Honey Almond Gingerbread Cookies

Why This Honey Almond Gingerbread Cookies Works

In the bowl, the butter, honey, and almond butter coat the flour and spices so the dough stays soft instead of dry. As the egg and a little baking soda mix in, the dough starts to hold together and trap tiny air pockets. Those small pockets are what let the cookies puff slightly instead of baking up hard and dense.

In the oven, the honey thins out from the heat, then thickens again as it bakes, so the cookies spread just a bit and then set in place. The flour and egg firm up and give the cookies their shape, while the butter and almond butter stay in the dough and keep the centers chewy. Around the edges, the honey and butter brown first, so the rims dry out slightly and turn crisp. The sliced almonds on top toast in the same heat, drying out and firming up, so they stay crunchy against the softer cookie underneath.

Mistakes To Avoid

Overbaking these cookies easily turns them hard. Honey and almond butter make the dough brown fast, so leaving the tray in “just a few more minutes” dries the centers and makes the edges tough instead of slightly chewy.

Creaming the butter, honey, and almond butter only halfway leaves small lumps of fat in the dough. During baking, those lumps melt out in spots, so some cookies spread flat and greasy while others stay thick and bake unevenly.

Adding a heavy hand of extra flour to make the dough “less sticky” leads to dry, bready cookies. The dough is meant to feel a bit soft; too much flour stops it from spreading and the centers bake up dense instead of tender.

Skipping the step of flattening the dough balls keeps them too round and thick. In the oven, the outside sets before the middle has time to cook through, so the cookies can look done but stay doughy in the center and pale on top.