Food Apprentice

Gingerbread Cookies

By Sanjeetha, December 23, 2013

Who doesn't enjoy devouring an aromatic gingerbread cookie with a mug of hot chocolate or tea or walking into a home that smells like yummy Gingerbread?! Hence, this post is dedicated to creating a village of Gingerbread folks.

I was a bit on the fence being strapped on time whether I should get around to baking Gingerbread cookies or not, but I caved in and decided to not just bake Gingerbread cookies, but to go on a baking spree and also bake shortbread and doggie gingerbread cookies all in the same day. Perhaps next year I’ll be ambitious enough to build a Gingerbread House – you know, the kind the evil witch lures Hansel and Gretel with. However, this year it's sticking to the basics by baking the cookies and frosting them.

Considering the amount of time I put into making them, if I see anyone waste or throw away a crumb, I’ll have to consider eliminating them out of my life. Way to go threatening friends and family who are on the receiving end like the Grinch right? But I guarantee you, people are going to devour every crumb of this cookie :)

I am all baked out for some time to come and I came to the discovery that if you want to work out your core, try kneading and rolling out enough dough to bake over 100 cookies (eating them on the other hand is a whole different ball game). Needless to say, I woke up the following day feeling as though I did over 200 sit ups. Having said that, these cookies are totally worth the time and trouble to make and they are perfect to share. Did I also mention that they are absolutely delicious? I am totally in love with how these cookies turned out. They are by far some of the best Gingerbread Cookies I've had to date.

P.S. there is a gingerbread woman wearing a saree in the main image, see if you can locate her.

Merry Christmas everyone! Wishing you all a wonderful joyous season and hope Santa is good to you.

Total Time: 02h 38min
Prep Time: 02h 30min
Cook time: 8 minutes
Yield: 75
Rating: stars - based on review(s)

Ingredients:

unsalted butter - 1 cup
pure vanilla extract - 3 teaspoon
dark brown sugar - 3/4 cup
molasses - 3/4 cup
eggs - 2 whole
all purpose white flour - 5 cups
baking soda - 1 and 1/4 teaspoon
baking powder - 2 teaspoon
ground cloves - 1/2 teaspoon
ground cinnamon - 1 tablespoon
ground ginger - 1 and 1/2 tablespoon
ground all spice - 1/2 teaspoon
salt - 1/2 teaspoon
Royal Icing Frosting
egg whites - 2 whole
confectioners sugar - 2 cups
lemon juice - 1 teaspoon

Instructions:

Combine all dry ingredients: flour, baking powder, baking soda, ground ginger, ground cloves, ground cinnamon, ground all spice and salt together, sift and keep aside.

Beat your room temperature butter until it's very creamy, then add dark brown sugar, vanilla, eggs and molasses. Slowly add your dry mix into the wet mix, then knead. I found my dough to be on the stickier end but once chilled, it was fine. Split the dough into 3 parts and wrap each part with saran wrap. Chill for 2 hours.

When ready, set your oven to 325 degrees, flour your working surface, press your dough down with the base of your palm, sprinkle some flour on top, flip over and repeat until your dough is work-able and thin enough to comfortably roll out with a flour dusted rolling pin (without it sticking to your counter and rolling pin). The dough should be about ¼ inch thick. Use your favourite festive cookie cutters to cut out shapes and place them on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet. Space them apart though, unlike the shortbread cookies, these cookies will expand.

Bake for about 7 to 9 minutes. I took mine out after 7 minutes because I like my cookies chewy, like most.

(Sadly, I managed to burn 30 cookies accidentally by setting the heat higher on the oven, triggering the alarm to go on for 20 minutes.)

Let cookies cool before you move them to a wire rack or plates prior to frosting.

Royal Icing for frosting (optional):

In a bowl, add 2 egg whites and beat with a hand mixer until it becomes white foam and you see spikes form when you lift the mixer out, then add about 2 cups of sugar and mix it in along with 1 teaspoon of lemon juice (you’ll have to add more or less sugar to get the perfect consistency – too thick, and it’ll be hard to work with, too runny and your cookies will be a mess). Take a plastic sandwich bag and cut a tiny hole at one end of the corner, pour in your icing and bring out the inner artist in you!