How To Use Up Your Leftover Gingerbread

Gingerbread is a staple throughout the winter. It’s in cookies, breakfast loaves, coffee drinks, and as the holidays approach, many families use it to make edible houses. People love to bake gingerbread, but more often than not, a lot of it goes uneaten. To ensure none of this treat goes to waste, you must find ways to utilize your leftover gingerbread.

When you crumble up leftover gingerbread, you can add it to your morning yogurt or cereal and use it as a base for homemade ice cream. Crispy gingerbread can be served alongside morning lattes. Use it to make gingerbread pie crust, cookies, truffles, and even homemade granola. With softer gingerbread, consider making a holiday bread pudding or gingerbread French toast.

Gingerbread is wildly popular in the winter, but very few people love to eat this baked good in its pure and simple form. Therefore, leftover gingerbread is often wasted. Instead of tossing your leftover gingerbread, keep reading. Below is a list of delicious and creative ways to transform your gingerbread scraps into something tasty. 

How Long Does Gingerbread Last Before It Goes Bad

When you have leftover gingerbread, it's essential to know how long it will last before it starts to spoil. This helps you understand how quickly you need to use it all up. Generally, gingerbread can last anywhere from one week to several months, depending on how it is stored. 

Furthermore, dry and crispy gingerbread cookies (like ginger snaps) tend to last longer than soft and moist gingerbread loaves.

• At Room Temperature: Gingerbread will last between a few days and up to three weeks. To help your gingerbread stay fresh longer, store it in an airtight container out of direct sunlight and far from heat sources.
• In The Freezer: Gingerbread can last much longer in the freezer when it is properly stored, often two months or longer. To keep gingerbread fresh for as long as possible, store it in an airtight container, to prevent it from drying out or developing freezer burn.

13 Delicious Ways To Use Your Leftover Gingerbread

1. Homemade Gingerbread Ice Cream

Who doesn’t love ice cream? Nowadays, there are endless flavors, including many holiday favorites. Some of these seasonal flavors include candy cane, eggnog, and even gingerbread. If you have an ice cream maker, consider making homemade gingerbread ice cream. 

Use your favorite creamy vanilla ice cream base, and add a bit of holiday spice. Crumble up leftover gingerbread and fold it into the mixture. This is a frozen treat that adults and kids will love.

2. Yogurt Topping

If you want to find a healthy-ish way to use up leftover gingerbread, then consider using it to sprinkle on yogurt. Turn the gingerbread into crumbles, and add pumpkin and sunflower seeds. You can also add nuts, including pecans or walnuts. 

This protein-rich and flavorful topping is a great way to add texture and flavor to your morning yogurt. The distinct gingerbread flavor will also make your breakfast taste like the holidays.

3. Add It To Your Favorite Cereal

Another way to use up the last of your crispy gingerbread is to add small pieces of it to your morning cereal. Gingerbread has a strong flavor, so a little goes a long way. By sprinkling chunks of this treat on top of your favorite cereal, you can significantly elevate the taste.

As the gingerbread soaks in the milk, its flavor will transform. Adding this distinctly holiday flavor to your cereal is a fantastic and easy way to make a boring breakfast more festive.

4. Add It To Cookie Dough

For many people, ginger-flavored cookies are too strong. But when you mix it with a classic cookie, you can create something more palatable.  

Crumble your leftover gingerbread and mix this flavor with a sugar, oatmeal, or chocolate chip cookie. The spicy taste of the ginger is muted, and instead, it adds a lovely surprise to your favorite classic cookie recipes. 

5. Make A Holiday Milkshake

If you don’t have an ice cream maker but love the idea of mixing your gingerbread with ice cream, try making a milkshake using your blender. To make a gingerbread-themed holiday milkshake, all you need is crumbled gingerbread (softer gingerbread works best, but you can crispy ), your favorite ice cream flavor, and milk.

