Gingerbread is the stuff holidays are made of. The smell just screams holidays. Plus, you can do so much with the forgiving dough from these gingerbread cookies. You can make them any shape you want; you can use them to make a gingerbread house, or even as edible decorations for your tree. You can, of course, make this dough ahead and freeze for later use, or keep in the fridge for up to three days before use.
Gingerbread Cookies
Ingredients
- 115 g butter softened
- 165 g packed dark brown sugar
- 75 g molasses
- 1 egg
- 2 tbsp water
- 375 g all-purpose flour
- 2 tsp ground ginger
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp nutmeg
- 1/2 tsp allspice
Instructions
- In a large bowl, add the butter and brown sugar. Use a mixer, set on medium speed, to cream the ingredients into a light, fluffy mixture.
- Add the molasses, egg, and water. Mix until combined thoroughly.
- In a small bowl, add the flour, ginger, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and allspice.
- Gradually add the flour mixture to the butter and brown sugar mixture. Blend until all ingredients are well combined and the dough is uniform throughout.
- Divide the dough in half, placing each half into a small bowl. Cover each bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate for about 30 minutes. When it is ready, the dough should be firm and easy to handle.
- Preheat the oven to 180°C and lightly grease two baking sheets, setting these aside for later use.
- Lightly flour your work surface and add some flour into a shallow dish. The dish should be big enough to hold several cookie cutters that are about 10cm on the longest side.
- Place your cookie cutters in the dish and set the dish aside.
- On your floured work surface, roll out each half of the chilled dough to be about 32mm thick.
- Use the floured cookie cutters to cut out the gingerbread shapes and place the shapes 5cm apart on the baking sheets.
- Bake the cookies about 10 minutes or until the centres are done and the edges are firm.
- Remove the cookies from the oven and place them on wire racks to cool completely.
- Re-roll the dough scraps, continuing to cut out and bake the cookies until all of your dough is used.
Notes
When people hear gingerbread cookies around the holidays, they tend to think gingerbread men. However, many other cookie shapes will bring holiday cheer to the table. Check your local baking and/or craft store to see what cookie cutter shapes are available. You should see snowflakes, hearts, stars, snowmen, trees, houses, candy cane, stockings, reindeer, Santa hats, mittens, sleighs, bells and even doves. If you do not have a local craft store, see my link below for some I found on Amazon.
Once you choose your shapes, decorating them comes easy. You can flood your cookie top with royal icing. You can use a squirt bottle or Ziploc bag with the corner cut out to make more details and decorative designs. Cookie sprinkles, miniature candies, coloured sugar, melted chocolate and even fruit leather are great to use when decorating cookies.
Many people expect to see some sort of icing decorating gingerbread men as well as other holiday-shaped gingerbread cookies.
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Nutrition
Calories: 1740kcalCarbohydrates: 353gProtein: 48gFat: 12gSaturated Fat: 5gTrans Fat: 1gCholesterol: 176mgSodium: 2479mgPotassium: 1787mgFiber: 12gSugar: 63gVitamin A: 438IUVitamin C: 1mgCalcium: 392mgIron: 23mg
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