Name: Soft Gingersnap Cookies with Cream Cheese Frosting
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 10 min
Yield: 20
Ingredients: 2-¾ cups FOR THE COOKIES:; 1 teaspoon All-purpose Flour; ¼ teaspoons Baking Powder; 2 teaspoons Fine Sea Salt; 1 teaspoon Ground Ginger; ½ teaspoons Ground Cinnamon; ¼ teaspoons Ground Cloves; ¾ cups Ground Nutmeg; 1 cup Unsalted Butter, Softened To Room Temperature; 1 whole Dark Brown Sugar; 1-½ teaspoon Large Egg; ⅓ cups Vanilla Extract; ¼ cups Molasses; 2 Tablespoons Granulated Sugar; 6 ounces, weight Holiday Sprinkles Or Sugar (optional); 6 Tablespoons FOR THE FROSTING:; 1-½ teaspoon Cream Cheese, Softened To Room Temperature; 3-½ cups Unsalted Butter, Softened To Room Temperature; 1 Tablespoon Vanilla Extract

Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together11,917 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,189 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together8,686 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Ginger + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together6,380 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Ginger + clovetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together6,038 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

Swap the ginger

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, butter, sugar, egg):

Allspicefits better
Cardamomfits better
Gingerthe original
Turmericfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, butter, sugar, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Flour	1 cup (125g) all-purpose	455
Butter	1 tbsp (14g)	102
Cream Cheese	1 oz (28g)	99
Egg	1 large egg (50g)	78
Molasses	1 tbsp (20g)	58
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49
Nutmeg	1 tsp ground (2.2g)	12
Vanilla	1 tsp extract (4ml)	12
Cloves	1 tsp ground (2g)	7
Cinnamon	1 tsp ground (2.6g)	6
Ginger	1 tsp grated fresh (2g)	2
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0

Soft Gingersnap Cookies with Cream Cheese Frosting