Mix these three ingredients in a blender, adding milk until the mixture is the right thickness and properly blended. Vanilla, eggnog, butterscotch, and even chocolate are just a few ice cream flavors you can use as a base for this holiday-themed dessert.

6. Fold It Into Stuffing

If you plan on serving a turkey over the holidays, there’s a good chance you’ll be serving stuffing along with it. You can put just about anything in stuffing, from nuts to sausage, and even gingerbread. 

Fold soft gingerbread crumbles into your favorite stuffing recipe to give it a distinct molasses and gingery flavor. Incorporating gingerbread in this way is a fantastic method to transform a Thanksgiving staple into a distinctly Christmas side dish.

7. Serve It Alongside A Morning Coffee Drink

Sometimes less is more. Instead of baking a dessert or creating a side dish, simply have leftover gingerbread along with your morning coffee. If you and the rest of your household are coffee drinkers, then your gingerbread will quickly disappear.

A milky coffee and gingerbread is a heavenly combination. Keep leftover gingerbread in an airtight container next to the coffee maker as a friendly reminder to have a slice each morning.

8. Make Granola

Another healthy-ish way to use gingerbread before it expires is to create granola with it. When making granola, you typically add oats, nuts, seeds, and a bit of honey, syrup, and oil to bind and sweeten the ingredients. 

This winter, make a festive holiday granola by adding finely crumbled gingerbread to the mix. The flavor naturally complements that of the oats, honey, and nuts, and is sure to be a hit at the breakfast table throughout the holiday season.

9. Serve It With Adult Hot Cocoa Or Irish Coffee

Gingerbread can also serve as a functional and delicious garnish for several holiday cocktails. Spiked hot cocoa, festive White Russians, and Irish coffee all pair wonderfully with a piece of gingerbread. If you garnish these drinks with whipped cream, consider adding a gingerbread dusting on top for an extra special touch.

10. Make A Pie Crust

If you love to bake pies or cheesecake, try making a festive gingerbread pie crust with your leftover gingerbread. Not only is a pie crust a great way to use up leftover gingerbread, but it’s a more flavorful alternative to a typical graham cracker crust.

A gingerbread crust on a holiday cheesecake is a particularly fantastic combination, but you can use a gingerbread crust to make just about any pie (or cheesecake) more flavorful.

11. Gingerbread Bread Pudding

If you have a leftover gingerbread loaf or softer gingerbread, then a holiday twist on a classic bread pudding is the perfect way to use it up. You can either make a bread pudding entirely out of soft gingerbread or fold your flavorful ginger dessert into an existing recipe that uses brioche. 

Either way, the result will be a slightly spicy holiday twist on this classic indulgent dessert.

12. Gingerbread French Toast 

If you made a gingerbread loaf that is on the verge of becoming stale, consider making French toast with it. Follow the same method as you would for regular French toast, only use thick slices of gingerbread instead. The ginger, molasses, and spice flavors pair wonderfully with fresh maple syrup and whipped cream.

13. No-Bake Gingerbread And Cream Cheese Truffles

If you want an easy way to make your gingerbread more palatable for those who don’t like gingerbread, consider making no-bake truffles. Make a cream cheese mixture using confectioners' sugar and cream cheese, and add your leftover gingerbread. Form small balls and then chill them in the refrigerator or freezer. Once cold, you can dip these bites into melted dark chocolate and then serve at your next holiday party. The combination of cream cheese and dark chocolate will turn the polarizing taste of gingerbread into a taste nearly everyone will love.

Wrapping Up How To Use Leftover Gingerbread

Baking gingerbread is a holiday tradition in many homes. It’s a great way to make your home smell like Christmas, but it can also generate a significant amount of waste if all of it is not eaten. Instead of throwing away your leftover gingerbread and gingerbread house scraps, you can find ways to use them.

Make gingerbread ice cream or milkshakes with leftover gingerbread, or add gingerbread crumbles to your yogurt or cereal for a delicious treat. You can make bread pudding or French toast with softer gingerbread, or fold it into granola, cookie dough, and even stuffing.

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