What Are Gingersnap cookies and How Can I Use Them?
Gingersnap cookies is easier to cook with than it looks. Here's how to choose, use, and store them, what to substitute, and 51 recipes to get you started.
Key Points
Crisp molasses-and-ginger cookies with a peppery bite, used for snacking, crusts, and thickening.
Crush into a spiced crumb crust for cheesecake and pumpkin pie, or scatter over parfaits.
A classic German gravy thickener: crushed cookies dissolve into sauerbraten braising liquid and add sweet-spice depth.
Use a bit more melted butter than a graham crust needs; gingersnaps are drier and less fatty.
Buy the hard crisp style for crusts; graham crumbs or Biscoff are the closest substitutes.
What are gingersnap cookies?
Gingersnaps are crisp, spiced cookies built on molasses and ground ginger, usually with cinnamon and cloves backing them up. They snap cleanly when you break one, which is where the name comes from.
The flavor is warm and a little sharp, sweet up front with a peppery ginger bite at the finish. That bite is what makes them more useful than a plain sugar cookie. They carry spice into anything you put them in.
Most people know them as a snacking cookie, but in the kitchen they pull double duty. Crushed, they turn into a spiced crust or a thickener. Whole, they build gingerbread houses and ice cream sandwiches.
Ways to Use Gingersnaps
The most common kitchen job is a cookie crumb crust. Pulse gingersnaps into fine crumbs, bind them with melted butter, and press into a pan for cheesecake or pumpkin pie.
They also crumble over puddings and parfaits as a spiced layer. Pumpkin Mousse Parfaits and Best Pumpkin Mousse both use that trick, scattering crushed cookies between the creamy layers for crunch and warmth.
Here is the surprise. Gingersnaps are a classic gravy thickener in German cooking.
A handful of crushed cookies stirred into the braising liquid for sauerbraten dissolves and thickens the sauce while adding sweet-spice depth. Quick Sauerbraten and the German beer-fish dish Bier Fisch (German Beer Fish) both lean on them this way.
Pairing and Common Mistakes
Gingersnaps love pumpkin, apple, pear, cream cheese, caramel, and coffee. The spice also works in savory braises built on beef with vinegar and onions, the sauerbraten profile.
The main mistake with a crumb crust is too little butter. Gingersnaps are drier and less fatty than graham crackers, so a crust that holds together with one ratio of graham crumbs may crumble with gingersnaps. Add a touch more melted butter until the crumbs clump when you squeeze them.
The other pitfall is burning. Their molasses and sugar brown fast, so a few extra minutes in the oven turns snap into bitter. Pull them when the edges set and the centers still look barely soft.
Substitutes
For a crumb crust, graham cracker crumbs are the standard stand-in, though they lose the ginger heat. Crushed Biscoff or speculoos cookies are a closer match since they carry their own warm spice.
For snacking or gingerbread builds, any crisp spice cookie works. If a recipe wants the ginger punch and you have only graham crackers, stir in a pinch of ground ginger and cinnamon to fake the profile.
As a gravy thickener, a slurry of flour or cornstarch will thicken the sauce, but you lose the sweet-spice flavor that makes gingersnaps the traditional choice for sauerbraten.
Buying and Storing
Store-bought gingersnaps come in two camps: thin, hard, very crisp ones and thicker chewy ones. For crusts and thickening you want the hard, crisp style, since it grinds to a clean dry crumb. Chewy cookies gum up the food processor.
Keep them in an airtight container or sealed bag at room temperature. The crisp ones stay good for weeks, but they soften as they pick up humidity, so press the air out and keep the seal tight.
If they have gone soft, a few minutes in a low oven crisps them back up. Cookie crumbs freeze well too, so grind a batch ahead and stash them for the next pie crust.
Types of gingersnap cookies
Specific kinds of gingersnap cookies and the recipes that use them.
Gingersnap crumbs are simply gingersnap cookies ground to a coarse meal. They carry all the warm spice of the cookie, ginger, cinnamon, clove, and the dark sweetness of molasses, in a form you can press into a crust or stir into a sauce.
You can buy them packaged, but most cooks make their own. A food processor turns whole cookies to fine crumbs in seconds, or you can seal the cookies in a bag and crush them with a rolling pin for a coarser texture.
As a rough yield, about 24 standard gingersnaps, roughly 6 ounces, grind down to a packed 1½ cups of crumbs. That is what a 9-inch crust usually needs.
Frosty gingersnap pumpkin pie skips the oven entirely. A spicy gingersnap crust holds a frozen pumpkin-ice cream filling, ready to slice straight from the freezer for Thanksgiving dessert.
A Sauerbraten-style pot roast marinated 3 days in vinegar and spices, braised until fork-tender, and finished with a gingersnap-thickened gravy. Old-world flavor worth the wait.
Pumpkin cheese tart with a gingersnap-oat crust and a marbled cream cheese-pumpkin filling, finished with warm caramel sauce. A lighter take on pumpkin pie that actually holds its own on the holiday table.
No-bake frozen pumpkin pie with crushed gingersnaps, pecans, whipped topping, and pumpkin pie spice in a graham cracker crust. Creamy, spiced, and scoopable.
