Differences Between Gingerbread and Gingersnaps
By Marc Gordon - May 13, 2023

Gingerbread cookies are popular sweet popular holiday snacks. As is typical of recipes, there is a variation of gingerbread cookies as gingersnaps. It might be tough to distinguish their individual features since they might taste very similar. So, what exactly is the distinction between ginger snaps and gingerbread cookies?

Definition

Gingerbread can refer to a cake or a ginger-flavored cookie or biscuit. It is often shaped like a gingerbread man in biscuit form. It’s usually spiced with ginger, cloves, nutmeg, and cinnamon and sweetened with honey or sugar.

A gingersnap is a ginger-flavored biscuit. Powdered ginger with several additional spices, typically cinnamon, molasses, and clove, are used to flavor ginger snaps. There are several recipes.

Gingerbread vs. Gingersnaps

Gingerbread and ginger snaps have a similar flavor. However, Gingersnaps are baked longer to give them more crispiness. They are typically round-shaped. Ginger snaps include identical ingredients, but there is usually a slight difference in preparation. As a result, although gingersnaps are baked using the same ingredients as gingerbread cookies, there might be a slight twist. They occasionally include molasses instead of sugar. Molasses are less expensive than sugar, and ginger snaps are sweetened.

 On the other hand, gingerbread cookies are chewy and shaped in various forms, such as the gingerbread man and star. Their texture is soft, similar to that of glazed cookies. When preparing gingerbread cookies, the idea is to make them soft enough that the crumbles melt on your tongue. Gingerbread cookies require molds for baking. However, ginger snaps are rolled between the fingertips.

A close-up aerial view of freshly baked ginger nut biscuits, cooling on a wire rack with a wooden board beneath.

Getty Images/Moment/ © Ian Laker Photography

Comparison Chart
GINGERBREADGINGERSNAPS
  1. It has a softer texture and is chewy.
Crisp texture from the longer baking time
  1. Shaped with molds into a variety of forms
Typically round
  1. More likely to include sugar or honey instead of molasses
More likely to have molasses instead of sugar