Gingerbread cookies patterned with an embossed rolling pin! Simply darling un-decorated. Bright and eye-catching when painted with luster dust. To paint, use a brush or use your fingers, either way it’s easy and Zen like a coloring book! The shapes are already there, just color them in! This is an easy, fun recipe with full instructions with videos.

Last year (2022) we introduced embossed pins. I put five recipes in the packaging and this is the only one I haven’t blogged yet! So I figured it was time.

This gingerbread cookie dough comes together nicely and is easy to work with. The whole house smells wonderful when they’re baking! So Christmasy.

Rolling with an embossed pin is not hard! I give full instructions with photos and video to keep it simple.

Our website has all of our 200+ disk shapes, cookie press, embossed rolling pins, baking accessories plus more about our Women/Family Owned company! impressbakeware.com

All products are on our Etsy shop.

Our Amazon shop has our cookie press and disks and embossed rolling pins.

🎉 “Tis the Season!” 15% off SALE❗ EXTENDED 🙂
🎄Make edible art for the Holidays, because baking should be fun!
Discount on our cookie press disks, cookie press, embossed rolling pins, luster dusts, cookie cutters & baking accessories. Sale November 26 – December 17, 2025, on our website and Etsy shops ONLY! (Links above) Sale excludes holiday gift sets and our recipe book.

Let’s bake! I have video below of how to roll with our embossed pins if you’re new to this!

Gingerbread Rolled Cookies

1  cup (2 sticks) butter, softened 

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 tablespoon light brown sugar

3 tablespoons molasses

1 tablespoon honey

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 egg

3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon cloves

2 teaspoons ginger

Note: For a gluten-free option simply replace the flour with a 1:1 substitute like King Arthur’s Gluten Free Measure for Measure.

In a large bowl, combine flour, spices, and salt. Set aside.

Using an electric mixer, cream the butter. Add the sugars, molasses, and honey and cream together very well, until it is light and fluffy. Add the vanilla, and the egg, re-creaming the mixture after each addition.

Add the flour mixture slowly, mixing on a slow speed until a workable dough forms. Make sure all of the flour is incorporated evenly. Knead it by hand until it is uniformly smooth and mixed. This dough can seem crumbly at first but it kneads together well. Perfect rolling dough has a clay-like, workable texture that is not too sticky or too stiff. If it feels incredibly difficult to knead, it is probably too stiff. Add a little water or vanilla extract a teaspoon at a time until you achieve a workable texture. It should be stiff, but not impossible! If it is too easy to knead or is sticking to your fingers, it is probably too soft. Add flour a tablespoon at a time until it is workable like clay.

Use a regular rolling pin (preferably one with thickness spacer rings to make a perfect thickness, picture of ours above and at bottom of post) to roll your dough on to a silicone baking mat, glass cooktop, or lightly floured surface. Oil your pin with canola (or similar) oil before rolling. Roll to a 1/4” thickness, and wide enough to accommodate the designed pin. Create a long rectangular slab of dough. The patterns on the embossed pins are designed to repeat, so you will be rolling a long rectangle of patterned dough.

Oil your embossed pin with canola (or similar) oil before rolling. Make sure to get it down into the engraved areas. Wipe off any excess with a paper towel. Oil should be down in the patterns, but not pooling in them! You can use a pastry brush or apply by hand, gently squeezing the pin to get oil into the shapes, and rubbing the surface to coat.

Place a bench scraper or similar item at the far end of the dough to prevent it from pulling up as you roll. Now roll with your embossed pin, pressing down with a steady pressure that leaves a deep impression in the dough. The designs should be as raised up on the dough as deep as they are in the pin. If the pattern is not deep enough it will disappear as the cookies bake and puff. As this dough is not cold or stiff, you do not have to press terribly hard! Just an even pressure.

Here’s a video of me rolling out this dough. Sorry I rolled the pattern upside-down! My camera stand is missing so my phone was sitting in the kitchen cabinet above the counter to record this! At least I have some ingenuity?!😂 The video recorded upside-down, and I had to flip it.

Once rolled, use cookie cutters to cut out shapes. Remove any excess dough around the edges. Keep your spatula/lifter flat, dust the end with a little flour, and lift the shapes, beginning by lifting one edge slightly first, then sliding the spatula/scraper under the whole shape. Transfer them to a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper, spacing them at least an inch apart. The rolling pin with thickness rings, bench/dough scraper and cookie cutters I’m using here are available at our website and Etsy shops. Links at bottom!

Here’s a video of me cutting out a cookie:

Bake at 400°F for 6-10 minutes, checking at 6 minutes and every minute after as cookies brown quickly. They are done when the edges are ever so slightly brown and the cookies look dry and “set”. NOTE: With all of the recipes here, the cookies harden the longer they bake, so bake only a few cookies first to test timing for desired doneness and hardness.

Move to a cooling rack after 5 minutes. Cover them loosely if you like them semi-soft, or completely (like sealed in a zip bag) if you like them very soft.

These cookies are lovely simply embossed with patterns, but they really pop when decorated. I got this look by painting luster dust onto the raised shapes of the embossed cookies. This is a “wet” technique, using vodka as the paint base. The alcohol evaporates quickly and dries with no taste!

Here’s how to make the paint! The small white bowl/dish you see in this photo (and the video below) has vodka in it. That’s your liquid that turns dry powdered luster dust into paint! It is by far the best liquid to make paint, as it dries fastest, has no flavor, and makes the smoothest application. You could alternatively use any clear alcohol-based extract. Trust me, though, vodka is superior!

My technique is to place little piles of dry dust around a plate like a palette. Then use a big brush- in this photo/video it’s the orange brush, to drip drops of vodka next to the dust piles. Then swirl it together with brushes or fingertips until the paint is not too runny (that could run off the edges of the raised shapes or simply absorb into the cookies), nor too thick (which would be gloppy and lumpy).

Use brushes or your fingertips to apply paint to the tops of the raised shapes on the cookies. It’s super simple and very relaxing! If you enjoy coloring books this will be fun for you. That’s not even my thing, but I find this very Zen. I love watching beauty take shape.

Here’s the video of me painting:

Luster dust is what makes this beautiful presentation possible. I use it so often in my cookie press posts that last year (2022) we started selling it on our website and Etsy shop! We chose to partner with an American company, Bakell, that makes dusts here in the USA. They make gorgeous dusts that are silky, vibrant, and a joy to work with. Their 4 gram jars last and last. A little goes a long way! I have to admit, that 24k gold was amazing to work with for this post. Wow it’s just a silky dream!

That’s it! Now you can make gingerbread cookies with lovely patterns for Christmas!

🙏We have a request💕 If you’re enjoying our recipes, *EVERY DISK & PIN PURCHASED helps us stay in business* & supports our families! Impress is a women/family-owned USA small business in Colorado. We design, make, & sell over 300 shapes of cookie press disks & dozens of embossed rolling pins. The recipes we share are free – we have no ads on this recipe blog – we make our money selling disks & pins. The recipes give our customers creative ideas and attract new customers!💕 THANK YOU! 💕~Susie the Disk & Pin Designer

Happy Baking!

~Susie

Disk Designer/Co-Owner at Impress! Bakeware, LLC

Our website has all of our 200+ disk shapes, cookie press, embossed rolling pins, luster dusts, baking accessories plus more about our Women/Family Owned company! impressbakeware.com

All products are on our Etsy shop.

Our Amazon shop has our cookie press and disks and embossed rolling pins.

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If you’re not familiar with rolling pins with thickness rings, here’s ours: