough its signature flavor.
• Cinnamon: This warming spice is mixed into the dough and combined with granulated sugar to give the marbled cookies a sparkling finish. 
• Molasses: This syrup has a sweet, smoky, burnt caramel flavor that is essential to ginger snap cookies. Use any kind but blackstrap, which is too intense and bitter for these cookies.
• Ground ginger and cloves: Ground ginger and cloves give the ginger snap dough its spice. Make sure to replace ground spices every year for the best flavor.

1. Make the snickerdoodle dough. Make the cookie dough by creaming butter and sugar together, adding eggs and vanilla extract, and mixing in the dry ingredients. Cream of tartar and cinnamon added to the flour are what give the snickerdoodles their signature flavor. Transfer half of this dough to a separate bowl.
2. Make the ginger snap dough. Mix molasses, ground ginger, and ground cloves into the remaining half of the snickerdoodle dough.
3. Chill the dough. Refrigerate the dough to make it easier to portion and roll, and to keep the cookies from spreading too thin in the oven.
4. Scoop and shape the cookies. Scoop about 1 tablespoon of each dough, then roll into a rope, twist the ropes together, and gently roll between your palms into a ball. Make sure not to mix the doughs together too much to maintain the marbled look.
5. Roll in cinnamon sugar. Coat each ball of cookie dough in cinnamon sugar.
6. Bake. Baked on a lined baking sheet until the cookies are set. A silicone baking mat is my preference for these cookies, as the gingerdoodles will spread a little more with parchment paper.