Easy, Affordable DIY Gift + the Best Gingerbread Cookie Recipe

Happy Saturday Friends! This is my first ever Saturday post and my first ever post this late at night! But I had to make sure to get this post up on time for anyone who may have some last minute gift making or baking to do! Christmas is days away and I know I’m not the only one doing some last minute tasks to prepare for the holidays.

Tonight I am sharing a super easy and inexpensive DIY gift idea, along with an amazing gingerbread cookie recipe! These gifts are perfect to give to coworkers, neighbors, or really anyone that you want to let you know that you are thinking of them during this holiday season!

I actually gave the ladies in my office these festive mugs for Christmas this year and they loved them!

I am going to start with the cookie recipe because, well, they are the most important part of the DIY gift! In my opinion at least, lol! The amount of gingerbread cookies that I have consumed over the last week is not okay, but my belly has been very happy to say the least!

My lack of self control when it comes to yummy foods is the reason that I am not a baker. Sweets laying around our house is just bad news bears.

But, I had a hankering to bake something this past month so I decided to whip up a few batches of these festive cookies and they have been DELICIOUS!

These cookies are a perfect dessert to bring to your family Christmas dinner or even a holiday party with friends!

I hope y’all enjoy!

The Best Gingerbread Cookie Recipe

Ingredients Needed:

1 Cup Butter
1/2 Cup Granulated Sugar
1/2 Cup Brown Sugar, Dark
1/2 Cup Molasses
1 tsp Cinnamon
1 tsp Ginger
1/2 tsp Ground Cloves
1/2 tsp Salt
2 tsp Baking Soda
2 Eggs
4 Cups All Purpose Flour
Optional: Extra granulated sugar for coating the cookies (see step 5)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350.
Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.
In a large bowl, beat the butter and cup of sugar on medium, until light and fluffy.
Beat in the molasses, cinnamon, ginger, ground cloves, salt, and baking soda. Once those are mixed in well, add the two eggs and beat well.
Beat in the flour one cup at a time (less build up this way), using a rubber spatula to help mix in along the way.
At this point you can go two different ways:
A. Scoop the dough into about 35 – 1.25″ balls
B. Dust the outside of the dough with flour and roll out to about a half inch thick, then use your cookie cutters to make all your festive shapes
Coat the cookies in granulated sugar and place on prepared cookie sheets, at least 2 inches apart.
Bake about 10 minutes. Allow cookies to cool on cookie sheets for one minute and then transfer to wire racks to cool completely.
Enjoy!

I did a 50/50 batch with my shapes, because I needed smaller circle cookies for my mug gifts, but I also love a good festive shaped cookie and I knew I would have plenty dough!

If you do make the mugs below, make sure to pay attention to how big your mugs are and size your cookies off of that! Not gonna lie, I was pretty impressed with myself because mine fit PERFECTLY.

DIY Mug Gift

Items needed:

Gingerbread cookies
Mugs of choice
Bag of Hershey’s Kisses
Goodie Bags
Gift Tags
Ribbon
Scissors

I cannot stress enough how EASY these gifts were to make. Just because they were easy does not mean that they are quick though, lol. Making cookies is very time consuming as most of you probably already know.

With that being said, you can always forgo the cookie making and go the store bought route if you prefer! No one will be able to tell the difference and you can save A LOT of time doing it that way!

Most people don’t have an abundance of time, especially around this time of the year, so buying the cookies may be the best option!

If I am being totally honest, making these cookies made me want to buy a KitchenAid Mixer because they save a lot of time! But I felt it was a little excessive for my once a year baking that I do, lol. If I had a mixer I would probably bake wayy too much! So it’s probably I good thing that I don’t have one!

Aren’t these mugs so festive and cute?! The best part about them is that they were suuuper cheap to make! I found these Holiday mugs at the dollar store. Can you believe that??

Mugs are usually an easy $4 a piece, minimum! So I was blown away when I saw these and how cute they actually were!

I also got the goodie bags at the dollar store! They came in a pack of 15 for $1.

I filled each one with 4 cookies and placed them in the mug. I then added about 10 Hershey kisses on top and secured it with a twist tie that came with the bags and tied a cute bow with a 3 ribbon combo around each one. Then I used scissors to curl the ends of the ribbons!

All that is left to do is to tie a cute gift tag in the spot of your choice and walla! You have yourself an easy and thoughtful gift.

These may be time consuming, but the great part about them is that you can make them in decent size batches so it makes up for it!

Each one of these cost about $3.00, which is a great price for a gift! Plus, who doesn’t love cookies or chocolate?! It’s a cup full of Christmas cheer!