Spiced meringue cookies with crushed gingersnaps folded into whipped egg whites with cinnamon and ginger. Crisp, airy, and virtually fat-free with a snappy ginger crunch.
A frozen pumpkin pie made with vanilla ice cream and a spiced pecan-gingersnap crust. Creamy, no custard to bake, and made entirely ahead in the freezer. A cool twist on pumpkin pie.
Traditional German sauerbraten with a four-day vinegar marinade, slow-braised rump roast, and a tangy gingersnap-and-sour-cream gravy. An old-world Sunday dinner worth the wait.
No-bake frozen pumpkin pie with a gingersnap cookie crust, pumpkin and whipped topping filling, and crushed peanut brittle on top. A fun, easy freezer dessert with only 4 ingredients.
Frozen pumpkin mousse ice cream pie layered over vanilla ice cream in a buttery gingersnap crust, finished with caramel-pumpkin topping. A make-ahead Thanksgiving dessert.
Frozen pumpkin ice cream pie in a gingersnap crust with cinnamon-spiked vanilla ice cream and pumpkin whipped cream, finished with warm caramel pecan sauce poured over each slice.
Pear and ginger pudding layered with butter-sauteed pears, broken gingersnap cookies, and heavy cream, then baked until bubbling. A warm, spiced fruit dessert.
Sauerbraten meatballs: cooked beef meatballs simmered in a tangy-sweet German-style gravy thickened with crushed gingersnaps. A 30-minute weeknight riff on the slow-braised classic.
Beef brisket braised in onion soup and stewed tomatoes with a secret ingredient: gingersnap cookies that melt into a rich, sweet-savory gravy. Oven or slow cooker friendly.
Glazed fresh fruit pie with bananas, strawberries, pineapple, and kiwi in a pineapple-gelatin glaze on a gingersnap-graham cracker crust. A stunning no-bake dessert.
Apple cheesecake with a gingersnap-pecan crust, creamy Philadelphia cream cheese filling, and cinnamon apple slices baked in a pinwheel pattern. Finished with melted apple jelly.
Low-fat marbled pumpkin cheesecake swirls spiced pumpkin into a creamy vanilla filling over a gingersnap crust. Pureed cottage cheese keeps it light while a water bath gives a silky, crack-free top.
No-bake lemon-ginger cheesecake with a gingersnap and vanilla wafer crust, gelatin-set cream cheese filling, and lemon curd swirl. Bright citrus and warm ginger in every slice.
Lighter honey vanilla cheesecake made with reduced-fat cream cheese, cottage cheese, and fat-free ricotta on a gingersnap crust. Sweetened with honey instead of sugar and baked with steam for a silky, crack-free top.
Classic German sauerbraten braises rump roast in a 4-day vinegar marinade, then simmers in gravy thickened with crushed gingersnaps and sour cream. Tangy, rich, fall-apart tender.
Creamy cottage cheese cheesecake spiked with crystallized ginger and brandy, topped with toasted marshmallows for a lighter take on the classic dessert.
German sauerbraten marinated four days in spiced vinegar, then slow-braised fork-tender in a sweet-sour gravy thickened with crushed gingersnaps. The classic sweet-and-sour pot roast, here with a lean bison twist.
Velvety pumpkin cheesecake spiced with cinnamon and allspice sits atop a buttery gingersnap crust. Topped with tangy sour cream for a show-stopping holiday dessert.
Four cheesecake crust recipes in one: classic graham cracker, chocolate wafer, spicy gingersnap, and toasted nut. Pick your base and build your dream cheesecake.
Classic German sauerbraten made with venison: a 3-day vinegar and spice marinade, hours of slow braising, and a tangy-sweet gingersnap gravy. This is the ultimate project recipe for wild game lovers.
Tropical mango-pineapple-lime cheesecake on a gingersnap and macadamia nut crust with crystallized ginger, topped with fresh mango, kiwi, and pineapple slices.
Low-calorie cranberry apple pie with a spicy gingersnap cookie crust. McIntosh apples and fresh cranberries get food-processed into a chunky filling with dark brown sugar and cinnamon.
Old Munich sauerbraten: beef marinated for days in a spiced vinegar bath, then clay-pot braised until fork-tender in a sweet-sour gravy thickened with gingersnaps. Authentic Bavarian pot roast for potato pancakes.
Traditional German sauerbraten marinated for 3 days in vinegar and spices, then braised until fork-tender with a sweet-sour gravy thickened with gingersnap cookies. Authentic old-world pot roast flavor.
Maple-glazed apple pie layers thinly sliced apples with a crushed gingersnap, walnut, and brown sugar mixture. A pour of hot maple syrup midway through baking soaks down through the steam vents.
Pumpkin Frangelico cheesecake: a spiced pumpkin cheesecake on a gingersnap crust, spiked with hazelnut Frangelico liqueur and topped with a boozy sour cream layer. The Thanksgiving cheesecake adults reach for first.
Festive holiday cheesecake with spiced pumpkin filling on a gingersnap crust, topped with creamy eggnog glaze. A showstopping Thanksgiving or Christmas dessert.
